To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what percentage of (a) foreign national prisoners and (b) prisoners of unknown nationality there were in each prison in England and Wales on 1 October 2008.

The following table indicates the numbers of prisoners who are recorded as being (a) foreign national and (b) nationality not yet recorded in all prison establishments in England and Wales as at 30 September 2008. Although nationality may not yet be recorded in certain instances, this is not indicative of where nationality is unknown. Relevant checks with other Government Departments are conducted as appropriate in order to ascertain further details.

Population data were published on the Ministry of Justice website on 31 October 2008 in line with standard practice:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/populationincustody.htm

This information is updated quarterly.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer he was given on 15 October 2008, Hansard, column 1235W.

These figures include prisoners held on remand or serving custodial sentences, as well as those held under the Immigration Act 1971 (including those in the immigration removal centres of Dover, Haslar and Lindholme).

In September's data around 77 per cent. of prisoners for whom nationality is unrecorded are remand prisoners. Unrecorded nationalities account for 1 per cent. of the overall population.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.