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28 Nov 2007 : Column 482W—continued
Housing: Peterborough
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what percentage of homes in the Peterborough city council area according to Land Registry data were worth (a) £400,000 or more, (b) £500,000 or more, (c) £600,000 or more, (d) £800,000 or more and (e) £1,000,000 or more in each year since 1997. [168766]
Mr. Wills: Land Registry is able to provide information on the number of properties sold for which prices of £400,000 or more, £500,000 or more, £600,000 or more, £800,000 or more and £1,000,000 or more have been paid. As these figures are extracted using price paid data, no information is available for any properties which have not been sold. This question has been answered on the basis of recorded sales figures in Peterborough within the requested price sectors. These sector-specific sales figures have then been calculated as a percentage of total annual sales in Peterborough from 1997 to 2006.
The figures are reflected in the following table.
National Security
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the Statement of the Prime Minister of 14 November 2007, Official Report, columns 667-72, on national security, when he expects the specialist unit in the Prisons Service tasked with preventing extremists using prison networks to plot future activities announced by the Prime Minister to be set up; what he expects its costs to be; and how he plans to measure the effectiveness of the unit. [168452]
Maria Eagle: HM Prison Service's Extremism Unit was established in March 2007, and is co-ordinating a programme of work to address the risks posed by extremists in prison. The programme includes awareness raising and training for staff, support for Muslim Chaplains, collection and analysis of information, and strategy and policy development. The Unit's costs for the current financial year are expected to be in the order of £350,000. The programme of work co-ordinated by the unit is linked to the CONTEST strategy and is reviewed by Ministers on a regular basis.
Police Custody: Wales
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) on how many days police custody suites in (a) Wales, (b) Dyfed-Powys police area and (c) Pembrokeshire have been used to accommodate prisoners in 2007; [166247]
(2) how many prisoners have been accommodated in police custody suites in (a) Wales, (b) Dyfed-Powys police area and (c) Pembrokeshire in 2007; [166248]
(3) how many cells in police custody units in (a) Wales, (b) Dyfed-Powys police area and (c) Pembrokeshire are reserved for prisoners. [166246] [Official Report, 20 February 2008, Vol. 472, c. 7MC.]
Mr. Hanson: The number of places provided by police forces for Operation Safeguard use may vary according to operational pressures. On 16 November 2007 there were 38 places available for Operation Safeguard use in Wales. No places were available in Dyfed Powys police force area or in Pembrokeshire.
The following table shows the number of nights between 22 January and 20 November 2007 that police cells were used in Wales, by Dyfed Powys police force and in Pembrokeshire for Operation Safeguard, and the number of occasions prisoners were held; one occasion means one prisoner night in a police cell.
| Nights | Occasions | |
Prison Places
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer of 16 April 2007 to the hon. Member for Sunderland South, Official Report, column 480W, on prison places, what the average capital cost was of providing each place in the prisons built in each year since 1997, including all land acquisition, construction, legal and conveyancing costs and other associated costs. [168494]
Mr. Hanson: All prisons constructed since 1997 and run by the private sector have been procured under PFI. The following table provides the net present value figure at the time of the contact award. This figure includes construction, legal, conveyancing and other costs associated with the contract. Land acquisition costs paid by the authority are deemed commercial in confidence and therefore are not able to be disclosed.
| Prison | Contract award | Price NPV (£ million)( 1) |
| (1) Costs correct at time of award for the life of the contract | ||
Prison Service: Pay
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many area managers in HM Prison Service received bonuses at the end of the 2005-06 financial year; and if he will make a statement. [168183]
Maria Eagle: Records on the personnel corporate database indicate that no special bonuses were awarded to area managers in HM Prison Service at the end of the 2005-06 financial year. However, performance bonuses form part of normal pay arrangements for all senior civil servants and area managers can receive bonuses as part of these arrangements.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the previous area manager for London received a bonus on retirement from HM Prison Service; and if he will make a statement. [168184]
Maria Eagle: Records on the personnel corporate database indicate that the previous area manager for London did not receive a bonus on his retirement.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many members of the HM Prison Service management board received bonuses at the end of the (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07 financial year; and if he will make a statement. [168185]
Maria Eagle: Records on the Personnel Corporate Database indicate that the following special bonuses were awarded to the HM Prison Service management board:
(a) 2005-06: one bonus awarded
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many area managers in HM Prison Service received a bonus at the end of the 2006-07 financial year; and if he will make a statement. [168186]
Maria Eagle: Records on the personnel corporate database indicate that no bonuses were awarded to area managers in HM Prison Service at the end of the 2006-07 financial year. However, performance bonuses form part of normal pay arrangements for all Senior Civil Servants and Area Managers can receive bonuses as part of these arrangements.
Prison Service: Unfair Dismissal
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to his answer of 17 May 2007, Official Report, column 875W, on prison service: unfair dismissal, for what reason this information is not collected in this form by the Treasury Solicitor; and if he will make a statement. [168542]
The Solicitor-General: I have been asked to reply.
Compensation and associated legal costs are met by the client department out of its appropriation, not by the Treasury Solicitor. There has thus been no operational reason coming from within his own Department for the Treasury Solicitor to collate and monitor these payments. As there has been no call from client departments to produce figures, the Treasury Solicitor has not been able to justify the commitment of public funds to that end. For this reason, the figures requested are not held by the Treasury Solicitor’s Department in the form requested and to attempt to gather them now could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Prisoners: Police Cells
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much the Prison Service has paid Suffolk police authority for use of its police cells in each of the last five years. [167906]
Mr. Hanson: Police forces involved in Operation Safeguard charge NOMS in arrears for the cost of making police cells available to accommodate prisoners.
To date in 2007 NOMS has paid Suffolk police force £366,964 for Operation Safeguard usage in 2006 and 2007.
Prisoners are also sometimes held in police cells as “lockouts”. A lockout is an emergency measure used to hold prisoners overnight and is only used, for example, when the designated prison’s reception will be closed before their arrival time.
£1,847 was paid to Suffolk police in 2006-07 for lockout usage and £1,155 has been paid to date in 2007-08. Information on the amount paid in the three years previous to 2006-07 is not available. As police forces submit invoices in arrears, payments do not necessarily relate to the years in which the lockouts took place.
Prisoners: Special Educational Needs
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people with learning disabilities were detained in UK (a) prisons and (b) youth offender institutions in the latest period for which figures are available. [168930]
Mr. Hanson: The information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
In 1997, the Office for National Statistics undertook a survey of mental ill health in the prison population of England and Wales. This found that a higher proportion of prisoners had lower intellectual functioning scores than would be expected in the general population.
Further information is available in the report of this survey: “Psychiatric Morbidity Amongst Prisoners in England and Wales” (1998), a copy of which is available in the Library.
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