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Hare Coursing
Mr. Fearn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will assess the advantages of outlawing hare coursing. [4021]
Mr. George Howarth:
The Government are committed to allowing a free vote on whether there should be a ban on hunting with hounds. A Private Member's Bill to ban hunting with dogs is now before the House.
19 Jun 1997 : Column: 249
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what plans he has to fund CCTV in 1997-98; [4277]
Mr. Michael:
Round three of the closed circuit television (CCTV) Challenge Competition provided £15 million for CCTV in the current financial year (1997-98). This money has already been allocated. A decision on 1998-99 will be made later in the summer.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will indicate the number of salaries of his Department's special advisers falling within the range of (a) £24,349-£29,999, (b) £30,000-34,999, (c) £35,000-£39,999, (d) £40,000-£44,999, (e) £45,000-£49,999, (f) £50,000-£54,999, (g) £55,000-£59,999, (h) £60,000-£64,999, (i) £65,000-69,999 and (j) £70,000-£73,484. [4555]
Mr. Straw:
Consistent with the practice of previous administrations and to protect the privacy of individuals, only aggregate information on the salaries of special advisers will be published.
Once all salaries have been agreed, the number of advisers paid in each of the appropriate £10,000 bands will be published.
Mr. Patrick Hall:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what conclusions he has reached about future private sector involvement in the Prison Service.[5060]
Mr. Straw:
The Government have expressed reservations about the principle of contracting out the management of prisons. It is generally accepted that responsibility for the incarceration of offenders must remain with the state. The issue is whether that responsibility should, as a matter of principle, be discharged through direct management in the public sector or whether it can properly and effectively be discharged under a regulatory framework. This was addressed in the recent report on prison management by the Home Affairs Select Committee; and the Government now wish to give further and careful consideration to the arguments deployed in that report before settling their overall approach to this issue.
Existing management contracts will be honoured, as I have already made clear. But we are considering ways in which the current regulatory framework might be strengthened. At present, all disciplinary hearings in contractually managed prisons are conducted by a state official--the Controller, a Prison Service governor, who also monitors the performance of the contractor on behalf of the responsible Prison Service Area Manager. This is an important principle from which we will not depart; and we are currently reviewing the scope for extending the Controller's powers in respect of prisoners' requests and complaints, sentence calculation, scrutiny of security classifications and frequency of security audits.
19 Jun 1997 : Column: 250
On the letting of new contracts and the renewal of existing contracts, our immediate approach is necessarily determined by current expenditure plans, to which we are committed, and by operational requirements.
We have inherited a prison population rising sharply, (well above projections) with expenditure provision for new prisons limited to establishments to be designed, constructed, managed and financed by the private sector. Even with the new prison ship, Her Majesty's Prison Weare, there is huge pressure on capacity. We have therefore decided to proceed with existing procurement plans to provide additional new places on this basis by 1999-2000. This is an urgent operational requirement to overcome projected shortfalls in accommodation and to avoid dangerous levels of overcrowding and the use of police cells. We will shortly be launching competitions to provide an 800 place Category B local prison at Agecroft, Salford, and a 400 place Young Offender Institution at Pucklechurch, near Bristol.
I have also authorised the renewal of the contract for the operation of Her Majesty's Prison Blakenhurst with the private sector operator, United Kingdom Detention Services. The existing contract expires on 25 May 1998; and we are required to give the operator one year's notice of a decision to renew the contract. The prison has been performing well against the current contract requirements and in comparison with comparable prisons in the public sector; and I am satisfied that the terms that have been negotiated for renewal of the contract offer value for money. The establishment could not be returned to public sector control without incurring additional expenditure, which would require offsetting savings elsewhere; and in the light of the current budgetary pressures on the Prison Service and pending our consideration of the Select Committee report, I am persuaded that no other course of action could be justified in current circumstances. However, in order to ensure that future options are kept as open as possible while our overall policy is under review, I have decided to renew the contract for 3 years only, the minimum practical--and contractually permissible--period.
Moreover, before further decisions are made on prison procurement beyond the extra places within existing plans or on the renewal of any other existing contracts, I have asked the Prison Service to:
19 Jun 1997 : Column: 251
Ms Gisela Stuart:
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what is his policy on the televising of cricket test matches on terrestrial television channels. [3980]
Mr. Fisher:
Test matches involving England are among the events listed under the Broadcasting Act 1996. Rights for live television coverage of these events must be made available to broadcasters offering a generally available free to air service: currently the BBC and Channels 3 and 4. The provisions do not apply retrospectively, and consequently only contracts agreed after the Act came into force are affected. I announced in the House on 19 May that the Government was initiating a review of this list of events and the work is under way in my Department. The review will include a consultation with all interested parties.
Mr. Tom King:
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time persons employed by his Department and its agencies are paid (i) less than £4 an hour, (ii) less than £3.50 an hour and (iii) less than £3 an hour. [4200]
Mr. Tom Clarke:
No full-time or part-time member of staff in the Department of National Heritage is paid less than £4 an hour.
Mr. Coaker:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate she has made of the number of (a) people and (b) children under five dying each day in the developing world from (i) inadequate sanitation, (ii) lack of clean water, (iii) starvation and (iv) war. [3806]
Clare Short:
DFID makes no such global estimates. However, I have approached the United Nations, who collect some of this data on a country by country basis, and will write to my hon. Friend when I have their response.
19 Jun 1997 : Column: 252
Mr. Kenneth Clarke:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if she will make a statement on the precise criteria which the Low Pay Commission will apply in making their recommendation on the optimum level of statutory minimum pay. [4053]
Mr. Ian McCartney:
The independent Low Pay Commission will recommend to Government the level at which the National Minimum Wage might be introduced having undertaken a wide-ranging consultation with employers, including small businesses, employees, the general public and other interested parties and taking into account relevant economic circumstances prevailing at the time.
(2) when new bids for CCTV will be considered.[4279]
(a) explore all possible methods of using private finance on terms which offer value for money including design, build and maintain new prisons with the public sector providing custodial services; and
(b) seek to demonstrate that the public sector Prison Service has the capacity to match the performance of the private sector in comparable prisons, and that realistic plans can be developed to establish a case for returning contractually managed prisons to the public sector on value for money grounds when consideration is given to the issue on the expiry of contracts. I have asked senior Prison Service managers to engage in consultations with the Prison Service unions to this end.
Proposals for private sector area involvement in other areas of the Prison Service, which do not raise the same issues of principle, will be treated on their merits. I have authorised the extension of the contract with Group 4 to operate the court escort and custody service in Area 7. This is essentially a specialist service, distinguishable from the management of prisons; and I am satisfied both with the quality of the service being provided and with the terms negotiated for extension of the contract.
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