The Muslim share of the prison population in England and Wales has reached about 18 per cent, against 6.5 per cent of the general population, Ministry of Justice figures have shown.
The number of Muslim prisoners rose from 14,037 in 2022 to 16,051 as of June 30, 2025. The data was released in a written parliamentary answer to shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy.
One in five of those prisoners is white. The figure stood at 3,218 in June 2025, up from 2,767 in 2022, a rise of 16 per cent.
Timothy, who published the figures on August 25, 2026, said the share of Muslim prisoners who are white was far above the 5.8 per cent recorded among Muslims in the wider population. He said Labour must “urgently investigate and stamp out forced conversions in prison”.
The data records only the declared religion and ethnicity of serving prisoners. It does not show when an individual adopted Islam, whether the conversion took place in custody or whether any pressure was applied.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the department did not tolerate “intimidation, gang activity or faith-based coercion” in prisons. He said staff acted swiftly against threatening behaviour by any group or individual.
Successive government-commissioned reviews have raised concerns about religious coercion in jails. A 2016 review for then justice secretary Michael Gove identified aggressive encouragement of conversion to Islam as a feature of Islamist activity in high-security prisons.
Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, later reported the recruitment of isolated inmates through gifts and support, alongside conversion backed by implicit or actual violence. A separate 2023 review by government adviser Colin Bloom found that prisoners who declined to identify as Muslim could be denied protection from the dominant gang on their wing.
Ian Acheson, who led the 2016 review, has argued that many conversions are a “pragmatic response” to who controls space and power inside prisons. He said Islam in that setting had taken on the characteristics of a gang.
The dispute has surfaced as the Ministry of Justice continues a legal fight to block publication of criminal conviction data broken down by nationality. Justice secretary Alex Norris has left in place an appeal lodged by his predecessor against a disclosure order from the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Immigration and crime have moved to the centre of British politics since Andy Burnham replaced Keir Starmer as Prime Minister on July 20, 2026. Foreign nationals account for roughly one in eight prisoners in England and Wales.
