(2) what the average prison population as a proportion of the in-use certified normal accommodation in category (a) A, (b) B, (c) C and (d) D prisons in England and Wales was on the most recent date for which figures are available.
The following table shows the numbers of adult males serving sentences in prison establishments as at 30 April 2009 by category of prison:
Number High security prisons holding sentenced and remand prisoners up to Category A 4,551 Local and training prisons holding sentenced and remand prisoners up to Category B 25,067 Training prisons holding sentenced prisoners up to Category C 22,522 Open prisons taking Category D prisoners 3,841 Total 55,981
The Security categories A, B, C, and D relate to categories of adult male prisoner. Female prisoners and young offenders are not categorised in this way.
The following table shows the numbers of prisoners in the categories of prison set out above, compared with the numbers in the certified normal accommodation:
Total prison population Total certified normal accommodation Ratio (percentage) High security prisons holding sentenced and remand prisoners up to Category A 5,845 5,392 108 Local and training prisons holding sentenced and remand prisoners up to Category B 35,312 27,780 127 Training prisons holding sentenced prisoners up to Category C 23,696 22,461 105 Open prisons taking Category D prisoners 4,220 4,312 98
Certified Normal Accommodation (CNA), or uncrowded capacity, is the Prison Service’s own measure of accommodation.
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.