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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:

1993: open
1994: suicide
1996: 1 x open; 1 x suicide
1997: inquests still outstanding.

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

16 Jun 1997 : Column: 5

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

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	(1)1997
Totals for the prison estate	41	47	62	60	64	21
HMP Winchester	0	1	1	0	2	2
Dates of deaths at HMP Winchester		20 February	31 July		23 April	16 May
					3 May	17 May

(1) 1997 total up to 21 May 1997.

16 Jun 1997 : Column: 5

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.

16 Jun 1997 : Column: 6

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

16 Jun 1997 : Column: 7

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,

16 Jun 1997 : Column: 8

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 1996-97ESL projects

LEA	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97
Avon(3)	738,902	782,422	560,462	517,469	0
Barking and Dagenham	300,053	285,412	216,681	245,269	252,014
Barnet	886,259	888,470	604,181	739,744	785,198
Bedfordshire	2,728,983	2,799,311	2,095,796	1,930,291	1,977,989
Berkshire	900,858	917,565	927,074	811,214	833,522
Bexley	63,446	161,686	100,138	110,848	113,896
Birmingham	5,211,788	5,077,372	3,475,267	3,324,125	3,415,538
Bolton	716,582	731,700	558,616	578,376	594,282
Bradford	4,891,850	5,147,620	3,758,431	3,612,026	3,707,284
Brent	1,335,990	1,456,511	1,008,819	970,869	994,487
Bristol(3)	0	0	0	0	539,235
Bromley	0	0	0	19,118	22,671
Buckinghamshire	1,223,956	1,209,284	884,750	761,564	884,119
Bury	395,825	464,258	338,238	300,468	308,731
Calderdale	990,242	1,034,282	724,005	698,055	658,291
Cambridgeshire	1,137,452	1,256,649	943,296	862,061	885,768
Camden	1,232,639	1,364,312	996,706	1,231,714	1,324,898
Cardiff(3)	0	0	0	0	353,806
Cheshire	90,746	99,664	73,682	68,369	70,249
Cleveland(3)	459,449	470,930	340,541	331,799	0
Coventry	2,192,027	2,267,078	1,843,142	1,599,123	1,616,104
Croydon	956,353	1,102,874	779,056	857,263	913,168
Derbyshire(2)	1,058,739	1,406,477	1,026,632	944,899	1,040,741
Devon	15,597	15,816	11,949	42,249	59,573
Doncaster	91,925	125,714	93,665	86,240	88,611
Dorset	0	0	0	15,523	20,316
Dudley	972,476	990,148	763,374	656,613	711,594
Durham	96,533	171,737	119,090	117,811	121,051
Ealing	2,515,428	3,359,869	2,502,375	1,123,777	1,149,605
East Sussex(2)	171,546	172,010	132,752	175,571	188,022
Enfield	932,179	1,182,166	881,644	1,001,209	1,067,566
Essex	33,143	34,865	25,755	24,258	24,925
Gateshead	17,132	32,918	22,732	21,211	21,536
Gloucestershire	283,982	271,120	196,920	201,468	208,837
Greenwich	1,381,572	1,561,935	1,185,583	845,944	869,207
Gwent(3)	149,533	268,583	192,662	221,407	0
Hackney(2)	3,612,460	3,466,312	2,978,070	2,377,959	2,289,531
Hammersmith and Fulham	604,060	582,028	475,431	369,128	407,789
Hampshire	674,973	748,448	558,367	513,435	527,554
Haringey	1,695,810	2,565,456	2,113,364	1,704,835	1,751,367
Harrow	682,275	723,789	550,753	511,042	528,968
Havering	51,960	50,636	39,169	35,875	36,862
Hereford and Worcester	204,565	238,339	175,235	154,930	160,021
Hertfordshire	1,906,645	1,980,344	1,464,810	1,340,169	1,377,024
Hillingdon	287,153	297,310	244,050	203,954	209,563
Hounslow	1,556,837	1,585,688	1,157,155	1,041,080	1,069,711
Hull(3)	0	0	0	0	32,750
Humberside(3)	309,419	338,209	244,893	232,011	0
Islington	1,569,829	1,593,722	1,169,014	1,199,552	1,232,540
Kensington and Chelsea	1,007,552	1,051,241	820,563	714,954	734,615
Kent	956,653	1,074,317	882,988	736,981	757,248
Kingston	99,962	123,861	95,806	83,838	86,143
Kirklees	2,414,075	2,725,944	2,005,454	1,912,360	1,946,520
Lambeth(2)	1,204,508	1,237,070	922,583	1,001,111	1,011,152
Lancashire	4,603,652	4,838,711	3,651,180	3,164,866	3,328,182
Leeds	772,344	1,053,854	869,678	709,138	728,639
Leicestershire	3,252,152	3,580,065	2,353,001	2,401,675	2,480,992
Lewisham	1,726,023	1,825,602	1,363,705	951,038	978,279
Lincolnshire	55,236	69,958	61,319	70,972	72,924
Liverpool	119,714	139,807	110,580	113,917	112,739
Manchester	1,984,133	2,094,634	1,613,278	1,490,701	1,517,795
Merton(2)	474,754	643,576	438,356	490,188	509,289
Middlesbrough(3)	0	0	0	0	343,729
Newcastle	304,618	306,095	208,403	209,981	215,756
Newham	1,978,422	1,877,198	1,384,944	1,320,239	1,381,687
Newport(3)	0	0	0	0	244,900
Norfolk(2)	58,662	65,199	57,978	44,966	109,975
North Lincolnshire(3)	0	0	0	0	178,098
North East Lincolnshire(3)	0	0	0	0	27,543
North Tyneside	132,170	139,766	100,409	95,879	98,516
North Yorkshire	58,154	65,123	49,312	44,675	45,903
Northamptonshire	497,138	473,678	357,729	324,943	333,879
Nottinghamshire	1,122,334	1,157,276	870,731	793,892	815,724
Oldham(2)	1,955,632	2,080,963	1,512,693	1,375,509	1,424,141
Oxfordshire	731,768	747,107	591,895	425,844	437,555
Redbridge	1,075,250	1,084,599	819,143	873,727	926,098
Richmond	56,087	69,014	49,864	47,343	48,645
Rochdale(2)	1,280,039	1,319,926	962,488	904,920	929,805
Rotherham	364,063	384,180	285,862	305,061	318,653
Salford	62,117	64,844	47,498	44,930	45,695
Sandwell	1,424,681	1,522,154	1,162,653	1,044,197	1,036,800
Sheffield	1,070,476	1,105,230	519,908	827,922	857,194
Shropshire	104,866	114,218	84,104	87,160	93,768
Somerset(2)	0	0	0	19,970	40,201
South Glamorgan(3)	445,116	501,949	376,219	344,337	0
South Tyneside	0	0	0	99,071	101,795
Southwark	1,651,171	1,750,683	1,356,049	563,744	610,385
St. Helens	10,307	18,975	14,043	14,571	15,379
Staffordshire	1,057,289	1,105,331	817,911	654,603	677,458
Stockport	100,052	103,265	76,079	70,839	72,788
Suffolk	268,621	286,280	214,077	196,388	201,788
Sunderland	110,656	115,825	87,284	79,456	81,641
Surrey	347,992	360,270	262,375	247,145	253,942
Sutton(2)	35,684	37,447	27,813	60,312	73,755
Swansea(2)(3)	0	0	0	0	250,937
Tameside	479,674	478,072	359,057	327,957	336,976
Tower Hamlets	6.141,920	6,650,264	4,764,299	4,958,796	5,095,163
Trafford	257,277	289,973	215,001	216,777	251,797
Wakefield	281,492	348,796	251,031	210,797	230,907
Walsall	1,204,522	1,262,720	903,519	1,078,064	1,089,353
Waltham Forest	1,355,777	1,555,259	1,165,388	1,081,470	1,107,825
Wandsworth	1,637,795	1,485,719	1,374,497	998,981	991,955
Warwickshire	852,412	909,935	672,836	646,029	663,795
West Glamorgan(3)	0	0	0	224,304	0
West Sussex	260,247	280,628	212,623	192,511	197,805
Westminster	1,695,144	1,774,620	1,338,600	1,252,246	1,340,792
Wigan	56,170	60,071	44,078	55,801	59,212
Wiltshire	155,475	160,301	121,565	109,967	112,991
Wirral	60,592	95,393	75,839	0	0
Wolverhampton	1,677,545	1,746,895	1,311,354	1,063,003	1,077,042
Total	98,419,336	105,694,919	78,849,967	72,111,981	74,560,777

(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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