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26 Oct 2006 : Column 2145W—continued
John Reid: Under the old escort contracts, each court had a specific time by which all prisoners scheduled to appear that day should be delivered to the court. This was generally 09:30 hours.
Under the current contracts, which started on 29 August, contractors are required to deliver prisoners by:
The designated ready and available for court time (DRACT). This means that prisoners are ready and available 30 minutes before the court sits, having had an opportunity to meet their legal advisor;
11:30 hours, where the court has scheduled, listed or indicate on a warrant a court appearance after 12:00 hours for a particular prisoner’s case; or
a time agreed with the court on those occasions where a prisoner is being taken to a court at some distance from the prison in which they are being held.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were escorted by court escort services in each of the last five years. [93909]
John Reid: Details of the number of prisoners escorted by the court escort contractors to and from courts and between prisons are set out in the following table. The table excludes the number of prisoners escorted by the Prison Service, including category A prisoner moves.
| Financial year | Number of prisoners escorted |
Records of moves arranged locally by prisons are not held centrally.
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the occasions in each of the last six months when prisoners in closed conditions were moved as a group to open prisons on overcrowding drafts; how many prisoners were so moved; which prisons they were moved to and from in each case; and if he will make a statement. [94215]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 16 October 2006]: An overcrowding draft is used in exceptional circumstances to transfer prisoners without delay to an appropriate alternative prison with the same designated level of security categorisation.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many nutritionists are employed in (a) prisons and (b) young offenders institutes in England. [96193]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is not held centrally.
HM Prison Service offers nutrition and health training courses for staff, leading to a formal qualification from the Royal Institute of Public Health. Since this was introduced in 2002, approximately 300
staff have successfully passed the course. Some establishments also involve the local hospital dietician in their menu planning.
All prison establishments aim to offer a range of foods that enable prisoners to make healthy eating choices and the overall standard of prison food was recently recognised by the National Audit Office in its report “HM Prison Service—Serving Time: Prisoner Diet and Exercise” (March 2006). They reported that
“on the whole, food offered to prisoners is in line with the Government's recommendations on healthy eating”.
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in Whitemoor Prison, Cambridgeshire are currently receiving payments to encourage them to participate in leisure activities; what the level of payments are; when the programme commenced; how much the programme has cost to date; which category of prisoners are eligible to participate; what the maximum payment which may be made to each participating prisoner is (a) per day and (b) per week; and which other prisons in England and Wales operate similar programmes. [96588]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The programme is restricted to the six prisoners in the Close Supervision Centre. The CSC system holds the most dangerous, difficult and disruptive prisoners in prison custody. Payments made are not solely for leisure purposes but cover a range of constructive activities including education, contact with the mental health nurse, gardening, the workshop, cleaning and cooking with a tutor. The programme commenced with the opening of the Whitemoor CSC unit in October 2004.
The aim of the programme is to encourage prisoners to engage in purposeful and rewarding activity and to reintegrate prisoners back into the main prison system as a step towards encouraging them to address their offending behaviour. The maximum sum a prisoner may earn is £2 per day or £14 per week.
Whitemoor is one of three prisons in England and Wales containing CSC units. The other two are Wakefield and Woodhill prisons. Each unit is designed to deal with a specific type of CSC prisoner and provides a range of activities designed to meet their needs accordingly.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what management changes are planned at (a) HM Prison Pentonville, (b) HM Young Offender Institution Feltham and (c) London Area Management of the Prison Service; for what reasons these changes are to be implemented; and if he will make a statement. [96608]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 25 October 2006]: There are no planned management changes at senior level at Pentonville, Feltham or London area office except for where vacancies exist. The London area manager is due to retire in February 2007 and will be replaced then.
Mr. Greg Knight:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff employed by the prison service (a) directly and (b) indirectly have
(i) resigned and (ii) been sacked for failure to meet professional standards in each of the last 24 months; and if he will make a statement. [96609]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 25 October 2006]: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidelines he issues to Prison Service governors and staff on (a) accepting and (b) declaring hospitality; and if he will make a statement. [97395]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Guidance for Governors on accepting or declaring hospitality is contained in the Prison Service Finance Manual Prison Service Order (PSO 7500). Staff are advised through the Prison Service Staff Handbook, which is available to all staff and includes the guiding principles to be followed.
The Prison Service anti-fraud strategy (PSO1310) contains mandatory actions requiring staff to report any conflicts of interest, including any offer of gifts or hospitality (whether accepted or not), to the Governor or Head of Group.
This information is also available on the Prison Service website at www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk
Probation Service
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) discretionary lifers and (b) mandatory lifers who were released on licence and subsequently absconded during the past 10 years are still at large. [88489]
John Reid: On 1 September 2006, 18 life licensees (17 mandatory lifers and one discretionary lifer) remained unlawfully at large following the revocation of their life licence in the past 10 years.
Proceeds of Crime Act
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many confiscation orders have been issued to recover tainted gifts under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. [96408]
Mr. Coaker: This information is not held centrally. Confiscation orders are made by the courts for a fixed amount. The court decides the defendant’s benefit from his criminal conduct. This is calculated to include the value of all tainted gifts made by the defendant.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of cases in which the Assets Recovery Agency has used its powers to seize tainted gifts under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 since its establishment. [96410]
Mr. Coaker: The Assets Recovery Agency does not hold information in this form.
Proscribed Organisations (Terrorists)
Mr. Simon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the criteria are for placing a terrorist group on his Department’s list of proscribed organisations. [90140]
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria are used for including a group on the List of Proscribed Groups. [90016]
Mr. McNulty: Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2000 provides a power for the Home Secretary to proscribe an organisation which he believes is concerned in terrorism. This is done by adding the organisation to Schedule 2 of the Terrorism Act 2000 which lists proscribed organisations. An organisation is concerned in terrorism if it commits or participates in acts of terrorism, prepares for terrorism, promotes or encourages terrorism or is otherwise concerned in terrorism. This power was extended by section 21 of the Terrorism Act 2006 to include those organisations which glorify the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism. Glorification includes any form of praise or celebration of acts of terrorism. When deciding on whether to make an Order proscribing a group a number of additional factors are taken into account and these were published in 2001. They are the nature and scale of an organisation's activities, the specific threat that it poses to the United Kingdom, the specific threat that it poses to British national overseas, the organisation’s presence in the United Kingdom and the need to support other members of the international community in their fight against terrorism.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration is being given to extending the Home Office's list of proscribed terrorist groups. [95771]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 19 October 2006]: The list of organisations proscribed in the UK is kept under constant review.
Racial Abuse
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 25 May 2006, Official Report, column 2025W, on racial abuse, to what he attributes the increase in complaints of racial abuse since January 2005; what steps have been taken to address this issue; and what meetings have been held with senior civil servants to discuss the rise in complaints of racial abuse. [77432]
Mr. Byrne: The Department re-launched its HR policies in 2005 and this may have led to an increase in staff confidence to report complaints. During this time the Home Office’s five year race and diversity programme introduced a series of activities aimed at tackling inappropriate behaviours in the workplace. This has included a re-launch of mandatory diversity training (which incorporates modules on challenging bullying, harassment and discrimination within the workplace) and the introduction of tests for prejudicial attitudes and behaviours in assessment centres. The Home Office’s five year race and diversity programme was launched in July 2004. The programme is led by a board of senior civil servants drawn from across the Home Office group.
Rehabilitation of Offenders Act
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will introduce the reforms recommended by the report of the review of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. [93920]
John Reid: The Government have accepted the majority of the review’s recommendations and will legislate when parliamentary time allows.
We are also considering what might be necessary for the disclosure regime in the light of the Bichard report which dealt with criminal records in the context of the protection of children and vulnerable adults.
Road Safety
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what total amount in motoring fines was levied in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) region and (b) local authority area. [82443]
Mr. McNulty: Information taken from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform on the total amount of motoring fines ordered to be paid broken down by Government office region in England and Wales from 2000 to 2004 (latest available) is given in the following table. The figures relate only to fines imposed by the courts. Data are not available at local authority area level.
2005 data will be available early in 2007.
| Total amount of court imposed fines for motoring offences, by Government office region, England and Wales, 2000-04 | |||||
| £ million | |||||
| Government office region | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 |
| Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. | |||||
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