To ask Her Majesty's Government how many prisoners currently in prison in England and Wales are serving sentences of a year or less; and of these, how many prisoners are expected to still be serving their sentence on 25 December.
Prison population data is published on an end of month basis. The prison population for those serving a sentence of less than a year on 31 December 2016 was 5,954. This information is contained in Offender Management Statistics Quarterly (OMSQ), Table 1.1, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/654646/prison-population-30-september-2017.xlsx
As at 30 September 2017, there were 6,141 prisoners serving sentences of less than a year; of whom, 624 had a release date on, or after, the 27 December 2017 and would therefore normally be serving their sentence in custody on 25 December.
Answered on 4 Dec 2017