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27 Jan 2010 : Column 862W—continued
Family Courts: Mass Media
Mr. Timpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when an assessment will be made of the effectiveness of the changes introduced in April 2009 to arrangements for the media to attend family court hearings. [312933]
Bridget Prentice: The Ministry of Justice published a study into the impact of the April 2009 rule changes on 21 January 2010. The study can be found on the Ministry of Justice website and copies have been laid in the House of Commons Library.
Legal Advice and Assistance
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 7 January 2010, Official Report, column 546W, on legal advice and assistance, whether seasonal fluctuations in workload of new matter start allocations for providers of the Advice and Assistance Scheme (Legal Help) were taken into account when deciding upon the period 9 April to August 2009 to assess the annual run-rate. [312922]
Bridget Prentice: Seasonal fluctuations were not taken into account when calculating the annual run-rate of firms, which predict the number of matter starts that might potentially be required by each provider to year end. However, any provider who had their allocation of matter starts reduced following the review can request a review by the Legal Services Commission and present evidence in support of a request to reinstate matter starts, including data regarding seasonal fluctuations. Seasonal fluctuations vary greatly from firm to firm and among categories of law and therefore it is not possible to apply a standard formula to take these into account.
National Offender Management Service
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the merits of proposals to set up separate operational arms in the National Offender Management Service. [312662]
Maria Eagle: As part of the restructure of the Ministry of Justice in 2008, a single NOMS delivery organisation has been created to join together and streamline headquarters, and deliver prison and probation services more effectively. This delivery arm is an executive agency. The expectations on prisons and probation are unchanged: to protect the public and reduce reoffending.
National Offender Management Service: Probation
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will take steps to increase the number of staff at the National Offender Management Service HQ who have a background in probation. [312663]
Maria Eagle: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) fully recognises the benefits of using the specialist skills of probation staff in appropriate posts. Where there is a business need for a particular post to be filled by someone with a probation service employment background, NOMS headquarters groups may second or advertise externally, in line with NOMS and civil service recruitment policy.
NOMS has recently obtained special permission from the Office of the Civil Service Commissioners for secondments from probation services to last for up to three years, rather than the two years normally allowed by the Commissioners' Recruitment Principles. Certain senior posts in the regional teams within NOMS headquarters are now reserved for probation service personnel on secondment. In addition, NOMS is developing a facility for vacant posts, where appropriate, to be simultaneously advertised internally to Ministry of Justice employees, and as secondment opportunities to probation service employees.
National Offender Management Service: Recruitment
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether probation staff (a) are permitted to apply for and (b) may be appointed to vacancies in the National Offender Management Service. [313008]
Maria Eagle: Probation service employees may apply for posts in the National Offender Management Service Agency that are advertised externally. They may also apply for internally advertised posts on secondment. Where appropriate, posts may also be reserved solely for secondment of personnel from probation areas or trusts.
Prison Accommodation
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many hospital beds in each prison are being used to ease overcrowding elsewhere in the prison; [313202]
(2) how many prisons used hospital beds to ease overcrowding elsewhere in the prison in 2009. [313203]
Maria Eagle: Places in in-patient health care centres may be added to the certified normal accommodation and/or operational capacity of a prison when routinely used to accommodate patients but not simply to provide additional accommodation to manage population pressures.
Prisoner Escapes
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many escape list prisoners there are in each category of prison accommodation. [313201]
Maria Eagle: This information is not held centrally. To collate this information would involve contacting every closed establishment in order to identify how many prisoners are currently on each local escape list. This would incur a disproportionate cost.
All closed prisons are required to have in place a system to identify and manage prisoners who are placed on the escape list. A prisoner may be placed on the
escape list if they pose a current and significant threat of escaping that cannot be addressed through normal security arrangements.
Prisoners Release
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many prisoners were released before their agreed release date in the latest year for which figures are available; [312847]
(2) how many offences were committed by people released from prison in error in the latest period for which figures are available; [312877]
(3) how many people released from prison in error were returned to prison in the latest period for which figures are available. [312878]
Maria Eagle: As at 21 January 2010, 54 prisoners were recorded as released in error when an authority to retain them in custody was in place. This figure covers the period between 1 January 2009 and 31 December 2009.
Most prisoners released in error are returned quickly to custody. Of those released in error during 2009 seven remain unaccounted for.
Figures relating to offences committed by those at large following a release in error are not available centrally. Releases in error are reported to the police who are responsible for apprehending prisoners. Information on further offences committed could only be collated by contacting each prison and police force across England and Wales which would incur disproportionate cost.
The number of releases in error is small, accounting for less than 0.05 per cent. of discharges from prison. All incidents are subject to investigation. There is no indication from the available information of any significant level of offending by prisoners who should have been in custody at the time.
These figures have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. 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.
The number of releases in error reported for 2009 may change, should further incidents be reported.
Prisoners Release: Reoffenders
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offences were committed by prisoners released for Christmas 2009. [312903]
Maria Eagle: No offences were recorded against any offender released on temporary licence (ROTL) over the Christmas period. Every prisoner who submits a request for ROTL is seen by a board which consists of prison and probation staff. A stringent risk assessment is carried out before any decision is made to grant the application. Throughout the whole process public protection is paramount.
These figures have been drawn from live administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. 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.
These figures may change should any further offences relating to this period be identified and reported to National Offender Management Service.
Prisoners: Foreigners
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) male and (b) female foreign national prisoners there are, broken down by (i) offence category and (ii) length of sentence. [313199]
Maria Eagle: The most recent data available relate to June 2009. The following tables give the numbers of (a) male and (b) female foreign national prisoners (FNPs) showing both (i) offence category and (ii) length of sentence.
| Offence category | Male | Female | Total |
| Sentence length | Male | Female | Total |
In addition to the 7,502 sentenced prisoners, a further 3,848 were either untried, convicted unsentenced, a fine defaulter or non-criminals, giving a total of 11,350.
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: Gender Identity Disorder
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 11 January 2010, Official Report, columns 789-90W, on gender identity disorder: prisoners, from whom the draft guidance on the treatment of prisoners with gender dysphoria is available for (a) prisons and (b) prisoners. [312923]
Maria Eagle:
As was indicated in the previous answer given to the House on 11 January 2010, Official Report column 789-90W, the responsibility for the production of the draft guidance on the treatment, care and management of transsexual prisoners is split between officials in the Department of Health and Ministry of
Justice but in the majority of instances where prison staff have requested advice these have been directed to the latter and more specifically officials in Safer Custody and Offender Policy Group in the National Offender Management Service. As the document is still in draft form it is not readily available for wider distribution beyond policy officials and prison staff but where necessary the advice and information contained within is made available to prisoner(s) who require it.
Prisons: Drugs
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent assessment his Department has made of the merits of (a) maintenance and (b) abstinence-based drug treatment programmes for prisoners. [312905]
Maria Eagle: Contracts are in place with two groups of researchers for evaluation of different aspects of the Integrated Drug Treatment System (IDTS). This will include the impact of methadone maintenance in particular. The contracts were let in 2008 and each group of researchers will submit a final report by April 2012.
All accredited drug treatment programmes available in prisons aim ultimately for abstinence and are based on good practice found in the community. Offenders in custody are subject to drug testing and usually receive a range of interventions and support aimed at reducing reoffending. It is practically difficult to pinpoint the precise effect of any one of these interventions on overall drug misuse or reoffending. Evaluations to date specifically of prison drug treatment programmes run in England and Wales are limited and have not always met the highest methodological standards. However, they suggest that accredited programmes can reduce reoffending (Ramsay, M. (ed) (2003), Prisoners' Drug Use and Treatment: Seven Research Studies. Home Office Research Study 267. London: Home Office). International evidence supports these findings.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners were participating in (a) maintenance and (b) abstinence-based drug treatment programmes on the latest date for which figures are available. [312906]
Maria Eagle: In 2008-09, 64,767 prisoners received a clinical drug intervention. Of these 45,135 received detoxification and 19,632 received a maintenance prescription for opioid dependency.
The table shows the number of commencements on accredited drug treatment programmes for the last period for which data are available. Data are not collected centrally on the number of individual prisoners enrolled on such programmes at any one time.
Although all accredited drug treatment programmes run in prisons aim ultimately for abstinence, the short duration programme (SDP) has been designed to be appropriate for prisoners undergoing clinical maintenance as well as those that remain abstinent.
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