To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department has conducted on the causes of the increase in the number of foreign nationals in prisons in England and Wales over the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. (68872)

The Home Office regularly monitors the size and make-up of the foreign national prisoner population and trends within it. Information on this is published in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004, a copy of which is available in the House of Commons Library.