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4 Sep 2006 : Column 1918W—continued
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total capacity of prisons in England and Wales was in each of the last eight years. [88841]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is shown in the following table.
| Month/year | Operational capacity |
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been sent to prisons in England and Wales in each of the last eight years. [88843]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The number of persons sentenced to immediate custody in England and Wales is published in “Sentencing Statistics 2004, England and Wales”, (Home Office Bulletin No 15/05), Table 2.4 (page 25) and is on the Home Office website at:http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1505.pdf Although care is taken in collating and analysing the returns used to compile such figures, the data are of necessity subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Consequently, although some figures may be shown to the last digit in order to provide a comprehensive record of the information collected, they are not necessarily accurate to the last digit shown. We have started a programme of work in the Home Office looking at the quality of existing court sentencing data and how this might be improved.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what security checks are carried out on casual staff working in the Prison Service; and if he will make a statement. [88886]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Casual employees are subject to the same checks as those for permanent employees and include checks on: identity; proof of address; entitlement to work in the UK; criminal record check; references; qualifications and where appropriate, national security vetting.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners do not have British citizenship. [88916]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
Information on the number of foreign national prisoners serving an immediate custodial sentence in prison establishments in England and Wales is given in table 8.28 of the web tables of Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004, available at the following address. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/omcs.html. 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.
Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Prison Service's strategy is for tackling bullying in the workplace. [88936]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The public sector Prison Service's policy on tackling bullying is set out in Prison Service Order (PSO) 8010 “Equal Opportunities”. This makes clear that staff have the right to make complaints about bullying; and that managers have responsibility for ensuring a workplace free from bullying and for dealing with any complaints they receive. PSO 8460 “Conduct and Discipline” describes the procedures to be followed where allegations of bullying require formal investigation and identifies bullying as gross misconduct which, depending on the circumstances of the case, may result in dismissal from the Service. Copies of all PSOs are available in the Library of the House.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for (a) reducing the energy output of existing prisons and (b) minimising the energy output of new prisons; and if he will make a statement. [88941]
John Reid: It is planned to reduce energy consumption across the public sector prison estate in England and Wales in 2006-07 by 4.44GWh. This equates to a reduction of 1,675 tonnes in carbon dioxide emissions.
All newly built prison buildings must conform to the building regulations, in particular Part L (conservation and power). However, a significant proportion of new prison buildings will go beyond these requirements.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much additional capacity he plans to create in prisons; and if he will make a statement. [89098]
Mr. Sutcliffe: An ongoing building programme will deliver around 900 new places at existing prisons between July 2006 and 2007. This includes 180 places which have already been built but are not yet fully open.
The prison expansion programme, announced on 20 July 2006, will deliver a further 8,000 new prison places.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many rapes have been reported in each prison in England and Wales in each of the last five years, broken down by sex of victim. [86808]
Mr. Sutcliffe: An alleged rape is recorded on the central incident reporting system under the category of sexual assault. All such incidents are reported to the police for investigation. There were 79 reports of alleged rape in the last five calendar years. The following table provides a breakdown of alleged rapes by the gender of the victims and by the prison.
| Alleged rapes by prison in England and Wales and gender of victim between 2001 and 2005 | |
| Prison | Gender |
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of people imprisoned on remand pending trial were subsequently (a) acquitted and (b) given a non-custodial sentence in the last period for which figures are available. [87146]
John Reid: The information requested is contained in Chapter 4 of “Criminal Statistics 2004” which can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1905.pdf.
Table 4.8 on page 82 gives figures for the numbers of defendants remanded in custody by final court outcome.
Figures for 2005 will be published in the autumn of 2006.
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