---

30 Jan 2003 : Column 1048W—continued

Women Prisoners

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women serving prison sentences gave birth (a) in prison and (b) in hospital in each of the last five years; and how many were allowed to keep their babies in prison. [93966]

Hilary Benn: [holding answer 29 January 2003]:All women prisoners who are pregnant are transferred to local hospitals to give birth where normal National Health Service (NHS) care applies. No figures are held centrally on the number of prisoners who have given birth or the number of women who have been in Mother and Baby Units in the last five years.

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women prisoners have children who are (a) under five years old and (b) under 18 months old. [93967]

Hilary Benn [holding answer 29 January 2003]: There is no routinely collected data on the number of women prisoners with children in these age ranges. However, a Chief Inspector's survey in 1994 found that over a third of the mothers had one or more children under five years old. Studies published in 1997 and 2000 found that 60 per cent. and 66 per cent. of women prisoners respectively had dependent children under the age of 18.

---

---