To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average cost of imprisoning a fine defaulter in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.

The average cost of imprisonment in 1988–89 was £288 per inmate per week. No separate records are held for different categories of offender.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many fine defaulters were committed into custody in England and Wales during 1988 and 1989; what is the current daily population of fine defaulters; and if he will make a statement.

Information on persons received into prison service establishments in default of payment of a fine is published anually in "Prison Statistics England and Wales"—table 7.3 of the volume for 1988, Cm. 825—copies of which are in the Library. The provisional receptions figure for 1989 is 17,700 and the average population was about 460.