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Prisoners (Suicides)

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in each of the last five years, how many prisoners have committed suicide (a) at HMP Winchester and (b) in total; if he will list the dates of all suicides committed at HMP Winchester; and if he will make a statement. [1086]

Ms Joyce Quin: The number of self-inflicted deaths at Winchester prison and for the whole prison estate over the requested period is shown in the table. For Winchester, the individual coroners' verdicts were as follows:


The Prison Service is committed to doing everything possible to reduce the likelihood of suicides occurring and is continuing to research prevention strategies.

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Self-inflicted deaths in prison establishments: 1992-1997(1)

19921993199419951996(1)1997
Totals for the prison estate414762606421
HMP Winchester011022
Dates of deaths at HMP Winchester20 February31 July23 April16 May
3 May17 May

(1) 1997 total up to 21 May 1997.


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Prison Service Union

Mr. Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to give the Prison Service Union official recognition as a trade union. [3273]

Ms Joyce Quin: The Prison Service has no plans to give official recognition to the Prison Service Union at this time.

Mr. Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prisons at which members of the Prison Service Union work. [3272]

Ms Quin: The Prison Service does not formally recognise the Prison Service Union (PSU) and does not maintain membership records or details of the location of the union's members. However, it is understood that PSU membership is in the order of 1,200 in England and Wales, spread across more than 100 prison establishments.

Life Sentence Prisoners

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of (a) men and (b) women, who were serving a life prison sentence in prisons in England and Wales as of 1 June. [3203]

Ms Joyce Quin: The latest available provisional totals are for 30 April 1997. On that date, there were 3,523 male and 128 female life sentence prisoners in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales.

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Prisoners' Families

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what review his Department has undertaken of the impact of imprisonment on families of prisoners; and if he will make a statement. [3285]

Ms Joyce Quin: In keeping with Prison Rule 31, which provides that special attention shall be paid to the maintenance of such relationships between a prisoner and his family as are desirable in the best interests of both, the Prison Service keeps under continuous review the impact of imprisonment on prisoners and their families, in a number of fora. These include the Prison Service Family Ties Consultative Group which comprises representatives from a wide spectrum of interests, including penal reform and family ties support groups.

Ethnic Minorities

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to redirect section 11 funding towards needs led allocation. [3023]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) on 9 June, Official Report, column 330.

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money was allocated to local authorities under section 11 to assist language teaching in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [3024]

Mr. O'Brien: The table shows the amounts of grant paid to, or expected to be paid to, local authorities in relation to their expenditure within each of these years on projects which were entirely or principally concerned with

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teaching English as a second language in schools. Precise disaggregation of projects containing elements of other work concerned with raising educational achievement is not possible. The figures in the table do not include grant paid in relation to projects in further education colleges,

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which remained a local authority responsibility in 1992-93, or grant paid in respect of adult education projects across the period, on which information is not readily available.

16 Jun 1997 : Column: 7

Section 11 Grant: ESL funding for 1992-93 to 1996-97
ESL projects

LEA1992-931993-941994-951995-961996-97
Avon(3)738,902782,422560,462517,4690
Barking and Dagenham300,053285,412216,681245,269252,014
Barnet886,259888,470604,181739,744785,198
Bedfordshire2,728,9832,799,3112,095,7961,930,2911,977,989
Berkshire900,858917,565927,074811,214833,522
Bexley63,446161,686100,138110,848113,896
Birmingham5,211,7885,077,3723,475,2673,324,1253,415,538
Bolton716,582731,700558,616578,376594,282
Bradford4,891,8505,147,6203,758,4313,612,0263,707,284
Brent1,335,9901,456,5111,008,819970,869994,487
Bristol(3)0000539,235
Bromley00019,11822,671
Buckinghamshire1,223,9561,209,284884,750761,564884,119
Bury395,825464,258338,238300,468308,731
Calderdale990,2421,034,282724,005698,055658,291
Cambridgeshire1,137,4521,256,649943,296862,061885,768
Camden1,232,6391,364,312996,7061,231,7141,324,898
Cardiff(3)0000353,806
Cheshire90,74699,66473,68268,36970,249
Cleveland(3)459,449470,930340,541331,7990
Coventry2,192,0272,267,0781,843,1421,599,1231,616,104
Croydon956,3531,102,874779,056857,263913,168
Derbyshire(2)1,058,7391,406,4771,026,632944,8991,040,741
Devon15,59715,81611,94942,24959,573
Doncaster91,925125,71493,66586,24088,611
Dorset00015,52320,316
Dudley972,476990,148763,374656,613711,594
Durham96,533171,737119,090117,811121,051
Ealing2,515,4283,359,8692,502,3751,123,7771,149,605
East Sussex(2)171,546172,010132,752175,571188,022
Enfield932,1791,182,166881,6441,001,2091,067,566
Essex33,14334,86525,75524,25824,925
Gateshead17,13232,91822,73221,21121,536
Gloucestershire283,982271,120196,920201,468208,837
Greenwich1,381,5721,561,9351,185,583845,944869,207
Gwent(3)149,533268,583192,662221,4070
Hackney(2)3,612,4603,466,3122,978,0702,377,9592,289,531
Hammersmith and Fulham604,060582,028475,431369,128407,789
Hampshire674,973748,448558,367513,435527,554
Haringey1,695,8102,565,4562,113,3641,704,8351,751,367
Harrow682,275723,789550,753511,042528,968
Havering51,96050,63639,16935,87536,862
Hereford and Worcester204,565238,339175,235154,930160,021
Hertfordshire1,906,6451,980,3441,464,8101,340,1691,377,024
Hillingdon287,153297,310244,050203,954209,563
Hounslow1,556,8371,585,6881,157,1551,041,0801,069,711
Hull(3)000032,750
Humberside(3)309,419338,209244,893232,0110
Islington1,569,8291,593,7221,169,0141,199,5521,232,540
Kensington and Chelsea1,007,5521,051,241820,563714,954734,615
Kent956,6531,074,317882,988736,981757,248
Kingston99,962123,86195,80683,83886,143
Kirklees2,414,0752,725,9442,005,4541,912,3601,946,520
Lambeth(2)1,204,5081,237,070922,5831,001,1111,011,152
Lancashire4,603,6524,838,7113,651,1803,164,8663,328,182
Leeds772,3441,053,854869,678709,138728,639
Leicestershire3,252,1523,580,0652,353,0012,401,6752,480,992
Lewisham1,726,0231,825,6021,363,705951,038978,279
Lincolnshire55,23669,95861,31970,97272,924
Liverpool119,714139,807110,580113,917112,739
Manchester1,984,1332,094,6341,613,2781,490,7011,517,795
Merton(2)474,754643,576438,356490,188509,289
Middlesbrough(3)0000343,729
Newcastle304,618306,095208,403209,981215,756
Newham1,978,4221,877,1981,384,9441,320,2391,381,687
Newport(3)0000244,900
Norfolk(2)58,66265,19957,97844,966109,975
North Lincolnshire(3)0000178,098
North East Lincolnshire(3)000027,543
North Tyneside132,170139,766100,40995,87998,516
North Yorkshire58,15465,12349,31244,67545,903
Northamptonshire497,138473,678357,729324,943333,879
Nottinghamshire1,122,3341,157,276870,731793,892815,724
Oldham(2)1,955,6322,080,9631,512,6931,375,5091,424,141
Oxfordshire731,768747,107591,895425,844437,555
Redbridge1,075,2501,084,599819,143873,727926,098
Richmond56,08769,01449,86447,34348,645
Rochdale(2)1,280,0391,319,926962,488904,920929,805
Rotherham364,063384,180285,862305,061318,653
Salford62,11764,84447,49844,93045,695
Sandwell1,424,6811,522,1541,162,6531,044,1971,036,800
Sheffield1,070,4761,105,230519,908827,922857,194
Shropshire104,866114,21884,10487,16093,768
Somerset(2)00019,97040,201
South Glamorgan(3)445,116501,949376,219344,3370
South Tyneside00099,071101,795
Southwark1,651,1711,750,6831,356,049563,744610,385
St. Helens10,30718,97514,04314,57115,379
Staffordshire1,057,2891,105,331817,911654,603677,458
Stockport100,052103,26576,07970,83972,788
Suffolk268,621286,280214,077196,388201,788
Sunderland110,656115,82587,28479,45681,641
Surrey347,992360,270262,375247,145253,942
Sutton(2)35,68437,44727,81360,31273,755
Swansea(2)(3)0000250,937
Tameside479,674478,072359,057327,957336,976
Tower Hamlets6.141,9206,650,2644,764,2994,958,7965,095,163
Trafford257,277289,973215,001216,777251,797
Wakefield281,492348,796251,031210,797230,907
Walsall1,204,5221,262,720903,5191,078,0641,089,353
Waltham Forest1,355,7771,555,2591,165,3881,081,4701,107,825
Wandsworth1,637,7951,485,7191,374,497998,981991,955
Warwickshire852,412909,935672,836646,029663,795
West Glamorgan(3)000224,3040
West Sussex260,247280,628212,623192,511197,805
Westminster1,695,1441,774,6201,338,6001,252,2461,340,792
Wigan56,17060,07144,07855,80159,212
Wiltshire155,475160,301121,565109,967112,991
Wirral60,59295,39375,83900
Wolverhampton1,677,5451,746,8951,311,3541,063,0031,077,042
Total98,419,336105,694,91978,849,96772,111,98174,560,777

(2) Payments due to these authorities for the year on the basis of expenditure claimed. Some payments remain to be made.

(3) Subject to local government reorganisation in 1996.

1. Where an authority's allocation of grant covered both education and non-education projects, an estimate has been given, based on the proportion of expenditure on relevant projects.

2. Figures for 1996-97 reflect grant entitlement. Final payments will be made in 1997-98.


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16 Jun 1997 : Column: 9


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