To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many women received custodial sentences for fine defaulting on the grounds of culpable neglect in each year since 1989; [37517](2) if he will include in statistics for women serving custodial sentences details of the number of women receiving custodial sentences for fine defaulting. [37519]
Responsibility for these matters has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Richard Tilt to Ms Janet Anderson, dated 23 October 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions asking, how many women received custodial sentences for fine defaulting on the grounds of culpable neglect in each year since 1989 and if he will include in statistics for women serving custodial sentences details of the number receiving custodial sentences for fine defaulting.
Prison statistics for sentenced prisoners include fine defaulters. These are published in the annual volume "Prison statistics, England and Wales" (Table 1.1 of the 1993 edition, Cm 2893), copies of which are available from the Library of the House. Provisional information for 1994 shows that 1,420 females were received into a Prison Service establishment in England and Wales for non-payment of a fine.
There are a range of measures available to the courts without the recourse to imprisonment for the enforcement of fines. A defaulter is only committed to custody once these methods have been tried or considered and where the court is satisfied that there has been a wilful refusal or culpable neglect to pay.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were the number of fine defaulters for non-payment of the television licence received in prison between 1991 and 1994 by (a) gender and the age groups (i) 18 to 20, (ii) 21 to 25, (iii) 26 to 30, (iv) 31 to 35, (v) 36 to 40, (vi) 41 to 45, (vii) 46 to
| Table 1: Receptions into Prison Service establishments in England and Wales for non-payment of fine imposed for using a television without a licence, 1991–1994 | ||||||||
| Year and gender | ||||||||
| 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 11994 | |||||
| Age | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female |
| 18–20 | 5 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 15 | 4 | 4 |
| 21–25 | 56 | 35 | 80 | 46 | 103 | 78 | 85 | 70 |
| 26–30 | 62 | 32 | 98 | 50 | 115 | 67 | 101 | 60 |
| 31–35 | 40 | 26 | 59 | 15 | 89 | 42 | 113 | 37 |
| 36–40 | 35 | 11 | 39 | 21 | 71 | 31 | 53 | 36 |
| 41–45 | 23 | 13 | 48 | 12 | 60 | 26 | 57 | 14 |
| 46–50 | 12 | 7 | 31 | 7 | 42 | 14 | 30 | 13 |
| 51–55 | 11 | 3 | 21 | 1 | 32 | 2 | 25 | 5 |
| 56–60 | 10 | 1 | 12 | 2 | 20 | 2 | 11 | 2 |
| 61–65 | 2 | — | 4 | — | 5 | 1 | 8 | 2 |
| Over 65 | 2 | — | 2 | — | 2 | — | — | — |
| Total | 258 | 136 | 404 | 160 | 547 | 278 | 487 | 243 |
| 1 Provisional figures. | ||||||||
| Table 2: receptions into Prison Service establishments in England and Wales for non-payment of fine imposed for using a television without a licence, by gender and ethnic origin, 19911 | ||||||
| Ethnic origin | ||||||
| Year | White | West Indian, Guyanese, African | Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi | Chinese, Arab, Mixed origin | Other, not recorded (including refusals) | Total |
| 1991 | ||||||
| Male | 248 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | 258 |
| Female | 130 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 136 |
| 1 The 1991 figures are based on an ethnic origin coding similar to that used in the EC labour force survey. The 1992 to 1994 figures use a new ethnic classification which is congruent with that used for the census of population. | ||||||
| Table 3: receptions into Prison Service establishments in England and Wales for non-payment of fine imposed for using a television licence without a licence, by gender and ethnic origin, 1992–1994 1 | |||||
| Ethnic origin | |||||
| Year | White | Black African, Caribbean, other | South Asian Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani | Chinese and other Chinese, Asian other, Other | Total |
| 1992 | |||||
| Male | 386 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 404 |
| Female | 148 | 8 | — | 4 | 160 |
| 1993 | |||||
| Male | 519 | 21 | 5 | 2 | 547 |
| Female | 267 | 8 | — | 3 | 278 |
50, (viii) 51 to 55, (ix) 56 to 60, (x) 61 to 65 and (xi) over 65, (b) gender and ethnic origin and (c) gender and sentence length imposed and average sentence length actually served. [37193]
Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Richard Tilt to Ms Mildred Gordon, dated 23 October 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the number of fine defaulters for non-payment of the TV licence received in prison between 1991 and 1994 by (a) gender and age (b) gender and ethnic origin and (c) gender and sentence length imposed and average sentence length actually served.
Information on the numbern of fine defaulters received into Prison Service establishments in England and Wales for using a television without a licence, is given by age, gender and ethnic origin in the attached tables. The average time served was 11 days for males and 9 days for females. The average time imposed was 4 days for males and 3 days for females.
Table 3: receptions into Prison Service establishments in England and Wales for non-payment of fine imposed for using a television licence without a licence, by gender and ethnic origin, 1992–1994 1
| |||||
Ethnic origin
| |||||
Year
| White
| Black African, Caribbean, other
| South Asian Bangladeshi, Indian, Pakistani
| Chinese and other Chinese, Asian other, Other
| Total
|
| 19942 | |||||
| Male | 462 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 487 |
| Female | 232 | 10 | — | 1 | 243 |
1 The 1991 figures are based on an ethnic origin coding similar to that used in the EC labour force survey. The 1992 to 1994 figures use a new ethnic classification which is congruent with that used for the census of population. | |||||
2 Provisional figures. | |||||