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12 Sept 2005 : Column 2631W—continued
Prisoners
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate he has made of the number of individuals recalled to custody who have received a dossier detailing their recall within (a) one week, (b) two weeks and (c) one month. [15362]
Fiona Mactaggart: We do not record centrally the date on which recalled determinate sentence prisoners are handed their revocation dossier. However, Table 1 shows the number of revocation dossiers dispatched to prisons one week, two weeks, and over two weeks, from the date of their return to custody being notified to the National Offender Management Service. The target for issuing the dossier is one working day after notification.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate he has made of the average time it takes the prison receiving a recalled prisoner to be given that individual's sentence planning information and risk assessment details; and whether there is a target for them to do so. [15363]
Fiona Mactaggart:
Prison service instructions require prisons to notify the National Offender Management Service when receiving a recalled determinate sentence prisoner within 24 hours of the offender being received into custody. The revocation dossier includes a risk assessment, completed by the probation service. The
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target for issuing the dossier is one working day. Data held centrally records 81 percent. dossiers being issued within the target since 1 April 2005.
Probation service national standards require a risk management plan to be completed within 15 days of a recalled determinate sentence prisoner being received into custody. The plan details the risk the offender presents and how it is proposed to manage the risk when the offender is released back into the community. Upon its completion, the report must be disclosed to the prisoner immediately. No data is held centrally on the number of risk management plans issued within the 15 day target.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the annual reports submitted to him by independent monitoring boards in the last 12 months have raised concerns that prisoners are arriving from the courts too late in the day to provide an adequate first night in custody service; and if he will make a statement. [15366]
Mr. Charles Clarke: This information is not held centrally. However, where those concerns are raised, they are taken up with the contractors concerned who are responsible for the movement of prisoners around the prison estate.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign national prisoners were being held in each prison in England and Wales awaiting deportation after the expiry of their sentence on 30 June. [15364]
Paul Goggins: Information on the number of people detained in prison establishments solely under Immigration Act powers after the completion of a criminal sentence is not available. The Prison Service does not record information on deportation orders on the Inmate Information System. Information on the number of persons held in prison who are the subject of a deportation order is not therefore available except by examination of individual case-files, at disproportionate cost. Work is on-going to improve the quality of data held on those people detained solely under Immigration Act powers in Prison Service establishments.
Colin Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department has made of the population of prisoners originating from West Yorkshire in the last year for which figures are available. [14432]
Fiona Mactaggart: Information is not recorded centrally on the home address of prisoners in England and Wales. Information is, however, held on the court that a prisoner is committed to or sentenced at.
On 31 May 2005 there were 4,046 persons held in prison establishments in England and Wales who were committed to or sentenced at courts in West Yorkshire, as recorded on the Prison Service IT system.
Colin Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department has made of the projected population of prisoners originating from West Yorkshire in (a) 2007, (b) 2010, (c) 2015 and (d) 2025. [14433]
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Fiona Mactaggart: The Home Office does not currently project the population of prisoners originating from specific geographical areas of England and Wales. The latest national prison population projections are published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin Prison Population Projections: 2005–2011, England and Wales, HOSB 01/05". An update to these projections will be published (HOSB 10/05) on the 26 July 2005.
Private Security Firms
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effect of the EU Directive on Services in the Internal Market on the regulation of private security providers in England and Wales who are based in other EU member states. [9369]
Paul Goggins: As currently drafted, it is believed that the impact of the Services Directive on the regulation of private security providers who are based in other EU member states will be minimal. This is because the provisions of the Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications (currently being considered by the European Parliament) which deal with the fitness to practice in a regulated profession are exempt from the country of origin principle found in the Services Directive. This means that individuals established in other EU member states who provide security services temporarily in England and Wales will be required to register with the Security Industry Authority.
Private Surveillance Cameras
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effect on the right to privacy of the use by private individuals of surveillance video cameras overlooking public spaces. [11275]
Hazel Blears [holding answer 11 July 2005]: The Home Office has made no formal evaluation of the effect on the right to privacy arising from the use by private individuals of surveillance video cameras overlooking public spaces.
CCTV is subject to regulation by the Information Commissioner through the CCTV Systems Code of Practice and the Data Protection Act 1998. Information on this Act can be located at the following web address: http://www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk/eventual.aspx?id=5739 or by writing to the Information Commissioner's Office, Wycliffe house, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF.
Probation Service
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the ratio of staff to offenders in the Hertfordshire probation area in 2003–04 was. [16231]
Fiona Mactaggart:
As of 31 March 2004, the Hertfordshire Probation Area had 215 employees. This number was made up of 149 operational staff and 66 support staff.
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The caseload at this time was 2,254 offenders.
Taking into account operational staff alone this makes the ratio of offender to staff at 15 to 1.
As of 31 March 2004 the National Probation Service had 19,236 employees. This number was made up of 14,250 operational staff and 4,986 support staff. The total caseload at 31 March 2004 is 195,939, which makes an operational ratio of 14 to 1.
Notes: 1. Operational staff includes those staff with frontline daily contact with offenders. It includes Senior Probation Officers, Senior practitioners, Probation Officers, Trainee Probation Officers, Probation Service Officers, Psychologists and other operational staff who do not fit within one of the aforementioned staff groups.
2. The period since 1998 has seen significant changes in the way in which the services of the NPS have been delivered. In particular, the use of accredited programmes has seen a number of low/medium risk offenders undergoing an intervention as part of a group rather than on an individual basis as has occurred in the past. The information given on the number of offenders does not identify level of risk or supervision received and consequently, the ratio of Offenders: Operational Staff should be indicative only and not used as a definitive measure of workload.
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the merits of introducing contestability into the provision of probation services. [14173]
Paul Goggins: Lord Carter's review Managing Offenders, Reducing Crime", published in January 2004, noted that while contestability had proved a strong stimulus to improvement in the Prison Service, there had been minimal contestability in frontline provision of probation services, and recommended action to introduce greater contestability. I accept that analysis, and have asked my officials to develop by this autumn proposals to test the market for probation services.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the recruitment strategy is for the probation service in London and the South East for the next financial year. [5641]
Fiona Mactaggart:
The National Probation Service has in place a recruitment strategy with staff recruitment targets for the service as a whole for the financial year 2006–07 and beyond. These are established by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) finance directorate and relate to the forward business plans of NOMS and the National Probation Directorate (NPD). For 2006–07 they are as follows: This national strategy will impact on the individual local recruitment strategies of the London Probation Area and the areas in the South East of England through the allocation of resources for staffing as part of the annual budget setting process. This budget setting process has yet to impact upon the areas, but for planning purposes each area is working with their own local planning assumptions and targets. It is, however, difficult at this early stage in the budgeting process to be precise about the detail of local recruitment strategies, and some areas are awaiting further funding information before finalising their plans.
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| National | London and SE combined | |
|---|---|---|
| Trainee probation officers (TPOs) | 500 | 140 |
| Probation service officers (PSOs) | 300 | 90 |
| Probation officers (POs) | 750 | 220 |
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