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4 Sep 2006 : Column 1908W—continued
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with the Criminal Justice System Race Unit about the appropriateness of the Prison Service's rehabilitative interventions to the needs of minority ethnic and religious groups. [65588]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Criminal Justice System Race Unit (which sits within the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and is a tri-lateral organisation reporting to the Home Secretary, Lord Chancellor and Attorney-General) makes regular reports to, and has had regular discussion, with the relevant Ministers on the activity of Prison Service and the way it impacts on different ethnic minority groups.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the operational capacity is of HM Prison Latchmere House; and how many inmates are detained there. [74023]
Mr. Sutcliffe: As at 4 August 2006, the operational capacity of HMP Latchmere House was 207. The number of prisoners held at the establishment was 192.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many new prison places have been created in each year since 1997; and what the cost of new prison places was in each year. [77070]
John Reid:
The following table provides information on the number of new prison places and an estimate of the capital building cost from 1997 onwards. This information includes places at new prisons as well as those provided at existing prisons by building
houseblocks, Ready to Use Units (RTUs) and Modular Temporary Units (MTUs). It does not take into account any places provided by subsequent overcrowding, or places taken out of use.
| Number of New Prison Places | Capital Building Cost (£ million)( 1) | |
| (1) Actual costs, not adjusted for inflation. Costs relate to the places opened in each year. | ||
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with drug counsellors in prisons on the relative effectiveness of different drug treatment and intervention programmes across the prison estate. [78107]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Government routinely consult with prison drug treatment workers who report positively on the ability of prison drug treatment to make a real difference for prisoners in addressing their drug dependency.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which prisons issue condoms to prisoners; and if he will make a statement. [78132]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Doctors in all prisons in England and Wales, in a circular letter dated 16 August 1995, were informed that they should prescribe condoms to individual prisoners, on application, if, in their clinical judgment, there was a risk of HIV infection.
The Prison Service is planning to issue revised guidance and instructions which aim to clarify the policy on condoms so that it can be applied more evenly across the prison estate.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what preparations have been made by the Prison Service for the introduction of custody plus and intermittent sentencing; what impact he expects the change to have on the prison population; and if he will make a statement. [78149]
Mr. Sutcliffe: In the review of the Criminal Justice System published on 20 July the Government announced that Custody Plus will not go ahead in autumn 2006 as previously planned.
Intermittent Custody has been piloted at two prison establishments. We are considering the future of Intermittent Custody in light of learning from the pilots and of the decision not to proceed with Custody Plus.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Irish nationals have been deported to the Irish Republic from HM Prison Service establishments in the last 12 months. [78168]
Mr. Byrne: Information on the number of Irish nationals deported to the Irish Republic from HM Prison Service establishments in the last 12 months is not available centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost through examination of individual case files. My written ministerial statement of 19 July 2006, Official Report, column 29WS, set out the steps the Department is taking to improve the collection of robust management information on nationality across the system as part of improving the overall system for deportation of foreign national prisoners.
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking (a) to reduce the number of absconders and (b) to capture absconded prisoners from HMP Sudbury. [79993]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The prison completes a significant number of security information reports each month, informing its security department of any suspicious activity including risk of abscond. Security intelligence is regularly followed up and a number of prisoners are returned to closed conditions each month.
All absconds are reported to the police immediately. The prison has established close links with the local police and the police liaison officer visits the establishment frequently, in addition to attending the monthly security committee meeting.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to the answer of 18 May 2006, Official Report, column 1220W, on prisoners, what medical guidance his Department has received from health care professionals on the transportation of prisoners; [83815]
(2) what recent discussions he has held with medical professionals about the transportation of prisoners. [83693]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The unit responsible for Prison Health within the Department of Health was included in the consultation on the specification for new escort contracts. It is a requirement for all prisoners to have their medical needs assessed by a healthcare professional prior to transportation.
Neither I nor my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary or my noble Friend the Minister for Criminal Justice and Offender Management have had any recent meetings with health care professionals about the transportation of prisoners.
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 4 July 2006 to question 63082, on prisoners, what definition he uses of disproportionate cost. [84139]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The definition of disproportionate cost is when the cost of providing an answer is judged likely to exceed the limit of £600, 22 March 2005, Official Report, column 48WS.
Mr. Garnier:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 4 July 2006, Official Report, column 1056W, on prisons, for what reason records are not kept centrally of how
many inmates are being held in open conditions who have previously been Category A or Category B prisoners; and what assessment he has made of how this may affect his Department’s ability to ensure offenders are monitored appropriately (a) while in custody and (b) subsequently upon release. [84292]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Risk assessments and subsequent decisions on a prisoner’s categorisation and allocation are made at the establishment holding the prisoner. Records are therefore held at the prison and on the prisoner’s individual record as the most appropriate placement so they may be readily accessed throughout custody and in preparation for release. All prisons are subject to local and national audit of their categorisation and allocation procedures with audit reports being scrutinised centrally.
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what average distance from home (a) female and (b) male prisoners were imprisoned in each of the last nine years for which figures are available. [84407]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is provided in the following table.
| Average distance from home (miles) for male prisoners | Average distance from home (miles) for women prisoners | |
| Note: Figures are taken from sample data, not necessarily in the same month each year. | ||
Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are on (a) the mandatory drug testing programme and (b) the voluntary drug testing programme in the West Midlands. [85643]
Mr. Sutcliffe: All prisoners are subject to the requirements of the mandatory drug testing programme. In 2005-06, the number of voluntary drug testing compacts in place in prisons in the West Midlands was 2,682.
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many carbon dioxide emission permits have been allocated to prisons in its first year of operation of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme; and what the emissions were of each prison participating in the scheme. [86454]
Mr. Sutcliffe: One permit has been allocated. The sites covered by the permit are Wymott and Garth prisons which emitted 7,360 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department why the Inner Change Programme at Dartmoor Prison has been discontinued; and if he will make a statement. [86582]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The programme was introduced as a pilot only. Following a review under Prison Service Order 4350 (Effective Regimes Interventions) the programme is currently being withdrawn. The Review Panel identified a range of concerns, the most significant being the poor quality of the manuals which did not demonstrate a structured and coherent programme, a lack of consistency and clarity about the primary aims of the programme, a lack of understanding and appropriate sensitivity to the diversity agenda of HM Prison Service, and an absence of protocols for the management of the mentor system, making it unsafe.
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to expand the capacity of the prison estate over the next 12 months. [86628]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The ongoing prison building programme will deliver 780 new places in the next 12 months. This includes 180 places which have already been built but are not yet fully open.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 10 July 2006, Official Report, column 1685W, on prisons, for which offence each prisoner who absconded from an open prison in England and Wales was originally convicted. [87300]
John Reid: In order to answer this question it would be necessary to examine each individual record. This could be done only at a disproportionate cost.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which governors in the Prison Service received performance-related pay in the year ending March 2006; and if he will make a statement. [87440]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I am unable to detail which operational and senior managers, formerly known as governors, have received performance-related pay because of the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what involvement the hon. Member for Wythenshawe and Sale, East had in the handling of a human resources issue at HM Prison Wandsworth in October 2004. [87787]
Mr. Sutcliffe: It is not clear from the hon. Member's question to what issue he refers.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations his Department made in October 2004 to the Area Manager for London on the Service Level Agreement being developed as part of the performance testing exercise at HM Prison Wandsworth. [87788]
Mr. Sutcliffe: In announcing the results of the performance test evaluation panel, the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service asked that the Service Level Agreement (SLA) included a requirement to report on progress six months after the commencement of the SLA.
Colin Burgon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what sites the Prison Service has purchased in West Yorkshire since January 2004; how much was spent on each purchase. [87861]
Mr. Sutcliffe: No sites have been purchased in West Yorkshire.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children are held in prison, broken down by age and sex. [88016]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the number of children under the age of 18 who are held in prison, by age and sex, is given in Table 3 of the monthly Population in Custody tables for May 2006, which are available at the following web address.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/prismay06.pdf.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and so is not necessarily accurate to the last whole number.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which places in the ownership of his Department have planning permission for the development of a prison. [88336]
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