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11 Jan 2005 : Column 295W—continued

Dungavel Detention Centre

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children have been detained in the family accommodation at Dungavel Detention Centre in each month since its re-opening. [206018]

Mr. Browne: Following the disturbance at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre in July it was necessary, for a short time, to use the family accommodation at Dungavel for single male detainees. The family accommodation at Dungavel is no longer being used for this purpose and families are being detained there as appropriate. Children and infants are detained as part of family groups whose detention is considered necessary, most often just prior to their removal and usually just for a few days.

Information on the total number of children detained under Immigration Act powers in each month is not available. Official statistics on immigration detainees are produced on a snap-shot basis. On 25 September 2004, 40 children were detained solely under Immigration Act powers in the United Kingdom, however none of these were held at Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre.

Information on the number of people detained solely under Immigration Act powers as at 25 December 2004 will be published on the Home Office web-site on 22 February 2005. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1 .html

E-mails

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his Department's policy is in relation to the storage and deletion of e-mails; and whether this policy has been reviewed in the past 12 months. [206742]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Department continues to implement well established policies and procedures for the review and disposal of files in accordance with its administrative needs and the Public Records Act

E-mail messages that form part of the official record are saved for as long as business needs require and stored corporately in accordance with departmental record management procedures. Further e-mail guidance is available on the National Archives website at: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/electronicrecords/advice/pdf/managing_emails.pdf.

Departmental policies are kept under review and this is the case for all record management policies. There has been no change to policies over the last 12 months. They continue to treat e-mails as one of the many document types containing business information and so they are used as part of the business record accordingly.

Escaped Prisoners

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what offences prisoners who absconded in 2004 from open prisons were serving custodial sentences. [205627]


 
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Paul Goggins [holing answer 20 December 2004]: From 1 January this year to date there have been 934 absconds from open and semi-open prisons. Information about each prisoner's offence could not be obtained except at disproportionate cost.

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have escaped from each prison in each of the last five years; and how many have not been recaptured. [205630]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 20 December 2004]: The information requested is set out in the table.
Totals

Financial yearTotal escapes from establishmentsTotal recapturedTotal KPI escapes
1999–2000302930
2000–01131311
2001–02171615
2002–03545
2003–04111010

Financial year 1999–2000

EstablishmentTotal escapesTotal recapturedTotal KPI
Pare111
Stocken111
Hollesley Bay333
Littlehey101
The Mount111
Rochester333
Haverigg111
Liverpool111
Risley111
Styal444
Thorn Cross111
Deerbolt222
Huntercombe111
Featherstone111
Lindholme888
Total302930

Financial year 2000–01

EstablishmentTotal escapesTotal recapturedTotal KPI
Guys Marsh111
Erlestoke442
Blantyre House111
Portland222
Risley111
Brinsford111
Downview111
Kirklevington111
Lancaster111
Total131311

Financial year 2001–02

EstablishmentTotal escapesTotal recapturedTotal KPI
Norwich111
The Verne111
Erlestoke111
Winchester111
Grendon333
Lindholme321
Wealstun111
Feltham111
Guys Marsh333
Rye Hill222
Total171615

 
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Financial year 2002–03

EstablishmentTotal escapesTotal recapturedTotal KPI
Brixton101
Norwich111
Cardiff111
Littlehey111
The Weare111
Total545

Financial year 2003–04

EstablishmentTotal escapesTotal recapturedTotal KPI
Brinsford444
Bullingdon111
Dartmoor332
Lindholme111
Leicester111
Pare101
Total111010

Financial year 2004–05

EstablishmentTotal escapesTotal recapturedTotal KPI escapes
Haverigg222
The Verne333
Pentonville111
Werrington1I1
Stafford323
Total10910

Female Prisoners

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on resources made available by the Government to families looking after the children of women in prison. [206282]

Margaret Hodge: I have been asked to reply.

Lone fathers or others with formal care responsibilities for such children can access the full range of provision available to support children's well-being, regardless of the reason why the mother is absent from the family. These include universal benefits and services, such as child benefit and Sure Start; discretionary payments such as child tax credit; and targeted social services provision based on individual assessments of the children's needs by the relevant local authority.

DfES is formally committed to working with the Home Office and NOMS on supporting stable family links between prisoners and their partners and children, as part of the Government's action to reduce re-offending.
 
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Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of mothers in prison were first-time offenders in each year since 1997. [206284]

Paul Goggins: The requested information is not recorded centrally.

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of female prisoners who gave birth in prison were subsequently reunited with their child in the last period for which figures are available. [206290]

Paul Goggins: The information requested is not available.

The Prison Service does not keep records of reunions of mothers and children in the community. All pregnant prisoners who give birth to a baby while serving a prison sentence do so in a local hospital. Some of those mothers will be able to keep the baby with them in a Prison Service Mother and Baby Unit, while others will choose to leave their infant in the care of relatives or other carers, which is likely to result in a reunification of mother and baby. In other cases, babies may be taken into the care of foster carers and Social Services on a temporary basis. The outcome in those cases depends on the decisions of Social Services and the Family Courts.

Firearms

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many criminal incidents it was reported that firearms had been used in (a) 1997 and (b) 2003; and in how many of those incidents the use of handguns was reported. [199534]

Caroline Flint [holding answer 29 November 2004]: The available information is given in the table. Because of changes in reporting and recording practices, the data for the two years are not directly comparable.
Crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in which firearms were reported to have been used

Financial yearCrimes in which firearms were used (including air weapons) Crimes in which handguns were used
1997–9812,8052,636
2003–04(82)24,0945,144


(82) Figures are provisional
Note:
1. There was a change in counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998
2. The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. Figures for some crime categories from this date may have been inflated by this.





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