Prison population in England and Wales: Latest numbers and trends

The latest prison figures for England and Wales show nearly 40,000 offenders have been released early since September 2024, while recalls of inmates are at “historically high” levels and the rate of assaults on staff has reached a new peak.

Here the PA news agency looks at the key numbers and trends, which have been published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

– Overall prison population

The total prison population of England and Wales stood at 87,465 on September 30 2025, up 1% year on year from 86,966 but below the monthly peak of 88,439 at the end of February 2024.

Separate weekly figures show the prison population stood at 87,413 on October 27, 1,108 below the all-time high of 88,521 reached on September 6 2024.

– Prisoners released early

Some 38,042 prisoners in England and Wales had been freed under the Government’s early release scheme as of June 30 2025.

The scheme was launched as an emergency measure on September 10 2024 to help ease overcrowding in prisons.

It allows eligible inmates to be released after serving only 40% of their fixed-term sentence, rather than the usual 50%.

The current scheme for the early release of prisoners replaced a separate scheme introduced by the previous Conservative government.

Under this separate process, 13,325 prisoners in England and Wales were freed early between October 17 2023 and September 9 2024.

– Details of prisoners released early

Of the 38,042 prisoners released between September 2024 and June 2025, 34,332 (90.2%) were British nationals, 3,644 (9.6%) were foreign nationals and 66 (0.2%) had no nationality recorded.

Just over nine in 10 – 91.7% or 34,878 – were male, with 8.3% (3,164) female.

The age group that made up the greatest proportion of early releases was 30 to 39-year-olds (37.6% of the overall total), followed by 40 to 49-year-olds (23.4%) and 25 to 29-year-olds (15.8%).

HMP Humber in Brough, near Hull, has released the highest number of inmates so far under the scheme (1,126), followed by Berwyn in Wrexham (1,064); Fosse Way in Leicester (1,037); and Parc B in Bridgend (830).

Some 10,879 of the 38,042 early releases (28.6%) were serving sentences of six months or less, with a further 5,241 (13.8%) serving sentences of between six and 12 months.

– Nationality of prisoners in custody

There were 10,737 foreign nationals in prisons in England and Wales at the end of September, down from 10,772 at the end of June but higher than 10,418 a year earlier in September 2024.

The proportion of the total prison population who are foreign nationals has increased slightly year on year, from 12.0% in September 2024 to 12.3% in September 2025.

This figure has remained around 12% for much of the past decade and reached 12.5% in June 2021.

Of the 87,465 people in prison in England and Wales as of September 30 this year, 76,333 (87.3%) were British.

The next largest nationality was Albanian (1,086, or 1.2% of the total), followed by Polish (776, 0.9%), Irish (677, 0.8%), Romanian (675, 0.8%) and Indian (364, 0.4%).

Figures published earlier this year showed that the proportion of foreign nationals in prison varies by offence.

While 12.3% of all prisoners in England and Wales in June 2025 were foreign nationals, the proportion was lower among those serving time for violence against the person (10.5%) or for sexual offences (10.6%), and higher for possession of weapons (11.5%) or for drug offences (19.7%).

– Recalls of prisoners

There were 11,041 recalls to custody in April to June 2025 of offenders who had breached the conditions of their release, up 13% on the equivalent period in 2024 (9,782) and a jump of 62% on the same period in 2023 (6,814).

Recalls are at a “historically high” level, the Ministry of Justice said.

The rise is “likely to be associated” with the Government’s early release scheme that began in September 2024, as well as the introduction in April 2024 by the previous Conservative government of the Fixed Term Recall Order.

This change in the law means offenders who had been sentenced to less than 12 months in custody will serve a short fixed term when recalled, rather than serving the remainder of their original term.

There can be more than one reason for recalling an offender on licence – for example, of the 11,041 recalls in the three months to June 2025, 74% involved non-compliance with conditions, 36% involved failing to keep in touch and 22% involved a charge of further offending.

– Prison assaults

The rate of assaults on staff in the year to June 2025 stood at 121 assaults per 1,000 prisoners, up from 118 per 1,000 in the previous 12 months and a new peak.

A total of 10,477 assaults were recorded, up year on year from 10,284.

Rates remain higher in female prisons (287 assaults per 1,000 prisoners) than male prisons (114 per 1,000).

Comparable figures for assaults begin in the year to June 2019.

– Deaths in prison custody

There were 411 deaths recorded in the year to September, up 30% from 317 in the previous 12 months.

It is the highest number for the year to September since the current time series began in 2015.

Of the 411 deaths in the latest 12-month period, 96 were self-inflicted, up from 88 in the previous year.