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22 Oct 2007 : Column 114W—continued
Concerning 2007: To 17 October there here have been no deaths of prisoners aged under 18—please note that while the table shows no deaths resulting from accidents, one self-inflicted death from 2001 and one from 2002, both involving hanging, had inquest findings of accident (inquest findings from 2005 still awaited).
Departments: Road Traffic Offences
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many fixed penalty tickets were incurred by vehicles within the purview of his Department in the last year for which figures are available; and what the total cost was. [157768]
Maria Eagle: Since the Ministry of Justice was only formed on 9 May 2007, my response refers to the former Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) and those bodies which were formerly part of the Home Office which are now part of the new Department. I also refer the hon. Member to the response provided by the Department for Transport in respect of vehicles provided by GCDA.
The policy across the Ministry of Justice is that responsibility for payment of fixed penalty tickets rests with the driver of the vehicle. Only certain fixed penalty tickets are notified to the Department as registered owners of the vehicle. Those records show that for the financial year 2006-07, which is the most recent year for which figures were available, 400 penalty tickets were issued, the value of those tickets was £8,373.
Departments: Secondment
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff are seconded to his Department from outside government; from which outside body each has been seconded; and what the length is of each secondment. [157769]
Maria Eagle: The information requested for Ministry of Justice headquarters, National Offender Management Service, the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and Her Majesty’s Prison Service is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, no employees at Her Majesty’s Land Registry and the National Archives are seconded from outside Government.
Electoral Register: Scotland
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to ensure that returning officers are maximising participation in the compilation of electoral registers in Scotland. [159184]
Bridget Prentice: Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are responsible for compiling electoral registers in Scotland. Section 9 of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 (EAA 2006), sets out the necessary steps that all EROs must follow to ensure that eligible electors are registered to vote.
These steps include sending the canvass form more than once to any address, conducting house to house inquiries and making contact by such other means as appropriate, EROs will adopt an approach, which is appropriate to local circumstances, within the context of the necessary steps.
Section 67 of the EAA 2006 allows the Electoral Commission (EC) to set and monitor performance standards for electoral services. During September 2007, the EC published a set of electoral registration indicators. EROs will provide data against these indicators following completion of the 2007 annual canvass and the EC will publish its first assessment of the data by April 2008. This should help to provide a picture of the activities undertaken by EROs to maximise participation in their areas.
Police Custody: Wales
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what the average cost per prisoner night was of holding prisoners overnight in facilities in Cardiff court buildings since the start of 2007; and if he will make a statement; [158977]
(2) how many prisoners have been held overnight in facilities in Cardiff court buildings in 2007; and if he will make a statement. [158978]
Mr. Hanson: Court cell places are readied for use on a stand-by basis as a measure of last resort to help ensure that exceptional population pressures can be managed safely and securely. A total of £26,324.32 (excluding VAT) has been paid to our contractors to make places available in court cells in Cardiff between 11 June and 2 July.
This provided for the availability of 10 places over a period of 21 nights. Eight prisoners were held in court cells in Cardiff on the night of 11/12 June. This is the only occasion on which prisoners were held overnight in court cells in Cardiff so far this year.
Prisoners
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) where women prisoners from North Wales have served their sentence in each of the last three years for which figures are available; [159346]
(2) where prisoners sentenced in courts in North Wales to terms of imprisonment served their sentence in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [159347]
Mr. Hanson: Prisoners serve their sentences at a variety of establishments according to their sentence plan. It is not possible to identify all such locations without incurring disproportionate cost.
However, as at 19 September 2007, the following table applies:
| Location of sentenced females originating from North Wales in prison establishments in England | |
| Prison | |
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of prisoners housed in Wales had home addresses in other parts of the United Kingdom immediately prior to their imprisonment in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [159350]
Mr. Hanson: The following table shows the estimated percentage of prisoners held in prisons in Wales who have a home address in other parts of the United Kingdom in September 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Where no home address is listed for a prisoner the committal court is used as a proxy address.
| Percentage of prisoners held in prisons in Wales who have a home address in other parts of the United Kingdom | |
Prisoner Transfers: Young People
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many young offenders attached to Welsh young offending teams were transferred between secure accommodation units during their sentence (a) in each of the last 12 months and (b) in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [158969]
Mr. Hanson: The data requested is not collected centrally and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost, as it would be necessary to collate and analyse all transfer records for the periods in question and to identify which youth offending team area each young person was attached to.
Prisoners: Drugs
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of the prison population is undergoing treatment for drug addiction. [159006]
Mr. Hanson: The table provides an estimate of the percentage of all those received into prison in 2005-06 who underwent drug treatment.
These figures must be seen in context. Around 55 per cent. of those received into prison report a serious drug problem, with 80 per cent. reporting some misuse in the year prior to prison. Of those, not all will need certain types of treatment, some do not engage in treatment and many are not in prison long enough to benefit. Drug treatment is delivered in accordance with identified need.
A comprehensive drug treatment framework is in place: (i) clinical services (maintenance-prescribing and/or detoxification programmes), available in all local and remand prisons; (ii) CARATs (Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Through-care services), provided in all prisons: and (iii) 116 drug rehabilitation programmes running across the estate (of which 42 are the Short Duration Programme (SDP), designed primarily for those spending only a short period in custody).
Prisoners: Foreigners
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) non-UK nationals and (b) non-EU nationals there are in prisons in England and Wales. [159356]
Mr. Hanson: At the end of June 2007 there were 11,097 foreign nationals in all prison establishments in England and Wales. Of this total, there were 8,638 non-EU nationals.
These data were published in June’s monthly population in custody report on the Ministry of Justice website.
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.
Prisoners: Restraint Techniques
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what physical restraint techniques are permitted for use on adult prisoners. [158956]
Mr. Hanson: The physical restraint techniques permitted for use on adult prisoners are control and restraint techniques (C and R). These involve a variety of defensive and disarming techniques ranging from simple breakaway techniques through to defensive strikes and defence against improvised weapons and firearms. For reasons of security the Prison Service does not disclose details of the individual techniques used in C and R.
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the nose distraction technique has been approved for use on adult prisoners. [158959]
Mr. Hanson: The nose distraction technique has been authorised for use on adult prisoners. As with all authorised control and restraint techniques it is authorised for use only by trained staff on violent or refractory prisoners.
Prisons: Greater London
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people are in prison in the Greater London area; and what the capacity of Greater London prisons is. [159002]
Mr. Hanson: The following table shows the numbers of prisoners detained in and the operational capacity of each prison establishment in the Greater London area on 31 August 2007.
| Operational capacity | Population( 1) | |
| (1 )The reported population figure may be higher than the operational capacity as it may include prisoners on authorised absence and not held in the prison overnight. | ||
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.
Prisons: Labour Turnover
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of staff in prisons resigned from each prison establishment in each year since 2001; and if he will make a statement. [158974]
Mr. Hanson: Information on the number of staff who resigned from each prison establishment and the proportion of total staff this represented in each year since 2001-02 is contained in the following tables.
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