Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were serving prison sentences in each of the last five years; and what the average cost to the public purse per prisoner was in each of the last five years.

Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service routinely publishes average costs per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales. Additionally, the prison population numbers are included within the published data. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.

Information on prison population and expenditure for previous financial years can be accessed in the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics pages for each financial year on the www.gov.uk website. Prison unit costs can be found within the Excel document Costs per prison place and cost per prisoner by individual prison establishment in the ‘Cost by Establishment’ tab.

The most recent published figures for financial year 2016-17 can be accessed on the www.gov.uk website from the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-statistics-2016-to-2017

Within the costs per prison place and cost per prisoner 2016 to 2017 summary file, the figures for financial year 2015-16 have been restated to enable a more accurate comparison between the two years.