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11 July 2007 : Column 1567W—continued


Surgery

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many operations were carried out in NHS hospitals in each of the last five years. [147007]

Mr. Bradshaw: The table shows the count of finished consultant episodes from 2001-02 to 2005-06.

Count of finished consultant episodes with an operation (opcs-4 codes between A01-X59 or and (operation code not known))
Data year Count of FCE with operation

2001-02

6,467,642

2002-03

6,622,992

2003-04

6,780,919

2004-05

6,852,064

2005-06

7,221,638

Source:
Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), The Information Centre for health and social care.

Tomography: Stockport Primary Care Trust

Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) CT and (b) MRI scanners are installed in facilities in Stockport Primary Care Trust. [147249]

Mr. Bradshaw: There are no CT or MRI scanners based at Stockport Primary Care Trust facilities.

Justice

Alternatives to Prison

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the merits of enforced curfews as an alternative to imprisonment. [148418]

Mr. Hanson: Curfew, which is normally monitored electronically, may be imposed as a condition of bail; as a sentence of the court or as a condition of release from prison. Studies suggest that curfew can be more cost effective than custody and may also help in the rehabilitation of offenders. It can also introduce regularity into what are often chaotic lifestyles and can disrupt the pattern of offending behaviour.

The Government believe that serious and dangerous offenders should be sent to prison. But where prison is not the right response to offending, a range of tough
11 July 2007 : Column 1568W
and demanding community punishments are available to the courts, which can include curfew.

The Home Detention Curfew scheme enables short term prisoners to be released up to 135 days before the automatic/conditional release date. The scheme is highly successful: 85 per cent. of those released on the scheme have completed it successfully with only 4 per cent. having re-offended while on HDC.

Criminal Records

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) whether the Data Protection Act 1998 prevents the Parole Board from putting information into the public domain on individual prisoners which might contribute to public protection; [146778]

(2) whether he has considered bringing forward changes to allow the Parole Board to put more information into the public domain for the protection of the public. [146779]

Mr. Hanson: Where it is proposed to share information between public bodies, those bodies must always ensure that they have the power to share those data. Public bodies such as the Parole Board have the power under common law to divulge information for the purpose of public protection in certain circumstances. Therefore, no specific statutory power is required.

Once is it established that such a power exists, those involved in disclosure must ensure that the exercise of the power to disclose is consistent with the legal framework established by the Data Protection Act 1998 (“the DPA”).

The DPA does not automatically preclude the Parole Board sharing information on individual offenders with the police and probation services if that is necessary to enable those services to carry out their statutory responsibilities to protect the public. Whether disclosure for these purposes is consistent with the DPA will always depend on the individual circumstances of each case and whether the disclosure is truly necessary by reference to those facts.

Where sharing of data of the type mentioned above takes place, the police and probation services may, in turn, disclose the information to individuals under their own powers, if it is necessary for them to do so in order to manage the risks posed by offenders.

Taking all of the above into account, there are no proposals to amend legislation in respect of the disclosure of personal data as the current state of the law is sufficient to meet the requirements of public protection.

Driving Offences: Prosecutions

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions prosecutions for driving without (a) insurance and (b) due care and attention were abandoned as a result of the expiration of the statutory time for bringing them forward in each of the last five years, broken down by police force area. [148425]

Maria Eagle: The Court Proceedings Database, held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform, does not record the number of cases abandoned due to the time limitation rule.


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Flexible Working: Parents

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will review the adequacy of workplace rights for parents of children with cancer, with particular reference to rights to leave to care for their children. [148521]

Mr. McFadden: I have been asked to reply.

The Government provide extensive rights to leave for parents, including 52 weeks' maternity leave before a child is one and 13 weeks' parental leave until a child is five. In addition, parents of children under six (or under 18 in the case of a disabled child) have the right to request flexible working arrangements, which could be helpful when caring for sick children.

In 1999, the Government also introduced Time Off for Dependents, which is a right allowing employees to take a reasonable amount of time off work to deal with unexpected emergencies, e.g. to care for a sick child, and to make any necessary longer-term arrangements for dealing with them.

Prison Service: Manpower

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison officers there were in each year since 1992. [148424]

Mr. Hanson: Information on the number of officer grade staff employed within the public sector Prison Service and the contracted estate each year since 1992 is contained in the following table.

Officer grade staff in public sector Prison Service and contracted prisons( 1)
Total officers

31 March 1992

22,961

31 March 1993

24,121

31 March 1994

23,951

31 March 1995

24,448

31 March 1996

24,593

31 March 1997

23,058

31 March 1998

23,602

31 March 1999

24,113

31 March 2000

24,346

31 March 2001(2)

24,023

31 March 2002(2)

23,681

31 March 2003

24,527

31 March 2004(2)

25,461

31 March 2005

26,246

31 March 2006

26,747

31 March 2007(3)

27,053

(1) Figures include both publicly and privately managed establishments. Figures relate to prison officers, senior officers and principal officers within the public sector Prison Service and prison custody officers within contacted prisons. Officers employed within public sector Prison Service headquarters are included.
(2) Private contractors have not been able to supply information for; Ashfield and Doncaster prior to 2002, Dovegate in 2004, 2002 and 2001, Forest Bank, Altcourse, Rye Hill and Wolds prior to 2004 and Lowdham Grange in 2005, 2004 and prior to 2002.
(3) Figures for 2007 relating to contracted establishments refer to 31 January 2007 except for Parc, Forest Bank, Bronzefield and Peterborough.


11 July 2007 : Column 1570W

Prisoners

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners there are in England, broken down by age. [148401]

Mr. Hanson: Age breakdown figures of all prisoners held in prison establishments within England can be found in the table as follows.

Age breakdown for Prison establishments in England, May 2007
Number

All

77,609

15-17

2,396

18-20

8,170

21-24

12,382

25-29

14,812

30-39

21,097

40-49

12,253

50-59

4,378

60-64

1,083

65 and over

1,038

Note:
Excluding prisoners held in police cells.

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the prison population was in each year since 1992. [148423]

Mr. Hanson: The figures requested are in the table as follows.

Prison Population in England and Wales 1992-2007 Figures as at 30 June
Number

1992

46,832

1993

44,246

1994

48,929

1995

51,084

1996

55,256

1997

61,467

1998

65,727

1999

64,529

2000

65,194

2001

66,403

2002

71,218

2003

73,657

2004

74,488

2005

76,190

2006

77,982

2007(1)

80,264

(1 )May 2007
Sources:
i. Prison Statistics England and Wales 1993 and 1994 table 1.2
ii. Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2005, Table 8.1 for 1995-2005
iii. Monthly population in custody Statistics 2006-2007
iv. Population in prison and police cells

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.


11 July 2007 : Column 1571W

Prisoners: Childbirth

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners gave birth in each of the last five years. [148403]

Mr. Hanson: The Prison Service has only routinely kept information centrally on births in custody since April 2005. Figures prior to this date are not available.

The number of prisoners giving birth in the last five years is as follows:

Number

April 2007-6 July 2007

26

April 2006- March 2007

99

April 2005- March 2006

106


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