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28 Apr 2003 : Column 67W—continued
Prisoners
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding has been given since 1997 for mental health services per young prisoner in (a) young offender institutions, (b) secure accommodation and (c) secure training units; and if he will make a statement. [107202]
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Hilary Benn: Information is not available in the form requested. A questionnaire completed in 2002–03 estimated the cost of health care for that year at those prison establishments in England that are wholly or in part young offender institutions to be over £34 million. Since it is commonly estimated that around half of the prison health care budget is spent on mental health services, this would indicate expenditure of around £17 million at such establishments. For private prisons payments are made for the contracted service and the health care element is not separately identified. In addition, the Department of Health allocated £419,000 in 2001–02 and over £1.5 million in 2002–03 to NHS commissioners for mental health in-reach teams at prison establishments with young offenders.
The cost of general health and mental health care for young people resident in local authority secure children's homes and secure training centres is not separately accounted for centrally.
Prisons
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his written answer of 1 April 2003, Official Report, column 669W, on prisons, when the new multifunction prisons will be operational; and what their combined certified normal accommodation capacity will be. [108313]
Hilary Benn: Work on the development of multifunctional prisons is still at an early stage. No decision has yet been taken on their location, date of opening or size.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 1 April 2003, Official Report, column 668W, if he will make a statement on the female prisoners aged under 18 in Holloway Prison. [108314]
Hilary Benn: Discussions are taking place with the Youth Justice Board about arrangements to remove female prisoners aged under 18 from Holloway. In the meantime, it has been agreed with the Youth Justice Board that Holloway is only to be used for juvenile girls required to be held in or near London under the following circumstances:
- closeness to court for court appearances for 17-year-olds;
girls who are pregnant and need specialist care that cannot be provided elsewhere;
girls who require mother and baby facilities that cannot be provided elsewhere;
exceptional medical considerations, where a girl needs specialist medical care; and
other exceptional circumstances which must be agreed on a case-by-case basis by both the Youth Justice Board Head of Placements and the Prison Service.
More generally, the Youth Justice Board has already made it clear that it intends to remove all under 17-year-old girls from Prison Service custody during 2003.
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Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether juvenile girls in prisons who are pregnant are given additional food. [108618]
Hilary Benn: The health care provision for pregnant women in prison reflects that available in the community and dietary and medical supplements are made available and prescribed as necessary.
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what punishments juvenile girls in prisons who are pregnant may be subjected to. [108619]
Hilary Benn: Punishments are applied with proper regard to the individual circumstances of the prisoner, including their medical condition. Pregnancy is one of the factors taken into account when determining the appropriate punishment in an individual case.
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether juvenile girls held in New Hall prison who are pregnant have been held in the segregation block as a punishment in the last two years. [108620]
Hilary Benn: The relevant records at New Hall are available from 22 January 2002, and show that no juvenile girls have been held in the circumstances described.
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the expected saving to public funds from the private finance initiative schemes due to become operational in 2003. [105730]
Mr. Blunkett : I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on 10 April 2003, Official Report, column 400W.
Probation Service
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) probation officers and (b) probation service officers there are in each probation service area. [107307]
Hilary Benn: The information requested is as follows:
(15) Figures shown in whole time equivalent
(16) Figures as at 31 December 2001. Information for 2002–03 is currently being collected and is as yet unavailable.
(17) Probation officers includes senior probation officers, senior practitioners, probation officers and trainee probation officers.
Source:
Figures taken from RDS Probation Statistics 2001
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Property Portfolio
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the estimated value is of the property portfolio held by his Department. [108379]
Beverley Hughes: The estimated value of the Home Office's property portfolio shown in the Department's asset registers as at 31 January 2003 was £5,566 million, of which £5,209 million is Prison Estate, £109 million is Probation Estate and with the remainder spread across the rest of the Home Office group.
Regions White Paper
Joyce Quin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made by his Department towards the aim in the White Paper, "Your Region, Your Choice", of encouraging applicants to public bodies from all parts of England; and what change there has been in the geographical diversity of appointees to NDPBs and other public bodies sponsored by his Department since the publication of the White Paper. [108559]
Mr. Blunkett: Public appointments for the Home Department are advertised through a number of wide and varied media. Vacancies are now advertised on the Cabinet Office website, in addition to the Department's own website. National mainstream press, as well as targeted publications aimed at encouraging applicants from ethnic minorities, are also used on a regular basis.
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The Home Office does not compile data on geographical diversity. The information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Joyce Quin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress his Department has made towards the aim in the White Paper, "Your Region, Your Choice", of assessing the balance of staff between the centre and the regions in terms of effective policy design and implementation; and what examples there have been since the publication of the White Paper of the Department deciding between locating new streams of work (a) in and (b) outside London and the south-east. [108572]
Mr. Blunkett: The Home Office is committed to ensuring that it has the right balance between the centre and the regions to develop and deliver its aims. The Home Office has developed a substantial regional delivery capacity in Government offices, which are committed to delivering key Home Office Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets. In particular, Crime Reduction teams and Drug Prevention Advisory Service, and dedicated staff working to promote racial equality, community cohesion and active communities are an essential part of our delivery mechanism as well as contributing to policy development. Links between the centre and Government offices are being strengthened by the recruitment of four Crime Reduction Delivery Managers, working to enhance delivery of Home Office PSA targets on a regional and local basis.
The Immigration and Nationality Directorate already has a substantial regional presence, in particular with large offices in Liverpool and Sheffield. The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) is establishing 12 regional offices in order to strengthen links between NASS, local partnerships and the communities they serve. On 1 April 2003 the Security Industry Authority was established as an Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) with headquarters in London, but it is planning a number of regional offices.
New work streams have been established outside London. The Criminal Records Bureau was established in Liverpool in 2001. The new Local Criminal Justice Boards will be supported by locally based Performance Officers who will be managed by seven Performance Advisers, mostly based outside London.
The Home Office will contribute to Sir Michael Lyons' review of departmental structures to examine the scope for relocating civil service and other public service staff from London and the south-east to other parts of the country, to improve cost effectiveness and achieve a better regional balance of Government activity.
Joyce Quin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress the Department has made towards the goal set out in the White Paper, Your Region, Your Choice, of (a) ensuring that regional awareness and devolution feature strongly in civil service training and development, (b) increasing the mobility of civil servants between headquarters offices, regional offices, and the Government Offices and (c) encouraging interchange between the civil service and organisations in the regions. [108582]
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Mr. Blunkett: The information is as follows:
(a) The Home Office is committed to using regional and local structures to deliver its agenda and is developing a training strategy to integrate an understanding of devolution and regional government issues into existing training programmes. We also have a programme of awareness raising and increasing understanding of the regions and the Government Offices for staff, which included a Regional Co-ordination Unit/Home Office seminar in March 2003.
(b) Posts within Home Office regional structures are advertised to all staff; posts within Government offices may be trawled within the Department.
(c) The Home Office has an active interchange programme that covers all sectors of the economy, public, private and voluntary. Interchange with Government Offices and the regions forms part of this programme, and we have recently established a number of short attachments for staff between Government Offices and the Home Office. In addition, a major scheme due to be launched shortly involves encouraging all staff to buddy up with staff in other organisations with whom they work, or who are affected by their work, including Government Offices and local authorities. It will enable staff in both organisations to learn more about one another, and about how they work together in delivering shared aims.
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