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Prisoners' Activities

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are employed in prison workshops and other employment in total and in each category of prison; and if he will make a statement. [151209]

Mr. Boateng: The number of prisoners employed in the public sector in prison workshops is 9,527, and engaged in other employment is 16,139, totalling 25,666. The number of prisoners employed in the private sector in prison workshops is 1,041, and engaged in other employment is 1,686, totalling 2,727.

For public sector prisons the breakdown by category is:

Category	Numbers employed in industrial workshops	Numbers employed elsewhere
Category A	1,158	966
Category B	1,221	1,271
Category C	3,488	4,050
Category D	460	1,221
Female	372	2,266
Local	2,335	4,021
Young Offender Institution	493	2,344
Total	9,527	16,139

For private sector prisons the breakdown by category is:

Category	Numbers employed in industrial workshops	Numbers employed elsewhere
Category B	413	341
Local	628	1,280
Young Offender Institution	--	65
Total	1,041	1,686

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much time on average prisoners spent unlocked (a) per weekday and (b) per day per weekend, in (i) each category of prison and (ii) in the prison service as a whole in each year since 1995; and if he will make a statement. [151208]

Mr. Boateng: Time out of cell data, in hours, per weekday and per day per weekend for the years 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000 are set out in the tables.

1997-1998

Category	Weekdays	Weekends
Category B	10.4	9.5
Category C	11.9	11.2
Dispersal	9.7	9.4
Female closed	12.0	11.4
Female local	10.6	9.8
Female open	21.4	21.7
Male closed young offender	10.0	7.2
Male juvenile	13.5	13.0
Male local	8.7	7.6
Male open	18.2	17.7
Male open young offender	13.4	13.3
Male remand centre	9.5	8.1
Total	10.5	9.4

26 Feb 2001 : Column: 492W

1998-1999

Category	Weekdays	Weekends
Category B	10.7	9.2
Category C	11.8	11.1
Dispersal	9.7	9.0
Female closed	11.6	10.5
Female local	10.4	9.8
Female open	19.0	19.3
Male closed young offender	9.8	7.0
Male juvenile	13.1	12.6
Male local	9.1	7.7
Male open	17.8	17.5
Male open young offender	12.8	12.8
Male remand centre	8.9	6.2
Total	10.6	9.3

1999-2000

Category	Weekdays	Weekends
Category B	10.7	8.8
Category C	11.3	10.4
Dispersal	9.5	8.4
Female closed	11.2	10.4
Female local	10.8	9.9
Female open	18.5	18.9
Male closed young offender	9.3	6.8
Male juvenile	10.8	9.8
Male local	8.8	7.4
Male open	17.0	16.7
Male open young offender	12.7	12.7
Male remand centre	8.1	4.5
Total	10.2	8.8

Comparable data for 1995-96 and 1996-97 are not available.

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners work a full eight-hour day; and if he will make a statement. [151214]

Mr. Boateng: Prisoners undertake a range of purposeful activities including education, work, offending behaviour programmes, library and resettlement programmes. For many prisoners full-time employment would not be appropriate. Regimes must allow time for those who need it to complete offending behaviour or basic education programmes. Prison Service establishments record the number of hours of purposeful activity undertaken by prisoners. However, it is not possible to identify how many prisoners work a given number of hours.

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisons operate industrial workshops; how many prisoners are employed in such workshops; what the income and expenditure of each prison workshop is; and if he will make a statement. [151210]

Mr. Boateng: There are 106 industrial workshops in public sector prisons and six in private sector workshops. On 31 March 2000 there were 1,041 employed in public sector workshops and on 19 February 2001, there were 1,041 prisoners employed in private sector workshops. This is the most recent available data.

It is not possible to provide information on income and expenditure of each public sector prison workshop as it is not recorded centrally. It is not possible to provide information on income and expenditure in each private sector prison workshop, as it is commercial in confidence.

26 Feb 2001 : Column: 493W

Prison Population

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the prison population of England and Wales is; how many prisoners are (a) on remand and (b) serving sentences of one month or less; and if he will make a statement. [151177]

Mr. Boateng: Provisional information shows that on 31 January 2001, there was a prison population of 63,974. Of these prisoners, 10,952 were on remand and 1,158 were serving sentences of one month or less.

Assaults (Prisons)

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many assaults by prisoners on (a) staff, (b) prisoners and (c) other people took place in prisons and resulted in a positive disciplinary adjudication in (i) 1996-97, (ii) 1997-98, (iii) 1998-99, (iv) 1999-2000, and (v) the period since 1 April 2000; how many prisoners and what percentage of the average prison population during the relevant period this represented; and if he will make a statement. [151212]

Mr. Boateng: Data for positive assault adjudications for the years in question are set out in the table. Data since 1 April 2000 are provisional and subject to validation.

	Assaults on prisoners	Rate of assaults on prisoners (%)	Assaults on staff/others	Rate of assaults on staff/others (%)
1996-97	2,747	4.8	2,531	4.5
1997-98	3,004	4.8	2,857	4.6
1998-99	3,131	4.8	2,998	4.6
1999-2000	3,457	5.3	3,010	4.7
April 2000-- January 2000(67)	3,248	5.0	3,050	4.7

⁽⁶⁷⁾ Data since April 2000 are annualised.

The Prison Service does not collect data on assaults on staff and others separately. Data on assaults have been previously published in Her Majesty's Prison Service Corporate Plan 1999-2000 to 2001-02, Her Majesty's Prison Service Annual Reports and Accounts 1998-99 (HC 748) and Her Majesty's Prison Service Annual Reports and Accounts 1999-2000 (HC 622). Her Majesty's Prison Service Corporate Plan for 2001-02 to 2003-04 is available in the Library.

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many assaults by prisoners, expressed as a percentage of the average prison population, occurred on (a) staff (b) prisoners and (c) other people and resulted in positive disciplinary adjudication in (i) all prisons, (ii) local male prisons and (iii) young offender institutions in (A) 1996-97, (B) 1998-99 (C) 1999-2000 and (D) the period since April 2000; and if he will make a statement. [151213]

Mr. Boateng: Data for positive assault adjudications for the years in question are set out in the tables. Data since 1 April 2000 are provisional and subject to validation. The Prison Service does not collect data on assaults on staff and others separately. For completeness, the year 1997-98 is included.

26 Feb 2001 : Column: 494W

All prisons

	Assaults on prisoners	Rate of assaults on prisoners (%)	Assaults on staff/others	Rate of assaults on staff/others (%)
1996-97	2,747	4.8	2,531	4.5
1997-98	3,004	4.8	2,857	4.6
1998-99	3,131	4.8	2,998	4.6
1999-2000	3,457	5.3	3,010	4.7
April 2000-- January 2000(68)	3,248	5.0	3,050	4.7

⁽⁶⁸⁾ Data since April 2000 are annualised.

Male locals

	Assaults on prisoners	Rate of assaults on prisoners (%)	Assaults on staff/others	Rate of assaults on staff/others (%)
1996-97	764	3.8	1,150	5.7
1997-98	948	4.2	1,379	6.1
1998-99	1,064	3.9	1,474	5.4
1999-2000	1,070	4.0	1,378	5.1
April 2000-- January 2000(69)	902	3.5	1,188	4.6

⁽⁶⁹⁾ Data since April 2000 are annualised.

Young offender institutions

	Assaults on prisoners	Rate of assaults on prisoners (%)	Assaults on staff/others	Rate of assaults on staff/others (%)
1996-97	934	16.0	319	5.5
1997-98	1,297	23.7	529	9.7
1998-99	1,183	16.9	599	8.6
1999-2000	1,359	20.0	698	10.3
April 2000--January 2000(70)	1,604	20.9%	878	11.4%

⁽⁷⁰⁾ Data since April 2000 are annualised.

Note:

Young offender institutions include open, closed and juvenile establishments.

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