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15 Jun 2004 : Column 873W—continued
Publicly Funded Programmes (Crosby)
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much public funding has been spent in Crosby from the (a) Criminal Justice Interventions Programme, (b) Adult Drug Treatment Programme, (c) Building Safer Communities Programme, (d) Basic Command Unit Fund, (e) Wardens Scheme and (f) Regional Home Office Directors Fund. [177873]
Ms Blears: A breakdown of financial allocation to individual constituencies is not available. Funding is allocated at local authority level. The following amounts of funding have been allocated in Sefton :
(a) Criminal Justice Interventions Programme (CJIP) to Sefton Drug Action Team (DAT):
2003–04—£35,000
2004–05—£222,235
(b) Adult Drug Treatment Programme to Sefton DAT:
2002–03—£971,000
2003–04—£1,261,712
2004–05—£1,416,095
In order to ensure consistency, the figures supplied are based on funding streams associated with the National Drug Strategy and are readily verifiable. These funding streams are specifically targeted at tackling the harm caused to individuals, families and communities by the misuse of drugs. Other mainstream funding is made available at a local level. This varies both in amount and origin and as a result it is not possible to provide robust financial information.
(c) Building Safer Communities Fund (BSC) to Sefton Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP).
2003–04—£288,024
2004/05—£295,225 + £25,000 for anti-social behaviour co-ordinator costs
(d) Basic Command Unit (BCU) Fund to Sefton BCU.
2003–04—£196,745
2004–05—£196,745
(e) Neighbourhood Wardens Scheme—there are no neighbourhood wardens in Sefton.
(f) A broad, pan-Merseyside investment of £110,000 in 2003–04 and £45,000 in 2004–05 has been made available from the Home Office Regional Directors' allocation to the Multi-Agency Group/Joint Action Group strategic and tactical co-ordination arrangements. No funding has been given direct to Crosby or Sefton but those areas may benefit from the overall allocation.
Antisocial Behaviour
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the recordable offences which he categorises as antisocial behaviour. [177465]
Ms Blears [holding answer 9 June 2004]: All offences under provisions which carry the possibility of a custodial sentence are recordable. These are specified in the schedule for the National Police Records Regulations 2000.
The decision as to what constitutes anti-social behaviour is for local communities and those public bodies that serve them. It is for local bodies to look carefully at recorded crime statistics, recordable offences, British Crime Statistics, plus reports from local people in order to understand anti-social behaviour locally.
Section 44 Funding
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the total allocation of section 44 funding in each year since 1997. [174771]
Fiona Mactaggart: I have asked the Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality if he will write to my hon. Friend with this information in due course.
Security Firm Contracts
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contracts his Department has with the security firm Reliance; whether these are being reviewed; and if he will make a statement. [175545]
Paul Goggins [holding answer 25 May 2004]: Her Majesty's Prison Service for England and Wales currently contracts with Reliance Security Task Management Ltd. for the delivery of prisoner escort and custody services in the South West of England and South Wales.
A Better Quality Services Review in 2002 recommended that court escort and custody services should remain contracted out but that there should be a re-competition of the current contracts.
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The re-competition has been undertaken and contracts are in the process of being awarded and a further contract will be awarded to Reliance.
Sexual Offences
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of (a) drug rape and (b) sexual abuse where drugs had been administered were reported in England in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [171023]
Caroline Flint: It is not possible from the information collected centrally on recorded crime to determine the number of offences where drugs had been administered.
Speed Cameras (Errors)
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many fines consequent on speed camera evidence have been rescinded for being erroneous in each year since 1998. [177995]
Caroline Flint: This information is not collected centrally.
Stun Guns
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many stun guns have been seized by the police in 2004. [177800]
Caroline Flint: The requested information is not collected centrally.
Surrey Police
Virginia Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) police support staff there have been in Surrey in each year since 1996. [177271]
Ms Blears: The information requested is given in the table:
| Surrey | Police strength | Police staff(40) |
|---|---|---|
| 31 March 1996 | 1,644 | 792 |
| 31 March 1997 | 1,620 | 757 |
| 31 March 1998 | 1,608 | 768 |
| 31 March 1999 | 1,662 | 754 |
| 31 March 2000 | 1,785 | 780 |
| 31 March 2001(41) | 2,066 | 922 |
| 31 March 2002 | 1,992 | 1,063 |
| 31 March 2003(42) | 1,906 | (43)1,258 |
| 31 December 2003(42) | 1,922 | n/a |
(40) Includes traffic wardens.
(41) The figures for Surrey were affected by the boundary changes in April 2000.
(42) Comparable strength (excludes staff on career breaks and maternity/paternity leave).
(43) Includes 21 Community Support Officers.
Women Prisoners
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women over the age of 70 years have been remanded to HMP Holloway in the last year; for how long in each case; and for what offences. [177407]
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Paul Goggins: Two women over the age of 70 have been remanded to HMP Holloway in the last year, both for the offence of breaching a restraining order. The women spent one night and five nights in custody respectively.
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many suicide attempts have been made by inmates of Holloway Prison in the last year. [177495]
Paul Goggins: In the calendar year 2003, there were 851 recorded acts of self-harm involving prisoners at HMP Holloway.
Suicidal intent is not easy to establish. The reasons why people self-injure are highly complex, and it is difficult to distinguish between acts of self-harm that were attempts at ending life, and those that occurred for other reasons. It is not possible, therefore, for the Prison Service to determine from the general figures recording incidents of self-harm those acts that could be described as attempts at suicide. The figure above therefore includes all acts of self-harm, however serious.
Women prisoners are to benefit from a specifically targeted and separate suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy being developed for them. This builds upon a number of interventions including: individual crisis counselling for women prisoners who self-harm; the continued development and evaluation of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, which is currently being trialled at Durham, Bullwood Hall and Holloway prisons; investment and planning to ensure progress on the detoxification strategy in women's prisons; and the introduction of a new training pack for all staff working with women in custody, which includes a module on the health and well-being of women prisoners. £1 million from the Department of Health has been allocated to women's prisons to be spent on the recruitment of psychiatric nurses.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many female inmates have committed suicide in England and Wales (a) broken down by prison and (b) in total in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement; [177508]
(2) how many female suicides in prisons were (a) remand prisoners, (b) had a substance abuse problem prior to entering jail and (c) had been moved from another prison within the previous three months in each of the past three years; [177565]
(3) how many suicides there were in each women's prison in each of the past three years; and if he will make a statement. [177568]
Paul Goggins:
The following table shows the number of self-inflicted deaths involving women prisoners in each year since 1997, the establishments in which the deaths occurred, the number of women who were on remand when they died, and the number of women who had moved from another prison in the three months before their deaths.
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| Establishment | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004(44) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Askham Grange | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Brockhill | — | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | — | 1 | 1 |
| Buckley Hall | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 |
| Bullwood Hall | 1 | — | — | — | 1 | — | 1 | — |
| Cookham Wood | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Downview | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — |
| Drake Hall | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Durham | — | — | — | — | — | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| East Sutton Park | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Eastwood Park | — | — | — | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| Edmunds Hill | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 2 |
| Foston Hall | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Highpoint | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| Holloway | — | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 2 |
| Low Newton | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Morton Hall | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| New Hall | — | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | 2 | 3 | 1 |
| Risley | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Send | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 |
| Styal | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | — |
| Winchester | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| PECS(45) Area 3 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — |
| PECS Area 6 | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Annual Total | 3 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 14 | 9 |
| Remand Total(46) | — | 1 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | |
| Moved from another prison in previous three months(47) | — | 1 | 2 | — | — | 1 | 4 | 3 |
(44) To 1 June.
(45) Prison Escort and Custody Services. Deaths in PECS custody include those that occur in courts, or during transfer from police custody to court or prison, to or from court, or between prisons.
(46) Annual total includes all remand, convicted/ unsentenced, sentenced and judgment respited categories. The remand total is for those who died while on remand only.
(47) Three months has been defined as 92 days. The definition does not rule out prisoners who may have spent time in their final prison on an earlier occasion.
It is not possible to determine how many of the women who died had a substance misuse issue prior to entering prison, as such data are not collated centrally.
The number of self-inflicted deaths among women prisoners is recognised as a very serious concern by the Prison Service and Ministers. Women prisoners are to benefit from a specifically targeted and separate suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy being developed for them. This builds upon a number of interventions including: individual crisis counselling for women prisoners who self-harm; the continued development and evaluation of dialectical behaviour therapy, which is currently being trialled at Durham, Bullwood Hall and Holloway prisons; investment and planning to ensure progress on the detoxification strategy in women's prisons; and the introduction of a new training pack for all staff working with women in custody, which includes a module on the health and well-being of women prisoners. £1 million from the Department of Health has been allocated to women's prisons to be spent on the recruitment of psychiatric nurses.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisons there were housing women prisoners in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [177509]
Paul Goggins:
The number of prisons in England and Wales with female units at any time during the year, in each year since 1997, is given in the table.
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| Number | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 16 |
| 1998 | 17 |
| 1999 | 17 |
| 2000 | 16 |
| 2001 | 18 |
| 2002 | 19 |
| 2003 | 19 |
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what assessment he has made of the effect of transferring female prisoners between jails; and if he will make a statement; [177566]
(2) what assessment he has made of the impact on the mental health of women prisoners of the distance of the prison from their families. [177567]
Paul Goggins: There is no specific research on the effects of transferring women between prisons nor on the mental health effects of being located far from home. But we do know from other data that being close to family and friends is particularly important for female prisoners and moving between prisons is bound to be disruptive to any prisoner.
The Prison Service has recently started research with Oxford University Public Health Department on the effects of imprisonment on women's health. The effects of women's locations in relation to their families and the effects of transfers between prisons are expected to be examined as part of that work. It is hoped that the preliminary results will be available by the end of 2005.
15 Jun 2004 : Column 879W
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