§ Baroness Anelay of St Johnsasked Her Majesty's Government:
What research they have carried out to determine why there was an increase of 46 per cent for women an 10 per cent for men sentenced to prison for motoring offences in the year October 2002–October 2003. [HL1519]
§ The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal)Some analysis has been carried out into the statistical trends affecting the prison population under sentence for motoring offences.
The male prison population under sentence for motoring offences increased from 2,498 on 31 October 2002 to 2,748 on 31 October 2003, an increase of 10 per cent. Over the same period the female prison population under sentence for motoring offences increased from 37 to 54, an increase of 46 per cent. Although the proportionate change is larger for females than for males the change for females is based on very small numbers.
The prison population under sentence at any point in time reflects the numbers given a custodial sentence as well as the length of these sentences.
Our analysis indicates that the increase in the prison population under sentence for motoring offences relates to more people being sentenced to custody rather than longer sentence lengths. This is because there has been little change in the average sentence length of those received into prisons for motoring 162WA offences, whereas the number of persons received under sentence for such offences has increased from 14,697 in 2002 to 15,385 in 2003.
Court statistics for 2003 are not yet available and hence we cannot determine whether the increase is due to more persons being convicted of motoring offences, more severe sentencing of those convicted or a mixture of the two.