Prison Escapees (Hansard, 7 July 1992)

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide a list of all prison escapees since 1974, including their original offences, sentences and time left unserved; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
The information requested by the hon. Member is available centrally only for prisoners who escaped since 20 June 1988. However, it would not be right to publish information which relates to individual prisoners. A total of 936 prisoners are recorded as having escaped between that date and 20 June this year.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were recaptured in 1991 after escape; what was the average length of time before they were recaptured; and what were the comparable figures for 1981 and 1986.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
A total of 251 prisoners who had escaped from prison custody were recaptured in 1991, some of whom escaped before 1991. This includes prisoners who had escaped from penal establishments and prisoners who had escaped while being escorted by prison staff outside penal establishments, some before 1991.
The figure does not include prisoners recaptured at or immediately following the time of escape; in these incidents the escape and recapture are subsumed in a single incident report of the escape; and this information could be retrieved only by a detailed manual search and at disproportionate cost.
The average length of time prisoners were unlawfully at large was 40 days.
On 20 June 1988 a new system of recording incident details came into operation. Prior to that date, records were not maintained centrally and information can be produced only at disproportionate cost.

§ Mr. Alex Carlile
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the number of(a) male and (b) female prison escapees in (i) Wales and (ii) the United Kingdom in 1991 together with comparable figures for 1981 and 1986: and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Peter Lloyd
The following information relates to England and Wales.
In 1991, 311 prisoners were recorded as having escaped from prison or prison escort in England and Wales. Of these, 306 were male and five female.
There are no female penal establishments in Wales, and consequently no female prisoners are recorded as escaping from penal establishments in Wales in 1991. There is one recorded escape from prison escort when a female prisoner escaped while attending Swansea magistrates court. The inmate had travelled to court, under escort, from a penal establishment in England.
There was one recorded escape incident from male penal establishments in Wales in 1991; two prisoners escaped.
The total number of escapees in 1981 was 201 and in the 12 months to 31 March 1987 it was 192. Information about the sex of those escapees is not available centrally.
On 20 June 1988 a new system for recording incident details came into operation. Prior to that date, records were not maintained centrally and detailed information can be produced only at disproportionate cost.