Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the current national population is of (a) HM prisons and (b) privately-run prisons.

Individual prison population and capacity information for every prison in England and Wales, as well as the total population and useable operational capacity of the prison estate is published monthly on the Ministry of Justice website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-population-figures-2014

The latest monthly publication shows that on Friday 31 October 2014 the total prison population in England and Wales was 84,578 of which 14,891 prisoners were held in private prisons. Population information for National Offender Management Service operated immigration removal centres has not been included.