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Prisoners

Volume 494: debated on Wednesday 24 June 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners aged over 70 are being held in each prison in England and Wales. (281576)

The number of prisoners aged 70 and over in each prison establishment in England and Wales as at the end of April 2009 can be found in the following table:

70+ population

Acklington

16

Albany

25

Altcourse

5

Ashfield

0

Ashwell

1

Askham Grange

0

Aylesbury

0

Bedford

2

Belmarsh

3

Birmingham

5

Blantyre House

2

Blundeston

1

Brinsford

0

Bristol

3

Brixton

2

Bronzefield

0

Buckley Hall

0

Bullingdon

6

Bullwood Hall

0

Camp Hill

1

Canterbury

1

Cardiff

2

Castington

0

Channings Wood

7

Chelmsford

3

Coldingley

0

Cookham Wood

0

Dartmoor

17

Deerbolt

0

Doncaster

5

Dorchester

1

Dovegate

6

Dover

0

Downview

1

Drake Hall

1

Durham

3

East Sutton Park

0

Eastwood Park

0

Edmunds Hill

1

Elmley

5

Erlestoke

3

Everthorpe

1

Exeter

6

Featherstone

1

Feltham

0

Ford

4

Forest Bank

3

Foston Hall

0

Frankland

8

Full Sutton

13

Garth

4

Gartree

3

Glen Parva

0

Gloucester

3

Grendon/Spring Hill

2

Guys Marsh

2

Haslar

0

Haverigg

1

Hewell

3

High Down

4

Highpoint

2

Hindley

0

Hollesley Bay

1

Holloway

1

Holme House

2

Hull

20

Huntercombe

0

Kennet

0

Kingston (Portsmouth)

4

Kirkham

0

Kirklevington Grange

0

Lancaster Castle

1

Lancaster Farms

0

Latchmere House

2

Leeds

7

Leicester

1

Lewes

3

Leyhill

13

Lincoln

5

Lindholme

1

Littlehey

32

Liverpool

4

Long Lartin

1

Low Newton

0

Lowdham Grange

0

Maidstone

14

Manchester

16

Moorland Closed

0

Moorland Open

0

Morton Hall

1

New Hall

0

North Sea Camp

1

Northallerton

0

Norwich

17

Nottingham

3

Onley

0

Pare

6

Parkhurst

8

Pentonville

0

Peterborough

7

Portland

0

Preston

2

Ranby

0

Reading

0

Risley

7

Rochester

0

Rye Hill

2

Send

1

Shepton Mallet

4

Shrewsbury

2

Stafford

5

Standford Hill

2

Stocken

0

Stoke Heath

0

Styal

0

Sudbury

1

Swaleside

3

Swansea

1

Swinfen Hall

0

The Mount

1

The Verne

0

The Wolds

0

Thom Cross

0

Usk/Prescoed

11

Wakefield

19

Wandsworth

20

Warren Hill

0

Warrington

0

Wayland

3

Wealstun

0

Wellingborough

2

Wetherby

0

Whatton

44

Whitemoor

1

Winchester

5

Woodhill

2

Wormwood Scrubs

7

Wymott

21

Total

525

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners convicted of each category of offence are aged over 70. (281578)

The following table gives the number of sentenced prisoners aged 70 and over in prison establishments in England and Wales by offence group, as at 30 April 2009:

Number

Violence against the person

84

Sexual offences

346

Robbery

4

Theft and handling

3

Fraud and forgery

7

Drug offences

22

Motoring offences

1

Other offences

23

All offences

489

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.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people aged 70 years and over were sentenced to immediate custody on conviction for each category of offence in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. (281580)

The requested information is shown in the following table.

Number sentenced to immediate custody by offence type, for those aged 70 and over 1997-2007

Offence type

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2006

2008

2007

Violence against the person

8

5

10

11

8

11

10

7

7

7

10

Sexual Offences

49

64

43

62

72

67

60

82

85

88

81

Burglary

2

1

3

2

1

0

3

0

0

2

1

Robbery

0

0

0

0

0

1

0

0

0

0

3

Theft and handling stolen goods

9

8

11

8

15

4

10

7

10

6

4

Fraud and forgery

2

4

5

5

5

6

6

4

4

4

7

Criminal Damage

1

1

0

0

1

1

1

0

0

2

3

Drug Offences

5

5

2

8

3

4

3

6

3

9

7

Other (excluding motoring offences)

3

5

4

7

2

5

6

12

12

8

6

Indictable Motoring

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

1

1

0

0

Summary non-motoring

12

12

4

5

6

6

12

14

9

14

13

Summary motoring

3

14

7

18

5

7

11

8

10

11

12

Total

94

119

89

126

118

112

122

141

141

161

147

Notes:

1. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems.

2. 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

The data shows the number of offenders aged 70 and over sentenced to immediate custody for each offence type, in the last 10 years. This data is presented on the principal offence basis, where an offender has been sentenced for more than one offence the principal offence is the one for which the heaviest sentence was imposed. Where the same sentence has been imposed for two or more offences the principal offence is the one for which the statutory maximum is most severe.