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14 Mar 2007 : Column 398W—continued


Prison Service: Recruitment

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Prison Service has plans in place to recruit sufficient prison officers to meet its current or projected operating staffing requirement. [126323]

Mr. Sutcliffe: I refer to the answer that I gave to the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (David Davis) on 8 March 2007, Official Report column 2171W.

Prison Service: Working Hours

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the new Contract Supplementary Hours Scheme was introduced to the Prison Service; what the reasons were for its introduction; when the use of the scheme was extended; and what the reasons were for the extension. [126329]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Contract Supplementary Hours scheme was first introduced in April 2001 to overcome staff recruitment and retention difficulties in the South East which were affecting the Prison Service’s ability to deliver decent prisoner regimes. The scheme was extended across the Prison Service from 30 April 2002 to provide operational flexibility and arrangements were formalised through Prison Service Instruction 26/2003 in June 2003. The scheme can be activated locally by individual Governors when staff vacancies occur in order to maintain regime delivery. Participation on the scheme is entirely voluntary.

Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures the Prison Service has put in place to address the local recruitment and retention difficulties that caused the introduction of, and the extension to, the new Contract Supplementary Hours scheme. [126332]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Since 2001, the Prison Service has had in place a system of local pay allowance specifically targeting areas where recruitment and retention difficulties have been identified. In addition the “headstart” scheme allows Governors in areas where retention and recruitment is particularly demanding to appoint new staff on an enhanced level of basic pay at a point above the standard entry level. These measures, together with changes to recruitment procedures, have enabled the public sector Prison Service to increase prison officer recruitment from under 500 new staff in 2001 to over 1,700 new staff in 2006.

Prisoners: Foreigners

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals were held in UK prisons on 30 December 2006, broken down by (a) nationality and (b) offence. [124804]

John Reid [holding answer 2 March 2007]: Information on the numbers of foreign national prisoners detained in prison establishments in England and Wales on 31 December 2006 by (a) nationality (all detained prisoners) and (b) offence group by nationality (prisoners under immediate custodial sentence) can be found in the following tables.

These figures have been drawn from administrative data 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.


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Table A: Population in prison by nationality and sex England and Wales 31 December 2006
Nationality Male Female Total

All nationalities

74,236

4,293

78,529

UK nationals

63,157

3,283

66,440

Foreign nationals

10,279

915

11,195

Not recorded

800

95

894

Total Africa

2,840

357

3,197

Angola

81

2

83

Burundi

8

3

12

Dahomey (Benin)

7

7

Botswana

2

2

Ivory Coast

33

1

34

Central African Republic

8

1

9

Congo

113

7

120

Cameroon, United Republic

45

4

49

Cape Verde

2

2

Algeria

210

1

211

Egypt

14

1

15

Ethiopia

65

4

69

Ghana

179

31

210

Gambia

40

1

41

Guinea

13

13

Equatorial Guinea

1

1

Guinea/Bissau

1

1

Kenya

56

4

60

Liberia

24

4

28

Libya

25

25

Morocco

49

1

50

Mali

1

1

Mauritania

3

3

Mauritius

22

1

23

Malawi

13

1

14

Mozambique

3

3

Namibia

2

1

3

Niger

5

5

Nigeria

874

193

1,067

Rwanda

15

3

18

Seychelles

3

3

Sudan

55

1

56

St. Helena

1

1

Sierre Leone

84

7

91

Senegal

9

9

Somalia

309

12

321

Chad

2

2

Togo

9

4

13

Tunisia

18

18

Tanzania

15

1

16

Uganda

85

6

91

Western Sahara

1

1

South Africa

143

35

178

Zambia

15

1

16

Congo, Democratic Republic

35

1

36

Zimbabwe

139

24

164

Total Asia

1,643

95

1,739

Bangladesh

168

1

169

Burma

2

2

China

232

24

256

Hong Kong

6

6

Indonesia

4

4

India

269

7

276

British India Ocean Territories

1

1

Cambodia

1

1

Korea Republic of (Sth)

4

4

Sri Lanka

157

4

161

Mongolia

8

8

Maldives

1

1

Malaysia

23

1

24

Nepal

1

1

Philippines

12

12

24

Pakistan

447

8

455

Singapore

4

4

Thailand

2

7

9

East Timor (Portuguese)

1

1

Vietnam

300

33

332

Total central and South America

324

46

371

Argentina

2

1

3

Bolivia

5

1

6

Brazil

59

14

73

Belize

2

2

Chile

14

1

15

Columbia

112

9

121

Costa Rica

3

3

Ecuador

18

18

French Guyana

4

4

Guatemala

5

5

Guyana

33

8

41

Honduras

1

1

Mexico

15

2

17

Panama

2

1

3

Peru

5

5

Paraguay

1

1

Surinam

6

1

7

El Salvador

1

1

2

Uruguay

3

3

Venezuela

33

8

41

Total Europe

2,966

223

3,189

Albania

148

1

149

Armenia

3

3

Austria

9

3

12

Azerbijan

4

4

Bosnia-Hercegovina

6

3

9

Belgium

34

5

39

Bulgaria

9

9

Croatia

9

1

10

Switzerland

4

4

Czech Republic

35

2

37

Cyprus

58

2

60

Germany

123

16

139

Denmark

8

2

10

Estonia

15

2

17

Spain

68

11

79

Finland

2

2

France

157

13

170

Georgia

14

1

15

Gibraltar

3

3

Greece

14

4

18

Hungary

21

2

22

Irish Republic

640

42

682

Italy

105

9

113

Kazakhstan

3

3

Kyrgystan

5

5

Lithuania

176

18

194

Latvia

46

1

47

Moldova

44

2

46

Macedonia

4

1

5

Serbia and Montenegro

106

1

107

Malta

7

7

Netherlands

125

29

154

Norway

5

5

Poland

265

13

278

Portugal

173

7

180

Romania

105

11

116

Sweden

12

6

18

Slovakia

20

2

22

Slovenia

6

1

7

Russia

104

13

117

Turkey

265

1

266

Uzbekistan

3

3

Total Middle East

706

4

710

United Arab Emirates

9

9

Afghanistan

108

108

Bahrain

2

2

Iran

209

2

211

Israel

27

27

Iraq

280

280

Jordan

12

12

Kuwait

13

13

Lebanon

22

1

23

Oman

1

1

Saudi Arabia

9

1

10

Syrian Arab Republic

6

6

Yemen, Republic of

7

7

Total North America

104

21

125

Canada

19

6

26

United States of America

84

15

99

Total Oceania

39

6

45

Australia

20

4

24

Fiji

10

10

French Southern Territories

1

1

Johnston Island

1

1

Kiribati

1

1

New Zealand

4

2

6

Papua New Guinea

1

1

Total other

10

10

Total unrecorded

800

95

894

West Indies

1,647

162

1,809

Aruba

1

1

Anguilla

1

1

Netherlands Antilles

22

6

28

Barbados

29

2

31

Bermuda

6

1

7

Bahamas

5

5

Cuba

1

1

Dominica

7

7

Dominican Republic

7

3

10

Grenada

21

4

25

Haiti

2

2

Jamaica

1,414

110

1,524

St. Lucia

25

6

31

Montserrat

14

14

St. Christopher and Nevis

1

1

St. Kitts and Nevis

3

3

Trinidad and Tobago

75

26

101

St. Vincent and The Grenadines

13

4

17


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