To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) residential approved premises exclusively for (i) male and (ii) female offenders and bailees and (b) mixed-sex residential approved premises there are in (A) each of the English criminal justice regions and (B) Wales; in which town or locality each is sited; and how many residents there were in each on the last Friday of each of the last 24 months for which figures are available. (248519)

A table which has been placed in the Library shows information for each criminal justice region: the names of the current approved premises (APs) and the town or city in which each is located; whether the AP is all-male, all-female or mixed-sex; the total number of APs of each type for each region; and the number of residents in each AP for each month between December 2006 and November 2008 (the most recent month for which complete figures are available). Numbers of residents in approved premises are recorded on the last day of each month, rather than on the last Friday of the month.

Approved premises provide for enhanced and effective supervision of certain offenders which would be much more difficult to achieve if such offenders were dispersed into less suitable accommodation in the community.