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Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were stopped and tested for drink driving in each of the last five years (a) in Lancashire, (b) in each police authority area and (c) in total. [201124]
Caroline Flint: The information requested is given in the table.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to ensure that prison visiting times are available outside school hours. [206288]
Paul Goggins: Prison visiting times are determined by individual governors, taking account of operational matters, resources and demand. In line with core Prison Service policy to assist and encourage contact between prisoners and their families, all establishments have a mandatory duty to make available regular weekend visits to prisoners. Some establishments are also able to hold evening visits and an increasing number now provide extended children's visits and family days.
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he expects the Prison Service to meet its racial employment targets for the current year. [201621]
Paul Goggins:
The Home Office race employment target for the Prison Service is to achieve 6 per cent. Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) staff representation
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by April 2005, although current predictions indicate it is unlikely to meet that target. BME staff representation is currently 5.51 per cent.
The Prison Service has taken a number of steps to increase the profile of the Service among BME communities. An outreach support team based in Prison Service Headquarters provides guidance and advice to local recruiters and has put in place a series of supporting tools, including:
Through these measures, recruiters are encouraged to develop an outreach strategy that includes representation at community, religious and cultural, and lifestyle events as well as attendance at recruitment and career fares.
Over the last two months the Prison Service has run a national awareness advertising campaign targeting under-represented groups. The campaign is aimed at
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raising awareness of the diverse range of career opportunities available within the service . While it is too early to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative, there has been a significant increase in interest in the Prison Service website (over 120 per cent.). The Prison Service has made it clear to the advertising agencies it uses, that they must consider advertising strategies that attract applications from under-represented groups.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) unconvicted and (b) convicted unsentenced prisoners are held in prisons in England and Wales, broken down by sex. [203381]
Paul Goggins: The information requested, as recorded on the Prison Service central IT system on 31 October 2004, is provided in the table.
Males | Females | |
---|---|---|
Untried | 7,098 | 503 |
Convicted Unsentenced | 4,297 | 331 |
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many hours per week on average remand prisoners spent out of cell in each local prison in England and Wales in 2003. [203382]
Paul Goggins: The Prison Service does not collect specific details of the number of hours that remand prisoners spend out of cell. Details of time out of cell for all prisoners and each establishment average are collected but these do not allow the specific identification of the position for remand prisoners.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average population of prisoners on remand was in England and Wales in 2003. [203383]
Paul Goggins: The average remand population in prison establishments in England and Wales in 2003, as recorded on the Prison Service central IT system, was 12,923.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) male and (b) female remand prisoners were subsequently (i) acquitted and (ii) sentenced to a non-custodial penalty in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [203384]
Paul Goggins: The following table gives the estimated numbers of male and female defendants remanded in custody by final outcome at the magistrates' courts and the Crown court in 2003.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have been on remand awaiting trial for over (a) six months, (b) 12 months, (c) 18 months and (d) over two years; and if he will make a statement. [203385]
Paul Goggins: The available information is not sufficiently reliable to break down into the level of detail required.
We estimate that, on 30 June 2003, around 500 prisoners had been on untried remand for more than six months up to and including 12 months. We further estimate that, on the same date, around 100 prisoners had been on untried remand for more than 12 months. These figures include any intervening time spent outside of prison establishments.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners convicted of sex offences have escaped from open prisons in the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [203532]
Paul Goggins: Prisoners are considered to abscond, rather than to escape, from open prisons. The information sought is set out in the following table. This shows the number of prisoners who have absconded from open prisons or failed to return from a period of temporary release from an open prison in the years from 2002 to 2004 and who were serving sentences for sex offences at the time. Prescoed began taking sex offenders this year. All 10 of these prisoners were recaptured and none were still at large on 7 December 2004.
Prison | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 (to 7 December) |
---|---|---|---|
Leyhill | 3 | 2 | 1 |
North Sea Camp | 2 | 0 | 1 |
Prescoed | | | 1 |
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prisoners that have absconded from prison over the past five years and failed to be recaptured; for which crimes each was convicted; and what sentence each was serving. [199975]
Paul Goggins:
Once a prisoner is unlawfully at large the matter passes into the hands of the police. The information requested in respect of prisoners who have
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absconded over the past five years and are still unlawfully at large is available only at disproportionate cost.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who had completed their sentence were being held in a prison establishment on 14 December, broken down by (a) prison, (b) nationality and (c) ethnicity. [205629]
Mr. Browne [holding answer 20 December 2004]: Information on the number of people who were detained in prison establishments solely under Immigration Act powers after a completion of a criminal sentence is not available.
Work is ongoing to improve the quality of data held on those people detained under Immigration Act powers in Prison Service establishments.
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of the (a) female and (b) male prison population were serving prison sentences for their first criminal offence in each year since 1997. [206277]
Paul Goggins: The requested information has been published in table 8.7 of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Offender Management Caseload Statistics". A copy of this publication can be found in the House of Commons Library.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the pay rates for (a) work and (b) education are in each prison in England and Wales. [201391]
Paul Goggins: It is Prison Service policy that all prisoners who are employed in purposeful activity such as work, induction, education, training and offending behaviour programmes, must be paid. The minimum rate of pay for all these activities is set nationally and is currently £4.00 a week.
Each prison is able to set their own pay rates over and above the national minimum. Rates of pay will therefore vary between prisons and between activities within a prison, as Governors use this discretion to pay rates that reflect local conditions. The Prison Service does not keep national statistics on rates of local pay and so we are unable to provide the information requested.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what proportion of prisoners who were given detoxification in the last 12 months for which figures are available entered one of the Prison Service's drug rehabilitation programmes; [201384]
(2) what proportion of prisoners who entered a drug rehabilitation programme in the last 12 months for which figures are available went on to complete those programmes; and what proportion failed to complete such programmes. [201385]
Paul Goggins:
In 200304, 57,891 prisoners received clinical interventions (detoxification or maintenance prescribing) and 4,703 entered an intensive drug rehabilitation programme, of whom 2,287 (48 per cent.) failed to complete a programme. The great majority of those who attend a programme will have received a clinical intervention on first arrival in prison custody.
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Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what factors have been identified as accounting for the increase of self harming incidents in prisons between 1999 and 2003; and if he will make a statement. [201028]
Paul Goggins: In December 2002 new procedures for reporting self-injury were introduced in prisons in England and Wales. The evidence suggests that much of the increase in reported self-harm in 2003 may result from this change rather than an actual increase in incidence of self-harm.
The prison population includes a large number of prisoners with a combination of psychiatric disorders, alcohol and drug dependency, family background and relationship problems, histories of self-harm and previous abuse, all of which raise their risk of suicide and self-harm.
A number of interventions have been introduced to support prisoners who self-harm. These include counselling, support groups, and specialised psychological interventions. A network has been established to develop this work, to facilitate evaluation and share good practice. Guidance to staff on managing people who self-harm has also been circulated to establishments.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many life sentence prisoners have been released on parole during each of the last 48 months. [201034]
Paul Goggins: The requested information is shown in the table. Information for the period November 2000 to March 2001 relates to first time releases only. Subsequent data includes cases where the prisoners have been re-released following the earlier revocation of their life licence.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in 2003 began training, education or offender behaviour programmes but were unable to complete these courses due (a) to transfer to another establishment and (b) release from custody. [201037]
Paul Goggins: In 200304 there were approximately 9,600 commencements of accredited offending behaviour programmes excluding drug programmes. Of the 8,034 commencements of general offending behaviour programmesEnhanced Thinking Skills and Reasoning and Rehabilitation106 prisoners (1.3 per cent.) did not complete because they were transferred and 12 (0.1 per cent.) did not complete because they were released. The percentage of prisoners not completing other accredited offending behaviour programmes for these reasons would have been similar or lower.
Equivalent information on non-completion is not available for prisoners' training or education programmes.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the development costs were of the Democratic Therapeutic Community Core Model to (a) public sector and (b) private sector prison operators. [201054]
Paul Goggins: The Democratic Therapeutic Community (TC) Core Model was developed by a working group drawn from across public and private sector prisons.
The Therapeutic Community Policy Manager in Prison Service Headquarters facilitated this development work and managed a central annual budget of £129,000 which was used to support the
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accreditation process. This included the provision of training and resources for staff, the commissioning of a consultant to undertake a literature review to underpin the core model, the provision of additional psychometric materials to TCs and other related costs.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drug-related deaths have occurred among inmates in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last three years. [202730]
Paul Goggins: Two deaths in 2001, eight in 2002 and six in 2003 appeared to be drug-related.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were held (a) two to a cell designed for one and (b) three to a cell designed for two at the latest date for which figures are available; and how many category C and D prisoners are being housed in dormitory accommodation. [202996]
Paul Goggins: At the end of October 2004 16,889 prisoners were held two to a cell designed for one, while 1,034 prisoners were held three to a cell designed for two. The data in this answer are provisional and subject to validation by prisons.
The Prison Service does not collect centrally the details of the number of category C and D prisoners who are placed in dormitory accommodation.
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