Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners there are in each category of prisoner.

The tables in the accompanying spreadsheet set out, nationally, the number of each security category, the number of prisoners by prison region, and the number of prisoners by local authority as at 31 December 2018 – the most recent date for which such data is available.

All prisoners are individually assessed as to their risk of escape or abscond, their risk of harm to the public should they escape or abscond and their risk to the good order of the establishment. This ensures categorisation of prisoners to a prison providing an appropriate level of security.

The correct categorisation and allocation, balancing security issues and the needs of the prisoner, helps prisoners to use their sentences constructively, to tackle their offending behaviour and to prepare for their eventual release. All prisoners must be placed in the category consistent with the needs of security and control and the need to protect the public. Prisoners of a higher security category would not, as a matter of course, be held in an establishment of a lower category. The only exceptions to this will be where prisoners are re-categorised, and then await a move to a different establishment.

Details of the prison estate and the functions of individual establishments can be found online at this link.