§ Mr. GrieveTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his projection is for the prison population for mid-year 2006; and what the(a) highest and (b) lowest estimated figures are. [124854]
§ Paul Goggins[holding answer 10 July 2003]The most recent projections of the prison population are presented in the April 2003 Prison Population Monthly Brief issued in September 2003. These present four scenarios (scenarios a—d) for the short term projection (up to March 2005) and two scenarios (central scenarios b and c) for the long term projection (up to 2009). There are no new higher and lower scenarios for these most recent long term projections.
The projections cover a range of possible trends in sentencing and court workloads and include estimates for policy initiatives.
262WOf these staff currently, there are 42 consultants in post.