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South YorkshireSuffolk
Thames Valley
West Mercia
National Alliance of Women's Organisations
Ms Jowell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received about funding of the National Alliance of Women's Organisations ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : In the three months ended 31 January 1994 35 letters containing representations about the funding of the National Alliance of Women's Organisations were received in the Home Office. As I made clear on 2 February at column 703, in reply to a question from the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Ms Anderson), there are insufficient resources to fund this organisation in 1994-95.
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Firearms Permits
Mr. Ronnie Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many firearms permits there are currently in force in (a) Blyth Valley and (b) south Northumberland.
Mr. Charles Wardle : Information is not available on the number of firearm and shotgun certificates currently in force in Blyth valley and south Northumberland. I understand, though, from the Northumbria police that the number of firearm and shotgun certificates currently in force in the south-west and south-east Northumberland police districts is as follows :
District |Firearm |Shot gun |Total
|certificates|certificates
-------------------------------------------------------------------
South West
Northumberland |502 |1,269 |1,771
South East
Northumberland |533 |1,311 |1,844
Executive Agencies
Mr. McMaster : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the subjects on which his Department formerly answered parliamentary questions but which are now referred by him to an executive agency.
Mr. Howard : Next steps agency executives are usually asked to reply to parliamentary questions about the day-to-day operational matters of their agency and on subjects for which they have delegated responsibility, as set out in their agency's framework document.
DNA Fingerprints
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make it his policy that all reasonable steps are taken to destroy the DNA genetic fingerprints of those who have committed no crime ;
(2) what is his policy on whether personal data representing a DNA genetic fingerprint and which relate to individuals who are present at the scene of crime can be retained by the police indefinitely.
Mr. Charles Wardle : My right hon. and learned Friend's policy on the taking and use of DNA samples by the police mirrors as closely as possible the existing, tried and tested regime for the taking of fingerprints. At present fingerprints and samples must be destroyed if the person from whom they were taken is cleared or not proceeded against.
There are practical problems in the destruction of material generated in the processing of DNA profiles. These problems arise where the samples relating to one case are processed together to reduce experimental distortion ; and with computer records where total erasure may be impractical. It is also important to ensure that records remain intact for any subsequent inquiries into alleged miscarriages of justice.
The important principle is that information from unconvicted suspects should not be retained on the intelligence database and should not be used against them either in evidence or for the purposes of investigating offences. My right hon. and learned Friend has undertaken to introduce an amendment to clause 42 of the Criminal
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Justice and Public Order Bill to clarify the circumstances in which information derived from samples taken from unconvicted suspects should be able to be retained but protected from use in evidence or in the investigation of offences.Crime Detection
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what are the crime detection rates for each police authority in Wales and for Wales as a whole for each year since 1987 ; (2) what are the crime detection rates for the latest convenient period for each police authority in England and for England as a whole.
Mr. Maclean : The information requested is published in table 2.11 of "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales 1992", a copy of which is available in the Library.
Data Protection
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department why he commissioned a survey of data users' view of the European Commission's data protection directive separate from the independent and comprehensive survey of data users commissioned by the European Commission ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The European Commission has asked member states for their assessment of the costs of implementing the directive. It was necessary to seek data users' views in order to respond to this request.
Deputy Lords Lieutenant
Mr. Gordon Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the deputy lords lieutenant in England and their dates of appointment.
Mr. Charles Wardle : A comprehensive record of the names and dates of appointment of the 1,870 deputy lieutenants in England is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. I am having placed in the Library the addresses of the 46 lieutenancy offices in England, from which the information in respect of local deputy lieutenants may be obtained.
Juries
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures were introduced between July 1992 and June 1993 to allow juries to go home at the end of the working day.
Mr. Maclean : No such measures were introduced. It is already possible for a jury to separate up to the time at which it is directed to consider its verdict. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill will allow a court, where it thinks fit, to permit a jury to separate once the jury has begun its deliberations.
Deregulation
Mr. Hepple : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which organisations were consulted by his Department, on each of the recommendations of the business deregulation task forces before they were agreed and action proposed in the DTI document, "Deregulation : Cutting the Red Tape".
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Mr. Howard : Each of the task force recommendations agreed, or agreed in principle, by the Government has been or will be the subject of appropriate consultation with interested parties.
Ministers (Travel)
Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the (a) budgeted and (b) actual expenditure by his Department on (1) internal and (2) overseas travel by the Secretary of State since 27 May 1993.
Mr. Howard : These costs are met from a larger budget within which there is no specific allocation to individual Ministers. Information about the cost of internal travel by car is not readily available. The cost of my internal travel by other means is £1,793 since 27 May 1993. The cost of overseas travel for the same period is £3,553.
Deportation (Physical Restraints)
Mrs. Roche : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the use during deportations of (a) handcuffs, (b) arm restraints, (c) leg restraints, (d) bodybelts and (e) tape was authorised by his Department's guidelines prior to the joint Home Office/Metropolitan police review of deportations published on 12 January.
Mr. Charles Wardle : Arrangements were introduced in April 1993 requiring private security firms to seek prior authority from at least inspector level of the Immigration Service for the use of handcuffs, save in unforeseen emergencies where an essential need arises on safety or security grounds. Arrangements for obtaining authority at a more senior level for the exceptional use of leg restraints, the only other form of restraint which might be used by the private sector, were introduced following the events surrounding the death of Mrs. Joy Gardner.
The Home Office issued a circular of guidance in 1992 to all chief officers of police on the appropriate use of handcuffs following arrest. This would include cases in which a person has been arrested prior to deportation. The circular was prepared in close consultation with the Association of Chief Police Officers, self defence committee.
Public Bodies
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who are the members currently appointed to the Data Protection Tribunal.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The Data Protection Tribunal currently consists of :
Chairman
J. A. C. Spokes, QC
Deputy Chairman
Professor A. L. Diamond
Rear-Admiral J. H. T. Walters, CB
Members
Professor T. F. Carberry, OBE
Mr. A. B. Cowling
Mrs. K. Foss
Mr. J. Hanson, OBE
Professor W. W. Holland
Mr. B. Kelly
Mr. G. Lanchin
Mr. A. Lawrence
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Mr. P. E. LumbMr. P. R. Oglesby, CB
Sir Leonard Peach
Mr. D. L. Perrot
Mr. L. A. Plowman, CBE
Mr. A. W. Pragnell, CBE
Mr. J. C. Richards, MBE
Mr. J. M. Ross
Mr. V. Ross
Dr. M. Smith
Mr. E. H. Thomas
Mr. N. J. F. Watson
Professor G. J. Zellick
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who are the members currently appointed to the office of the Data Protection Registrar.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The Data Protection Registrar is Mr. Eric Howe, CBE.
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who are the members currently appointed to the Advisory Board on Restricted Patients.
Mr. Maclean : The current members are :
Her Honour Judge Valerie Pearlman, Chairman ;
Mrs. Lindsey Addyman, JP ;
Mr. Malcom Bryant (Chief Probation Officer, Berkshire) ; Dr. Derek Chiswick (Consultant Forensic Science Psychiatrist, Royal Edinburgh Hospital) ;
Dr. James Higgins (Consultant Forensic Science Psychiatrist, Scott Clinic, Liverpool) ;
Commander Sally Hubbard (Assistant Inspector of Constabulary) ; Mr. Michael Lindsey (Deputy Director of Social Services, Shrosphire) ;
Ms Rosy Mannion (Solicitor)
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who are the members currently appointed to all boards of visitors to penal establishments.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : I am arranging for details of the current membership of the board of visitors for each prison establishment in England and Wales to be placed in the Library.
Psychotherapy (Offenders)
Mr. Maclennan : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what funding his Department provides for psychotherapy of offenders and ex-offenders (a) whilst in custody and (b) after release ;
(2) what is (a) the average cost and (b) the average length of a course of psychotherapy for offenders ;
(3) how many persons (a) in prison and (b) on probation have been given courses of psychotherapy in each of the last five years ; (4) what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of psychotherapy of offenders in reducing reoffending behaviour.
Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 4 February 1994] : Responsibility for these matters has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Robert Maclennan dated 8 February 1994 :
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about the provision of psychotherapy for offenders and ex-offenders.
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All psychotherapy rests on the assumption that problems with an origin in earlier damaging experiences are capable of correction through a new and different personal relationship with a trained therapist. There are various styles of such treatment including individual psychotherapy and group psychotherapy.In the Prison Service group psychotherapy is employed at HM Prisons Grendon and Wormwood Scrubs, and HM Young Offender Insititution Glen Parva. At HMP Grendon research undertaken by Gunn and Robertson (A Ten Year Follow-up of Men Discharged from Grendon Prison) and Genders and Player (Grendon A Study of a Therapeutic Community within the Prison System) confirms that attitudinal changes to take place in inmates undergoing therapy. For example, Genders and Player claimed that within six months, 71 had abandoned the conventional inmate pecking order, 68 could talk to prison officers about personal matters, and that after 12 months 60 were able to disclose if illicit activities were taking place. All felt less isolated and less directed. In addition prisoners had an insight into their own problems and a greater understanding of others.
Nevertheless until recently there has been no evidence of a reduction of recidivism by prisoners released from Grendon, although there was evidence that those who reoffend committed offences of a lesser order. However, research yet unpublished (Cullen 1992) indicates that prisoners released from Grendon over the last five years have in fact reoffended proportionally less often then the prison population as a whole. Similarly a study by Jones in 1988 (The hospital annexe : a preliminary evaluation report) at the Wormwood Scrubs annexe showed that those completing the course of therapy had a reconviction rate significantly lower than those who had failed to complete the treatment.
A combination of group psychotherapy and individual psychotherapy has been employed at the C Wing Special Unit at HM Prison Parkhurst for the last two years. Whilst this work has not yet been formally evaluated there has no doubt been a significant change in the attitude in many of the men undergoing therapy, exemplified by their willingness to come to terms with past traumas and to diplay a greater degree of self-confidence.
Psychotherapy is also carried out in establishments on an individual basis by visiting consultant psychiatrists. However, because of the constraints of doctor/patient confidentiality, it is impossible to ascertain what proportion of such sessions could be considered psychotherapeutic ; although it is likely that all such sessions will contain some element of this type of treatment. The treatment of sex offenders within the Prison Service falls into two broad categories, medical or educational, depending on whether treatment consists of a form of psychotherapy or is based on a cognitive behaviour approach. For the former, facilities exist in Her Majesty's Prison Grendon and the Wormwood Scrubs Annexe, where therapy is conducted through group and one to one sessions involving psychiatrists, psychologists, and other special staff ; and at HMYOI Glen Parva which provides similar programmes for young offenders. Therapy or treatment is also provided at many establishments on an individual basis according to the clinical needs of the prisoners. The second category of treatment is being facilitated by the Prison Service sex offender programme which was introduced in 1992 and targeted initially at prisoners who receive sentences of four years or more. The programme, which is educational rather than medical in character is divided into two main sub-programmes.
A core programme, which tackles offenders distorted beliefs about relationships ;
and
an extended programme for those who represent the greatest risk. At present there are seven prisons acting as assessment centres, 13 providing core programmes and seven providing extended programmes. In addition, two establishments offer concentrated core programmes for high risk inmates serving less than four years.
In 1992-93 there were 16,737 prisoners referred to visiting consultant psychiatrists, compared with 17,583 in 1991-92 and 13,396 in 1990-91.
I regret that the exact number who have undergone psychotherapy, the cost of such treatment and that proportion of the psychiatric budget apportioned to psychotherapy is not collected centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
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Fraud
Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many employees were judged to be guilty of fraud in his Department in each year since 1989 ; and how many were dismissed.
Mr. Howard [pursuant to his reply, 2 February, c. 713] : The Director General of the Prison Service has now written to the hon. Member.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Menzies Campbell, dated 8 February 1994 :
Further to your recent Parliamentary Question, the Home Secretary has asked me to give you details of those members of Prison Service staff judged guilty of fraud in each year since 1989, and the numbers of those who have been dismissed.
The information is as follows :
1989--One member of staff convicted and dismissed.
1990--One member of staff convicted and dismissed.
1991--None.
1992--Two members of staff convicted : one resigned, one dismissed.
1993--Two members of staff convicted and dismissed.
1994--One member of staff convicted : still under consideration.
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