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27 Mar 2003 : Column 345W—continued

Indonesia

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to release Home Office papers from 1975–76 concerning Indonesia, East Timor and the Balebo killings. [103921]

Mr. Blunkett: A check has been made through various sources but we have been unable to establish any Home Office documents relating to the events specified in the question and therefore there are no relevant papers to release.

Mental Health

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the funding arrangements will be for mental health provision within prisons after April. [105005]

Hilary Benn: Budgetary responsibility for prison health is being transferred from the Prison Service to the Department of Health from 1 April 2003. However, for the first three years the majority of resourcing for prison health, including most primary care mental health

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provision, will be transferred back to the Prison Service, which will continue to deliver or commission most services through individual prisons as before.

Funding for those NHS prison mental health in-reach services established before the end of 2002–03 was included in the baseline resource level allocations issued to the Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) concerned in December 2002. Further allocations, in respect of new in-reach services to be developed in 2003–04 and additional support for some existing services, will be made to the relevant PCTs shortly.

Miscarriages of Justice

Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent guidelines he has issued to the police on the reinvestigation of miscarriages of justice. [104353]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: There is no national guidance on this issue. It is for individual police forces to decide how to respond on the basis of the Court of Appeal's ruling and the circumstances of the individual case. The police will review the evidence available and any comments or findings made by the Court in cases where convictions are overturned.

New Hall Prison

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) male and (b) female officers are employed with juvenile girls at New Hall prison; [104068]

(2) how many staff at the New Hall prison have had training in child protection; and what this comprised; [104064]

(3) how many times control and restraint have been applied by male staff on juvenile girls in New Hall prison. [104067]

Hilary Benn: 14 members of the staff at New Hall prison and young offender institution have been trained in child protection. This includes four who have been trained as trainers so that further training can be rolled out within the establishment from April.

Training of trainers involves a two day course and trainers deliver a three hour module to staff. The module provides background on the legislation and goes on to concentrate on recognition of and response to problems; for example, signs and symptoms of abuse and how to deal with them.

Between 1 April 2002 and 17 March 2003 there were 71 incidents at New Hall involving the use of control and restraint on juveniles. About 46 of those involved male staff. In all, 231 staff were involved in the incidents and of those about 73 were male.

There are 18 male officers and 29 female officers on the Juvenile and Young Offender Unit at New Hall.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the hon. Member for Sutton

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and Cheam will receive replies to his questions (a) 102841, (b) 101017, (c) 101032, (d) 89980, (e) 89990 and (f) 89993. [105293]

Hilary Benn: Question 101032 was answered on 12 March 2003, Official Report, column 307W. Questions 89980, 89990 and 89993 were all withdrawn. I will reply as soon as possible to questions 102841 and 101017.

Police Numbers

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the population per police officer was in each year since 1997 in (a) England and (b) Surrey. [104844]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer on 25 March 2003]: The tables give population per police officer in England and Surrey in each year from 1997 to 2002.

England	Population (mid year estimates for previous year)	Police strength	Population per police officer
March 1997	48,903,440	118,459	413
March 1998	49,089,085	118,139	416
March 1999	49,284,242	117,195	421
March 2000	49,494,582	115,324	429
March 2001	49,752,864	116,548	427
March 2002	49,997,089	120,073	416

Surrey	Population (mid year estimates for previous year)	Police strength	Population per police officer
March 1997	775,226	1,620	479
March 1998	776,643	1,608	483
March 1999	784,360	1,662	472
March 2000	786,729	1,785	441
March 2001	1,078,067	2,066	522
March 2002	1,080,647	1,992	543

Note:The figures for Surrey were affected by the boundary changes in April 2000

Police Officers (Portsmouth)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time police officers there were in the Portsmouth City area in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [104946]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Information is not collected on a regular basis about the number of officers deployed to Basic Command Units within force areas. I would however refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) on 2 December 2002, Official Report, column 589W, setting out police strength for each Basic Command Unit for each force in England and Wales as at 31 March 2002.

The deployment of resources between the 12 territorial divisions and other specialist operational and support units of the Hampshire Constabulary is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.

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Prisoners (Drug Treatment)

Mr. Nick Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 18 March, Official Report, column 710W, on drug treatment of prisoners, how many offenders did not require drug and alcohol detoxification on entering prison between 1 April 2001 and 31 March 2002. [105071]

Hilary Benn: The information sought is not available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. As my previous answer explained, the Prison Service and the Department of Health are only able to report the number of detoxifications carried out. This figure does not necessarily reflect the actual detoxification need, nor—by extension—the number of prisoners who do not require the intervention.

Prisons (Juvenile Girls)

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether juvenile girls are held with adult women prisoners. [104065]

Hilary Benn: In two establishments, Brockhill and Eastwood Park, prisoners under 21 are housed together in wings. The juveniles are in a dedicated part of the wing in their own single rooms. All offenders have meals, fresh air and recreation together under close supervision. Juveniles receive special education and physical education provision. Some mixing with young offenders occurs under close supervision during education.

At Bullwood Hall juveniles are in a dedicated wing and are accommodated separately within education. Some mixing with older girls under supervision occurs with common events such as chapel.

New Hall has a separate unit for juveniles but also has additional accommodation that has recently been established to cater for increased numbers of young women. Juvenile girls are accommodated in that facility when operationally necessary. All juveniles have their own dedicated education but mixing does occur at times and is closely supervised.

The arrangements outlined apply to remand and sentenced girls at those establishments. Additional remand facilities for juvenile girls exist at Low Newton, Styal and Holloway. These require juveniles to share with young offenders. Finance has recently been obtained to provide special facilities for juveniles at Holloway.

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many juvenile girls in prison are pregnant. [104066]

Hilary Benn: The information requested is not available.

Probation Officers (Suffolk)

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many probation officers were in post in Suffolk in each year since 1997; and how many (a) offences and (b) offenders the Probation Service in Suffolk dealt with in each year since 1997. [104800]

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Hilary Benn: The information requested is as follows:

Numbers of probation officers^(11),(12)

Suffolk	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Probation officers	89	94	95.4	97	97.5
Probation Service officers	12	9	16	18	25
Total	101	103	111.4	115	122.5

⁽¹¹⁾ Numbers shown as whole time equivalents.

⁽¹²⁾ Information shown taken at 31 December.

Although the question specifically asks for the number of probation officers, the information on Probation Service officers has also been provided. There has been an increasing growth in the use of Probation Service officers to support the work undertaken by probation officers. In particular, the use of accredited programme has seen a number low/medium risk offenders supervised as part of a group rather than on an individual basis as has occurred in the past. Probation Service officers, who receive specific training to enable them to manage these programmes and supervise the offenders participating, run these accredited programmes.

(a) Probation figures are reported by person and therefore information pertaining to the number of offences dealt with by the probation service are not available.

(b) Suffolk:

Persons starting supervision by the Probation Service

	Number of offenders
1997	1,346
1998	1,467
1999	1,420
2000	1,418
2001	1,373

Source:

Figures obtained from RDS Probation Statistics 2001.

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