To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many new prison places have (a) been made available and (b) been put out of use since 21 July 2006; and in which prisons these places were located. (153478)

From 1 August 2006 to 31 July 2007, a total of 2,537 places were made available and 1,053 places were taken out of use at the following prisons in England and Wales:

Albany

Altcourse

Ashfield

Bedford

Belmarsh

Blundeston

Brockhill

Camp Hill

Chelmsford

Cookham Wood

Dartmoor

Deerbolt

Doncaster

Downview

Durham

East Sutton Park

Everthorpe

Featherstone

Forest Bank

Foston Hall

Frankland

Full Sutton

Garth

Gloucester

Grendon

Guys Marsh

Haslar

Hindley

Holloway

Hull

Huntercombe

Kennet

Kingston

Kirkham

Lancaster

Leeds

Lincoln

Lindholme

Liverpool

Long Lartin

Low Newton

Lowdham Grange

Maidstone

Moorland Open

Mount

Norwich

Nottingham

Onley

Parc

Parkhurst

Pentonville

Peterborough

Portland

Prescoed

Preston

Reading

Risley

Rye Hill

Send

Shrewsbury

Spring Hill

Stafford

Stoke Heath

Styal

Swansea

Verne

Wandsworth

Wellingborough

Wetherby

Whatton

Winchester

Wolds

Woodhill

Wormwood Scrubs

Wymott

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average number of people sent to prison was in each year since 1996. (154882)

The following table shows the total number of first receptions into prison establishments in England and Wales in each year from 1996-2005.

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.