House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 22 Mar 2004 (pt 8)

22 Mar 2004 : Column 534W—continued

Management Consultants

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost to his Department of using management consultants has been in each of the last five years. [148024]

Fiona Mactaggart: The available information held by the Home Office on the cost of using external consultants in each of the financial years; 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2002–03 is as follows:

£

Financial year Cost of using external consultants

1998–99 4,588,445

1999–2000 10,302,672

2000–01 27,877,286

2001–02 21,147,058

2002–03 n/a

Financial year	Cost of using external consultants
1998–99	4,588,445
1999–2000	10,302,672
2000–01	27,877,286
2001–02	21,147,058
2002–03	n/a

We do not hold information on the cost to the Home Office of using external consultants for 2002–03 and to obtain this information would incur disproportionate cost.

22 Mar 2004 : Column 535W

It is not possible to detail the benefits accrued by the Department to expenditure in a specific year but I am able to summarise the benefits of using external consultants in this period.

The use of external consultants has helped the Department to successfully deliver projects across the office, which has resulted in improved business processes. A further benefit has been the transfer of specialist skills and knowledge to staff. The Department has also benefited from strategic business advice, which has shaped the strategy for combining the separate personnel, finance and procurement projects into an integrated project (Adelphi). This work has informed the development of business change that Adelphi is implementing across the Department and provide accurate management information.

The increase in expenditure on external consultancy in 2000–01 was primarily, due to costs incurred on the Home Office modernisation programme, in particular Information Technology (IT) related consultancy.

The high spend figures for 2001–02 includes the cost of setting up the National Probation Directorate and various consultancies on IT business change.

The main areas of expenditure and the benefits that have accrued are summarised as follows:

Within the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) the use of management consultants has done much to improve business processes. Examples of projects, which could not have been successfully delivered without the project management experience and skills provided by consultants, are:

New Detection technology, deployed in Calais at the end of 2002 and subsequently at other locations;

The introduction of the Application Registration Card;

Support to the improvement of removal performance;

Evaluation of the Fast Track Appeals Process, and subsequent assistance in improving the process.

Criminal Justice IT has utilised consultants across all Directorates since start up. This has helped the unit to achieve a position of excellence in the IT delivery area quickly. The benefits of this position are already being felt across the Criminal Justice System as a whole, as well as within the individual strategic programmes. It has also resulted in a knowledge transfer process being put in place as consultants are replaced by civil servants.

National Offender Management Service

Mr. David: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the timetable is for the establishment of the National Offender Management Service. [162535]

Paul Goggins: An implementation team has been established and preparations for a detailed programme of work is under way.

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The National Offender Management Service will come into being from 1 June 2004 and it is anticipated that all the necessary changes will have been implemented within five years.

Police Cells

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether HM Chief Inspector of Prisons has the authority to carry out inspections of police cells when they are being used to hold prisoners under Operation Safeguard. [160698]

Paul Goggins: Operation Safeguard is currently not active. Any prisoner held in police cells is held under the 1980 Imprisonment (Temporary Provisions) Act. In line with this act, prisoners held in police cells are in the custody of the Chief Police Officer of the region and not subject to prison rules or the Prison Act 1952. The Chief Police Officer will therefore be responsible for the welfare of any prisoners. The Chief Inspector of Prisons could, however, at the invitation of the Chief Police Officer concerned attend at a police station and comment on the conditions in which such prisoners are kept and their treatment.

Prisoners

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 11 March; how many prisoners were released on early release on 11 March; how many prisoners were eligible for early release on 11 March; and how many prisoners were released on 11 March. [161821]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 16 March 2004]: On 11 March 2004 there were 4,555 females and 70,414 males being held in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales.

Information on the number of prisoners who were released on early release, the number of prisoners who were eligible for early release and the number of prisoners who were released on 11 March 2004 is not yet available.

Probation

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders undergoing Probation Service accredited programmes (a) breached the programme and (b) were sentenced to custody as a consequence of a breach in each of the last two financial years. [155054]

Paul Goggins: During 2001–02 a total of 3,962 offenders undergoing accredited programmes failed to complete, of which 1,425 (36 per cent.) were because of breach. As a percentage of those dropouts recorded in 2002–03, breaches accounted for 37 per cent.

Offenders may not have completed their programme due to failure to complete other aspects of supervision, not necessarily due to failure to complete the programme itself.

Data on the exact number of offenders undergoing National Probation Service accredited programmes who were sentenced to custody as a consequence of a

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breach is unavailable. At present we only monitor outcomes by sentence and not content. The introduction of Interim Accredited Programme Software later this year will facilitate to the monitoring of sentence by outcomes.

The number of offenders who were sentenced to immediate custody for breaches of community sentences in 2001 was 8,094. In 2002 the number was 9,071.

Research and Statistics Directorate

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many people are employed by his Department's Research and Statistics Directorate; and how many employees there were in each year since 1997; [161787]

(a)

(b)

Fiona Mactaggart: The Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) is the main Home Office resource to support performance measurement and delivery of social research and analysis essential to building the evidence base for policy development. The available information on staffing and projects undertaken by RDS are shown in the tables.

During the period 1997 to 2004, RDS has evolved and created new teams. This has been in response to the need to meet demands for faster collection and analysis of more comprehensive performance data as well as to carry out more timely and targeted research, particularly in the areas of crime reduction, drugs and alcohol, immigration and communities research as well as enhancing the capacity for economic analysis and modelling.

Some of the projects identified will carry forward into two or more years and are included in the figures for both years. Projects undertaken by RDS can vary in size, complexity and scope. In addition to this RDS responds to regular ad-hoc requests for R and D advice from both within the Home Office and from external organisations.

Table 1: Staff compliment for the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate—1997–98 to 2003–04

Number of staff RDS compliment

1997–8 260

1998–9 260

1999–2000⁽¹⁷⁾ 280

2000–01⁽¹⁸⁾ 360

2001–02⁽¹⁹⁾ 375

2002–03⁽²⁰⁾ 435

2003–04 445

Current 422 in post

	Number of staff RDS compliment
1997–8	260
1998–9	260
1999–2000⁽¹⁷⁾	280
2000–01⁽¹⁸⁾	360
2001–02⁽¹⁹⁾	375
2002–03⁽²⁰⁾	435
2003–04	445
Current	422 in post

⁽¹⁷⁾ The 1999–2000 figures reflect re-structuring of Social Research within the Home Office; the Police Research Group (40 staff) joined together with the Research and Statistics Directorate to form the new Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS). At the same time, 15 staff from Co-ordinating Computing in Criminal Justice System moved out of RDS.

⁽¹⁸⁾ The 2000–01 figure includes a new team that was set up to support evaluation of the crime reduction programme. There was also a new programme to expand the evidence base for Immigration research and voluntary/community research.

⁽¹⁹⁾ In 2001–02 the Machinery of Government changes resulted in the movement of Fire Statistics to Department of Environment, Transport and Regions (now Office of the Deputy Prime Minister).

⁽²⁰⁾ The 2002–03 figure reflects the establishment of a new team to support research into drugs and alcohol research, in particular supporting the development of the Drugs Strategy and further development of the Immigration Research programme and in the capacity for economic analysis.

All totals are based on the RDS complement and are full-time equivalents.

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Table 2: Number of Research Projects undertaken by (a) in-house researchers and (b) through external contractors in the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate 1998–99–2003–04

In-houseresearchprojects Externally contractedresearch projects

1998–99 ⁽²¹⁾56 ⁽²¹⁾45

1999–2000 ⁽²¹⁾120 ⁽²¹⁾65

2000–01 ⁽²¹⁾106 ⁽²²⁾137

2001–02 ⁽²¹⁾108 ⁽²²⁾283

2002–03 ⁽²¹⁾171 ⁽²²⁾294

2003–04 ⁽²¹⁾212 ⁽²²⁾222

	In-houseresearchprojects	Externally contractedresearch projects
1998–99	⁽²¹⁾56	⁽²¹⁾45
1999–2000	⁽²¹⁾120	⁽²¹⁾65
2000–01	⁽²¹⁾106	⁽²²⁾137
2001–02	⁽²¹⁾108	⁽²²⁾283
2002–03	⁽²¹⁾171	⁽²²⁾294
2003–04	⁽²¹⁾212	⁽²²⁾222

⁽²¹⁾ The figures for these years are based on a manual count of projects in the Research Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) business plan.

⁽²²⁾ The figures are based on a central record of RDS external contracts

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