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Prisoners (Employment)
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were (a) employed in prison workshops and (b) in other employment, expressed as a percentage of the prison population, in each year from 1995 to present; and if he will make a statement. [153608]
Mr. Boateng: The table sets out the number of prisoners employed in prison workshops, expressed as a percentage of the average prison population for the year from 1995 to the most recently available data.
Statistics on the numbers of prisoners in other employment for the period requested are not readily available in the Prison Service. However, information produced in May 2000 on the number of prisoners employed outside workshops in adult male training prisons, showed a total of 8,205 prisoners were employed on work activities such as kitchens, gardens, agricultural business, prison maintenance and cleaning.
| Year | Number of Prisoners Employed in Workshops | As a percentage of Average Annual Prison Population |
|---|---|---|
| 1995-96 | 8,844 | 17.14 |
| 1996-97 | 7,601 | 13.41 |
| 1997-98 | 7,615 | 12.16 |
| 1998-99 | 9,699 | 14.94 |
| 1999- 2000 | 9,527 | 14.70 |
Prisoner Treatment Programmes
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners completed
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(a) an offending behaviour programme and (b) a sex offenders treatment programme in each year since 1996 to present; and if he will make a statement. [153605]
Mr. Boateng: The number of prisoners completing an offender behaviour programme can be found in the table.
| Year | Number of accredited offending behaviour programme completions in the Prison Service |
|---|---|
| 1996-97 | 1,373 |
| 1997-98 | 2,240 |
| 1998-99 | 3,132 |
| 1999-2000 | 4,669 |
| 1 April 2000 to 31 January 2001(9) | 4,034 |
(9) The most recent date for which statistics are available
The number of prisoners completing a Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) can be found in the table.
| Year | Number of accredited SOTP completions in the Prison Service |
|---|---|
| 1996-97 | 663 |
| 1997-98 | 671 |
| 1998-99 | 456 |
| 1999-2000 | 588 |
| 1 April 2000 to 31 January 2001(10) | 332 |
(10) The most recent date for which statistics are available
The figures for 1996 to 2000 do not represent the gross number of offending behaviour completions by the Prison Service during those years. Each establishment is audited annually on the quality of programme delivery and their number of completions adjusted in line with the score that they are awarded. However, the figures for completions during the present financial year have not yet been adjusted in this way.
Prison Televisions
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his policy on the availability of televisions in prisoners' cells. [152878]
Mr. Boateng: Access to in-cell television is an earnable and forfeitable privilege within the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme, which is intended to motivate prisoners to good behaviour, and to participate in work and constructive activity. Where the technology is available, in-cell television is being used increasingly to provide information to prisoners on developments within the prison, including education courses, visits times, work availability and canteen facilities.
Prisoners with in-cell television pay a weekly charge of £1 per set, and the scheme is broadly self-financing, with the costs of televisions and their replacements, warranties and wall brackets being met from the charge on prisoners.
Prisoner Restraint
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions in 2001 prison inmates, taken to hospital for medical treatment, have been shackled while in hospital; and if he will make a statement. [152817]
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Mr. Boateng: No central records are maintained of the number of prisoners taken to hospital for medical treatment or the number of those who are held under restraint, and the information requested can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The application of restraints to prisoners at hospital is determined by a risk assessment but restraints are not applied to women attending for antenatal treatment or to give birth. Once applied, restraints may be removed subject to a risk assessment, and will be removed where a healthcare professional seeks their removal because of an immediate risk to the health of the prisoner, or because the prisoner is in pain or discomfort, or because the restraints are impeding essential treatment.
Prisoners (Ethnic Breakdown)
Mr. Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the ethnic breakdown is of inmates in (a) Strangeways Prison and (b) UK prisons. [153228]
Mr. Boateng: The figures for all prisons in England and Wales and for Manchester prison (Strangeways) as at 31 January 2001, are provisionally recorded as follows:
| Ethnicity | All prisons | Manchester prison |
|---|---|---|
| Asian | ||
| Bangladeshi | 196 | 0 |
| Indian | 641 | 4 |
| Other | 1,099 | 17 |
| Pakistani | 1,038 | 15 |
| Black | ||
| African | 1,393 | 19 |
| Caribbean | 4,989 | 24 |
| Other | 2,165 | 72 |
| Chinese | 115 | 0 |
| Not known | 46 | 0 |
| Other | 1,447 | 4 |
| White | 50,845 | 908 |
| Total | 63,974 | 1,063 |
Prison Service Programmes
Mr. Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the Prison Service programmes RESPOND and RESPECT, and on plans for similar programmes in the Police Service. [153463]
Mr. Boateng: The Prison Service RESPOND (Race Equality for Staff and Prisoners) programme unveiled in February 1999, consists of five main strategies:
- Confronting racial harassment and discrimination.
- Ensuring fairness in recruitment, promotion, appraisal and selection.
- Developing and supporting minority ethnic staff.
- Ensuring equal opportunities for minority ethnic prisoners.
- Recruiting minority ethnic staff.
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A key element of the RESPOND programme is the development of RESPECT (Racial Equality for Staff), a national minority ethnic staff support network aiming to eliminate racism in the workplace. Around 1,500 delegates attended the launch of RESPECT in January 2001 at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham.
RESPECT is able to provide support to minority ethnic staff who claim to suffer from racial harassment or discrimination. A free-phone support-line will be operational from Monday, 2 April 2001. Specially trained volunteers will offer the alleged victim a sympathetic ear and help them to identify courses of action available to them. RESPECT complements the help and support that is available through existing channels such as Prison Service Staff Care and Welfare Services, and trade unions and staff associations. RESPECT has around 900 members.
The Home Secretary's Action Plan, published in response to the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, sets out a comprehensive programme to improve community and race relations. The 70 recommendations are wide-ranging, and those which apply to the police are concerned with tackling discrimination both internally within the service and as a service provider. On 22 February the Home Secretary published the Second Annual Report on Progress against the Action Plan. The Action Plan contains elements common to the RESPECT and RESPOND programmes in the Prison Service, such as targets on the recruitment, retention and progression of minority ethnic police officers and a programme of racism awareness training within police services to be delivered to all front-line staff by the end of 2002.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason the Local Government Finance (England) Special Grant report (No. 73) has been withdrawn. [152959]
Mrs. Roche: Local Government Finance (England) Special Grant Report (No. 73) contained a technical error and has therefore been withdrawn.
The report has been corrected and is being reprinted. It will be resubmitted as Local Government Finance (England) Special Grant Report (No. 77), for consideration by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments on 13 March 2001.
Cyclists
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cyclists were fined for riding a bicycle without lights in the UK in 2000. [152814]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Statistics for 2000 are not yet available, but the available information from the Home Office Court Proceedings database shows that there were 332 persons fined in England and Wales in 1999 for lighting and reflector offences connected with pedal cycles (Road Traffic Act 1988, section 81(2) and RVL Regs 1989).
Information relating to Scotland and Northern Ireland are matters for Ministers in the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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