Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Welsh women are serving sentences in Eastwood Park prison.

Closeness to home is one of a number of factors considered when choosing where to place prisoners. We also consider other factors such as length of sentence, security category and offending behaviour requirements.

The following table shows how many women with a Welsh origin address are serving sentences in Eastwood Park prison. This is based on data as at 30 September 2017.

If a request is made for information and the total figure amounts to five people or fewer, the MoJ must consider whether this could lead to the identification of individuals and whether disclosure of this information would be in breach of our statutory obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA). We believe that the release of some of this information would risk identification of the individuals concerned. For this reason, MoJ has chosen not to provide an exact figure where the true number falls between one and five. However, it should not be assumed that the actual figure represented falls at any particular point within this scale; '≤5' is used as a replacement value from which it would be difficult to isolate or extract any individual data.

It is important to stress that it is not possible to infer from an address in Wales that an individual considers themselves Welsh. HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) cannot identify English and Welsh prisoners. Someone with an address, for example in London, may well consider themselves to be Welsh, while someone with an address in Wales may not. UK nationals have a nationality of British. Therefore the data shown are not necessarily representative of those who identify as English or Welsh. The results are sorted by origin address (home address on reception into custody) and not nationality. English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish are not captured on our database as separate nationalities.

Around 97% of prisoners have an origin location - i.e. addresses that are recorded in our central IT system. If no address is given, an offender’s committal court address is used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. This information is included in the data provided in the tables above. Those with no recorded origin are typically foreign nationals or those recently received into custody. No address has been recorded and no court information is available for around 3% of all offenders; these figures are excluded from the tables attached.

The numerical information provided has been drawn from administrative IT systems, which as with any large scale recording system are subject to possible error with data entry and processing. Further guidance on the considerations for processing a request under FOIA, can be found by following the links: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/36/contents and http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/foi-step-by-step.htm

Female prisons HMP/YOI Eastwood Park and HMP/YOI Styal, which both hold a number of Welsh offenders, employ Welsh speaking members of staff and provide written information in Welsh. On release offenders from Wales also have access to Through The Gate services including help with accommodation, employment and training to help them adjust to life outside prison and prevent reoffending.