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27 Apr 2006 : Column 1248W—continued
Grievance Procedures
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many grievance procedures have been initiated in his Department in each of the last three years. [63551]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The following table provides the available information about the number of grievances raised within the Department in the last three years.
(6) Comprehensive information is not available in the requested format and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
(7) Have been raised to date.
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Highly Skilled Migrant Programme
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether doctors with existing leave under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme will require work permits under the new arrangements. [65013]
Andy Burnham: Those with leave under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme are permitted to take employment or self-employment in the UK without requiring a work permit. Therefore doctors with existing leave under the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme will not require work permits for the duration of this leave. However, they will need to meet other requirements such as registration with the GMC and those employing doctors on the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme need to follow Department of Health recruitment policies.
Offender Assessment System
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on progress in implementing the offender assessment system. [65797]
Fiona Mactaggart: The Offender Assessment System, OASys, has been implemented in all public sector prisons and all 42 areas of the national probation service. Full connectivity between the Prison Service and national probation service OASys systems was achieved in March 2006. Full access to OASys has recently been given to the contracted out prisons although not all have started using it yet.
Prisons
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of prisoners involved in work activity are placed in prison workshops. [65611]
Fiona Mactaggart: In the public sector Prison Service, approximately 13 per cent. of all prisoners are employed in a prison industries workshop on a daily basis. This represents about one in five of all work places.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of prisoners are involved in (a) work activity and (b) education or training. [65612]
Fiona Mactaggart:
Data in the specific format requested in the question are not collected centrally. However, the number of prisoners undertaking each type of prisoner activity is provided as a proxy. Prisoners that
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take part more than one type of activity may be counted more than once. Therefore, the following number cannot be used to calculate a proportion.
In 2005–06, 50,078 prisoners were recorded as undertaking work activities and 43,249 participated in education or training across the prison system.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the number of hours of purposeful activity undertaken by each prisoner per week. [65616]
Fiona Mactaggart: Provisional data for 2005–06 show the average number of hours of purposeful activity for the prison system to be 25.2 hours per prisoner per week.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of prison capacity in England and Wales by 2010. [65617]
Fiona Mactaggart: There is no estimate of prison capacity for 2010. Current plans are to increase the total capacity of the prison estate to around 80,400 in 2007.
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which companies provide telephone services for prisoners in each prison. [64169]
Fiona Mactaggart: Telecom services within the Prison Service are provided by British Telecommunications (BT) and Global Communications and Consultancy Ltd. (GCC). These companies provide telephone services throughout the prison estate with the exception of Ashfield and Lowdham Grange prisons. Telecommunication services for Ashfield are provided by Thus telecommunications and Lowdham Grange's service providers are Voice Products Ltd. and Your Communications.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his plans for continuity of provision of education and training for released prisoners. [65560]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The Government's plans for ensuring continuity of provision of learning and skills for released prisoners were set out in the Green Paper 'Reducing Re-Offending Through Skills and Employment', published in December 2005.
No separate estimate has been made of the costs of bridging the gap between education inside and outside prisons. The new providers being appointed by the Learning and Skills Council are required contractually to deliver the requirements of the Offender's Learning Journey, the document that specifies the service to the offender. That document includes a requirement on the provider to join up learning commenced in custody with that available in the community. The costs of bridging that gap are straightforwardly part of the contract price.
Probation/Bail Hostel (West Midlands)
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library the letter of 23 June 1994 designating Sycamore Lodge, Langley, Oldbury West Midlands as an approved probation and bail hostel. [66066]
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Fiona Mactaggart: I will arrange for a copy of the Home Office letter of 23 June 1994 to be laid in the Libraries of both Houses.
Witnesses
Jenny Willott:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vulnerable witnesses in
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each of the pilot schemes have successfully used intermediaries provided for in the special measures for vulnerable witnesses of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999; and if he will make a statement. [65488]
Fiona Mactaggart: The available data are set out in the table.
(8) Data refer to the number of witnesses for whom the Office for Criminal Justice Reform has provided a registered intermediary where the intermediary has, or is expected to, carried out a communication needs analysis relating to the witness or has assisted them to understand questions or to make their answers understood during a criminal investigation or trial. In a small number of these cases the intermediary may not have actually carried out these functions.
(9) Data refer only to pathfinder areas where notification of availability of the intermediary special measure has been made to courts in accordance with section 18(2) of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. Intermediaries have also been appointed in other criminal justice areas—such cases are not included in these data.
(10) Initial findings are that intermediaries are bringing considerable benefits to the criminal justice system by helping more vulnerable witnesses to give their best evidence and providing practitioners with more comprehensive information about witnesses to help guide their decisions.
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