To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what he estimates to be the size of the recidivist prison population; and if he will make a statement.

The readily available information shows the sentenced prison population analysed by the number of previous convictions (tables 3.11, 4.10, 5.10 of the latest issue of "Prison Statistics England and Wales", for 1986, Cm. 210, copies of which are in the Library). Table 8(a) provides the information also available on the proportion of prisoners who were reconvicted within two years of the discharge from their sentence.