§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the prison population in each of the 12 member states of the European Union.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe countries of the European Union are covered by the statistics collated by the Council of Europe. The latest available information is given in the table. An article on "International Comparisons of Prison Populations" by Collier and Tarling—Home Office research bulletin No. 23, pages 48 to 54—showed that the figures for different countries are unlikely to be strictly comparable because the definitions of prisons and prisoners vary from one country to another, reflecting different legal and administrative systems. Examples of differences in the definitions are the inclusion or exclusion in a country's figures of juvenile offenders and mentally disordered offenders.
Prison population in each of the countries of the European Union as at 1 September 19931 Nationality Prison population Belgium 7,200 Denmark 3,700 France 51,100 Germany2 65,800 Greece3 6,500 Ireland 2,100 Italy 50,800 Luxembourg 400 Netherlands 7,800 Portugal 10,900 Spain 45,700 United Kingdom 53,400 1 Provisional figures. 2 Data refer to 30 September 1993, and as opposed to previous surveys includes data for the five new "Lander". 3 Data refer to 1 January 1993.