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Written question asked by Rudi Vis (Labour) on Thursday, 23 April 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 April 2009. It was answered by Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour) on Wednesday, 29 April 2009 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Prison Accommodation

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners in England and Wales shared a cell in each year since 1990.
Answer

Figures on cell sharing are only available from 2006 onwards and the data available do not allow for a breakdown of prisoners sharing by individual accommodation types.The following table shows the number of prisoners sharing any accommodation such as cells, rooms, wards and dormitories in each of the last three years.

June each year
2006 2007 2008
Population sharing accommodation (number) 30,948 32,332 33,377
Total prison population (number) 77,962 80,689 83,240
Proportion of population sharing accommodation (percentage) 39.7 40.1 40.1

Data on two prisons, Ashfield and Parc, are not held centrally and therefore information relating to them is not included in the sharing figures.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
491 c1330W; 271678
Session
2008-09
Subjects
Prison accommodation
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk