| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
24 Nov 2008 : Column 873W—continued
Prisons: Complaints
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many complaints by prison officers have been made against fellow officers on the grounds of (a) sexual discrimination, (b) sexual harassment, (c) homophobic behaviour and (d) racial discrimination in each of the last 10 years; what proportion of these complaints were upheld; what proportion of those making such complaints received compensation payments; and how much each received. [237049]
Mr. Malik: According to the information held centrally by the National Offender Management Service, in the period from 1 January 2005 to 31 October 2008, at least 82 formal investigations were commissioned into allegations of a sexual or sexist nature and at least 151 formal investigations were commissioned into allegations of a racial or racist nature. Over that same period, there were at least 34 proven cases of sexual harassment and at least 79 proven cases of racial harassment.
However, the information available centrally is not complete. It does not distinguish between types of sexual, sexist, racial or racist behaviour, nor identify homophobic behaviour. Nor does the available information identify how many of these cases resulted from complaints by prison officers against other prison officers.
In order to provide the complete and specific information requested and for the period before 2005, it would be necessary to carry out comprehensive data gathering and analysis across the prison estate. This would incur disproportionate cost through contacting and scrutinising case files with each of the 138 prisons across the Service.
Prison Service Order 8460 (Conduct and Discipline) does not provide a facility for compensation awards to be made to complainants whose allegations have been substantiated as a result of internal disciplinary proceedings.
Prisons: Methadone
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his policy is on the prescribing of methadone in prisons in England and Wales. [237680]
Mr. Hanson: Methadone is one of a number of drugs licensed for the clinical management of substance misuse. The prescribing of methadone in prisons in England is, as with any treatment intervention in NHS, based on individual clinical need following an assessment by a registered health care practitioner.
Guidance on the treatment of drug misuse in the UK is provided by the 2007 Department of Health Clinical Guidelines. They are based on current evidence and professional consensus on how to provide drug treatment for the majority of patients, in most instances. The guidelines have a specific chapter which includes additional advice specific to criminal justice setting, including prisons
The policy for all Welsh prisons and those not currently part of the Integrated Drug Treatment System, is set out in Prison Service Order 3550 Clinical Services for Substance Misusers. For prisons funded as part of the prisons Integrated Drug Treatment System, policy is set out in the Department of Health guidance “Clinical management of drug dependence in the adult prison setting”.
Prisons: Overcrowding
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps the Government is taking to reduce prison overcrowding; and if he will make a statement. [237010]
Mr. Hanson: The prison capacity programme has delivered over 4,000 new prison places since 2007 and will provide nearly 200 further places before the end of the year. It is anticipated this programme will also deliver over 2,000 further places in 2009.
The programme will provide an additional 20,000 prison places and an increased overall capacity to just over 96,000 by 2014.
Probation: Manpower
David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many job reductions there will be from natural wastage in the Probation Service under his Department’s Financial Plan for the Comprehensive Spending Review for 2008 to 2011. [236245]
Mr. Straw: Under the agreement reached in the last comprehensive spending review, the Ministry of Justice is seeking efficiency savings over the next three years as set out in the Department’s annual report for 2007-08.
We will be working with the 42 probation areas and trusts, the employers of staff in the National Probation Service (NPS), to achieve the necessary efficiency savings. Our aim is to create a front line focused NPS that will enable offender management in the community to be delivered more efficiently and effectively by reducing overheads, duplications of work and seeking economies of scale. Ultimately, the size and scope of any staffing reductions will rest with the 42 areas and trusts who manage probation business at the local level.
Racial Harassment
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many complaints of racial abuse relating to staff for which his Department is responsible have been (a) investigated and (b) upheld in the last 12 months. [236900]
Mr. Wills: In the Ministry of Justice there have been six complaints brought on the grounds of race in the 12 months ending July 2008. Of those, four cited actual racial abuse, and of those, two were upheld.
For NOMS and OCJR, no complaints of racial abuse have been recorded.
The prison service does not hold the information centrally in the format requested. This could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Rape: Sentencing
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average sentence handed down by courts in England and Wales for convictions for rape was in each of the last three years. [236912]
Maria Eagle: The requested information is contained in the following tables.
2006 is the latest year for which annually published statistics are available. Data for 2007 will be published on 27 November.
| Number of persons sentenced( 1) by result and average length of immediate custodial sentence( 2) for offences of rape, all courts, England and Wales, 2004-06 | |||||||||
| Number of persons and average length of sentence (months) | |||||||||
| Result | |||||||||
| Offence description | Year | Total number sentenced | Absolute discharge | Conditional discharge | Fine | Community sentence | Fully suspended sentence | Immediate custody | Otherwise dealt with |
| Number of persons and average length of sentence (months) | ||
| Offence description | Average custodial sentence length( 2) | Indeterminate sentence( 3) |
| (1) These data are on the principal offence basis. (2) Months. Excludes life and indeterminate sentences. (3) Sentences of imprisonment for public protection introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 on 4 April 2005. (4) Includes rape of a male and a female. Notes: 1. Persons receiving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection for a serious offence would previously have received a lengthy determinate sentence that would have been included in the calculation of average custodial sentence length. These longer sentences are now effectively excluded from the calculation. This may account for the observed decrease in average custodial sentence lengths since 2004-05. 2. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Source: OMS Analytical Services | ||
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the effectiveness as a deterrent of sentences handed down by courts in England and Wales for convictions relating to rape. [236913]
Maria Eagle: No specific research has been done into the deterrent effect of sentences imposed for rape. For certain types of crime such as rape custody will almost always represent the most appropriate sentencing option as a means of punishment and as a means of protecting the public.
Reoffenders
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what information his Department holds on the reconviction rates of prisoners released from each prison in England and Wales in the last 10 years. [238281]
Mr. Straw: At present, data are not available for the reconviction rates of prisoners released from each prison in England and Wales in the last 10 years. The Ministry of Justice is currently undertaking a programme of work to look at how best to produce these data (accounting for the different types of prisons and movement of offenders between prisons). This work should be completed by the end of the financial year 2008-09.
However, information on the rate of reoffending for custodial prisoners is available covering 2000 to 2006, as shown in the following table. The current data demonstrate that the adult reoffending rate for offenders with previous custodial sentences has fallen since 2000 by 15 per cent.
| Q1 | Number of offenders | Number of offences per 100 offenders |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |