To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people with learning disabilities were detained in UK (a) prisons and (b) youth offender institutions in the latest period for which figures are available. (168930)

The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

In 1997, the Office for National Statistics undertook a survey of mental ill health in the prison population of England and Wales. This found that a higher proportion of prisoners had lower intellectual functioning scores than would be expected in the general population.

Further information is available in the report of this survey: “Psychiatric Morbidity Amongst Prisoners in England and Wales” (1998), a copy of which is available in the Library.