The male population increased to 1,384 and the female population increased to 65, representing an overall increase of 0.6 per cent.

The remand population increased by 18.5 per cent from 368 in 2017/18 to 436 this year and is at its highest level since reporting by financial year began in 2014/15.

The proportion of prisoners on remand has increased each year, rising from 23.3 per cent during 2014/15 to 24.7 per cent during 2015/16, 25.4 per cent during 2016/17, 25.6 per cent during 2017/18 and 30.1 per cent during 2018/19.

During 2018/19 the average daily immediate custody prison population fell by 5.1 per cent to 1,006, its lowest level since reporting by financial year began in 2014/15.

Prisoners aged between 30 to 39 years of age made up the largest proportion of the average daily immediate custody prison population (32.9 per cent). In each of the previous four financial years, the age group 21 to 29 years had accounted for the largest number of prisoners.

The proportion of those aged between 18 and 20 years of age has decreased each year since 2014/15, accounting for 2.9 per cent of the total population during 2018/19.

In terms of custodial sentence length, the average daily population decreased in all sentence categories, compared to last year, except for those serving a life sentence and those serving a sentence of three months or less, both of which reported slight increases (up from 156 to 158 and 26 to 28 respectively).

Violence against the person offences continue to account for the largest proportion of all principal offence categories (33.6 per cent).