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7 Nov 2006 : Column 1424W—continued
Prisoners' Property
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will ensure that discharged prisoners may nominate an address to which their property will be sent. [98888]
Mr. Sutcliffe: It is Prison Service policy that any property remaining in an establishment after discharge has to be collected by the prisoner. This is to ensure that the prisoner can confirm that all property recorded on the prison system has been returned.
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the future arrangements will be for the disposal of the property of former prisoners that is not collected on their discharge by a court. [98889]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Current policy is set out in Prison Rule 43 (4) which states that: any article belonging to a prisoner which remains unclaimed for a period of more than three years after he leaves prison, or dies, may be sold or otherwise disposed of; and the net proceeds of any sale shall be paid to the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders, for its general purposes. There are no immediate plans to alter this policy.
Prisons
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 3 July 2006, Official Report, column 885W, on prisoners, how many temporary release licences have been issued in each of the last five years. [91737]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the numbers of prisoners released on temporary licence in England and Wales 1999 to 2004 can be found in table 10.6 in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library. Web versions of the tables can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1705section10.xls
Figures for 2005 will be published in December.
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 although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many new prisons the Government have commissioned since 1997. [93690]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Since 1997 we have increased prison capacity by around 19,700 places by expanding existing prisons and opening nine new prisons.
HMP Bronzefield and HMP Peterborough were commissioned by the present Government and funded under the private finance initiative (PFI). Bronzefield opened in 2004 and Peterborough in 2005.
Contracts for HMP Altcourse, HMP Parc and HMP Lowdham Grange were signed under the previous administration but were opened after May 1997. Planning for HMP Ashfield, HMP Forest Bank, HMP Dovegate and HMP Rye Hill was undertaken prior to May 1997, although funding for these prisons was approved by the present Government, with contract signatures taking place after May 1997.
The Home Secretary announced, in July 2006, an additional 8,000 prison places. These places will be delivered through a mixture of expanding existing prisons and building a number of new prisons.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make publicly available the model used to calculate prison population projections for the Home Office Statistical Bulletin. [93815]
John Reid: The models used to calculate the current prison population projections are described in Annexe two of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin 11/06, "Prison population projections 2006-2013, England and Wales", published on the Home Office website in July 2006. There are five elements to the modelling. In the very-short term (the first three months) the X12-ARIMA method developed by the USA Census Bureau is used. This method is publicly available at www.census.gov/srd/www/x12a/. In the short-term (between four months and two years) the population is modelled by a stock-and-flow model. This is not publicly available as it links to Prison Service databases that cannot be published. In the longer- term (between two and seven years) the Grove-Macleod model is used. This has been published in OR Insight Vol. 11 Issue one, January-March 1998, pp. 3-9, "Forecasting the prison population". More detail is also available in Occasional Paper 80, "Modelling crime and offending: recent developments in England and Wales" published on the Home Office website in 2003. The impacts of some changes in legislation and operational procedures are estimated using the Criminal Justice System Model and, if necessary, one-off bespoke calculations. The Criminal Justice System Model is owned by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and is available to CJS practitioners but is not publicly available. Any one-off calculations are described in the above mentioned Home Office Statistical Bulletin.
Nick Herbert:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was of removing and
transferring foreign national prisoners from Ford Prison on 26 May. [94785]
Mr. Byrne: Operation Tornado is the Prison Service’s mutual aid response for major incidents under which additional staff are deployed from other prisons to supplement the staff at the prison where the incident occurs. This was required in order to remove safely the 141 foreign national prisoners at Ford open prison on 26 May. The cost for providing Tornado support at an incident is covered by the sending establishment so it would only be possible to ascertain an accurate cost by contacting all the establishments involved individually. This could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2006, Official Report, column 1915W, on prisons, if he will break down the capital cost by financial year in which it will be spent; and whether the expenditure has been agreed with HM Treasury; [96669]
(2) pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis) of 18 October 2006, Official Report, column 1290W, on criminal justice, how much of the construction relating to the 8,000 places will be (a) begun and (b) completed in each of the six years of his proposed building programme. [96670]
John Reid: The programme to deliver the 8,000 new prison places is still in development. The first places, however, are due for delivery in July 2007 and by the end of 2007 around 300 places will be operational. I am not able to provide a breakdown by year of the capital costs associated with the building programme.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have been re-categorised from (a) B to D and (b) C to D in each of the last five years, broken down by month. [96964]
John Reid: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in prisons in England and Wales (a) have a history of mental illness, (b) receive treatment for mental illnesses, (c) were previously children in care at any time during their lives and (d) received a custodial sentence when they were juveniles. [97353]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The last survey on this issue conducted in 1988 (Psychiatric morbidity among prisoners in England and Wales Office for National Statistics, 1988) showed that 90 per cent. of prisoners have at least one significant mental health problem, including personality disorder, psychosis, neurosis, alcohol misuse and drug dependence. A copy is available in the Library.
Mental health services for prisoners have been a key part of the Government’s recent reforms of health services for prisoners. The Department of Health is now investing nearly £20 million a year in NHS mental health in-reach services for prisoners. These are community mental health teams working within prisons and are now available in 102 prisons, with some
360 extra staff employed. Every prison in England and Wales has access to these services. Information on how many prisoners receive these services is not collected centrally.
Information is not collected centrally on the numbers of prisoners who were previously children in care, or who had been convicted when they were juveniles.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the estimated (a) cost and (b) timetable is of the works to increase the size of the Mosque facilities at HMP Wandsworth. [98539]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 31 October 2006]: The estimated cost of the work is £20,000. Work will commence in the new year and is expected to be completed by April 2007.
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will break down by (a) nationality and (b) ethnic origin the number of those admitted to prisons and young offender institutions in the last year for which figures are available. [99640]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the nationality and ethnicity of prisoners received into prison establishments in England and Wales for 2004 can be found in tables 7.4a and 7.5a in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library. Web versions of the tables can be found at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1705section7.xls
Figures for 2005 will be published in December.
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 although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of whether there is a relationship between prison overcrowding and re-offending rates. [93009]
Mr. Sutcliffe: There has been no assessment of the relationship between re-offending and prison overcrowding. For the most recent published information on re-offending please see ‘Re-offending of adults: evidence from the 2002 cohort’ at this link: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb2505.pdf
Probation Service
John Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for the future of the National Probation Directorate; and what assessment he has made of future required staffing levels. [91378]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
The resources and expertise of the National Probation Directorate will support the new
Director of Performance and Improvement of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) in delivering system-wide improvement leading to better public protection and reduced re-offending.
Future staffing levels within NOMS HQ will depend in part on the need to support probation areas in delivering on the demanding priorities of protecting the public and reducing re offending at the same time as preparing them for a world of commissioning and contestability and transition to probation trusts. This is in the context of a wider review, the aim of which is to create a smaller and more strategic NOMS HQ.
Proceeds of Crime Act
Mr. Marshall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) solicitors and (b) accountants have been prosecuted for offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 since it came into effect. [99850]
Mr. Coaker: Data on the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform does not identify the profession of those prosecuted for offences under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
Prolific and Priority Offenders
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) the role is and (b) range of work carried out by the Prolific and Other Priority Offenders Clearing House at HM Prison Service headquarters; how many prolific and other priority offenders were notified to the Prison Service by the Crown Prosecution Service between April and June 2006; and if he will make a statement. [90027]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The role of the Clearing House is principally to ensure that prisons are informed which prisoners in their custody are prolific and other priority offenders.
The Clearing House receives information on a weekly basis from JTrack (the police tracking system) about prolific and other priority offenders newly committed to custody, identifies which prisons they are in, and informs the prison accordingly, normally by email. It also provides prison number and prison location information to the Home Office PPO team in order that JTrack can be updated, responds to inquiries from both the police and establishments, and maintains an up-to-date list of police and establishment contacts.
Between April and June 2006 the Clearing House was notified of 762 newly sentenced prolific and other priority offenders.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of total recorded crime in England and Wales he estimates was committed by persistent and prolific offenders in the last five years. [90368]
John Reid:
Previous analysis to the implementation of the programme suggested that 5,000 offenders are responsible for 9 per cent. of all crime. More
specifically it is estimated that 10 per cent. of all active offenders are responsible for half of all crime (Home Office, 2001. Criminal Justice the way ahead. London: HMSO).
Currently, there are 10,871 identified prolific and other priority offenders (PPOs) in England and Wales. The figure is taken from the quarterly PPO Headline Measures Report for the period April to June 2006, released on 30 June 2006 and published on the PPO website at:
http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/ppo/ppominisite07.htm
Research from the national PPO evaluation indicates that on average a PRO has 47 convictions in their criminal career. Furthermore, in the five years prior to entering the PRO programme, the PRO cohort had received on average 24 convictions, compared to 10 convictions for a general offender comparison group.
The Interim Evaluation, published in October 2005 showed the early success of the programme—a 10 per cent. reduction in recorded convictions over six months for the first cohort of PPOs. We intend to publish shortly a full evaluation which will show the success of the programme over a longer time period (Home Office, 2005, Early findings from the Prolific and other Priority Offenders evaluation, Development and Practice Report 46: Home Office). We are also planning further work looking at the impact of PRO scheme on crime rates locally.
Proscribed Terrorist Groups
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans to extend the list of proscribed terrorist groups. [96293]
Mr. McNulty: The list of organisations proscribed in the UK is kept under regular review.
Released Prisoners (Supervision)
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases the police
do not know the current residential addresses of (a) former convicted prisoners and (b) foreign national prisoners who are subject to supervision following release. [67659]
Mr. Byrne: The probation service notifies the police of the current address of those offenders it is supervising on licence. If an offender on licence disappears from his or her address the probation service applies to the Home Office to issue a warrant to the relevant police service. With the exception of some sex offenders, no information is held by probation or police services on prisoners or foreign national prisoners sentenced to less than a year in prison or on those whose supervision period has expired.
In response to the Home Secretary’s statement on 8 May work is under way to streamline the process for the deportation of foreign national offenders (the “Eight Point Plan”). It is intended that foreign national offenders will be identified as such and tracked through the criminal justice and immigration systems, with deportation in appropriate cases while they are still in prison or immediately on release.
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