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11 Jan 2010 : Column 795W—continued
Prisons: Food
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the average cost of providing a meal to a prisoner in the latest period for which figures are available. [308976]
Maria Eagle: The full cost of providing meals includes a number of elements including staff and prisoner labour, food, training (staff and prisoner), kitchen and servery facilities, utilities and other overheads, including management overheads, and it is not possible to fully identify these costs-some of which are shared resources across individual prisons and between prisons.
It is, however, possible to separately identify the cost of food. For 2008-09, the last full financial year for which figures are available, the average public sector Prison Service daily food cost per prisoner in England and Wales was £2.31.
The average food cost per meal per prisoner is based on the understanding that breakfast, lunch and dinner account for approximately 20 per cent., 40 per cent. and 40 per cent. of the daily food cost. Using these figures, the average cost per meal per prisoner was: breakfast 46.2p; lunch 92.4p; and, dinner 92.4p. But these percentages will vary from one establishment to another and are illustrative only.
Prisons: Inspections
David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison governors have reported moving prisoners immediately prior to an inspection in the last 12 months. [308170]
Maria Eagle: Governors are not required to report transferring prisoners to other establishments as transfers are a regular and frequent occurrence.
On 20 October 2009, the Secretary of State for Justice, made a statement to the House of Commons asking Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons to work with the Ministry of Justice director of analytical services to investigate whether any temporary transfer of prisoners had occurred before an inspection by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. The results of this investigation will be made available in due course.
Prisons: Rape
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many rapes were reported in each prison in England and Wales in each year since 2000; [308958]
(2) how many incidents of grievous bodily harm have taken place in prisons in each year since 2000; [308960]
(3) how many incidents of sexual assault have taken place in prisons in each year since 2000. [308961]
Maria Eagle: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) does not capture data specifically concerning rape in prison. Rather, numbers of all types of sexual assault incidents are recorded and these are provided in Table 2.
NOMS has, for many years, recorded serious assaults using a bespoke definition and does not currently have the ability to capture data using Home Office counting rules definitions, such as grievous bodily harm. NOMS defines a serious assault as any of the following:
It is a sexual assault.
It results in detention in outside hospital as an in-patient.
It requires medical treatment for concussion or internal injuries.
The injury is a fracture, scald or burn, stabbing, crushing, extensive or multiple bruising, black eye, broken nose, lost or broken tooth, cuts requiring suturing, bites or temporary or permanent blindness.
When an assault results in one of these types of injuries it is classified as serious even if the actual damage was superficial.
Numbers of serious assaults recorded by NOMS for the years in question are given in Table 1.
| Table 1 | ||
| Recorded incidents of serious assault in prisons in England and Wales | Proportion of all assaults (percentage) | |
| (1)Due to improved recording over the years, figures from 1998 to 2001 are not directly comparable with those from later years. Numbers may differ slightly from previously published figures. Note: The numbers supplied refer to the number of individual assault incidents. | ||
Data on sexual assaults and other incidents in prison are obtained through the National Offender Management Service's Incident Reporting System. Numbers of sexual assault incidents for the years in question are given in Table 2. The figures include proven and unproven allegations and are subject to change because some allegations are removed or reclassified following investigation.
| Table 2 | |
| Recorded incidents of sexual assault in prisons in England and Wales | |
| (1)Due to improved recording over the years, figures from 1998 to 2001 are not directly comparable with those from later years. Numbers may differ slightly from previously published figures. Note: The numbers supplied refer to the number of individual assault incidents. | |
Since 2004, a national strategy has directed every public sector prison to have in place a local violence reduction strategy. From mid-2007 this policy has been applied to both the public sector and contracted estate. The strategy requires each prison to undertake regular analysis of the problem areas, consider solutions and provide an action plan to improve personal safety and reduce violence. A whole-prison approach is encouraged, engaging all staff, all disciplines and prisoners in challenging unacceptable behaviour, problem-solving and personal safety. This includes environmental and physical measures, as well as alternative ways of managing behaviour.
Prisons: Religion
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what criteria the Prison Service uses to determine whether to recognise a religion for the purposes of facilitating religious ministry in prison. [308703]
Maria Eagle: The Prison Service does not have specified criteria for determining whether to recognise a religion for the purposes of facilitating religious ministry in prisons. Cases would be considered on their merits taking into account security, good order and discipline as well as the needs and rights of the individual prisoner.
All prisons have chaplaincy teams to enable and facilitate religious and pastoral support to prisoners.
Prisons: Smuggling
David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison staff were charged with disciplinary or criminal offences involving (a) importation of drugs, (b) importation of mobile telephones and (c) importation of other contraband to a prison in the most recent year for which figures are available. [308169]
Maria Eagle: According to centrally held records(1) in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), 10 staff were subject to formal disciplinary action for the conveying of prohibited items into prisons in the period 1 December 2008 through 30 November 2009. A breakdown of these cases is provided in the following table:
| NOMS staff disciplined for conveying prohibited items into prisons | |
| Description | Number of staff disciplined |
Tackling the supply of drugs and mobile phones into prisons is a high priority for NOMS. Since David Blakey's report, "Disrupting the Supply of Illicit Drugs into Prisons", was published in July 2008 good progress has been made in implementing Blakey's recommendations. We have also strengthened the law, through the Offender Management Act 2007 (implemented in April 2008), which makes it a criminal offence with a punishment of up to ten years' imprisonment for the conveyance of drugs, mobile phones or other prohibited items into a prison. There is also a range of offences used to prosecute staff in these circumstances, including misconduct in public office and possession with intent to supply.
The National Offender Management Service does not, though, record detailed information relating to charges or convictions for criminal offences in the form requested.
From April 2009 convictions under the Act have been included in the Home Office Counting Rules, which provide a national standard for the recording and counting of notifiable offences recorded by police forces in England and Wales (known as "recorded crime"). Statistics will be published in next year's Annual Crime Statistics Bulletin due to be published July 2010, and will provide a more accurate picture of the use of the Act.
(1)The data contained in the above table was extracted from the central Discipline Database and the Personnel Management Database, both of which are subject to the normal inaccuracies associated with any large scale reporting system. Any cases which are still ongoing, or subject to internal appeal, have not been included.
Remand in Custody
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people in each age group who were remanded in custody in each year since 1997 were not convicted of the offence for which they were remanded in custody; and how much time was spent on remand by such people. [308778]
Maria Eagle: Information collected by the Ministry of Justice and held centrally on the court proceedings database only records details of the final outcome of court proceedings, e.g. following conviction or acquittal. Therefore it is not possible to provide information on the original offence for which a defendant was proceeded against.
Review of the 30-year Rule
Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to publish the Government's response to the review of the 30 year rule submitted to his Department in January 2009. [309949]
Mr. Wills: The Government are finalising their response to the review of the 30-year rule and this will be published in due course.
Secure Training Centres: Restraint Techniques
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will place in the Library an unredacted copy of the physical control in care restraint manual used in secure training centres. [308382]
Maria Eagle: A copy of the redacted manual has been placed in the House Library. The redaction is necessary in order to remove sensitive security information, misuse of which could lead to injury to a young person in custody, to a member of staff, or to a member of the public attempting one of the holds or on whom a hold was attempted.
Young Offenders: Reoffenders
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what data his Department collect on youth reoffending at middle layer super output area level; and where such data are published. [309516]
Claire Ward: The published National Statistics on juvenile reoffending in England and Wales are not broken down by area. As part of the National Indicator Set, NI19-Juvenile Reoffending provides these data at the local level, but data are only available at the Youth Offender Team level. Youth Offender Team areas are not coterminous with local authorities in all cases-tables including this information have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Breaking the data down to smaller areas would be likely to result in figures which were too small to be meaningful.
Juvenile reoffending data at the Youth Offender Team level is available for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2008. For 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 data are based on a cohort of offenders that received a pre-court disposal (reprimand or final warning) or a first-tier or community penalty or were released from custody between October and December of that year. Data on this previous measure for the 2002-2005 cohorts were reported in early 2004-2007 respectively. After 2007 the basis of the measure changed to offenders that received a pre-court disposal (reprimand or final warning) or a first-tier or community penalty or were released from custody between January and March. Data on this new basis are available for the 2005 and 2008 cohorts-the former submitted retrospectively in September 2008, and the latter returned in July 2009.
The local juvenile reoffending measure differs from the published national statistics on juvenile reoffending. The primary difference is that the data source is administrative data held by youth offending teams, whereas the national statistics are produced using the police national computer. There are therefore differences in the offences which count towards reoffending. In addition to this, local juvenile reoffending data is based on a one year follow up period with a further three months allowed for any cautions or convictions to occur, whereas the national statistics allow a six month period for cautions or convictions.
Youth Custody
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hours each day young offenders spent locked in a cell at each (a) secure children's home, (b) secure training centre and (c) young offender institution on average in the latest period for which figures are available. [308820]
Maria Eagle: The following tables provide the average number of hours per day which young people in custody spent in their rooms during September 2009.
The data have been supplied by the Youth Justice Board and 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 and may be subject to change over time.
| (a) Secure children's homes | Time in room (hours) |
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