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25 Feb 2009 : Column 844W—continued
National Offender Management Service: Redundancy
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the total monetary value of all redundancy packages given to regional offender managers is. [257571]
Mr. Straw: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) appointed regional offender managers (ROMs) as commissioners of services. As a result of structural changes in NOMS, Directors of Offender Managers have now been appointed (due to be announced imminently). The ROMs will remain in post until 31 March 2009. The role will then end as the new structure comes into place. The expectation is that there will be no redundancies as a result of this change as our objective is to redeploy the ROMs into other roles.
Offenders: Suffolk
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what types of offences were committed by people on bail in Suffolk in each of the last five years. [256964]
Maria Eagle: Court proceedings data held by the Ministry of Justice do not identify whether persons were on bail at the time of committing an offence.
Office of the Public Guardian: Complaints
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many complaints about the Office of the Public Guardian were received in each month of the last three years. [257629]
Bridget Prentice: The number of complaints received by the Office of the Public Guardian each month for the last three years is shown in the following table.
| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
Prison Sentences
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection have been set a tariff of (a) less than 12 months, (b) between 12 months and two years and (c) over two years; [257468]
(2) how many prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection who have served sentences longer than their tariff have served (a) fewer than six months, (b) between six months and one year and (c) more than one year over their tariff. [257469]
Maria Eagle: The number of prisoners in custody on 12 February 2009 serving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection broken down by length of tariff is as follows:
| Number of prisoners | |
The number of prisoners in custody serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection longer than their tariff on 12 February 2009 was 1,487. This is broken down as follows:
| Number of prisoners | |
These figures are taken from the National Offender Management Service’s records. As with any large scale recording system, it is subject to possible errors arising from either data entry or processing.
The tariff is the minimum period which an indeterminate sentenced prisoner must serve for punishment and deterrence. It is for the independent Parole Board to determine whether to direct the release of an indeterminate sentenced prisoner once his tariff has expired, based on all relevant information as to the risk of harm which the prisoner presents.
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners are serving (a) life sentences and (b) other indeterminate sentences. [257470]
Maria Eagle: At the end of December 2008 there were 4,963 prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection in all prison establishments in England and Wales, and 7,031 serving life sentences.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Prisoners Release
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners have been released early in error in the last five years; for what offences they were serving sentences; what the length of the original sentence was in each case; how long each had left to serve on release; and if he will make a statement. [257458]
Mr. Hanson: It is a mandatory requirement that prisons check the correctness of the calculation of a prisoner’s release date 14 days and two days before release. At this point, a check is also made to ensure that there is no other reason a prisoner should be detained in custody, such as, if they are remanded to custody on further charges or held on immigration matters. Additionally, re-calculations and checks are also carried out during the course of the sentence should a prisoner be transferred from one establishment to another. Prison Service Order 6650 provides details of the sentence calculation checks required.
The number of known releases in error are reported to the national operations unit in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) by prison establishments. The number of releases reported is as follows:
| Number of releases in error (RIEs) reported | Total number of prisoner discharges | Percentage of discharges that are RIEs | |
| n/a = Not available. | |||
Information on how early the release was in each case and the details of the offences are not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The number of releases in error remains very small as a percentage of total discharges (less than 0.05 per cent. in 2007, the last year for which discharge figures are currently available) and must be viewed in the context of increased prisoner movement to accommodate the rising population.
Prisoners: Racial Harassment
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many incidents classified as racially-motivated were reported by prisoners in each of the last five years. [257637]
Mr. Straw: The following table presents the number of incidents of alleged racism reported by prisoners. This is broken down into those about the behaviour of other prisoners and those concerning service provision or the actions of members of staff. While all reports are investigated few consist of allegations of misconduct by staff and all such matters are subject to disciplinary investigation under the code of conduct and discipline.
‘Race Review 2008’, recently published by the National Offender Management Service, which is available in the Library of the House, sets out the current assessment of race equality in the Prison Service, including the effectiveness of these systems and plans for work further to improve them.
| Total | Prisoner behaviour | Services/actions of staff | |
| (1) Figures for year up to 31 December 2008 | |||
Prisoners: Suicide
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what steps he is taking to reduce the incidence of suicide in prisons; [258753]
(2) how many prisoners died in HM Prison Winchester in each of the last five years; and how many of those deaths were suicides; [258754]
(3) how many prisoners died in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last five years; and how many of those deaths were suicides. [258755]
Mr. Malik: The National Offender Management Service has a broad, integrated and evidence-based prisoner suicide prevention strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This encompasses a wide spectrum of prison and Department of Health work around such issues as mental health, substance misuse and resettlement. Any prisoner identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm is cared for using the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) procedures. ACCT is the prisoner-centred flexible care-planning system introduced across the prisons estate in partnership with the Department of Health during 2005 to 2007 to replace the old F2052SH system.
Any death in custody is a tragic event. The Government are committed to learning from such events and reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in state custody. We are implementing many of the recommendations of Robert Fulton's Review of the Forum for Preventing Deaths in Custody. From April 2009, a new three tier Ministerial Council on Deaths in Custody will replace the existing forum and the Ministerial Roundtable on Suicide.
The numbers of deaths at HMP Winchester in the last five calendar years, broken down by type, are detailed in the following table.
| Type of death | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009( 1) |
| (1 )Up to and including 24 February. | ||||||
The numbers of deaths in English and Welsh prisons in the last five calendar years, broken down by type, are detailed in the following table.
| Type of death | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009( 1) |
| (1 )Up to and including 24 February. | ||||||
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