Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners were in open prisons (a) in the most recent period for which figures are available and (b) in each of the last five years.

Progression to open prisons is never automatic, and prisoners must generally be within two years of release before they can be considered for allocation. Public protection is paramount, only those prisoners who are assessed as low risk of escape/abscond and low risk of causing harm to the public are transferred to an open prison.

The following table shows the number of male and female prisoners held in open prisons as at the last Friday in June in each of the last five years and as at the last Friday in November 2015, which is the most recent period for which figures are available.

The data below does not include the number of male and female prisoners held in category D units in otherwise closed prisons.

Number of male and female prisoners held in dedicated open prisons from June 2011 to November 2015.