§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide a breakdown of the prison population for(a) the last date for which figures are available, (b) five years before that date, (c) 10 years before that date, (d) 15 years before that date and (e) 20 years before that date, by those imprisoned for (i) non-violent property crime, (ii) violent property crime, (iii) violent crimes against the person, excluding murder and manslaughter, (iv) murder and manslaughter, (v) illegal drug possession, (vi) illegal drug trafficking and (vii) other 384W offences; what percentage of each were men under the age of 25 years; and if he will make a statement. [33130]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility 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 David Scott to Mr. Carlile, dated 18 June 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question asking for a breakdown of the prison population for (a) the last date for which figures are available, (b) five years before that date, (c) 10 years before that date, (d) 15 years before that date and (e) 20 years before that date, by those imprisoned for (i) non-violent property crime, (ii) violent property crime, (iii) violent crimes against the person, excluding murder and manslaughter, (iv) murder and manslaughter, (v) illegal drug possession, (vi) illegal drug trafficking and (vii) other offences; and what percentage of each were men under the age of 25 years.Information on the historical sentenced prison population is published in "Prison statistics, England and Wales" for 30 June each year, by sex and offence. No detailed information on the prison population is published before 1976. Table references for the years requested are: 10990-table 1.7 (Cm1800), 1985-table 1.5 (Cmnd 9903), 1980-Table 1.5 (Cmnd 8372). Information for 1976 is given in table 1.5 of the statistical tables of the "Report on the work of the Prison Department" (Cmnd 6884). Summary information for 1995 is given in the table attached. A breakdown of these statistics by age is not available. Copies of these publications are available from the library.The available information on drugs offences is published in table 1 (c) of the 1986 edition and table 1 (b) of the 1994 edition of "Prison statistics, England and Wales" (Cm 210 and 3087).
Population in Prison Service establishments under sentence on 30 June 1995; by offence and sex1 Offence Male Female Violence against the person 8,491 290 Sexual offences 3,656 12 Burglary 5,896 57 Robbery 5,264 108 Theft and Handling 3,450 279 Fraud and Forgery 1,071 96 Drugs offences 3,858 398 Other offences 4,174 132 Offence not recorded 1,547 84 In default of payment of a fine 490 26 All offences 37,897 1,482 1 Provisional figures.