Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the average annual cost of holding someone serving a custodial sentence.

The average annual overall cost per prisoner in financial year 2016-17 was £35,371. The Overall Costs include the direct establishment costs plus expenditure met at regional or national level. This information is produced on an annual basis and is published after the end of each financial year.

Additional information on prison unit costs can be accessed from the Prison and Probation Performance Statistics pages for each financial year at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/prison-performance-statistics-2016-to-2017