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15 Nov 2004 : Column 1124W—continued
Prisons
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the reasons for the change in the female prison population between 1998 and October 2003; and what assessment he has made of the effect of the change on community safety. [146020]
Paul Goggins:
The female prison population increased from 3,157 on 31 October 1998 to 4,462 on 31 October 2003, with the remand population increasing by 289 (42 per cent.) and the sentenced population by 1,004 (41 per cent.). A major factor in the increase in the sentenced population has been the increase in those sentenced for drugs offences, with the population under immediate custodial sentence for drugs offences increasing from 794 in June 1 1998 to 1,277 in October
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2003. Other factors influencing the increase in the female prison population are increases in the number of females received into prison on remand, increases in the number of females received into prison under sentence, and increases in average sentence lengths for some offence groups.
There has been no specific research regarding the effects of changes in the female prison population on community safety. We are concerned, though, about the wider impact of women's imprisonment, in particular on families and children who are separated from their mothers, and are therefore taking forward the Women's Offending Reduction Programme to tackle women's offending specifically and reduce the numbers ending up in custody.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when vocational training will become a fully integrated part of the Sentence Planning Process. [164394]
Paul Goggins: The Government is committed to improving offenders' learning and skills. A key element of the new service we are developing in partnership with the Learning and Skills Council will be an integrated approach to education and training where learning is embedded across regimes. The focus will be on meeting individual needs through effective assessment as part of Individual Learning Plans. The new service will be introduced progressively from September 2005.
Enabling prisoners to gain skills and qualifications which will help them secure employment on release is already an important aspect of sentence management, and we expect individual needs and training objectives to be reflected in the sentence planning process.
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he has taken to prevent further violent incidents at HMP Wormwood Scrubs; and if he will make a statement on the merits of initiating a public inquiry. [190235]
Paul Goggins: Wormwood Scrubs prison is a much improved prison. Recent management teams at Wormwood Scrubs have worked hard to develop and implement wide reaching reforms that have radically altered its culture. Robust systems are now in place to ensure that all complaints and, in particular, allegations of unprofessional conduct by staff towards prisoners are thoroughly investigated.
The most recent visit by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector in November 2003 confirms this progress. The Chief Inspector found 'a greatly improved prison, gradually implementing and consolidating fundamental changes'. Most noticeable of all was 'the change in attitude and approach of Prison Officers". I am confident that such fundamental changes will prevent a return to the kind of violent incidents witnessed in the 1990s.
We are currently considering the request for a public enquiry.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the education budget for prisons in England and Wales was in each of the last three years. [190256]
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Paul Goggins: Funding for the delivery of learning and skills to offenders rests in the request for resources of the Department for Education and Skills, and is administered jointly by DfES and the Home Office through the Offenders' Learning and Skills Unit. Prisons are allocated a total education budget and have flexibility to use this to purchase education to meet their learners' needs. Core funding for prisoners' education for the last three years was:
Financial year | Education expenditure (£ million) |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 52.6 |
| 2002–03 | 59.4 |
| 2003–04 | 70.9 |
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what pay and job comparison has been carried out between prison officers employed in the Prison Service and administrative staff of his Department since 1997; and if he will publish the findings. [190288]
Paul Goggins [holding answer 13 October 2004]: There has been no direct comparison made between the pay and jobs of prison officers and administrative staff since 1997. Job Evaluations of Prison Service staff carried out in this period have all been in connection with the development, implementation and maintenance of its pay and grading review. Sample evaluations have been made of the jobs of almost all disciplines of staff, including prison officers and administrative grades, but none has been made for the purpose of direct comparison between different disciplines.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals he has (a) to expand the Full Sutton prison site in East Yorkshire and (b) to develop land adjoining this site; and if he will make a statement. [190920]
Paul Goggins [holding answer 14 October 2004]: There are no plans to expand the site at Full Sutton prison at this stage. The Prison Service owns a site adjacent to Full Sutton, and the possible development of this site has been under consideration, as an option for providing additional capacity as and when it may be needed. No final decision has been made on whether or not to proceed.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether prison video-link equipment has been used for the recording of an interview between a police officer and a prisoner. [191331]
Paul Goggins: Prison video-link equipment does not have the facility to record interviews.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of prisons have a visitors' centre. [191688]
Paul Goggins:
On the latest information available, 112 prisons have access to a visitors' centre. This equates to 79 per cent. of the prison estate.
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Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many strip searches have taken place in prisons in England and Wales during the last 12 months. [192673]
Paul Goggins: This information is not collated centrally and cannot be provided except at a disproportionate cost.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) state-run and (b) privately-run prisons there are in the UK. [193471]
Paul Goggins: There are 136 prisons in England and Wales (including young offenders institutions), excluding Dover and Haslar, which are managed by the Prison Service on behalf of Immigration and Nationality Directorate. 10 of the 136 prisons in England and Wales are run by the private sector.
Prisons in Scotland and Northern Ireland are the responsibility of the Scottish Executive and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland respectively. There are 16 prisons in Scotland, one of which is operated by the private sector. Northern Ireland has three prisons, all of which are in the public sector.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his Department's policy on the establishment of new prisons in England and Wales; and if he will list the proposed sites of these prisons. [193474]
Paul Goggins: HMP Peterborough, a new purpose-built prison, is expected to open in March 2005. This will provide a further 840 places. No decisions have yet been made regarding the construction of any other new prison establishments, but the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) keeps capacity within the prison estate under review. NOMS owns two sites, one in Merseyside and one in London, with outline planning consent to build two 600-place prisons.
The Budget 2003 settlement also provided funds to acquire at least two more sites in 2004–05 for the future development of large multi-function 1,500-place prisons. A search programme to identify suitable sites for purchase is currently taking place. It is not possible to list sites being considered for purchase, due to commercial considerations.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the progress of the intermittent custody pilots which have been taking place in two purpose-built prison units since January. [193927]
Paul Goggins: Intermittent custody (IC) originates from the Government's determination to avoid some of the negative outcomes (loss of employment, accommodation and family breakdown) which can accompany even relatively short periods of full-time custody.
An IC order is imposed by a court only on the basis of a stringent risk assessment by the national probation service and only those offenders assessed as being of lower risk to the public are suitable for IC.
Under the terms of the sentence, custody is served intermittently, either at weekends or on weekdays, for a number of days each week. Offenders spend non-custodial days under the supervision of the national
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probation service. This enables them to maintain their existing employment or caring responsibilities or to look for work.
IC pilots based at Kirkham, in Lancashire, for male offenders, and at Morton Hall, in Lincolnshire, for females, have been running since 26 January 2004. Up to 22 October, a total of 120 IC orders had been imposed, 82 on male offenders and 38 on females. There are currently 39 extant custody cases, 30 at Kirkham and nine at Morton Hall.
We are continuing to learn from the pilots, but the early indications are that IC is regarded as a valuable addition to the range of sentencing options, both by sentencers and offenders. This positive reaction to IC among offenders has translated into a high level of compliance, despite the onerous nature of the sentence.
It is already clear that there is a significant group of offenders for whom Weekend IC is an appropriate option. However, the take-up for Weekday IC has been relatively low. The disparity between the number of Weekend and Weekday IC orders was exacerbated by the need to clarify the benefit entitlements of IC offenders. This matter has been largely resolved and we are now seeking to promote the option of Weekday IC among probation officers and sentencers.
IC has been successful in enabling offenders to maintain their employment, accommodation and family ties. This has been particularly important for female offenders with caring responsibilities for dependant children. Male IC offenders have been able to retain their jobs and, in two cases, offenders operating small businesses were able to preserve the jobs of their employees.
On 29 September, the Home Secretary announced his intention to expand the use of IC and we are now working on the most effective ways of achieving this.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many category A prisoners who were (a) men and (b) women were detained in prisons in England and Wales on 1 October. [193968]
Paul Goggins: On 1 October there were 897 men and six women in prisons in England and Wales, with a category A classification.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison inmates who were (a) men under the age of 21 years and (b) women under the age of 21 years were serving a prison sentence in England and Wales on 1 March 2003. [193970]
Paul Goggins: On 28 February 2003, there were 8,111 male young offenders and 439 female young offenders in prison under sentence in England and Wales.
The figures include fine defaulters and young offenders who have turned 21 but who have not been reclassified as adults.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether all prisons in England and Wales have education facilities for inmates; and if he will make a statement. [194748]
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Paul Goggins: All prisons in England and Wales have education facilities for offenders. Funding for offender learning in 2004–05 is £127 million and includes £10 million for the delivery of learning and skills to offenders under supervision in the community. In addition, offender learning and skills has benefited from investment of £20 million from the Treasury's Capital Modernisation Fund, £4.4 million in 2002–03 and £15.6 million in 2003–04.
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) total and (b) average number of hours owed were for (i) principal officers, (ii) senior officers, (iii) prison officers and (iv) operational support grades for each Prison Service establishment on the last Saturday of each of the last 12 months as shown on each establishment's SPAR F form. [194821]
Paul Goggins: The information requested is no longer collated centrally and has been devolved to establishments to monitor and manage on an individual basis. The information requested could be collected only at a disproportionate cost.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans further studies into the relationship between diet and behaviour in prisons and young offender institutions; and if he will make a statement. [195721]
Paul Goggins: Research into the possible link between nutrition and offending behaviour in young offenders is currently being considered by the Home Office. We are exploring the possibility of conducting research within a community setting, both in relation to sentences served in the community and to re-offending rates post-custody. In addition the Prison Service has offered access to Natural Justice for research on the impact of diet on behaviour.
Interest has been generated by an earlier 1996 study on diet and behaviour at Aylesbury young offender institution. The results appeared to show a positive effect on behaviour, although the number of prisoners involved was too small to make the drawing of wider conclusions possible. The study did not follow up the young offenders once they had been released, so it was not possible to measure the impact on re-offending.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what analysis he has made of the study at Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution Aylesbury of connections between diet and behaviour; and if he will make a statement. [195769]
Paul Goggins: In 1996 the charity "Natural Justice", with the support of the Prison Service, conducted research into the effects of diet on behaviour at Aylesbury young offender institution. This work was reviewed by Home Office researchers who concluded that, while the results appeared to show a positive effect on behaviour, the number of prisoners involved were too small to make the drawing of wider conclusions possible.
The study did not follow up the young offenders once they had been released so it has not been possible to measure the impact on re-offending.
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Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many prisoners who began intensive drug treatment programmes in 2003–04 (a) completed and (b) dropped out of the programme; [196273]
(2) if he will list the prisons which run internal drug treatment programmes, broken down by type of programme. [196274]
Paul Goggins: In 2003–04, of the 4,703 prisoners entering intensive drug treatment programmes, there were 2,418 completions. The list of prisons that run internal drug treatment programmes is given in the following table. External contractors also run drug programmes in some of these and other prisons.
Drug treatment programmes run internally
2 STOP—Substance, Treatment and Offending Programme.
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3 Area Manager Validated sites. Framework fully adheres to the NTA definition within tier 3.
4 Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for short-term and remand prisoners, which provides a suitable platform for release into the community.
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Prison Service's review of the Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Through-care Services (CARATs) for prisoners with drug misuse problems has been completed; and if he will make a statement. [196275]
Paul Goggins: The review of Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Through-care (CARATs) services has been completed. A new CARAT Practice Manual, based on the review, is now in preparation and will be published on the Prison Service website (www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk).
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the latest figures are for (a) capacity and (b) unused capacity in each prison in Wales. [197413]
Paul Goggins: The figures in the table show the operational capacity and the population of all prisons in Wales as at November 2005.
| Establishment | Operational capacity | Population | Operational capacity—population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | 724 | 732 | 8 |
| Parc | 1,036 | 998 | 38 |
| Prescoed | 170 | 167 | 3 |
| Swansea | 348 | 321 | 27 |
| Usk | 250 | 245 | 5 |
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals were held in prisons in England and Wales on 28 October, broken down by nationality; and how many are held in each prison. [195803]
Paul Goggins: The most recent information available is for 30 September 2004, and is provided in the tables.
(53) Figures include persons held in immigration removal centres at Dover, Haslar and Lindholme
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