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An estimated 219,000 children in England and Wales had a parent in prison between October 2023 and October 2024, according to revised figures published by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
Entitled ‘Updated Estimates of Children with a Parent in Prison: A publication providing revised estimates of children with a parent in prison for the annual period October 2023 to October 2024 for England and Wales', the updated estimate, published on 10 September 2026, represents around 2% of school-aged children and is an increase on the previous estimate of 192,000 children for the 12-month period from October 2021 to October 2022.
The MoJ said improvements to its methodology had enabled it to produce a more robust and reliable estimate. The latest figures are based on linked data from His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), including Child Benefit records.
Unlike the previous methodology, which identified prisoners with parental status and applied an average multiplier of 1.77 children per prisoner, the revised approach directly identifies and counts children with a parent in prison from the available data. The MoJ said this provided a more accurate estimate by avoiding reliance on an assumed average number of children per prisoner.
The figures nevertheless remain subject to assumptions, including an adjustment for undercount. The MoJ also said the increase is expected to partly reflect growth in the prison population between 2021 and 2024.
The vulnerability of children affected by parental imprisonment is highlighted by the finding that at least 53% of identified children were considered to be at risk of harm from the imprisoned parent.
The MoJ said identifying children affected by parental imprisonment and making an early offer of family support were important to preventing harm. However, only 48% of identified children had an associated address in MoJ records or linked HMRC Child Benefit data. The department cautioned that an address associated with a parent cannot be assumed to be the address where the child lives.
Among children for whom address information was available, many local authorities with higher proportions of children with a parent in prison were in northern urban areas and coastal towns. The MoJ described these findings as indicative and said they should be treated with caution because addresses were not available for all identified children. It noted that similar geographical patterns had also been identified by the Children’s Commissioner.
The report suggests deprivation may partly contribute to the geographical pattern, but says the reasons are likely to be complex and require further investigation.
The data also shows that around 32% of identified children were recorded on prison visitor lists. There was a difference between children visiting female prisoners, at 31%, and those visiting male prisoners, at 50%. The MoJ said there could be several explanations, including distance to prisons, family circumstances and care arrangements.
The findings are particularly relevant to children’s social care and family-law practitioners because the MoJ’s ability to identify children affected by parental imprisonment remains linked to the availability of address information. Without this information, the department said, details cannot be passed to local authorities to enable them to identify and support affected children.
The Government has committed to identifying children affected by parental imprisonment and providing support. The MoJ is currently running pilots with local authorities to test the operational recognition and support of children with a parent in prison.
The department said future work could include further data linkage, improved extraction of information from free-text records and better data collection, with the longer-term aim of enabling all children affected by parental imprisonment to be identified and offered support.
A related publication has also been released providing descriptive statistics on a Welsh cohort of children affected by parental imprisonment and the characteristics of the families involved.
To read the publication in full, click here.
