§ Ms RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) male foreign nationals and (b) female foreign nationals were born in prison in England and Wales at the latest available date.
§ 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.
252WLetter from A. J. Butler to Ms Joan Ruddock, dated 26 May 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about the numbers of (a) male foreign nationals and (b) female foreign nationals born in prison in England at the latest available date.As you will know from the Director General's letter to you of 4 May, it is not usual for women serving a sentence of imprisonment to give birth in prison. Of 691 births to women who were serving a prison sentence in the last ten years only six were born in prison.I am afraid that we do not keep records of the nationality of children born to imprisoned mothers. I understand that those born before 1 January 1983 in this country would have been British by their birth here but after that time their nationality would depend on the nationality of their mother or father and/or their parents' immigration status at the time of the birth.