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10 Feb 2009 : Column 1915W—continued
Prison Service: Surveys
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will instruct the management of the Prison Service to allow the Prison Officers' Association to conduct a ballot of its members in relation to the workforce management proposals. [255010]
Mr. Hanson: At their Special Delegates’ Conference, the Prisoner Officers' Association called for a workplace ballot on the work force modernisation proposals. A timetable for this to take place has now been set and the ballot is due to take place between 8 and 18 February. It is anticipated that results will be known by 20 February.
Prisons: Education
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what companies have been contracted to provide education services to each prison in Wales in each of the last five years; what the value of each contract was; and what courses were provided under each contract. [256023]
Mr. Hanson: From 1998 until end of August 2005 the provision of education services for all public prisons in Wales was contracted to Coleg Gwent. Since then the Prison Service has directly employed teaching staff to deliver education services in Wales and to arrange specific specialist courses to be provided.
The following table shows the total funding for education services, including library provision, in each of the last five years in public prisons in Wales, which are Cardiff, Usk and Prescoed and Swansea.
| £ million | |
In general the courses delivered in each year during the five year period across the prison estate included the following:
Basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Key communication skills.
Generic courses such as the Arts, English, Maths, Creative Writing, Welsh.
Vocational courses such as Food Safety and Hygiene, painting and decorating.
Personal and Social skills.
Employability skills such as First Aid and Health and Safety.
Further Education and Open University courses.
HMP/YOI Parc is a contracted prison and provides education services as part of the overall contract delivery. In addition to the core services which are equivalent to those delivered in HMPS establishments, a supplementary allocation is provided to support the education provision at the prison as follows:
| £ | |
In general the courses delivered in each year during the five year period included the following:
Basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Key communication skills.
Generic courses such as the Arts, English, Psychology, Maths, Creative Writing,
Vocational skills such as food hygiene, painting and decorating.
Personal and Social skills.
Employability skills such as First Aid and Health and Safety.
Further Education and Open University.
Road Traffic Offences: East of England
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were (a) cautioned and (b) fined for speeding offences in (i) St Albans constituency, (ii) Hertfordshire and (iii) the East of England in each of the last five years. [254224]
Maria Eagle: Speeding offences, under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and Motor Vehicles (Speed Limit on Motorways) Regulations 1973, can be dealt with by way of written warnings, court proceedings or the issuing of a fixed penalty notice.
Available information collected centrally on the Court Proceedings Database, held by the Ministry of Justice, on the number of persons given a court fine for speed limit offences within the Hertfordshire police force area and the east of England Government office region from 2003 to 2007 (latest available) is provided in table 1 as follows.
Information collected centrally by the Home Office on the number of fixed penalty notices issued for speeding offences, by area, for the period 2002 to 2006 (latest available) is given in table 2 as follows. Data for 2007 are due to be published in the spring of 2009.
Formal cautions are not given for motoring offences.
Data collected centrally are available at police force area level only and therefore information for St. Albans constituency is not available.
| Table 2: Fixed penalty notices issued( 1) for speed limit offences( 2) in Hertfordshire police force area and the east of England local government office region, 2002 to 2006 | |||||
| Number of offences | |||||
| Police force area | 2002( 3) | 2003( 3) | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| (1) Only covers notices paid where there is no further action. (2 )Offences under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and the Motor Vehicles (Speed Limits on Motorways) Regulations 1973. (3 )Revised since original publication following amendments received from forces. (4 )Includes following police force areas: Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. Note: Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative systems generated by police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their limitations are taken into account when those data are used. | |||||
Theft: Drugs
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the proportion of people convicted of theft who have a drug addiction in the last 12 months. [254336]
Maria Eagle: From information held by the Ministry of Justice it is not possible to separately identify those persons convicted of theft who have a drug addiction.
War Crimes: Prosecutions
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what consents are required for the prosecution of an alleged offence relating to war crimes committed overseas following a citizen’s arrest in the UK. [254550]
Maria Eagle: The Attorney-General's consent is required for the prosecution of war crimes under the War Crimes Act 1991 or the International Criminal Court Act 2001. The Attorney-General's consent is also required for the prosecution of offences under the Geneva Conventions Act 1957.
Health
Tuberculosis/HIV
10. Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of tuberculosis (TB) patients in England are co-infected with HIV; and what plans there are to reduce HIV-TB co-infection rates. [255404]
Dawn Primarolo: The most recent data from the Health Protection Agency indicate that approximately 8 per cent. of tuberculosis (TB) cases in England are co-infected with HIV.
Guidelines for the management of patients with co-infection are available from the British HIV Association, and in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines for TB.
Safe Drinking
11. Phil Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps his Department has taken to increase public awareness of safe drinking levels. [255405]
Dawn Primarolo: In May 2008, we launched a national campaign to increase awareness of alcohol units, lower-risk levels for regular consumption and the health risks of exceeding these levels.
Early analysis shows promising results, with campaign recall running at 73 per cent. We intend that this campaign should be sustained over a number of years.
Mixed-sex Wards
12. Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he plans to take to minimise the number of mixed sex wards in NHS hospitals. [255406]
Alan Johnson: The national health service has already made significant progress in reducing mixed sex accommodation and two weeks ago, I set out measures for the next six months to eliminate mixed sex accommodation altogether except where clinically justified.
This will provide practical assistance where problems remain and ensure that, once eradicated, mixed sex accommodation does not re-emerge in the future.
BASICs Doctors
13. Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received on the role of British Association for Immediate Care doctors in emergency response; and if he will make a statement. [255407]
Mr. Bradshaw: In the last 12 months, we have received a small number of letters on the role of BASICs in emergency response. There was an adjournment debate in June 2008 and an Early Day Motion tabled by the hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Oaten).
We think BASICs doctors provide an excellent service and regional strategic health authorities, who are responsible for trauma care in their areas are examining how pre-hospital care can be improved including the sort of services provided by BASICs doctors.
Alternative and Complementary Medicine: Regulation
14. David Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the Government plans to provide for the statutory regulation of the professions of acupuncture, herbal medicine and traditional Chinese medicine before the EU Directive on Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products comes into force in 2011. [255408]
Mr. Bradshaw: We plan to consult shortly on how best to regulate the activities of these practitioners.
National Dementia Strategy
16. David Lepper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what guidance his Department is planning to issue to NHS organisations and local authorities on the implementation of the National Dementia Strategy for England. [255410]
Phil Hope: My hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced publication of the first ever National Dementia Strategy on 3 February this year. Alongside the strategy, the Department also published an implementation plan, which is available on the Department’s dementia website. We will also be providing a nationwide regional support programme.
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