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30 Mar 2009 : Column 1000W—continued


The CJIT ring fence was wound down at the end of 2007-08 and its central functions absorbed into OCJR.

During 2008-09, responsibility for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, and the Criminal Cases Review Commission transferred from OCJR to the Access to Justice Group of the Ministry of Justice.

Office for Judicial Complaints: Expenditure

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much the Office for Judicial Complaints spent in 2007-08. [266179]

Mr. Straw: The Office for Judicial Complaints’ costs for 2007-08 were £1,180,000. This figure does not include costs associated with its accommodation or the facilities provided as shared services by the Ministry of Justice.

Prisoners: Drugs

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners enrolled on courses for drug and alcohol abuse in each of the last five years. [252506]

Mr. Straw: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has in place a comprehensive drug treatment framework, based on the National Treatment Agency’s revised Models of Care, to address the different needs of drug-misusers in prison. The interventions available are designed to meet the needs of low, moderate and severe drug misusers—irrespective of age, gender or ethnicity.

The following table shows the number of interventions delivered in the last five full financial years in prisons by intervention type. Individual prisoners may have accessed more than one of these interventions in the time period.

A range of interventions are available in prisons to support those with an alcohol problem:

The Ministry of Justice has established a working group to develop proposals to increase the provision of alcohol treatment available in prisons. The number of prisoners accessing services specifically aimed at their alcohol misuse is not collated centrally.


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30 Mar 2009 : Column 1002W
Table 1: Interventions delivered( 1) (rounded to nearest hundred)
Intervention type 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

Intensive Drug Rehabilitation Programmes(2) (starts)

4,700

7,600

10,700

11,200

11,300

CARATs(3) (substance misuse triage assessments)

54,100

59,000

66,000

65,700

65,800

Young People’s Substance Misuse Service (initial assessments)

8,500

8,300

7,400

Clinical Treatment (detoxification or maintenance prescribing)(4)

57,900

53,900

53,800

51,500

58,800

Total

116,700

120,500

139,000

136,700

143,300

(1) 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.
(2) Programmes available in prison are split into four main categories: cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), the 12-Step approach, Therapeutic Communities (TCs), Short Duration Programme (SDP).
(3) Counselling, assessment, referral, advice and throughcare services.
(4) Drug and alcohol detoxification data cannot be disaggregated.

Prisoners: Suicide

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of suicides in prisons in England and Wales were committed by (a) foreign national prisoners and (b) foreign national prisoners held beyond the expiration of their sentence in each of the last 10 years. [266596]

Mr. Hanson: 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 prison custody. The National Offender Management Service has a broad, integrated and evidence-based prisoner suicide prevention and self harm management 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.

The numbers and proportions of foreign national prisoner self-inflicted deaths are summarised in the following table.

Table: Self-inflicted deaths in prison custody (England and Wales) by nationality type
Percentage

EEA foreign n ational Non EEA f oreign national UK n ational Total Foreign nationals

1999

4

3

84

91

7.7

2000

3

1

77

81

4.9

2001

2

3

68

73

6.8

2002

4

5

86

95

9.5

2003

2

6

86

94

8.5

2004

2

5

88

95

7.4

2005

1

5

72

78

7.7

2006

2

4

61

67

9.0

2007

6

18

68

92

26.1

2008

1

8

52

61

14.8


We do not specifically record whether foreign national prisoners died beyond their expiry date. However, of the 85 self-inflicted deaths among foreign nationals in the 10 years 1999 to 2008 there were four foreign national self-inflicted deaths of immigration detainees recorded in prison custody. Three of these were in 2003 and one in 2008.

Prisoners: Syria

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many Syrian nationals are serving sentences in prisons in England and Wales. [267097]

Mr. Hanson: At the end of December 2008, there were four Syrian nationals serving sentences in prisons in England and Wales.

This figure was drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Prisons

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether each of the three new titan prisons will be privately managed. [264666]

Mr. Straw: The pre-Budget report (paragraph 6.30), published in November 2008, said that for the next three years only the private sector would be invited to bid for the construction and operation of new build prisons. The Government response to the consultation on large new prisons will be published in due course.

Prisons: Standards

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2009, Official Report, column 1789W, on prisons: standards, when the function of (a) Her Majesty's Prison Wolds and (b) Her Majesty's Prison and Young Offenders Institution Ashfield last changed; and for what reason no prison performance rating for each was published in the last quarter. [265705]

Mr. Hanson: HMP Wolds opened in April 1992 as a remand prison and in 1993 was re-roled to a local category B prison holding sentenced prisoners. The initial management contract ran for five years and was renewed for a further five years in 1997. In 2001, HMP Wolds was subject to a competitive re-bid. G4S was the successful bidder for the contract to run HMP Wolds as a category C training prison for a further 10 years.

HMP and YOI Ashfield opened on 1 November 1999 and accommodated both juveniles (aged 15 to 17) and young offenders (aged 18 to 21) until February 2004 when it was re-roled as an all juvenile establishment holding young people between 15 but under 18 years of age.


30 Mar 2009 : Column 1003W

Performance Management Group (National Offender Management Service) owns and manages the Prison Performance Assessment Tool (PPAT) which assesses around 120 public prisons by looking at performance in 33 indicators, which is then cross checked with a rating produced by assessing against a set of 44 indicators in the public prison weighted scorecard. For private prisons only the PPAT is used to produce the data driven assessment. Both HMP Ashfield’s and HMP Wolds’ performance ratings were published on 12 December 2008 and are available via the following link:

In the most recent published ratings (quarter 2) both prisons achieved a level 3 rating for good performance.

Prisons: Crimes of Violence

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many assaults by prisoners on a (a) prisoner and (b) prison officer were recorded in each prison establishment in each year since 2002; and if he will make a statement; [264714]

(2) how many assaults by prisoners on a (a) prisoner and (b) prison officer were recorded in each year since 2002 in each female prison establishment; and if he will make a statement; [264715]

(3) how many assaults by prisoners on a (a) prisoner and (b) prison officer were recorded in each young offenders' institution in each year since 2002; and if he will make a statement. [264716]

Mr. Hanson: Reducing violence in prisons is a priority for Ministers, The National Offender Management Service and the Prison Officers Association and we are collectively committed to working towards a zero tolerance approach to prison violence. Since 2004, a national strategy has directed every public sector prison to have in place a
30 Mar 2009 : Column 1004W
local violence reduction strategy and since mid 2007 this has been applied to the public and contracted out estate. A whole-prison approach is encouraged, engaging all staff, all disciplines and prisoners in challenging unacceptable behaviour, problem-solving and personal safety.

The information set out in tables 1, 2 and 3 show the number of prisoner on prisoner assaults in all prisons, female prisons and young offender institutions respectively. Similarly tables 4, 5 and 6 show the numbers of prisoner on officer assault incidents. It is important to note that the recorded incidents of assaults on prison officers are not completely exclusive to officers and may include assaults on other prison staff. The numbers supplied refer to the number of individual assault incidents; they include all incidents recorded as assaults and may also include threatening behaviour, projection of bodily fluids and other non-contact events and allegations.

The following information is subject to important qualifications. The NOMS Incident Reporting System processes high volumes of data which are constantly being updated. The numbers provide a good indication of overall numbers but should not be interpreted as absolute. Rises or falls in reported numbers from one year to the next are not a good indicator of an underlying trend for a particular prison. Additionally there have been improvements in reporting over the years, and this is reflected in the tables.

Assault data are complex and the numbers need to be interpreted with caution. Information recorded as assault incidents may involve one or many prisoners as some assault incidents may involve more than one assailant or more than one victim. Additionally in a proportion of incidents only the victim is known.

As prisons have changed roles over time the hon. Gentleman's attention is brought to the notes to the tables which indicate when some of the more significant changes took place.


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