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17 Jan 2007 : Column 1197W—continued
The following table shows the data for all police authorities in England, including the City of London, Please note that the City of London has responsibility for all services except fire within its area. It is not possible to say how much revenue support grant or redistributed business rates the City received for police, since these are unhypothecated block grants.
| £ per head | |||
| Revenue support grant per head | Redistributed business rates per head | Principal formula police grant per head | |
The measure of population which was used in calculating the appropriate settlement has been used to calculate the per head data i.e. for the period 1995-96 to 2005-06, the mid-year estimates (e.g. for 2005-06, the mid-2003 population estimates) and for 2006-07 the 2006 sub-national population projections.
The data are not comparable year on year owing to changes in the funding and function of authorities via the settlement. For example, in 2006-07 police pensions and security funding were transferred from police grant to special grant.
Source:
Department for Communities and Local Government
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding was allocated to police forces from (a) his Department’s police grants, (b) revenue support grant and (c) business rates (i) in Devon and Cornwall and (ii) on average for police authorities in England and Wales in each year since 1992. [112727]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested where available is set out in the tables.
The following table shows the data for Devon and Cornwall police.
| £ million | |||
| Revenue support grant | Redistributed business rates | Principal formula police grant | |
The following table shows the total data for all police authorities in England, including the City of London. Please note that the City of London has responsibility for all services except fire within Its area. It is not possible to say how much revenue support grant or redistributed business rates the City received for police, since these are unhypothecated block grants. For this reason it is not possible to provide an average for police services.
| £ million | |||
| Revenue support grant | Redistributed business rates | Principal formula police grant | |
The data are not comparable year on year owing to changes in the funding and function of authorities via the settlement. For example, in 2006-07 police pensions and security funding were transferred from police grant to special grant.
Source:
Department for Communities and Local Government
Prison Service
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made since the Report of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons in 2004-05 on tackling the use of wings not fit for habitation. [115496]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The National Offender Management Service takes seriously all recommendations made by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. The maintenance and refurbishment of existing prison accommodation is managed as part of a rolling programme of work. Individual projects are considered for inclusion in the programme on the basis of a number of factors, including the changing priorities of building plans across the prison estate and the availability of funds from a limited budget.
HM Chief Inspector of Prisons made this comment in her 2004-05 report specifically in respect of HMP Norwich, which is being taken forward in 2007 as part of NOMS’ wing refurbishment programme.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Prison Service area managers have taken early retirement in each of the last three years; what the cost was of such retirements; and if he will make a statement. [115796]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 15 January 2007]: The number of Prison Service area managers who have taken early retirement within the last three years is shown in the following table.
| Number of Prison Service managers taking early retirement in the last three years | |
| Calendar year | Number |
The pension benefits and associated costs falling to the Department, and reasons for leaving in individual early retirement cases, is information considered personal and would therefore not be provided. The decision to consider and authorise early retirement, taken in these cases by Prison Service senior managers, was in accordance with the rules and criteria set out in the Civil Service Compensation scheme governing early retirement.
Prisons
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to increase the ease with which family members can book prison visits. [113635]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Procedures for booking visits vary from prison to prison and remain at the discretion of governors. However, in response to the difficulties in booking prison visits at a number of prisons, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has actively sought to improve visits booking facilities and procedures. This has been partly through the development of an electronic system for booking visits, which is available to prisons, and the publication of guidelines on practical ways of improving the arrangements. NOMS is also looking into the booking of visits by e-mail and in the longer term, a national fully integrated IT system to meet a number of business needs such as the management of visits booking.
Probation Service
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which (a) private sector organisations and (b) voluntary sector organisations have expressed an interest in undertaking work currently carried out by the probation service. [114957]
Mr. Sutcliffe: In August 2006, we published “Improving Prison and Probation Services: Public Value Partnerships”, which outlined the vision for contestability and indicated the pace and scale of change envisaged in the delivery of services to adult offenders. In response to this publication we have received general expressions of interest and requests for further information from a number of organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors.
These expressions of interest have been received both informally via established contact forums and more formally via the recently established NOMS National Provider Network registration website. To date 374 voluntary and community sector and 68 private sector organisations have registered an expression of interest
via the website. However the website does not ask registrants whether they have a specific interest in undertaking work which is currently carried out by the probation service.
Additionally, individual probation services will have been in contact with external organisations as part of their preparation of service delivery plans for 2007-08. Over the coming months, these plans will be the subject of discussion and negotiation with the NOMS commissioner for their region. Although the average value of contracts held is small, a recent survey indicated that the probation service as a whole currently holds more than 600 contracts/grants with external organisations, approximately 75 per cent. of which are from the voluntary and community sector.
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