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Prison Service
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the results achieved by the Prison Service on each of its key performance indicators in each prison during 1998-99. [133697]
Mr. Boateng: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave him on 23 July 1999, Official Report, columns 732-36W.
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many new prisons are planned to be built over the next three years; and if he will make a statement. [133284]
Mr. Boateng: Two prisons funded in the 1997 Comprehensive Spending Review are currently under construction. Rye Hill, Rugby will provide 600 places and is scheduled to open in January 2001; Dovegate, Staffordshire will provide 800 places and is scheduled to open in July 2001. Invitations to negotiate have been issued for the procurement of two new prisons at Ashford, near Heathrow and Peterborough.
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of planned net expenditure on prisons in (a) 2000-01, (b) 2001-02, (c) 2002-03 and (d) 2003-04. [133405]
Mr. Straw: The planned net expenditure of the Prison Service in 2000-01 is £1,834 million. This net figure takes into account the allowable receipts including those received from the Youth Justice Board.
The additional funding provided as a result of the previous Comprehensive Spending Review in 1997 and recent 2000 Spending Review, increases the Prison Service's net funding to £2,104 million in 2001-02, £2,210 million in 2002-03 and £2,267 million in 2003-04. These figures take no account of the impact of receipts from the Youth Justice Board (YJB). In order to allow for comparison across the years, if the level of receipts from the YJB remained as they are, the Prison Service run of net planned expenditure would be
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£2,000 million/£2,106 million/£2,163 million. Net planned expenditure will not be finalised until the value of all allowable receipts, including those from the YJB, have been determined.
Reports
Mr. Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the reports submitted to his Department, by bodies that were created after May 1997 and that include significant and plural membership from outside the Civil Service, stating in each case the body writing the report, the date the report was submitted, how many recommendations were made, the number of those recommendations that have been implemented to date and the number of recommendations that have been rejected; and if he will make a statement. [133564]
Mr. Boateng: Information on task forces, ad hoc advisory groups and reviews was published by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Cabinet Office on 27 July 2000, and in the earlier answer on 11 January 2000, Official Report, column 134W. Information on specific recommendations from reports produced by these bodies is not held centrally. However, when such reports are published, copied are placed in the Library of the House.
Public Safety Radio Communications System
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the cost of the Public Safety Radio Communications System, and provide a breakdown of the way in which the costs of the system will be divided between his Department and the police; and if he will make a statement. [133287]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The overall cost of the Public Safety Radio Communication Service (PSRCS) is approximately £1.3 billion over the lifetime of the project. This is based on the Net Present Cost (ie today's value of a series of future payments) and is for the Private Finance Initiative element of the service. This is the equivalent of £2.3 billion in cash terms. In addition to the service tariffs, forces will pay for costs outside of the scope of the PSRCS contract to cover the purchase of control room terminals and their integration; and the purchase and replacement of radio terminals during the life of the PSRCS. An estimate of these costs is about £300 million over the whole PSRCS contract life.
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced on 19 July 2000, Official Report, columns 376-79, that the Government were making provision to meet the costs of PSRCS. This will amount to around £500 million over the three years of the Spending Review Settlement: the "Core" costs will be paid centrally by the Home Office, and the total provision should also be sufficient to cover expenditure by police forces on local service requirements ("menu costs") and installation and equipment costs.
This settlement will ensure that the police service has the latest and best technology without having to reduce manpower to fund it. It should meet all the concerns some forces have expressed about the system's affordability.
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National Confiscation Agency
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the start-up costs of the National Confiscation Agency; and if he will make a statement. [133286]
Mr. Boateng: Our current best estimate of the start up costs is £2.15 million.
Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the establishment and operation of the National Confiscation Agency. [132474]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The report by the Performance and Innovation Unit published on 14 June envisages the establishment of a National Confiscation Agency (NCA) with responsibility for bringing confiscation proceedings in criminal cases, initiating civil proceedings for forfeiture of criminal assets under new powers, and raising tax demands on suspect gains. The NCA will also operate a financial investigation centre of excellence, with responsibility for training and accrediting financial investigators in the criminal justice system. The director of the NCA will report to the Home Secretary and be responsible for drawing up an Asset Confiscation Strategy in consultation with other authorities in the criminal justice system. It is my intention to bring forward legislation at the earliest opportunity to implement the report's conclusions.
Police
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what was the cost of (a) one new police recruit and (b) one police officer, in (i) the Metropolitan Police and (ii) other forces in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement; [133282]
- (2) if he will break down the way in which the extra funding under the Comprehensive Spending Review for the police force will be allocated between police (a) pensions, (b) pay rises and (c) recruitment; and if he will make a statement. [133283]
Mr. Charles Clarke: In the time available it has not been possible to complete the answers to these questions. I shall write to the right hon. Member and place a copy of my reply in the Library.
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of police officers who will be serving in 2003-04; and if he will make a statement. [133285]
Mr. Charles Clarke: No reliable estimates can be made at this stage of the number of police officers who will be serving in 2003-04 as we do not have force projections for recruitment and wastage in that year.
The projections we have for future years were set out in my reply to the hon. Member for North Shropshire, (Mr. Paterson) on 24 July 2000, Official Report, columns 756-57W.
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what his estimate is of planned expenditure on the police in (a) 2000-01, (b) 2001-02, (c) 2002-03 and (d) 2003-04; [133404]
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- (2) what his estimate is of planned capital expenditure on the police in (a) 2000-01, (b) 2001-02, (c) 2002-03 and (d) 2003-04; [133395]
(3) what his estimate is of the total of his Department's (a) revenue and (b) capital grants to local authorities in respect of the police for (a) 2000-01, (b) 2001-02, (c) 2002-03 and (d) 2003-04; [133396]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Planned police expenditure, and its capital component, for the period 2000-01 to 2003-04, is given in the table:
| £ million | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Total planned police expenditure | Capital expenditure |
| 2000-01 | 7,718 | 198 |
| 2001-02 | 8,495 | 309 |
| 2002-03 | 9,010 | 401 |
| 2003-04 | 9,293 | 343 |
For the current financial year, police revenue grant to police authorities of £3,823 million is matched by police standard spending assessment (SSA) provision of £3,533 million. These sums exclude police special grant and the funds being provided to police forces under the crime fighting fund and for DNA. For police service capital expenditure, police capital grant of £91 million will be paid to police forces, accompanied by Supplementary credit approvals of £53 million.
Final figures showing the expenditure totals for 2001-02 to 2003-04 in terms of police grant, police SSA and police service capital funding will be announced at the time of the local government settlement in the autumn. However, the Spending Review 2000 White Paper did show police SSA figures for England for each of the next three financial years. These plans would deliver provisional police SSA figures (for England and Wales) for the years 2001-02 to 2003-04 of £3,842 million, £4,040 million and £4,204 million respectively although actual SSA provision may be adjusted to take account of expenditure on behalf of forces to be incurred centrally.
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