Prisoners

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners under 21-years-old there were in each week since 26 January 2007. (180290)

Data on the prison population, including a breakdown by age, are published monthly on the Ministry of Justice website:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/populationincustody.htm

The following table shows the number of young people held in prison establishments as at the end of each month since January 2007:

*Monthly published totals of young persons held in all prison establishments in England and Wales: January to December 2007*
	15 to 17-year-olds	Young adults¹
January	2,385	9,276
February	2,418	9,286
March	2,413	9,311
April	2,402	9,425
May	2,450	9,364
June	2,428	9,455
July	2,472	9,418
August	2,473	9,545
September	2,485	9,533
October	2,441	9,544
November	2,357	9,542
December	not yet available
¹ Young adults are those aged 18 to 20 and those 21-year-olds who were aged 20 or under at conviction who have not yet been reclassified as part of the adult population.

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.

Volume 470: debated on Thursday 24 January 2008