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Wide Loads (Police Escorts)
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was to the Metropolitan police of escorting wide loads in each year since 1997. [6283]
Mr. Denham: Information on the distances travelled by the police escorting wide loads and on the time spent by officers in escort duties is not collected centrally or by the Metropolitan police. It is not possible, therefore, to calculate the costs of this to the Metropolitan police. The available information relates only to the number of wide loads escorted. The figures are:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 1,267 |
| 1999 | 1,229 |
| 2000 | 924 |
| 2001 (to 30 September) | 469 |
Note:
Figures are not available prior to 1998
Feltham B Young Offenders Institution
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on conditions at Feltham B Young Offenders Institution. [6378]
Beverley Hughes: In a report published on 26 July, the then Chief Inspector of Prisons, Sir David Ramsbotham, rightly criticised the poor regime at Feltham B and compared it to that for under 18-year-old prisoners at Feltham A, which had benefited from major investment to meet Youth Justice Board standards.
Improvements to the regime on Feltham B are now a priority. Purposeful activity is currently over 23 hours per week. Two additional physical education instructors and one horticultural craftsman have been appointed, with further additional posts approved. The completion of a new education facility for under-18s means that the original facility is now exclusively available to Feltham B prisoners, providing up to 70 places a day. £500,000 is being invested from the Custody to Work programme to help the
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employability of young people on release, and £575,000 is being spent to convert existing buildings into a new gymnasium.
Four bedded units have been reduced to two-person occupancy, and doubling in cells intended for one has ended. In-cell electricity has been installed in four units with a fifth under way.
I am taking a close personal interest in developments at Feltham and I am determined to see that progress is maintained.
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has held with the Chief Inspector of Prisons with regard to the management of Feltham B Young Offenders Institution; and if he will make a statement. [6379]
Beverley Hughes: My right hon. Friend met the former Chief Inspector of Prisons on 11 July although they did not specifically discuss Feltham B. I visited Feltham B with Sir David Ramsbotham on 16 July and subsequently discussed what I had seen there with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. He has given his full support to my determination, and that of the Director General, to implement fundamental improvements at Feltham.
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many average hours of purposeful activity there were at Feltham B Young Offenders' Institute in (a) 1999–2000 and (b) 2000–01; and if he will make a statement. [6377]
Beverley Hughes: Figures for purposeful activity were not collected separately for Feltham A and Feltham B in previous years. The average figures for purposeful activity across the whole of Feltham young offender institution were 15.2 hours a week in 1999–2000 and 14.4 hours a week in 2000–01.
Improving purposeful activity in Feltham B is a priority for the Prison Service. Separate figures are now kept, and purposeful activity in Feltham B has increased from 11.7 hours in April this year to over 23 hours a week.
I am determined this improvement should be maintained.
Home Detention Curfew
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 25 June 2001, Official Report, column 43W, on the home detention curfew scheme, if he will make a statement on the circumstances of the third rape committed by a prisoner while on home detention curfew. [6319]
Beverley Hughes: The person referred to in the right hon. Member's question has appeared before the courts and was acquitted.
Stop and Search
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what estimate he has made of the effect on the level of police paperwork of the requirement to record all stops; and if he will make a statement; [6375]
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- (2) when the requirement on the police to record the ethnicity of all suspects stopped by the police will be implemented; and if he will make a statement. [6370]
Mr. Denham: Following extensive consultation with the police, communities and other key stakeholders, we have agreed in principle to accept recommendation 61 of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry Report, which was that all police "stops" and "searches" should be recorded and a record given to the person stopped. We have asked the stop and search sub-group of the Lawrence Steering Group to draw up detailed implementation plans for this recommendation and to finalise the definition of a stop for recording purposes. We have particularly asked them to have regard to minimising the burden on police officers.
Chief Inspector of Prisons
Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the role of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. [6380]
Beverley Hughes: The role of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons, which is fixed by statute, is to:
- inspect or arrange the inspection of prisons in England and Wales and report to the Home Secretary;
- in particular report to the Home Secretary on the treatment of prisoners and conditions in prisons;
- report to the Home Secretary on matters connected with the prisons in England and Wales and prisoners in them as the Home Secretary directs; and
- submit an annual report to the Home Secretary in a form which the Home Secretary determines to be laid before Parliament.
Ouseley Report
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the findings of Sir Herman Ouseley's report on the impact of segregated schools on the riots in Bradford. [7120]
Angela Eagle: Lord Ouseley's report was commissioned and prepared for Bradford Vision, a partnership involving local government, police and other agencies.
The ministerial group on Public Order and Community Cohesion delivered its first report to the Home Secretary on 8 October. The report covers progress on the measures put in hand immediately following my statement to the House on 10 July 2001, Official Report, column 663, and makes proposals for further measures to address the issues raised by the serious public order disturbances earlier this summer.
The ministerial group expects to complete its work in December when it will submit a further report. That report will, among other things, take account of the independent Review Team, which I also established following the disorders in Bradford in July. Once the group has presented its final report and we have concluded our review I shall be making a statement.
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Prisoners (Meditation)
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the benefits of meditation practices to prisoners. [8011]
Beverley Hughes: Meditation is one of a limited number of complementary therapies which Prison Service establishments were instructed in 1998 could be made available to individual prisoners on the recommendation of the prison doctor, strictly for health reasons. When drawing up the relevant instruction the Prison Service took advice from the Department of Health. The Prison Service has made no formal assessment of the benefits to prisoners of meditation practices since that instruction was issued.
Congestion Charging
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the use by police forces for unconnected purposes of information collected as part of congestion charging arrangements. [6023]
Mr. Denham: The disclosure of information by police forces is subject to compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The general position is that the police may use personal information in their possession as long as this is necessary for pursuing a legitimate policing purpose.
An individual's details would not normally be disclosed for another purpose unless the consent of the individual is first obtained, or it was required for compliance with a legal obligation, or there is an overriding public interest in disclosure.
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