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26 Feb 2008 : Column 1500W—continued
Ministry of Justice
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will give the dates of any meetings he had with (a) the Labour Party Registered Treasurer or Representative Officer, (b) the Conservative Party Registered Treasurer or Representative Officer or (c) the Liberal Party Registered Treasurer or Representative Officer since December 2006, other than those which took place during meetings with Hayden Phillips. [178769]
Mr. Straw: In my capacity as Secretary of State for Justice, I have not held any meetings with political party representatives since December 2006.
In addition to the information in the answer of 7 January 2008, Official Report, column 156W, I have met with representatives of political parties on party funding (including those of my own party), in my capacity as one of my party’s representatives at the cross-party talks.
Offenders: Databases
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what arrangements are in place to ensure the effective (a) capture and (b) communication of relevant data throughout the offender management system. [188336]
Mr. Hanson: Prisons and probation have agreed a core dataset of relevant offender information to be captured and communicated at specified points in the offender journey, using a system of jointly agreed offender management forms, secure e-mail and dedicated offender management mailboxes.
Data on violent and sexual offenders, managed under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) will be shared across the offender management system through the ViSOR system. Once the deployment of the system is complete in spring 2008, ViSOR will become the first IT system to be jointly shared across probation, prison and police services.
Going forward, the newly revised and deliverable NOMIS programme will continue the roll-out of the prison NOMIS database to public prisons. At the same time, the programme will be replacing at-risk case management systems in probation areas, as well as providing a simple read-only database, that will allow staff in both services to have access to important information held on each others' systems to support the management of offenders. In addition, the OASys project, as well as improving the offender risk assessment systems in both prisons and probation, will also provide, for the first time, a single national database of offenders who fall within the agreed scope of offender management.
Offenders: Housing
Mr. Heath: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what the total cost was of providing bail and home detention accommodation through (a) the Bail Accommodation and Support Service, (b) ClearSprings Management and (c) other private contractors in each month for which figures are available; and what the average cost per person per night was in each category over the latest period for which figures are available; [188347]
(2) how many people on (a) bail and (b) home detention curfew were provided with accommodation by (i) the Bail Accommodation and Support Service, (ii) ClearSprings Management and (iii) other private contractors in each month since July 2007; [188454]
(3) how many beds are available through the Bail Accommodation and Support Service; in how many properties; and how many of these are run by (a) ClearSprings Management and (b) other private contractors. [188455]
Mr. Hanson: The Bail Accommodation and Support Service (BASS) is provided by one contractor: ClearSprings Management Ltd. The total cost of providing the scheme and the cost of the services provided by ClearSprings are given in the following table for each month from June to December 2007:
| £000 | ||
| 2007 | Total BASS | ClearSprings |
The average cost per person per night through BASS and ClearSprings Management for the latest period (December 2007) in which figures are available is £81 and £61 respectively.
I will provide as soon as possible information on the numbers of defendants and offenders released each month into accommodation provided by the ClearSprings Bail Accommodation and Support Service.
As at 20 February 2008 ClearSprings had supplied 539 bed spaces in 135 properties across England and Wales for the Bail Accommodation and Support Service.
Many more offenders, including some on Home Detention Curfew, are released into accommodation provided by other private landlords, local authorities, housing associations and the voluntary sector. The cost of the accommodation provided by these providers does not fall on NOMS and it is not possible to provide a total or unit cost. Nor is it possible to provide the number of those released into accommodation. The numbers of beds and properties available from other sources, including other private contractors, is not defined and no numbers can be given. NOMS has invested £14.5 million since 2003 to help prisoners access accommodation on release. The percentage of released prisoners without accommodation to go to has fallen from 46 per cent. in 2003-04 to 13 per cent. for 2006-07.
Open Prisons
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent changes he has made to the criteria for allocating prisoners to open prisons; and if he will make a statement. [189191]
Mr. Hanson: Public safety remains paramount and there is no relaxation of standards. The Prison Service Instruction issued in November 2007 identified additional measures to ensure suitable prisoners are allocated to open conditions. This includes: arrangements to ensure that categorisation reviews take place at six monthly intervals for all prisoners in the last 30 months of their sentence; reviews after successful completion of Release on Temporary licence; and that prisoners sentenced to less than 12 months in custody be considered as soon as possible after sentencing.
Prison Services: Travelling People
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent by HM Prison Service on raising awareness of Gypsy and Traveller issues in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [188290]
Maria Eagle: Figures for monies spent by HM Prison Service on raising awareness of Gypsy and Traveller issues are not available centrally for individual establishments.
To collect the information required would require contacting all public sector prisons in England and Wales individually and for each establishment to conduct a manual check of their local records. To do so would be at disproportionate cost.
Prisoner Escapes
Mr. Heath: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners in each contracted-out prison (a) escaped from prison and (b) escaped from escorts in each of the last five years. [188307]
Mr. Hanson: Information on the number of escapes from prison and escapes from escort at each contracted prison is provided in the following tables for each financial year to 31 March and for the current year until 31 January 2008.
| Escapes from prisons | |||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
In the end of year Performance Report on Offender Management Targets 2006-07 (PROMT) published in July 2007 on the NOMS website, targets for the rate of escape from prison and prison escorts below 0.05 per cent. of the average population, were met by both the public sector and the contracted estate.
The target for fewer than one in 20,000 escapes from prison and prison escorts was also met.
| Escapes from prison escort | |||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| (1) HMP Bronzefield did not become operational until 4 June. (2) HMP Peterborough did not become operational until March 2005 | |||||
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