§ Ms Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of remanded or sentenced women received into custody in(a) Great Britain and (b) the west midlands for each quarter for the last five years for non-payment of fines imposed for not possessing a television licence.
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§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Ms Lynne Jones, dated 9 March 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking if he will list the number of remanded or sentenced women received into custody in (a) Great Britain and (b) the West Midlands for each quarter for the last five years for non-payment of fines imposed for not possessing a television licence.The available information is for England and Wales, 1991–93 and is given in the attached table. No females were held on remand for this offence during the period 1991 to 1993. No information is available for the period before 1991 as the offence of non-payment of fines for not possessing a television licence was not separately identified in the prison statistics.
Females received for non-payment of fine imposed for not possessing a television licence Quarter From all courts sentencing in England and Wales1 From a court sentencing in the west Midlands All 1993 292 19 1st 70 3 2nd 61 1 3rd 83 7 4th 78 8 All 1992 163 5 1st 41 1 2nd 33 — 3rd 47 2 4th 42 2 All 1991 136 2 1st 18 — 2nd 43 2 3rd 26 — 4th 49 — 1 Includes those from the west Midlands.