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House of Commons

Thursday 5 December 1996

The House met at half-past Two o'clock

PRAYERS

[Madam Speaker in the Chair]

Oral Answers to Questions

HOME DEPARTMENT

Young Offenders

1. Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the level of success in the rehabilitation of young offenders who receive a custodial sentence. [6148]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. David Maclean): In 1995, the Prison Service commissioned research to identify measures of behaviour and attitudinal change that could be used to assess the effectiveness of regimes to reduce reconviction. Those measures identified are now being tested at six establishments, and the results will be available early next year.

Mr. Sheerman: Will the Minister examine the results of that research and react to it positively and intelligently? Many hon. Members who are concerned about youth crime were disturbed by his reaction to the Audit Commission's recent study of that issue. That dismissal of a perceptive and intelligent review of the youth justice system and what it means for the average person in this country--particularly the victims of crime--did no one in the Government any credit.

Mr. Maclean: The hon. Gentleman misses the point entirely. He asked about the measures that we are taking in young offender institutions to ensure that young offenders are rehabilitated upon their release into the community. Of course we shall look carefully and intelligently at the excellent pilot projects taking place. All YOIs hold courses on anger management, cognitive skills, addressing offending behaviour and drugs courses. Much work is going on inside prisons for youngsters who have been sentenced by the courts. I was critical of aspects of the Audit Commission's report--particularly the Opposition's welcome for it--because it suggested alternative activities for youngsters which would mean that they would never get to court in the first place and never benefit from the courses that we are now evaluating.

Mr. Marlow: My right hon. Friend will know that there is widespread feeling in this country that corporal punishment would be more effective than a spell inside

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for many young people, who often leave prison more expert in the ways of crime than when they entered. What does my right hon. Friend think about that?

Mr. Maclean: I have no proposals to reintroduce corporal punishment to any prisons or corrective establishments--or indeed to the House.

Criminal Activity

2. Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the change in the levels of criminal activity in recent years. [6149]

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Michael Howard): Recorded crime levels in the 12 months to June 1996 were 10 per cent. lower than three years ago. That is a fall of more than half a million offences--the biggest continuous fall over three years since records were first kept in 1876. Crime is still far too high and there is much more to be done, but I congratulate the police on their considerable recent success.

Mr. Campbell-Savours: I thank the Home Secretary for those figures. I was handed a remarkable statistic this morning, which I ask him to confirm. Is it true that only one in 50 recorded crimes leads to a conviction? If so, does it not suggest a total breakdown of law and order in the United Kingdom?

Mr. Howard: If the hon. Gentleman is really interested in such matters, he should congratulate the police in Cumbria, who have a 40 per cent. record of clearing up crime. If he is really interested in improving those statistics, he will join us in reforms--such as changing the right to silence--which were opposed root and branch by the Opposition. Research on the effect of those changes shows that the number of suspects refusing to answer questions has almost halved. Will the hon. Gentleman support us in those changes?

Mr. Brazier: Will my right hon. and learned Friend confirm that the latest British crime survey--which is wholly independent of Government figures--showed the first drop in burglaries since figures were compiled? Does he further agree that we can assist the police in converting successful clear-ups into successful convictions by giving them greater powers? Will he confirm that changes to the right to silence and the granting of other powers through the national data bank have greatly enhanced the chances of the police converting crimes into convictions?

Mr. Howard: I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. He is absolutely right. We must ensure that everyone is totally aware of the extent to which the Opposition have voted against, blocked and obstructed those increases in powers. When we changed the right to silence, the right hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair), now Leader of the Opposition, described the change as "an injustice" when he opposed it and led his party into the Division Lobby against it time after time. That is the truth of the Opposition's attitude to the effective way of improving the powers of the police to deal with crime.

Mr. Hardy: After supervising the largest increase in crime in recorded history in the United Kingdom, is it not

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to be expected that a modest increase will have taken place, even though the vast majority of people in the country will not believe it? Does the Secretary of State not accept that the scale of crime that affects communities like mine is such that more than half the news content of local newspapers week after week is devoted to crime, which to a large extent is caused by the economic and social policies of the Government?

Mr. Howard: The last observation of the hon. Gentleman speaks volumes about the Opposition's attitude to crime. Crime, according to them, is caused not by criminals--those who break the law--but by economic and social conditions, which he attributes to the Government, overlooking the fact that, since the Conservatives have been in office, the average standard of living in this country, the average take-home pay of the average family, has increased by 40 per cent.

Mr. Congdon: Does my right hon. and learned Friend agree that, to reinforce the welcome downward trend in burglary, it is important to show burglars that crime does not pay? Does he agree therefore that it is important to ensure that burglars--particularly repeat burglars--are given custodial sentences, and of a sufficient length? Does he further agree that the public will very much welcome the proposals in his Crime (Sentences) Bill?

Mr. Howard: I entirely agree with the point that my hon. Friend makes. It is, of course, why we propose and provide for in the Crime (Sentences) Bill minimum, mandatory sentences for anyone convicted of a third burglary. The truth of the matter is that far too many career burglars regard a short spell in prison as nothing more than an occupational hazard. We have to change the terms of trade against career burglars. We have to ensure that they know what to expect if they continue their career in crime. That is what the provisions in the Crime (Sentences) Bill will achieve.

Prisons (Drug Abuse)

3. Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what new proposals he has to reduce illegal drug use in prison. [6150]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Tom Sackville): We are rapidly increasing the number of drug treatment programmes in prisons. We have introduced mandatory drug testing in every prison and are continuing to develop a battery of other measures to control the supply of drugs into prisons.

Mr. Flynn: Will the Minister, uniquely, listen to the question that I am about to ask and give me an answer based on the question, not on something that he prepared earlier?

Many of the commendable programmes that the Government are using to reduce the use of illegal drugs in prison depend on moving prisoners from the use of illegal drugs to the use of medicinal drugs. The Minister knows the damage caused by medicinal drugs. Ten times as many people are addicted to medicinal drugs than to illegal drugs, and more people die from methadone use than from heroin use. His Department refuses to give any

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figures on the use of medicinal drugs in prison. Is it not possible that people are being moved from an illegal non-addictive drug to a legal, addictive medicinal drug?

Will the Minister undertake to inquire into the use of medicinal drugs in prison and report to the House?

Mr. Sackville: There are 59 different drug programmes in prisons. They vary from those that use methadone right through to total abstinence programmes, such as the Rehabilitation of Addicted Prisoners Trust--RAPt--programmes, in Coldingley, Downview, Pentonville and Wandsworth, which use no medicinal drugs following detoxification. We are piloting various drug treatment programmes. The hon. Gentleman may have a preference for those that do not use substitutes, but we have to use all the treatments that exist in getting people off drugs, because there is no single answer to that problem.

Mr. Rathbone: Does my hon. Friend accept that, whatever admirable efforts are made to reduce the use of drugs in prisons, it is equally important to provide support services for prisoners who have given up drugs during their time in prison and have returned to the normal world outside? Will he encourage such steps?

Mr. Sackville: I agree with my hon. Friend. Programmes such as Phoenix house provide halfway houses, treatment and support for people coming out of prison. It is no use people succeeding in a drug-free wing, if they then go back to their communities and take drugs. My hon. Friend's point is well taken.

Mr. George Howarth: Will the Minister acknowledge that a mandatory drug test can detect cannabis after up to 28 days, whereas heroin and cocaine are held in the bloodstream for two to four days? There is a perverse incentive for people to take the latter drugs. Can he confirm that, between March and September, the number of positive tests for opiates increased by 27 per cent., which amounts to 3,500 people? Does he agree that we need more initiatives in the Prison Service, such as the one at Downview, to deal with these serious problems?

Mr. Sackville: I have been told that we should be conducting hair tests rather than urine tests for that reason. The best medical advice is that it is 10 days for cannabis and five days for opiates, but our figures do not show a switch from cannabis to opiates.

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