Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people currently in prison self-describe their ethnicity as (1) black, (2) mixed race, (3) Asian, (4) white, and (5) Gypsy, Roma and Traveller, and are aged (a) 15–17, (b) 18–20, (c) 21–24, (d), 25–29, (e) 30–39, (f) 40–49, (g) 50–59, (h) 60–69, and (i) 70 and over.

The attached table shows the numbers of prisoners aged (a) 15–17, (b) 18–20, (c) 21–24, (d), 25–29, (e) 30–39, (f) 40–49, (g) 50–59, (h) 60–69, and (i) 70 and over, broken down by ethnicity as (1) black, (2) mixed race, (3) Asian, and (4) white as of 30 June 2020.

There are no current plans to alter the ethnic groups for the regular quarterly published data on the prison population. The broad categories included in the information released are in line with current guidance from the Race Disparity Unit of the Cabinet Office.

Numbers self-designating as ‘Irish Traveller or Gypsy’ are published as part of a more detailed data set which is released annually as part of the series Offender Management Statistics Quarterly. The most recent release of this data formed part of the January to March 2021 issue, published in July 2021. Figures were included in Table A1.9ii of the Annual Prison Population: 2021 document. This showed that as of 30 June 2021, 1,365 prisoners self-designated as Irish Traveller or Gypsy. Of these, 1,337 were male and 28 were female.