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22 May 2003 : Column 984W—continued

Social Exclusion and Urban Policy Units

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many equivalent full time employees there were in the (a) Social Exclusion Unit and (b) Urban Policy Unit (i) when they were established and (ii) at 1 May 2003. [113560]

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Mrs. Roche: The figures for full time equivalent staff in the Urban Policy Unit are:

When established (2001)—40 and May 2002—110.

The figures for full time equivalent staff in the Social Exclusion Unit are:

When established (1997)—12 and May 2003—57.

Social Housing

David Wright: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many social housing units were disposed of, by financial year, by Telford Development Corporation and its successor bodies from 1979 onwards. [114141]

Mr. McNulty: Numbers of sales of dwellings belonging to Telford Development Corporation and its successor bodies is presented in the following table:

Sales of dwellings by Telford Development Corporation and its successor bodies since 1980–81: Sales by Telford Development Corporation

Financial Year	All sales	of which: Right to Buy(9)
	Sales by Telford Development Corporation:
1980–81	404	Nil
1981–82	402	Nil
1982–83	588	Nil
1983–84	443	Nil
1984–85	257	Nil
1985–86	225	Nil
1986–87	386	Nil
1987–88	542	Nil
1988–89	1,278	Nil
1989–90	1,483	Nil
1990–91	343	Nil
1991–92(10)	622	Nil
1992–93	16	16
1993–94	2	2
	Sales by The Wrekin District Council (post transfer of stock from Development Corporation on 30 September 1991)
1991–92(11)	n/a	n/a
1992–93	n/a	n/a
1993–94	n/a	n/a
1994–95	166	157
1995–96	149	149
1996–97	177	177
1997–98	59	59
	Sales by Telford and Wrekin Unitary Authority (created 1 April 1998)
1998–99	n/a	n/a

⁽⁹⁾ While Telford Development Corporation reported few Right to Buy sales, there were significant other sales to sitting tenants recorded by the Corporation

⁽¹⁰⁾ On 30 September 1991, Telford Development Corporation transferred some 3,925 dwellings to The Wrekin District Council and 374 dwellings to two housing associations. On 20 December 1991, Telford Development Corporation transferred 113 dwellings to a housing association

⁽¹¹⁾ October 1991 to March 1992 only

⁽¹²⁾ On 25 March 1999 Telford and Wrekin Unitary Authority transferred its entire stock of some 13,045 dwellings to Wrekin Housing Trust Limited

South West Regional Assembly

Mr. Chope: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much money the South West Regional Assembly will receive from central Government in 2003–04; and how much of this will be spent on its advisory role on regional planning. [114897]

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Mr. Raynsford: In 2003–04, the South West Regional Assembly will receive up to £600,000 from the Chambers Fund, to enable it to perform its role of scrutinising Regional Development Agency plans and performance. It will also qualify for £689,000 for regional planning, plus an additional £324,000 in Planning Delivery Grant.

St Oswald's Park, Gloucester

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects a decision to be taken on the planning application on the proposed development of St. Oswalds Park in Gloucester. [115293]

Mr. McNulty: On 15 May my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister invited representations on the implications for the proposals of the Statement made to the House on 10 April 2003, Official Report, columns 27–29WS about town centre planning. Any responses will need to be circulated before the final decision can be made, which will be in due course.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Criminal Records Bureau

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how, and for what purpose, the Invest to Save funding awarded to the Criminal Records Bureau by HM Treasury will be allocated. [112034]

Paul Goggins: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) received £575,000 to pilot an electronic link from the CRB to police forces, enabling Enhanced Disclosure checks to be undertaken with the minimum of manual intervention, while remaining under a police force's control. The objective is to reduce the proportion of enhanced applications referred to local police forces from 100 per cent. to 5 per cent. to 10 per cent. The funding is allocated solely to this project.

The Invest to Save Budget (ISB) was set up in 1998 by Her Majesty's Treasury, in collaboration with the Cabinet Office. Its aim is to provide funding for projects that bring together two or more public bodies to deliver services in an innovative fashion.

ISB provides a means of investing in partnership projects with the potential for transforming public services. The projects need to be further developed before this potential can be unlocked. Funds are allocated competitively and public sector managers are challenged to come forward with proposals that will make a real difference.

To date, the ISB has supported 136 partnership projects with a total of £180 million, following the first two bidding rounds. A further 123 projects have been selected for funding following the third round. The projects are spread right across the public sector, involving central Government, local government, health authorities, police and others.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what costs have been incurred to date on enhancements and improvements to the system supplied to the Criminal Records Bureau by Capita (a) before and (b) after it started operations. [112040]

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Paul Goggins: The costs incurred prior to the Go Live date were £10,590,581. Costs incurred from the Go Live date to 7 May 2003 were £541,789.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the assessment of the Criminal Records Bureau system testing by the Office of Government Commerce referred to in the main findings of the independent review team report published on 27 February. [112065]

Paul Goggins: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is currently renegotiating the contract with its private sector partner, Capita pic. The release of the full text of the Gateway 4 and 4(a) reports, produced by the Office of Government Commerce, may influence these negotiations. Given Exemption 13 afforded by Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, edited copies of these reports will be placed in the Library. The purpose of Exemption 13 is to protect a third party's commercial confidences. Upon conclusion of the contract renegotiations the CRB will consider releasing these reports in their unedited form.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of whether the documentation of the current release of the Criminal Records Bureau system is (a) complete and (b) up to date. [112097]

Paul Goggins: The Criminal Records Bureau's Main Agreement includes a requirement for full system documentation to be produced. Recent reviews have highlighted some deficiencies of a technical nature which are subject to a confidential report. These deficiencies will be addressed through the contract renegotiations. It would not be appropriate at this stage to prejudge the outcome of these negotiations.

Mr. Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the statement of 30 April by the hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), Official Report, column 125WH, on the Criminal Records Bureau, when he expects to announce revisions to the charges for standard and enhanced disclosures. [112102]

Paul Goggins: As was pointed out during the Adjournment debate initiated by the hon. member on 30 April, the current charges for standard and enhanced disclosures are under review. We will make an at once the review has been completed.

Prison Suicides/Self-harm

Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) suicides and (b) incidents of self harm there were among 15 to 17-year-old girls in prison in each year since 1997. [112519]

Paul Goggins: There have been no self-inflicted deaths in prison of female juveniles in the years since 1997. The following table covers the number of recorded incidents of self-harm by female juveniles between 1998 and 2002. Relevant data on self-harm before 1998 are not available.

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Self-harm among female juveniles: 1998–2002⁽¹³⁾

	Number of incidents
1998	8
1999	20
2000	44
2001	122
2002	107

⁽¹³⁾ Up to and including December 2002.

The Prison Service has made improvements in the recording of self-harm incidents, including the implementation of a new monitoring system from December 2002.

The Prison Service has a duty of care to all prisoners in its custody and, recognising that self-harm is a particular problem among young female prisoners, is currently developing several interventions that may help them reduce and manage self-harm in prison. One such example is at Holloway prison where all prisoners, including juveniles, who have been identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm are offered individual crisis counselling.

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