You asked

I would like to know how the nature of the offences that caused inmates to be sent to Wandsworth Prison changed between 1851 and 2016. Ideally, I would also like similar data for 1900.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We do not hold any data on offenders and therefore cannot provide information on the nature of offences committed by inmates held in HMP Wandsworth over time. Prison and probation statistics are published by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), who release offender management statistics on a quarterly basis. Alongside their latest release: Offender Management statistics quarterly: July to September 2016, a Prison population data tool was published, where you can filter on establishment and offence group to view the prison population of Wandsworth by offence, for that time period. However, this tool does not seem to be available for quarters prior to January to March 2016 and does not contain data on trends in the prison population over time.

In July 2016, the MOJ published a summary of the Story of the Prison Population 1993 to 2016, which summarises how the prison population changed over time, but this does not include any breakdowns by establishment. You may wish to contact the Ministry of Justice for more information at statistics.enquiries@justice.gsi.gov.uk.