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9 Feb 2004 : Column 1260W—continued

Highdown Prison

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he has taken to address the shortfall of officers at HM Prison Highdown in Surrey. [151154]

Paul Goggins: Local recruitment campaigns for Prison Officers at Highdown and surrounding prisons have been held. Eight new officers are in the process of initial training at Highdown and will become fully operational on 7 March. In the Kent, Surrey and Sussex area a further 18 potential recruits are undergoing final checks into their suitability for posts in the Prison Service, some of whom are expected to be posted to Highdown. A further recruitment exercise is scheduled to begin in March.

Highdown is also currently operating a Contracted Supplementary Hours system which provides the equivalent of 14 additional officers.

Home Detention Curfew

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research he has collated on the use of the satellite global positioning system for monitoring those on Home Detention Curfew programmes. [148897]

Paul Goggins: The Home Office is aware of two pieces of research conducted by the Florida Department of Corrections, Bureau of Research and Data Analysis: A Report on Community Control, Radio Frequency (RF) Monitoring and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) Monitoring (October 2002) and A Controlled Study of the Effects of Electronic Monitoring and Officer Caseload on Outcomes for Offenders on Community Control (March 2003). Officials have also visited programmes in Florida and Texas that use satellite global positioning systems to monitor offenders. The Home Office is testing tracking equipment using satellite global positioning systems and plans to pilot the use of this technology to track offenders later this year. No decisions have been taken about the categories of offenders who will be subject to tracking in the pilots.

9 Feb 2004 : Column 1261W

Identity Card

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what safeguards will be put in place to ensure people who lose or have their identity cards stolen will be able to access basic services for which an identity card will be required. [152647]

Beverley Hughes: An identity card, although very helpful to public services as a reliable means of proving identity, would not become mandatory until a specific further Parliamentary decision on a move to compulsion. Where the identity card is used to access public services we will want to ensure that procedures are in place to help those whose card has been lost or stolen, especially in cases of emergency.

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what lessons have been learned from countries with operational identity card schemes on combating identity card fraud; and if he will make a statement; [152679]

(2) whether the operation of identity cards in Australia was examined in estimating the annual cost of the proposed UK identity card scheme; and if he will make a statement. [152646]

Beverley Hughes: Identity card schemes exist in all other EU countries with the exception of Denmark and Ireland.

Home Office officials have had detailed discussions with colleagues involved in the operation of identity card schemes in Italy, Sweden and the Netherlands and comprehensive information has been supplied by each of the EU member states on the operation of their card schemes.

From these discussions, it is clear that the keys to an effective card scheme are the security of the issuing process, the physical security of the document itself and consistent procedures for using the card. Lessons learned from other countries, including those such as

9 Feb 2004 : Column 1262W

Australia, Canada and the USA that do not have identity cards, will help inform the delivery planning of the United Kingdom identity cards scheme.

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects identity cards to become compulsory following the introduction of the proposed identity card scheme. [152681]

Beverley Hughes: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend, the Member for Crosby (Mrs. Curtis-Thomas) on 26 January 2004, Official Report, column 212W.

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of requiring electors to show a valid identity card in order to cast a vote at UK elections following the introduction of the proposed identity card scheme; and if he will make a statement. [152682]

Beverley Hughes: In Northern Ireland voters are already required to produce proof of their identity before they vote. The Electoral Fraud (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 introduced electoral identity cards in Northern Ireland as one of the four ways in which individuals can prove who they are when going to vote at an election in Northern Ireland.

There are no plans to extend this by requiring electors throughout the United Kingdom to show a valid identity card in order to cast a vote. However, discussions are continuing between the Home Office and other Departments on how production of an identity card might be linked to services for which they are responsible in the future.

Juvenile Prisoners

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times unfurnished cells have been used in each of the prisons holding juveniles in each month since 1 January 2002. [144359]

Paul Goggins: Date on the number of times juveniles have been placed in unfurnished cells in each of the juvenile establishments since 1 January 2002 is set out in the following tables.

Establishment	January 2002	February 2002	March 2002	April2002	May2002	June2002	July2002	August 2002
Ashfield	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Brinsford	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Brockhill	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Bullwood Hall	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Castington	7	3	4	1	1	4	0	1
Eastwood Park	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Feltham	2	3	2	0	2	2	3	5
Hindley	0	0	0	0	4	5	1	4
Holloway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Huntercombe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lanacaster Farms	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
New Hall	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Onley	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
Parc	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stoke Heath	2	4	2	1	1	1	3	4
Thorn Cross	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Warren Hill	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Werrington	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wetherby	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

9 Feb 2004 : Column 1263W

Establishment	September 2002	October 2002	November 2002	December 2002	January 2003	February 2003	March 2003	April2003
Ashfield	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Brinsford	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Brockhill	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2
Bullwood Hall	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
Castington	0	2	4	0	0	0	0	0
Eastwood Park	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Feltham	3	1	3	2	0	0	3	5
Hindley	3	3	1	0	1	1	0	0
Holloway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Huntercombe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lanacaster Farms	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
New Hall	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Onley	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Parc	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stoke Heath	2	5	4	0	2	0	0	1
Thorn Cross	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Warren Hill	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Werrington	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wetherby	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Establishment	May2003	June2003	July2003	August 2003	September 2003	October 2003	November 2003	Total
Ashfield	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2
Brinsford	0	0	1	1	3	0	0	6
Brockhill	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Bullwood Hall	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3
Castington	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	27
Eastwood Park	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Feltham	6	4	1	1	4	3	5	60
Hindley	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21
Holloway	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Huntercombe	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lanacaster Farms	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
New Hall	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	4
Onley	0	0	0	0	3	2	1	8
Parc	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Stoke Heath	2	1	2	1	1	0	1	40
Thorn Cross	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Warren Hill	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Werrington	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Wetherby	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Mentally Disordered Offenders

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the mentally disordered offenders listed in the 2003 Statistics published by the Home Office on 27 November 2003 were deaf; and what proportion were from a black and ethnic minority background. [147694]

Paul Goggins: The requested information is not held centrally and is therefore not available. Mechanisms have been put in place to collect information on the ethnicity of restricted patients. This information will be published as soon as is practically possible.

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