Figures on the numbers of both non-European Union prisoners held in prison establishments in England and Wales and the numbers of new detentions of British nationals held in prisons abroad can be found in the table. The Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Prison Service respectively hold information on prison numbers in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The figures on the numbers of British nationals detained in foreign prisons were taken from the answer given by my hon. Friend, Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Clegg) to his question on 16 January 2007, Official Report, column 999W. As at 30 September 2006, we were aware of 2,421 British nationals in detention overseas, either on remand or serving a custodial sentence.
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.
30 June: Number 2002 6,248 2003 7,359 2004 7,043 2005 7,639 2006 8,554
Number 2001 7,861 2002 6,501 2003-04 6,744 2004-05 5,227 2005-06 4,814 1These are the number of new detentions of British nationals each year, not the numbers held at any given date. The following is a link to show European Union membership http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1139991776535