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16 Nov 2004 : Column 1440W—continued
Prison Service
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the
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results of the DORE Achievement Centres and dyslexia, dyspraxia and attention deficit treatment programme with the Prison Service in Stafford; and what plans he has to extend the programme to other prisons. [146170]
Paul Goggins: The results of the programme run at Stafford prison are encouraging, albeit on the basis of a very small sample.
The research raises some complex issues and needs a co-ordinated approach to further development involving health, physical education and education
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providers. I have asked those responsible for the DORE programme to discuss their work further with the Prison Service.
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the real terms change in total spending for the Prison Service was in each of the last 10 years. [169092]
Paul Goggins: The real term changes in total spending for the Prison Service over the last 10 years are given in the following table.
Notes:
1. These are figures for the Prison Service.
2. Please note that from 2001–02 onwards figures are on accruals basis. Figures are cash prior to that.
3. Note also that from 2003–04 onwards the figures reflect transfers of functions and funding to Correctional Services/NOMS, including private prisons.
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to publish a business case in respect of contestability plans for the probation and prison services. [192730]
Paul Goggins [holding answer 25 October 2004]: The case for the establishment of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is outlined in Patrick Carter's independent report "Managing Offenders—Reducing Crime". The draft detailed business case will be presented to the NOMS Programme Board shortly.
Prisoners (Employment)
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his latest estimate is of how many hours on average per week a prisoner serving a sentence in a London prison spends in employment; and if he will make a statement. [197715]
Paul Goggins: Prisoners in London establishments spend an average of 9.7 hours a week engaged in work related purposeful activity. The Prison Service continues to provide work opportunities for as many prisoners as possible. The figure is an average for all prisoners in London establishments. These establishments are mainly local prisons which serve the courts, and contain a high proportion of remand prisoners. As remand prisoners are not obliged to undertake work, their numbers bring down the overall average of work related hours. Additionally, local prisons are most likely to experience high levels of overcrowding and the amount of work available for each prisoner will naturally diminish as the population increases.
Prisons
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of (a) male and (b) female prisoners have (i) self-harmed, (ii) attempted suicide and (iii) committed suicide while in prison in each of the last five years. [191332]
Paul Goggins: The numbers and percentages of individuals who self-harmed or apparently took their own lives in prisons (1999–2003), are included in the following tables. While the new self-harm reporting system which started in 2003 has improved the consistency with which such incidents are reported, and improved the detail and quality of the information collected, it makes meaningful comparisons across time more difficult.
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Note: A new form for reporting self injury (the F213sh) was introduced across the prison estate in December 2002.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to change diets in (a) prisons and (b) young offender institutions, following recent studies on the effects of diet on behaviour. [195768]
Paul Goggins: In 1996, a study was conducted at Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution (HMYOI) Aylesbury by 'Natural Justice', a research charity investigating the relationship between nutrition and criminal behaviour. They reported a significant reduction in offending behaviour amongst young offenders who had taken nutritional supplements.
Half of the young men participating received pills containing vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids. The other half received placebo or dummy pills. The researchers recorded the number and type of offences each of the prisoners committed in the nine months before they received the pills and in the nine months during the trial. They found that the group that received the supplements committed 25 per cent. fewer offences than those who had been given the placebo.
The results were independently reviewed by the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) at the Home Office. RDS acknowledged that the results of the study showed a positive effect on behaviour. However, the number of participants involved was small and the study did not follow through to see whether re-offending reduced or continued once the trainees had left the establishment. This made it very difficult to validate wider implications from the results.
Natural Justice have plans to replicate the project on a much broader scale. Approval was given in October 2002 for Natural Justice to have access to Warren Hill and Stoke Heath if they could satisfy ethical requirements and obtain funding for the research. On similar grounds, the Scottish Prison Service approved access to Polmont.
Beyond this research, other work is taking place to ensure that individual prisoners are encouraged to eat healthily, and that the food provided is nutritious. A partnership between the catering, education and physical education departments in prisons encourages the promotion of high-starch, fibre-rich foods rather than sugary or processed ones, or those which contain too much salt or sugar.
Catering staff are provided with training information and the skills required to produce healthy food. The Prison Service runs nutrition-training courses at intermediate level for prison caterers, which lead to a
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formal qualification from the Royal Institute of Public Health. Some establishments involve the local hospital dietician in their menu planning and some have obtained Healthy Eating Awards (Heartbeat) from their local authorities.
The content of meals provided in prisons and young offender institutions is constantly evolving with prison caterers being aware of and trained to provide nutritious and healthy diets. Prisoners and young offenders are increasingly being educated and made aware of the importance of healthy eating.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of prisons offer a 24 hour counselling service; and what the most common reasons are for prisoners using counselling services. [196650]
Paul Goggins: The specific information requested is not available. A wide range of counselling and support mechanisms are available to prisoners. Counselling in drug and substance misuse is provided in every prison establishment as part of the Counselling, Assessment, Referral and Treatment (CARAT) programme. Individual establishments also have arrangements for the provision of professional counselling services through both primary care trusts and local voluntary sector providers. Referrals to outside counselling services can be made through psychology, health care, the chaplaincy and mental health in-reach teams.
In common with arrangements in the community, counselling services are generally provided during normal working hours and not on a 24 hour basis. 24-hour support is, however, normally available to prisoners through listener schemes, whereby prisoners who have been trained by the Samaritans are available to provide emotional support to other prisoners. Prisoners also have access to the Samaritans by telephone.
By their very nature many counselling and support services operate on a strictly confidential basis. While comprehensive information about the reasons for seeking counselling is not available, the areas covered include physical, emotional and sexual abuse; family issues and relationship problems; suicidal and self-harm tendencies; substance abuse; and offending behaviour.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of transferring the prison health service to the national health service on prisoners reporting historical sex abuse. [197438]
Paul Goggins:
No such assessment has been made. We expect all prisoners to benefit from the transfer of responsibility for prison health services to the national health service (NHS). When completed in 2006, this
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change will represent another significant step towards giving prisoners access to the same range and quality of health services as the general public receives from the NHS.
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether prison regulations permit visits by the visually impaired to be accompanied by guide dogs. [197508]
Paul Goggins: As a service provider, the Prison Service is fully aware of its obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act and seeks to ensure it meets the needs of all visitors, including those with disabilities. Visitors accompanied by an assistance dog are welcome at prison establishments and certainly would not be excluded on this basis. However, a reasonable adjustment may need to be made to accommodate the dog and to ensure there is no distraction to patrol or passive drug dogs on site. For this reason, it is advisable that the prison is notified of any special requirements in advance of the visit.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of inmates of each (a) prison and (b) young offenders institution are detained within 50 miles of their homes, broken down by category of prisoners; and what the average (i) stay of inmates and (ii) length of time served by prison officers in each establishment is. [198200]
Paul Goggins: The proportion of each prison's population with a home address or committal court address within 50 miles of the establishment is as follows:
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Information on the length of time a prisoner spends at each establishment is not recorded centrally and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
The average length of time Officer Grade staff spend working at each establishment is given in the following table. Information about prison custody officers at contracted prisons is not held centrally.
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Mrs. Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list prison refurbishment projects by establishment that have been undertaken since April 2000; and what the (a) date of completion or projected completion date, (b) cost of the refurbishment and (c) number of places added was in each case. [198473]
Paul Goggins: The projects in the following table are those that have been classified as major refurbishment work. Projects classified as maintenance are not included.
The primary objective of refurbishment projects is to modernise buildings and keep them fit for purpose; they are not as a general rule intended to produce additional places. A small number of places may have been created or taken out of use by individual projects but the net effect on number of places is broadly neutral.
(60) CPIG Crown Premises Inspection Group (Fire)
The information supplied has been collected within the Property Services Group of Her Majesty's Prison Service, which does not deal directly with refurbishments carried out within the Private Estate. As the establishments within the Private Estate have not been running long enough for the need to modernise, it is unlikely that any large scale refurbishments have been planned so far, although some upgrading work may have been carried out at local level.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether all prisons in England and Wales have a race relations officer in service; and what action he is taking to promote such a position. [197718]
Paul Goggins:
All establishments must appoint a race relations liaison officer to provide information to staff and prisoners on national and local policies and to monitor race relations within the establishment. Race relations liaison officers are allocated a core minimum of eight hours a week, with additional hours dependent on the nature of the establishment. An increasing number of establishments have also appointed full-time diversity officers. These are usually prisons that are large, have a large minority ethnic prisoner population, or are in an isolated location making community links difficult to organise.
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The name and role of the race relations liaison officer is widely publicised to staff and prisoners. Many establishments display photographs of the race relation liaison officer and also members of the establishment's race relations management team.
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