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Crimestoppers Trust

Mr. Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a grant to the Crimestoppers Trust; and if he will make a statement. [135098]

Mr. Charles Clarke: For 2000-01 the Home Office made a grant of £90,000 to Crimestoppers for their administration costs. I have also agreed to fund an evaluation of the effectiveness of Crimestoppers' work in London.

31 Oct 2000 : Column: 446W

Police Officers (Medical Retirement)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers subject to disciplinary proceedings have retired on medical grounds in each of the last three years. [134541]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Prison Education Funding

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on proposed changes to the funding of prison education; if it is his policy to devolve funding to the Department of Education and Employment; if it is his policy to ring-fence prison education funding (a) overall and (b) in each individual prison budget; and what the proposed time-scale is for the changes. [134676]

Mr. Boateng: A joint Prison Service and Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) partnership will be established to build on the policy framework for prison education. The plan is for funding for prison education to be transferred to DfEE from April 2001. It will be ring-fenced but detailed arrangements have yet to be finalised.

Accountability for management control and responsibility for delivery will remain with the Director General of the Prison Service. It is envisaged that close working between the Prison Service and DfEE will be beneficial for prisoners.

There will be a joint Ministerial announcement early in 2001 which will set out the details of the partnership and funding arrangements.

Practising Freemasons

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to introduce restrictions upon practising freemasons in (a) the police, (b) the judiciary and (c) his Department. [135916]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The Government have introduced voluntary registration of freemasonry membership in the judiciary and magistracy, the Crown Prosecution Service, the police service, and the prison and probation services. As the response rate to the voluntary registration scheme in the police service was too low to meet the Government's aim of having reasonable public transparency in this area, I am consulting the police service about how a more acceptable response rate can be achieved.

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