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22 May 2006 : Column 1538W—continued
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how data is collected on the hours spent by prisoners undertaking purposeful activity; and what estimate he has made of the time prison officers spent collecting this information in the last period for which figures are available. [69900]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Data for purposeful activity is collected electronically from establishments. Every week each prison reports information on the number of prisoners undertaking a range of activities defined as purposeful. Specific software is available to prisons for reporting this data.
Data is not available on the amount of time spent collecting this information. This could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have escaped from prison in England and Wales in each of the last 20 years. [70065]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table shows the total number of prisoners who have escaped in the last 10 calendar years and this year to date. The table contains the total number of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) escapes from prisons. A KPI escape is one where (a) the prisoner is not captured within 15 minutes or (b) the prisoner is recaptured within 15 minutes but has committed an offence other than escape before recapture. Once a prisoner is unlawfully at large the matter passes into the hands of the police.
| Number of escapes from prisons in England and Wales since 1996 to date | ||
| Total escapes from establishments | Total KPI escapes | |
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the 10 most common offences are for which women are sent to prison in England and Wales, broken down by age group. [70083]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is contained in the following table:
Roger Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the expenditure was on prisoner education in each of the last two years. [70983]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department for Education and Skills had a ring-fenced budget for offenders' learning and skills of £136 million in 2004-05 and £151 million in 2005-06. This covers learning and skills provision in prisons as well as for offenders in the community.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when work commenced on the rebuilding and refurbishment programme at HMP Chelmsford; when the work ceased due to financial problems; when work is expected to recommence; and if he will make a statement. [48371]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 6 February 2006]: The project partnering agreement that allowed the constructor to commence detailed design work was signed in March 2005. Some preliminary site set-up activities commenced in March and the actual pre-commencement activity started on 31 May 2005. This involved refurbishment of the existing old healthcare building, detailed design of the project and site preparation (fencing) for construction of the new houseblock.
No building work started on the new houseblock, visits and workshop as the costs of these works were found to be above the budget when the constructor's detailed tender costs were submitted in August 2005. The estate planning committee (the governance authority) agreed the increased budget cost of£5.5 million on 27 September 2005 and the project was authorised to continue. The finalised contract value of £26.5 million for a new houseblock, workshop and visits building together with major refurbishments of the gatehouse, old healthcare and old visits buildings was submitted by the constructor and the full commencement agreement was signed on 10 October 2005 and work fully re-commenced immediately.
The new houseblock and visits are expected to be available in December 2006 with all the elements of the project finally completing in April 2007.
Probation
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders on probation under a community service order have been the subject of a recommendation by the Probation Service that they should be returned to prison in the last five years; and how many were subsequently returned to prison as a result of the recommendation. [69736]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The readily available information, which relates to the number of persons breaching community orders and those sentenced to immediate custody as a result, is published in Table 4.13 of “Sentencing Statistics, England and Wales, 2004”(page 92). This publication can be found in the Library and also on the Home Office website, as follows:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1505.pdf
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what complaints his Department has received from (a) individuals and (b) groups regarding the workings of the probation services in each of the last five years. [45863]
Mr. Sutcliffe: A National Complaints Procedure, agreed by the Secretary of State, enables local probation areas to handle complaints. Complaints must however, be from individuals. Each probation area will maintain their own record of complaints received and the outcome of these cases. Unresolved local complaints are escalated to the independent Prison and Probation Ombudsman.
General correspondence from individuals or groups complaining about the probation service received from people who are ineligible to complain under the procedure above, will have been answered by the appropriate unit but the Department does not collect the information in the form requested.
| Number received | Number eligible | |
Public Order
Ms Diana R. Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders were
found guilty of (a) drunken and disorderly behaviour and (b) drunken and aggravated disorderly behaviour in (i) England and (ii) Kingston upon Hull, North in each year since 1997. [69774]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Data held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of offenders convicted at all courts for ‘simple drunkenness’ and ‘drunkenness with aggravation’ in Kingston upon Hull petty sessional area and England, 1997-2004 are provided in the first table. It is not possible to separately identify convictions in Kingston upon Hull, North as the data are not collected at that level of detail.
Statistics for 2005 court proceedings will be available in the autumn of 2006.
Some drunkenness offences are now dealt with by penalty notice for disorder. Previously, such cases would have either gone to court or been dealt with by caution or informal warning. The penalty notice for disorder scheme (PND) was brought into effect in all police forces in England and Wales during 2004. Under the scheme the police are able to issue persons committing specified minor offences with a fixed penalty notice.
No admission of guilt is required and payment of the penalty discharges all liability for the offence. Data on the number of PNDs for offences related to drunkenness for 2004 and provisional data for 2005 are provided in the second table. Offences related to aggravated drunken behaviour are not included in the scheme.
| Number of offenders found guilty at all courts for offences related to drunkenness, Kingston upon Hull petty sessional area and England, 1997 to 2004 | ||||
| Kingston upon Hull | England | |||
| Drunkenness, simple | Drunkenness with aggravation | Drunkenness, simple | Drunkenness with aggravation | |
| Note: These data are provided on the principal offence basis Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform |
| Number of penalty notices for disorder issued in for offences related to drunkenness, England, 2004 and 2005 (provisional data). | ||||
| Total | DA06 drunk and disorderly | DB05 drunk in a highway | DB07 consumption of alcohol in public place | |
| Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform. |
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