Get the Data

These may or may not meet your definition of a "simple dataset," but here are some online sources to check: 1) England and Wales - The Ministry of Justice publishes Offender Management Statistics on a quarterly basis. Current info: http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/oms-quarterly The most recent files: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/statistics/mojstats/omsq-q4/omsq-q4-2011-prison-population-tables.xls Previous info: http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/oms-quarterly/oms-quarterly-editions 2) Northern Ireland - It appears that there may be several editions of a Northern Ireland Office Research and Statistical Bulletin called something like "The Northern Ireland Prison Population" that may contain the data you seek. Search for "prison population" on http://www.nio.gov.uk/ 3) Scotland - The Scottish Prison Service has this info. If it is not on their web site (http://www.sps.gov.uk/home/home.aspx), ( http://www.sps.gov.uk/home/home.aspx ), presumably it could be requested as public information.

These may or may not meet your definition of a "simple dataset," but here are some online sources to check: 1) England and Wales - The Ministry of Justice publishes Offender Management Statistics on a quarterly basis. Current info: http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/oms-quarterly The most recent files: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/statistics/mojstats/omsq-q4/omsq-q4-2011-prison-population-tables.xls Previous info: http://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/prisons-and-probation/oms-quarterly/oms-quarterly-editions 2) Northern Ireland - It appears that there may be several editions of a Northern Ireland Office Research and Statistical Bulletin called something like "The Northern Ireland Prison Population" that may contain the data you seek. Search for "prison population" on http://www.nio.gov.uk/ 3) Scotland - The Scottish Prison Service has this info. If it is not on their web site (http://www.sps.gov.uk/home/home.aspx), presumably it could be requested as public information.