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30 Apr 2008 : Column 519W—continued
Prisons: Drugs
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps the Government has taken to reduce substance misuse inside prisons in the last 12 months. [202031]
Mr. Hanson: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has in place a comprehensive strategy to address the misuse of drugs by offenders serving custodial sentences. The strategy for prisons has three elements:
reducing supply, through security measures and drug testing programmes;
reducing demand, through targeted interventions for low, moderate and severe drug-misusers; and
establishing effective through-care links to ensure continuity of treatment post-release in order to safeguard the gains made in custody.
Prisons have in place a robust framework of supply reduction measures and these can be adapted flexibly to meet local need.
As part of the drive against drugs announced at the end of January 2008, the Director General of the Prison Service has commissioned David Blakey, a former member of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the measures to disrupt the supply of illicit drugs into prisons.
On 13 March 2008 we announced that universal testing for the opiate substitute buprenorphine was to commence in all prisons of England and Wales from 1 April 2008. Prisoners have also been warned of the dangers of the illicit use of buprenorphine.
NOMS' comprehensive drug treatment framework, based on the National Treatment Agency's revised Models of Care, addresses the different needs of substance-misusers in prison. Interventions comprise:
Clinical services, detoxification and/or maintenance prescribing;
CARATs (Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare service)—lower-level interventions that, following assessment, deliver treatment and support. CARATs take the lead Drug Intervention programme (DIP) role in prisons, engaging with prison resettlement teams and criminal justice integrated teams (CJITs) in the community;
Drug Rehabilitation programmes.
In 2007-08 £79.8 million was made available for drug treatment in prisons. £18.7 million of this was used to fund the implementation of the integrated drug treatment system (IDTS). This allowed the development of enhanced clinical services in 53 prisons, with 29 of these also developing enhanced psychosocial services.
Reoffenders
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent steps the Government has taken in co-operation with the Prison Service to reduce reoffending. [202032]
Mr. Hanson: Reducing re-offending is a key priority for the Government. We are delivering this through our cross-Government strategy to reduce re-offending, supported by the significant increase in investment since 1997.
At the heart of our work to reduce re-offending, is the end to end case management of offenders which enables offenders to access the right services and interventions at the right time in their sentence and effectively re-integrate them back into the community. The Prison Service is engaging with a wide range of partners to tackle the accommodation, skills and employment, finance management and health disadvantages suffered by offenders. Interventions to tackle drug and alcohol problems are also being delivered in custody and the community.
Latest performance figures show that adult re-offending has been reduced by 6.9 per cent. comparing 2004 to 1997 against a predicted rate. This exceeds the 5 per cent. target set in the 2000 Spending Review.
Young Offender Institutions
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average number of hours per day spent in purposeful activity was by each (a) adult (i) male and (ii) adult female prisoner and (A) male and (B) female prisoner in a young offender institution in each week of March and April 2008. [202240]
Maria Eagle: Data are not yet available for April 2008, the following table shows the average number of hours of purposeful activity per day in prisons which predominately hold (a) adult male prisoners, (b) adult female prisoners and (c) male prisoners in young offender and juvenile institutions, for each week in February and March 2008. No young offender institutes are predominantly categorised as female. Therefore, the average number of hours for a female prisoner in a young offender institution cannot be provided.
| Week commencing | Adult female | Adult male | YO and juvenile male |
Young Offenders
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) boys and (b) girls aged (i) 10, (ii) 11, (iii) 12, (iv) 13, (v) 14 and (vi) 15 years old were received into each local authority (A) secure home and (B) secure training centre (1) on remand and (2) under sentence in each year since 2000. [201673]
Mr. Hanson: The information requested has been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Young Offenders: Custodial Treatment
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) boys and (b) girls aged (i) 15, (ii) 16 and (iii) 17 years were (A) received into prison service custody on remand and (B) under sentence in each year since 2000. [201812]
Mr. Hanson: The information requested is in the table as follows.
| Total | Males | Females | ||||
| Remand | Sentence | Remand | Sentence | Remand | Sentence | |
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