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12 Jun 2007 : Column 951W—continued

Prisoners: Contraception

Philip Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how much has been spent on condoms and lubricants for distribution to prisoners by the Prison Service in the latest year for which figures are available. [141156]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is not held centrally.

Prisoners: Repatriation

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice pursuant to the answer of 22 May 2007, Official Report, column 1257W, on prisoners: repatriation, when she expects discussions with other Governments regarding prisoner transfers to commence. [141925]

Mr. Hanson: The United Kingdom has prisoner transfer arrangements with 96 countries and territories. The majority of these countries are signatories to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. On 3 and 4 of May 2007 preliminary discussions were held in Strasbourg to discuss a Greek proposal for a second additional protocol to the Convention. This would extend the circumstances under which a prisoner can be transferred without his or her consent. The United Kingdom is supporting this proposal.

The UK has concluded 20 bilateral prisoner transfer agreements from which we hold about 400 sentenced prisoners. While this number is not insignificant, resources are at present dedicated towards negotiating agreements that are likely to deliver significant benefits such as the EU prisoner transfer agreement and the second additional protocol to the Council of Europe Convention.


12 Jun 2007 : Column 952W

Prisons

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what plans her Department has to increase the capacity of prisons in England and Wales. [141805]

Mr. Hanson: A new capacity-building programme which will deliver 8,000 new prison places by 2012 was announced as part of the Criminal Justice Review in July 2006.

The 8,000-place programme comes on top of already planned expansions at existing prisons.

Overall, in 2007, capacity will increase by around 2,200 places.

Prisons: Sex Offender Treatment Programme

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice if she will make a statement on the effectiveness of the Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) for (a) high, (b) medium and (c) low risk offenders; and what the subsequent reconviction rates are for offenders from each of these categories who took part in the SOTP since its inception. [141289]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The most robust evaluation of the Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) in England and Wales (Home Office, 2003) examined the impact of the prison-based programme. This compared two-year reconviction rates for prisoners who participated in the programme with those who did not.

Findings indicated that the SOTP had an impact on reconvictions for sexual and/or violent offences (as a combined measure). An explanation for this effect could be that a proportion of violent reconvictions were sexually motivated offences. Sexual reconvictions were combined with those for violent offences because sexual offenders (in the absence of intervention) are reconvicted for sexual offences at a very low rate—less than 5 per cent. over two years. Any decrease in this rate as a result of treatment is therefore unlikely to be statistically significant.

For combined sexual and violent reconviction, the treatment group showed a statistically significantly lower rate of reconviction overall than the comparison group (4.6 per cent. and 8.1 per cent. respectively, see Table 4 in Home Office Research Findings No. 205). Treatment participants in the medium-low and medium-high risk groups showed a statistically significantly lower rate of reconviction than respective risk groups in the comparison sample (see Table 4 in HORF 205).

For general and sexual reconviction rates, the treatment group showed lower rates of reconviction than the comparison group although differences were not statistically significant (see Tables 5 and 3 respectively in HORF 205). No statistically significant differences were found among risk groups.

These findings relate to offenders who completed the SOTP between 1992 and 1994. A programme of research is planned to examine the impact of the
12 Jun 2007 : Column 953W
prison-based SOTP delivered to offenders post-1994 in terms of both short-term change in relation to treatment targets (e.g. victim empathy) and longer-term change in terms of future re-offending.

Andrew Stunell: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what plans she has to increase resources for the Sex Offender Treatment Programme at each prison where the number of prisoners exceeds the programme capacity; and if she will make a statement. [142456]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The National Offender Management Service has set up a standing group to take forward work on a treatment strategy for sex offenders to ensure that effective treatment is delivered to sex offenders in custody and the community as part of a broader package of interventions and management controls to reduce the risk of re-offending. As part of this work provision for sex offenders in custody will be considered.

Victim Support Schemes: Counselling

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (1) how many victims of miscarriages of justice and their families have been offered post-traumatic stress counselling in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement; [141507]

(2) how many prisoners were released after the quashing of their convictions by the Court of Appeal following a reference from the Criminal Cases Review Commission in each of the last five years; what support and after care they were offered; and if she will make a statement. [141508]

Mr. Sutcliffe: We do not collect data on the number of prisoners released after the quashing of their convictions by the Court of Appeal.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) an executive NDPB which was set up under the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 and which became operational in January 1997 aims to review alleged and suspected miscarriages of justice, and to refer them to the Court of Appeal, whenever they consider that there is a real possibility that a conviction, verdict, finding or sentence would not be upheld.


12 Jun 2007 : Column 954W

Support and after care is offered to victims of miscarriages of justice from the Miscarriages of Justice Support Service, operated by the Citizens Advice Bureau at the Royal Courts of Justice, by the Ministry of Justice. It is funded under a three-year contract. It aims to ensure that victims of miscarriages of justice receive appropriate advice, guidance and support. Advice and support is offered at every stage of the process. This includes: finding accommodation; establishing income; applying for national insurance credits; registering with a GP and accessing appropriate healthcare and counselling; opening a bank account and budgeting; family/relationship issues; employment and training needs; finding a solicitor to deal with compensation claims.

All clients of the Miscarriages of Justice Support Service are offered counselling as part of their initial assessment interview with an adviser. In the past 12 months, 25 new cases have been taken on by the service, and seven clients have received an assessment by a consultant forensic psychiatrist. Following assessment, the psychiatrist refers the client for appropriate ongoing counselling. Families are not part of this assessment, but the psychiatrist may recommend that they are involved in family therapy if appropriate.

Weare Prison

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice pursuant to the answer of 1 May 2007, Official Report, column 1584W, on Weare Prison, if she will place in the Library a copy of the investment appraisal on HMP Weare. [141924]

Mr. Sutcliffe: There are no plans to disclose the detailed appraisal.

Young Offender Institutions: Crimes of Violence

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many (a) assaults by prisoners on staff and (b) assaults by prisoners on other prisoners there were in each young offender institution in each year since 2003. [141559]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is set out in the following table. The data are taken from the Prison Service Incident Reporting System and the figures therefore relate to incidents reported.


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12 Jun 2007 : Column 957W

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YOI Assault type 2003 2004 2005 2006( 1) 2007

Ashfield

Prisoner on officer

62

71

152

127

21

Prisoner on other

8

19

28

9

4

Prisoner on prisoner

271

304

500

625

130

Aylesbury

Prisoner on officer

15

5

15

18

2

Prisoner on other

1

2

Prisoner on prisoner

26

21

78

80

18

Brinsford

Prisoner on officer

31

26

17

8

2

Prisoner on other

8

8

2

2

Prisoner on prisoner

304

326

344

187

28

Castington

Prisoner on officer

52

53

50

42

10

Prisoner on other

4

4

4

1

Prisoner on prisoner

312

384

361

360

88

Deerbolt

Prisoner on officer

5

25

32

21

8

Prisoner on other

1

3

1

1

Prisoner on prisoner

167

205

164

152

31

Feltham

Prisoner on officer

102

169

129

115

24

Prisoner on other

1

4

9

3

1

Prisoner on prisoner

569

576

549

476

105

Glen Parva

Prisoner on officer

27

39

31

40

12

Prisoner on other

2

5

1

Prisoner on prisoner

241

230

269

341

75

Hindley

Prisoner on officer

23

13

30

55

9

Prisoner on other

4

1

2

3

1

Prisoner on prisoner

111

63

112

348

98

Huntercombe

Prisoner on officer

18

15

14

32

6

Prisoner on other

1

1

1

Prisoner on prisoner

77

79

95

184

53

Lancaster Farms

Prisoner on officer

9

27

46

51

13

Prisoner on other

1

1

5

2

Prisoner on prisoner

17

185

435

363

96

Northallerton

Prisoner on officer

11

13

10

6

Prisoner on other

8

9

4

3

2

Prisoner on prisoner

82

84

104

82

20

Portland

Prisoner on officer

15

39

37

41

9

Prisoner on other

1

3

1

Prisoner on prisoner

61

125

154

127

36

Rochester

Prisoner on officer

15

16

23

13

1

Prisoner on other

1

2

Prisoner on prisoner

51

102

78

100

22

Stoke Heath

Prisoner on officer

20

37

52

63

14

Prisoner on other

2

4

6

2

Prisoner on prisoner

137

239

438

506

108

Swinfen Hall

Prisoner on officer

8

4

10

9

1

Prisoner on other

1

1

Prisoner on prisoner

110

96

104

89

18

Thorn Cross

Prisoner on officer

3

1

I

3

Prisoner on other

1

1

Prisoner on prisoner

39

7

19

143

17

Wellington

Prisoner on officer

21

18

19

19

1

Prisoner on other

3

1

3

Prisoner on prisoner

129

104

139

143

18

Wetherby

Prisoner on officer

11

70

66

56

10

Prisoner on other

3

7

6

4

1

Prisoner on prisoner

175

414

492

401

86

(1) Year to 28 March 2007.

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