§ Mr. Hilary BennTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were imprisoned for failure to pay a court fine in each year since 1971. [159254]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeInformation relating to people imprisoned for failure to pay a court fine since 1971 is given in the table.
Provisional information for 1 January to 31 March 2001 shows that there have been 491 fine defaulters received into prison so far and that on 31 March 2001 there were 41 fine defaulters in prison.
Number of fine defaulters received into prisons in England and Wales 1971 to 2001 Year Number of receptions 1971 10,871 1972 10,980 1973 10,406 1974 12,622 1975 14,417 1976 15,911 1977 16,040 1978 16,442 1979 17,044 1980 15,938 1981 21,153 1982 24,492 1983 23,241 1984 21,761 1985 20,493 1986 19,159 1987 18,723 1988 16,817 1989 16,985 1990 16,659 1991 18,973 1992 19,826 1993 22,403 1994 22,469 1995 20,157 1996 8,555 1997 6,336 1998 5,374 1999 3,727 2000 12,314 1Provisional data only