The available information is shown in the table.
These figures can also be found on table 2.3 of the 2007 annual sentencing statistics bulletin published by the Ministry of Justice in 2008 and available on:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/sentencingannual.htm
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Immediate custody of six months or less 57,271 63,741 69,262 70,099 69,914 71,961 70,252 68,199 63,856 59,134 57,536 All immediate custody 93,841 100,566 105,323 106,187 106,273 111,607 107,670 106,322 101,236 96,017 95,206 Proportion (of all immediate custody) (percentage) 61.0 63.4 65.8 66.0 65.8 64.5 65.2 64.1 63.1 61.6 60.4 Notes: 1. The statistics given are on a principal offence basis. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. 2. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. 3. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice