The figures requested are in the following table:
British nationals Foreign nationals Unrecorded nationality Total 2001 84,217 6,026 280 90,523 2002 86,114 7,018 483 93,615 2003 84,251 7,482 512 92,245 2004 84,579 8,355 392 93,326 2005 80,418 9,612 384 90,414
The figures provided in this table are for the number of sentenced receptions into prison establishments in England and Wales in each of the years in question and not the total prison population held in each of the years. The word “imprisoned” is taken to mean the numbers placed in prison under sentence during the 12-month period in each year, not the total numbers held in prison (including prisoners on remand and non-criminal prisoners), which would be answered by prison population figures1.
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.
1 The figures provided should not be interpreted or used to reflect totals for prison population or total prison capacity.
Comprehensive data in the form necessary to answer the question is not available on the electronic case management system. The information would need to be gathered from the paper files held on each prisoner and this would involve disproportionate cost.
Prisoners, whether UK citizens or foreign nationals, with close family living abroad receive a free five minute phone call once a month if they have not had a social visit in the preceding period. There is no centrally held information about the cost of free calls nor locally of the breakdown between UK citizens and foreign nationals. Therefore, it is not possible to provide this information. Each establishment pays for such calls from their local budget, and costs are dependent on the number of eligible prisoners as well as the country they wish to call.