Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were imprisoned for contempt of court before each division of the legal system in each month since May 2013.

The table below sets out the number of people who were received into custody for contempt of court between May 2013 and March 2014 (the latest available figures). Contempt of court covers a wide variety of conduct which undermines or has the potential to undermine the course of justice.

Receptions into prison (1) for contempt of court, May 2013-March 2014, England and Wales

May-13 Jun-13 Jul-13 Aug-13 Sep-13 Oct-13

Contempt of Court 11 8 13 14 7 12

Nov-13 Dec-13 Jan-14 Feb-14 Mar-14

7 6 8 7 8

(1) This excludes imprisonment in court cells and police cells

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.