Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the prison population in England and Wales was for the most recent available period; and how many of those prisoners were born in (a) England, (b) Wales and (c) elsewhere.

The table below contains the prison population broken down by nationality as at 31 March 2018 (the latest available data).

Nationality data are collected and published within the Offender Management Statistics Quarterly. A full breakdown of this data can be found in table 1.7 at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/702300/population-31-march-2018.ods

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) does not identify Welsh and English prisoners as independent nationalities. UK nationals are only recorded as having a nationality of ‘British’. Information is collected on where someone is ordinarily resident but not on whether they self-identify as English, Welsh or British in their place of residence.

All data shown are based on the prison population at 31 March 2018. The detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. While the figures shown have been checked as far as practicable, they should be regarded as approximate and not necessarily accurate to the last whole number shown in the tables. They are fit to be used for comparing the relative magnitude of components.

The MoJ is undertaking a programme of large scale prison reform which includes modernising the prison estate, closing older prisons that are not fit for purpose and creating in their place high-quality, rehabilitative establishments.