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14 Jan 2010 : Column 1156W—continued
Prisons: Drugs
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of prisoners receiving methadone treatment are serving sentences of (a) less than three months, (b) between three and six months, (c) between six months and one year, (d) between one and two years and (e) more than two years. [308211]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested is not yet available.
A joint Home Office, National Offender Management Service, National Treatment Agency and Department project has redesigned the Drug Information Record (DIR) and Prison Activity Form which came into use on 1 April 2009, therefore mechanisms are now in place for prisons to collect baseline data on the number of drug users in effective treatment.
Section 5.2 of the new DIR collects the following information:
less than one year;
between one to four years; and
more than four years.
As this data collection only began in April 2009 it will not be until 2011-12, when the data improvement project has had a chance to take effect, that data on methadone prescription by sentence length is likely to be sufficiently robust to produce reliable data.
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many persons have been convicted of (a) attempting to smuggle and (b) smuggling drugs into prison in each of the last five years. [310701]
Maria Eagle: Recorded and published crime data relating to the supply and attempted supply of drugs offences under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 are not disaggregated to those involving prisons. Obtaining the detailed data as requested would require contacting prisons, police forces and courts and could be done only at disproportionate cost.
From 1 April 2008, in order to strengthen the penalties for smuggling contraband into a prison, an offence under section 22 of the Offender Management Act 2007 was created for the conveyance of drugs into a prison. The offence carries a penalty of up to 10 years and or an unlimited fine. Other offences relating to conveying other contraband into a prison were also created.
From April 2009, indictable and triable-either-way offences contained in the Offender Management Act have been included in the Home Office Counting Rules for Recorded Crime. Offences under the Act are recorded by police and will be published in next year's annual statistical bulletin, Crime in England and Wales (July 2010).
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of staff at adult prisons are searched for illegal substances on arrival at work. [310702]
Maria Eagle: To provide the information requested would involve collating information from all prisons in the adult estate which could be done only at disproportionate cost.
The National Offender Management Service's (NOMS) policy requires that in all prisons, procedures are in place for the searching of prisoners, staff, domestic, official and professional visitors and contractors, which are capable of detecting all items of contraband, including illegal substances. These arrangements must be set out as part of a written local security strategy agreed with the regional manager.
While the searching of staff will be carried out in all prisons on entry, the level and frequency of such searching at individual prisons is determined by local security and control needs and is set out in each prison's local searching strategy.
In the majority of prisons this will mean a programme of routine searches of staff in addition to searches based on suspicion or on receipt of intelligence. In some prisons, particularly some open prisons, a better use of resources may be achieved by carrying out only targeted, intelligence-led or random search programmes.
Secure Training Centres: Training
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of young offenders released from Medway Secure Training Centre have subsequently entered (a) full or part-time education, (b) full or part-time employment and (c) full or part-time training in each of the last five years. [310703]
Maria Eagle: Data on the percentage of young offenders who were released from specific secure training centres and who returned to education, training and employment are not collected centrally.
An indicator measuring the proportion of children and young people supervised by Youth Offending Teams who are in suitable full-time education, training or employment (ETE) by the end of their sentence now forms part of the local authority National Indicator Set. The indicator counts only children and young people in full-time, not part-time ETE, and only those who go into full-time ETE by the end of their sentence, not those who do so after the sentence closes. It counts both those completing sentences served entirely in the community and those completing the YOT-supervised community element that forms part of custodial sentences. During 2006-07, the baseline year for this indicator, performance was at 67.4 per cent. During 2007-08, this increased by 2.4 percentage points to 69.8 per cent. and during 2008-09 this increased by a further 2.4 percentage points to 72.2 per cent.
War Crimes: Arrest Warrants
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer of 27 October 2008, Official Report, column 755W, on war crimes: arrest warrants, (1) if he will take steps to consult all interested parties before bringing forward any proposals to amend legislation relating to the issue of arrest warrants under section 51 of the International Criminal Court Act 2001; [309751]
(2) what recent representations he has received in respect of changes to the law relating to the issue of arrest warrants from (a) the Israeli government, (b) other governments, (c) UK-based organisations and faith groups and (d) victims of war crimes; [309752]
(3) what recent consideration he has given to whether the Attorney-General's consent should be required in respect of the issue of (a) all arrest warrants, (b) arrest warrants issued in respect of charges of war crimes, (c) arrest warrants issued in respect of charges of war crimes against individuals whose home jurisdiction is a party to the International Criminal Court, (d) arrest warrants issued in respect of Israeli nationals and (e) arrest warrants issued in respect of those who are in the UK for meetings with Ministers and officials; [309753]
(4) what progress has been made in the consideration of whether to bring forward legislative proposals in respect of the issuing of arrest warrants without the consent of the Attorney-General; and whether any changes to this process will require Parliamentary approval. [309754]
Mr. Straw: We are looking at this issue as a matter of urgency. No decisions have yet been made. Any changes in this area of the law would require primary legislation.
Youth Custody: Manpower
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the ratio of staff to prisoners is in each (a) secure children's home, (b) secure training centre and (c) young offender institution. [308815]
Maria Eagle: The Youth Justice Board does not specify the levels of staff required at secure children's homes (SCHs), instead specifying the service to be delivered. However, many SCHs are able to deliver one-to-one supervision to large numbers of young people for substantial parts of the day.
The YJB does not set precise staff to trainee ratios for secure training centres (STCs); instead, they agree with providers the minimum staffing levels necessary to ensure effective supervision. Broadly speaking, the minimum staffing levels are three members of custody staff to young people living in a group of eight, and two members of custody staff to young people living in a group of six. In practice, during the core part of the day when young people are in education or activities, there are likely to be more staff engaging with them.
The following table shows the overall staff to young person ratio for each young offender institution (YOI) at 30 November 2009. Young offenders held in adult categorised establishments are not included. Unified staff relates to those staff that are officer or governor grades. The data have been supplied by the National Offender Management Service 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.
The figures for SCHs, STCs and YOIs are not directly comparable. The figures for YOIs relate to all unified staff employed in the establishment, while the ratios for SCHs and STCs relate only to staff engaging directly with young people.
| Establishment | Category | Staff in p ost (Unified)( 1) | Prisoner population | Ratio of unified staff to prisoners |
| YOI=Young Offender Institution. YP=Young Person's establishment. (1)Headcount (part-time staff count as one). | ||||
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Colombia: Death
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the death of (a) Adolfo Tique, (b) Diego Ricardo Rasedo Guerra, (c) Arled Samboni Guaca and (d) Leovigildo Mejia in Colombia in January 2009; and if he will make a statement. [310446]
Chris Bryant: We are aware of all four murders and understand that the Colombian authorities have made no arrests and the perpetrators of the crimes have so far escaped justice.
Although the murder rate in Colombia has almost halved in recent years, the overall figure for 2009 was still as high as 15,817. We regularly raise our concerns with senior Colombian Ministers. I visited Colombia in October 2009, and urged President Uribe to do more to improve the human rights situation. Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez and I issued a joint statement, declaring that
"the defence of human rights is necessary and legitimate for democracy, in a country like Colombia which is proud of being fully open and ready for international scrutiny on this subject".
Our embassy in Bogotá also visits those who are under threat, and makes representations to the Colombian authorities in cases of violence or intimidation against trade unionists, including that of Adolfo Tique or other members of Colombian civil society.
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