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More details on the projections may be found in the latest published bulletin, "Prison Population Projections 2009-2015" Ministry of Justice Statistics Bulletin, 28 August 2009. This is available at the following webpage:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/prisonpopulation.htm

Prison Sentences

Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were sentenced to a prison term in each year since 1997; and how many of those people received sentences of (a) less than three months, (b) three to six months, (c) six to 12 months and (d) over one year. [319822]

Claire Ward: The requested information is shown in the tables.

The information is taken from Sentencing Statistics 2008, table 2.3, available via the following link:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/sentencingannual.htm

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Persons sentenced to immediate custody at all courts by length of sentence, 1997 to 2008, England and Wales
Number and percentage of persons given immediate custody and sentence length
All offences	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Total persons sentenced	1,373,378	1,456,776	1,397,786	1,414,188	1,338,522	1,410,504
Number given immediate custody	93,841	100,566	105,323	106,187	106,273	111,607
Percentage given immediate custody	6.8	6.9	7.5	7.5	7.9	7.9
Up to and including three months	35,054	39,427	43,059	41,585	40,884	42,542
Over three months and up to and including six months	22,217	24,314	26,203	28,514	29,030	29,419
Over six months and less than 12 months	5,808	5,963	5,573	6,419	6,337	6,590
12 months	5,641	5,837	5,677	5,316	5,019	5,130
Over 12 months(1)	25,121	25,025	24,811	24,353	25,003	27,926

Number and percentage of persons given immediate custody and sentence length
All offences	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Total persons sentenced	1,479,812	1,536,826	1,473,275	1,412,940	1,406,788	1,353,937
Number given immediate custody	107,670	106,322	101,236	96,017	95,206	99,525
Percentage given immediate custody	7.3	6.9	6.9	6.8	6.8	7.4
Up to and including three months	40,754	39,707	37,100	34,712	34,427	35,747
Over three months and up to and including six months	29,498	28,492	26,756	24,422	23,109	22,329
Over six months and less than 12 months	6,038	6,346	6,462	6,401	6,779	6,920
12 months	4,800	4,811	5,001	4,775	5,059	5,652
Over 12 months(1)	26,580	26,966	25,917	25,707	25,832	28,877
(1) Includes life and indeterminate sentences. Notes: 1. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. 2. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. 3. This data has been taken from the Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings database. 4. This data is presented on the principal offence basis. Where an offender has been sentenced for more than one offence the principal offence is the one for which the heaviest sentence was imposed. 5. Where the same sentence has been imposed for two or more offences the principal offence is the one for which the statutory maximum is most severe. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice

Property: Sales

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many property transactions took place where the sale price was (a) more than £60,000, (b) more than £125,000, (c) more than £175,000 and (d) more than £250,000 in each year since 1997. [318740]

Mr. Wills: Land Registry is able to provide information on the total number of residential properties sold at full value⁽¹⁾ in the requested categories in each year since 1997.

^{(1 )}Full value = residential property transactions where the full price has been paid. The figures exclude a number of transactions including Right to Buy sales at a discount, properties sold by way of a gift and properties sold under a compulsory purchase or Court order.

	> £60,000	> £125,000	> £175,000	> £250,000
1997	526,669	136,965	58,179	22,748
1998	555,992	162,900	73,348	27,890
1999	714,629	241,748	113,334	44,883
2000	731,825	285,573	141,665	57,075
2001	885,625	390,666	197,913	77,098
2002	1,059,497	561,588	302,707	118,723
2003	1,070,227	649,791	364,842	137,778
2004	1,161,199	794,686	472,424	186,086
2005	1,002,711	704,023	428,454	172,511
2006	1,278,538	935,560	592,777	253,268
2007	1,236,072	937,892	627,523	288,260
2008	626,892	458,917	303,879	139,478
2009	576,371	429,267	262,712	124,463

Rape: Sentencing

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average (a) determinate sentence and (b) tariff was for a life or indeterminate public protection sentence for rape in each of the last 10 years. [316327]

Mr. Straw: The available information is provided in the following table. Data on tariffs for life or indeterminate public protection sentences for rape could currently be provided only at disproportionate cost, though I have
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asked officials for advice on whether future arrangements for the economic collection of this data are feasible.

When calculating average custodial sentence length only determinate custodial sentences are included. This
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may have the effect of making the average custodial sentence length (ACSL) appear lower for offences where a larger proportion of offenders are given indeterminate sentences.

Average custodial sentence length for rape( 1) , 1998 to 2008
	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Rape of a female under 16	88.6	91	91.8	95	94.1	97.1	99.8	95.4	93.3	108.2	110.7
Number of determinate sentences	209	224	188	160	208	235	251	208	189	196	198
Number of indeterminate sentences	7	18	10	14	6	12	16	16	26	35	35
Rape of a female over 16	78.7	78.8	81.5	77.9	83.2	85.3	77.7	82.2	79.8	77.9	80.6
Number of determinate sentences	287	231	245	238	258	261	285	292	264	253	278
Number of indeterminate sentences	28	32	26	28	26	27	34	41	112	115	94
Rape of a male under 16	96	76	67.5	79.7	84.4	85.2	84.5	84.5	81.4	88.5	100.2
Number of determinate sentences	12	30	18	19	26	25	22	26	7	12	9
Number of indeterminate sentences	2	2	4	4	4	2	2	2	7	8	4
Rape of a male over 16	69	65	90.5	85.5	73.7	69	100.5	69	77.1	99.6	75.3
Number of determinate sentences	10	6	12	14	7	4	8	12	13	9	9
Number of indeterminate sentences	2	2	0	4	2	2	2	2	6	7	2
Rape of a female under 13 by a male(2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	57	58.8	75.2	73.5	97.7
Number of determinate sentences	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	41	46	57	92
Number of indeterminate sentences	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	21	16	32
Rape of a male under 13 by a male(2)	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	49.8	47.5	50.3	74.8
Number of determinate sentences	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	10	13	18	13
Number of indeterminate sentences	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	6	10	9
(1) Average custodial sentence length excludes life/indeterminate sentences. (2) Enacted as distinct offences by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 from 1 May 2004 with no equivalent offence under the 1956 Act.

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