Prisoners: Per Capita Costs
(asked on 14th November 2018) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the average annual cost of incarcerating a prisoner in (1) 2015, (2) 2016, and (3) 2017.
An average cost per prisoner, costs per prison place and overall prison unit costs for each private and public sector prison in England and Wales are routinely published by Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.
Information on prison expenditure can be accessed in the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics pages for each financial year on the www.gov.uk website. Prison unit costs can be found within the Excel document titled Costs per prison place and cost per prisoner by individual prison establishment under the ‘Cost by Establishment’ tab.
The most recent published figures for financial year 2017-18 can be accessed on the www.gov.uk website from the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-statistics-2017-to-2018
The table below shows the average annual overall cost per prisoner for financial years 2015-16 to 2017-18.
Financial years | Average Annual Overall Cost per prisoner |
2017-18 | £37,543 |
2016-17 | £35,371 |
2015-16 | £33,931 |
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To note within the table: |
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1. Figures are expressed in nominal terms as per published for respective years. | |
2. Figures are not always comparable across a period due to changes in accounting treatments and scope of business which do not provide a consistent basis. | |
3. Overall costs include the direct establishment costs plus expenditure met at regional or national level by HMPPS/MOJ. | |