| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Prisons
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 9 June 2000, Official Report, column 394W, on prisons, if he will give details of the RESPOND programme including the training required and the amount of training undertaken to date; if he will give details of the targets set for training in this area; and if he will make a statement. [126558]
Mr. Boateng: The RESPOND programme is designed to promote racial equality for staff and prisoners, it consists of five main strategies:
- confronting harassment and discrimination;
- ensuring fairness in recruitment, appraisal, promotion and selection;
- developing and supporting minority ethnic staff;
- ensuring equal opportunities for minority ethnic prisoners; and
- recruiting minority ethnic staff.
To ensure fairness in recruitment, appraisal, promotion and selection the RESPOND programme highlights the need to review training for assessors and promotion board members. Assessors are provided with training at Job Simulation and Assessment Centres at every assessment event. This affords a unique opportunity to update any training they may have previously received. Training is mandatory for staff acting as promotion board members. Training for promotion board members has been reviewed. A new training course entitled Recruitment, Promotion and Selection Interviewing is being piloted. Delivery of the course and its content will be continually evaluated.
To ensure equal opportunities for minority ethnic prisoners, the RESPOND programme highlights the need to review the race relations training provided to Prison Officers including that contained in their basic training. The provision of local race relations training to all staff working in prisons is mandatory. As far as practicable, this training should be repeated every three years. In the period between the 1996-97 and 1998-99 financial years, there was a steady increase in the delivery of this training
19 Jun 2000 : Column: 94W
with 3,594, 4,157 and 5,617 staff trained in each year. A new local race relations training pack was launched earlier this year which will further encourage the delivery of this training. The Prison Service Order 2800 Race Relations was strengthened in February 2000 to require the Governing Governor or Deputy Governor to chair the Race Relations Management Team. To enable this, a training course is being provided in partnership with the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders. These courses will be completed in July 2000. A consultation phase has begun as part of a review of the basic training provided to Prison Officers with a view to introducing a new course. In the 1999-2000 financial year, 1,122 new Prison Officers undertook basic training. It is anticipated that during the 2000-01 financial year 1,400 new Prison Officers will require basic training.
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the date each report by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons was (a) received by the Home Office and (b) published, in each of the last two years; and if he will list those reports which are currently with his Department, but are yet to be published and the date they were received. [126557]
Mr. Boateng: The information is given in the table.
(23) Submitted prior to 13 June 1998 but published after that date
19 Jun 2000 : Column: 95W
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe) on 8 May 2000, Official Report, column 302-05W, on the number of prisoners in work, (a) if he will break down the work undertaken by the 162 prisoners at HMP Coldingley engaged in other occupations and the 215 prisoners engaged in prison maintenance work, (b) if there are further prisoners engaged in work at HMP Kirklevington and HMP Mount and (c) what the reasons are for the figure of 223 prisoners engaged in wing cleaning work at HMP Usk; and if he will make a statement. [126543]
Mr. Boateng: The breakdown of prisoner occupation for Coldingley is set out in the table. Other occupations include offending behaviour programmes, induction and community service.
19 Jun 2000 : Column: 96W
Kirklevington is a resettlement prison and in addition to the numbers of prisoners employed as shown in my reply to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and the Weald (Miss Widdecombe), on 8 May 2000, Official Report, columns 302-05W the remainder either attend college courses or are employed by companies outside the establishment.
At The Mount more up-to-date information shows an additional 40 prisoners employed in the categories shown in my reply to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and the Weald (Miss Widdecombe), on 8 May 2000, Official Report, columns 302-05W. The remainder are occupied on offending behaviour programmes, basic and key skills education and physical education courses.
The figures given for Usk in my reply to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and the Weald (Miss Widdecombe), on 8 May 2000, Official Report, columns 302-05W cover both Usk and Prescoed. There were 20 prisoners engaged on wing cleaning. The remaining 203 were engaged on craft work, education and offending behaviour programmes and should have been shown under "other occupations".
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Other occupations | 142 |
| Orderlies | 15 |
| Prison maintenance | 5 |
| Total | 162 |
| Non-Prison Enterprise Services workshops | 7 |
| Prison Enterprise Services workshops | 168 |
| Kitchen | 17 |
| Wing cleaners | 23 |
| Total | 215 |
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdecombe), on 8 May 2000, Official Report, column 305-07W, on prison workshops, for what reasons HMPs Kirklevington, Usk, Wayland and Weare were not included; and if he will make a statement. [126541]
Mr. Boateng: Kirklevington, Usk and Weare prisons were not included in the answer because there are no industrial workshops at these establishments.
The average length of the working week for Wayland prison is 16 hours.
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prisons, by prison category, which have received additional funding for special projects under funding made available through the Comprehensive Spending Review; if he will give details of the projects; and if he will make a statement. [126553]
Mr. Boateng: Details of prisons, by prison category which have received additional funding through the comprehensive spending review have been placed in the Library.
19 Jun 2000 : Column: 97W
The tables that have been placed in the Library show allocation of funding through the Comprehensive Spending Review for 1999-2000 and 2000-01 respectively.
Allocations for 1999-2000 are split into categories as follows:
- bail information schemes funding to improve prisoners' access to and quality of bail information;
- education funding to expand education provision to include delivery of accredited basic skills;
- offending behaviour programmes funding to increase the number of accredited offending behaviour programmes delivered;
- drugs--funding to implement the prison service Drug Strategy, to provide treatment for drug misusers and measures to reduce the supply of drugs into prisons;
- welfare to work--funding to develop schemes to improve offenders' access to employment; and
- juvenile estate--funding to provide a distinct under 18 estate, with a regime tailored to the population.
- Allocations for 2000-01 are split into allocations for 'drugs' and 'other'.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |