Ministry of Justice · Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population · 18 values

Prison population by custody type

The prison population of England and Wales at the end of each month, split by custody type as the Ministry of Justice publishes it, that is remand status (untried, convicted unsentenced), determinate sentence length band, extended, IPP and life sentences, recalls, fine defaulters and non-criminal prisoners.

at June 2026 · total 85,858 people · published 30 July 2026

Custody type	Latest	Share	A year earlier	Change
Recalls	12,145	14.1%	13,538	▼ 10.3%
Untried	10,242	11.9%	11,629	▼ 11.9%
2 years to less than 4 years	9,934	11.6%	9,034	▲ 10%
Extended determinate sentences (EDS)	9,697	11.3%	9,032	▲ 7.4%
Life sentences	7,617	8.9%	7,513	▲ 1.4%
7 years to less than 10 years	5,540	6.5%	5,407	▲ 2.5%
5 years to less than 7 years	5,348	6.2%	5,016	▲ 6.6%
Convicted unsentenced	5,144	6%	6,072	▼ 15.3%
14 years or more (excluding indeterminate sentences)	4,660	5.4%	4,459	▲ 4.5%
10 years to less than 14 years	4,255	5%	4,100	▲ 3.8%
4 years to less than 5 years	3,547	4.1%	3,182	▲ 11.5%
12 months to less than 2 years	3,163	3.7%	3,205	▼ 1.3%
Greater than 6 months to less than 12 months	1,468	1.7%	1,741	▼ 15.7%
Less than or equal to 6 months	1,255	1.5%	1,612	▼ 22.1%
Imprisonment for public protection (IPP)	856	1%	978	▼ 12.5%
Sentence length not recorded	489	0.6%	416	▲ 17.5%
Non criminal prisoners	469	0.5%	382	▲ 22.8%
Fine defaulters	29	0%	18	▲ 61.1%

Source

Dataset: Offender management statistics quarterly: prison population · sheet Table_1_Q_2
Rows: Sex=Male and female; Age group=All ages; Custody type=All custody types; values are the sum of the published rows for each custody type and period.
Caveat: Time served or time left to serve; sentence length is the length imposed by the court.
Parent metric: Prison population
API: /api/metrics/prison_population_by_sentence_length/vintages