Prisoners

House of Lords written question – answered at on 11 November 2009.

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Photo of Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts Conservative

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners were held in prisons in England and Wales on 31 May in each of the past 12 years for which figures are available.

Photo of Lord Bach Lord Bach Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Justice, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice

The table below gives the numbers of prisoners held in all prison establishments from 1998 to 2009 (latest available). The figures are taken from the published table 2.1 in Prison Statistics England and Wales 1998-2002; table 7.1 in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2003-08 and table 1 in the Population in Custody June 2009.

As data are not available at 31 May for all years, figures as at 30 June have been supplied.

Prison Population in England and Wales 1998-2009
Figures as at 30 June
1998 65,727
1999 64,529
2000 65,194
2001 66,403
2002 71,218
2003 73,657
2004 74,488
2005 76,190
2006 77,982
2007 79,734
2008 83,194
2009 83,454

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.

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