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Written question asked by Lynne Jones (Labour) on Tuesday, 11 December 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 13 December 2007. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Tuesday, 18 December 2007 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prisoners: Females

Question
(2) what percentage of women prisoners convicted of serious offences were in prison for drugs-related offences in each of the last five years; and of these what percentage had a drug addiction.
Answer

The following table shows the total number of sentenced women prisoners and the proportion of these for (a) serious and violent and (b) drug offences, in prison establishments in England and Wales as at 30 June 2002-06. Serious and violent offences are defined as violence against the person, sexual offences and robbery.

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006
Total sentenced population 3,336 3,474 3,449 3,476 3,506
Violence against the person (Percentage) 16 15 17 18 19
Sexual offences (Percentage) 1 1 1 1 1
Robbery (Percentage) 9 12 11 10 9
Total serious and violent offences (Percentage) 26 27 30 29 29
Drug offences (Percentage) 39 39 36 36 33

These figures are taken from table 8.2 of Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2006, which has recently been published at http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/prisonandprobation.htm These numbers relate to specific drug offences only (including the possession and supply of drugs) and not to other offences (such as those involving acquisitive crime) which may be related to drug issues of the offender.Data is not held centrally on the number of prisoners with a drug addiction and is not routinely collected in the format requested.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.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
469 c1290-1W; 174258
Session
2007-08
Related items
Deposited Paper DEP2007-0349
Friday, 14 December 2007
Deposited papers
House of Commons
Subjects
Women Prisoners
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk