Coronavirus (COVID-19): Justice Analytical Services Data Report - July 2021

Prison population

While the overall prison population is lower than pre-pandemic levels, the number of people held on remand remains at a historic high. The changing levels across groups that are required by law to be housed separately – like those on remand – pose new difficulties in the management of the prison population.

In July 2021 (up until the morning of Sunday 1st August 2021):

• the population increased by 46 to 7,548
• 2,088 were on remand: 1,740 (23%) untried & 348 (5%) awaiting sentence
• 65% of arrivals were untried (599 of 919), and 19% awaiting sentence (178)

During the pandemic, growth in the prison population was largely driven by growth in the remand population. However, the prison population rose in June 2021 while remand population remained relatively static. This is likely an effect of increasing court activity following the easing of public health restrictions.

Remand Arrival Offences

There were 754 un-sentenced arrivals to prison with known offence types in July, awaiting trial or sentence for the following alleged offences (see chart below).

Note: Double-counting may occur where an individual is absent from prison for a night in the week and then returns. Where an individual has multiple alleged offence types, the offence towards the top of the list in the chart is used as the index offence.

Further Information:

See latest published annual prison population statistics.