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Prisoner Discharge Grants

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the current prisoner discharge grant amounts to; when it was last revised; and what plans he has to re-examine the level of grant. [160636]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 11 March 2004]: The standard rates of discharge grant paid are £46.75 (for prisoners aged 25 and older) or £37 (for prisoners aged 18 to 24). A higher rate of discharge grant (£94.40) is paid to prisoners on release only if there is a need to seek, obtain and pay for accommodation. It is only paid to prisoners with no accommodation arranged in advance if this arises through no fault of the prisoner. The current rates were set in 1995.

The Government are drawing up a National Rehabilitation Action Plan responding to the July 2002 Social Exclusion Unit report on reducing re-offending by released prisoners. The discharge grant is being reviewed as a part of this work.

Prisoner Statistics

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) women and (b) men were being held in prison on 8 March. [160637]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 11 March 2004]: On 8 March 2004 there were 4,560 women and 70,447 men being held in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales.

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were eligible on 8 March for early release. [160638]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 11 March 2004]: Information on the number of prisoners who were eligible for early release on 8 March 2004 is not yet available.

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were released on 8 March on early release. [160639]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 11 March 2004]: Information on the number of prisoners who were released on 8 March 2004 on early release is not yet available.

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were eligible for early release on 9 March. [161049]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 12 March 2004]: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to her previous question (160638].

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were released on early release on 9 March. [161050]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 12 March 2004]: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to her previous question (160639).

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were released on (a) 8 March and (b) 9 March. [161051]

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Paul Goggins [holding answer 12 March 2004]: Information on the number of prisoners who were released on 8 March 2004 and 9 March 2004 is not yet available.

Mr. David Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners there are in English prisons; and how many of these are in privately run prisons. [156704]

Paul Goggins: On 30 November 2003, there were 71,706 prisoners in English prisons. Of these, 5,709 were in privately run prisons.

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the new prison wing for elderly prisoners in HMP Norwich will open; and what facilities will be provided in this wing that are unique to the care of the elderly. [157374]

Paul Goggins: The Elderly Life Sentence Prisoner unit at HMP/YOI Norwich is scheduled to open in late June 2004. Upon completion, this residential unit will provide accommodation to 15 elderly prisoners.

The design of the unit is sympathetic to the needs of the elderly. It is being built in a discrete area of the prison and all facilities are situated at ground floor level. The unit will fully comply with the Disability Discrimination Act.

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the most recent average cost per year is of (a) keeping a prisoner in a general prison and (b) keeping a prisoner aged 65 years or over in HMP Kingston's specialised wing. [157375]

Paul Goggins: The average cost across all establishments of keeping a prisoner during the financial year 2002–03 was £24,241. This figure is expressed in resource terms, excluding headquarters costs, but including items such as the cost of capital and the cost of depreciation on Prison Service assets.

The Prison Service does not hold information on the costs of keeping individual groups of prisoners in particular prisons. The costs of keeping prisoners over the age of 65 in HMP Kingston are embedded in the broader costs of running the whole establishment and cannot be disaggregated.

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners absconded from category D prisons in each year since 1997. [159280]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 5 March 2004]: Categorisation relates to prisoners not prisons. Category D prisoners are those who it is assessed can be reasonably trusted in open conditions and the majority are held in open or semi-open prisons. Absconds from semi-open prisons are very few. The table shows the numbers of absconds in each year reported by open prisons.

	Number of absconds
1997	1,012
1998	880
1999	840
2000	781
2001	743
2002	825
2003	1,224

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Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many failed suicide attempts took place in prisons in England and Wales in (a) 2001, (b) 2002 and (c) 2003. [160208]

Paul Goggins: Suicidal intent is difficult to establish. Data recording incidents of 'attempted suicide' are subsumed within those for self-harm, which covers all acts of self-injury.

Good care and support from staff saves many lives; 154 prisoners were resuscitated following self-harm incidents in 2002, and a further 211 prisoners were resuscitated in 2003. Reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths and instances of self-harm in prison establishments is a priority for Ministers and the Prison Service. A three-year programme to develop policies and practices to reduce prisoner suicide and manage self-harm in prisons is currently drawing to a close. The results of this programme and complementary research will inform future suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) why prison is becoming a more common form of punishment; [148888]

(2) if he will make a statement on changes in (a) custody rates and (b) sentence lengths. [148893]

Paul Goggins: The main reason for the increased use of prison is the increased severity of sentencing. At magistrates courts the custody rate for indictable offences was 15 per cent. in 2002. This compares with 14 per cent. in 2001, ten per cent. in 1997 and five per cent. in 1992.

At the Crown court the custody rate for indictable offences was 63 per cent. in 2002, the same as in 2001. This compares with 60 per cent. in 1997 and 44 per cent. in 1992. For males aged 21 or over the average custodial sentence length was 27.8 months in 2002. This compares with 26.0 months in 2001, 24.2 months in 1997 and 21.1 months in 1992.

The new Sentencing Guidelines Council met for the first time on 5 March 2004 and will provide a comprehensive set of sentencing guidelines for all offences. This will enable all courts and practitioners to adopt a consistent approach to sentencing.

Probation Cases

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases were dealt with on average per probation officer in the last year for which figures are available; and what the projected caseload is in the next three years. [155960]

Paul Goggins: The average number of offenders on supervision per officer ¹ as at 31 December 2002 was 21.0.

The projected probation service caseload for the next three years for England and Wales is as follows:

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	Total
2003–04	225,000
2004–05	233,500
2005–06	248,800

Figures for projected caseload per officer are not available.

¹ This includes Maingrade Probation Officers, Senior Probation Officers, temporary Probation Officers, Senior Practitioners and Probation Services Officers, all of whom are involved with the supervision of offenders.

Re-offending

Mr. Keith Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish his latest action plan following the recommendations contained in the Social Exclusion Unit report on Reducing Re-offending by Ex-prisoners. [157507]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 1 March 2004]: The Home Office will shortly publish a National Rehabilitation Action Plan which will form the Government's initial response to the Social Exclusion Unit's report.

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