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23 Feb 2010 : Column 506Wcontinued
More details on the projections may be found in the latest published bulletin, "Prison Population Projections 2009-2015" Ministry of Justice Statistics Bulletin, 28 August 2009. This is available at the following webpage:
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of offenders who (a) on release from custodial sentences and (b) on commencement of a community sentence, are moved to a different geographical area from their home address for (i) reasons of rehabilitation, (ii) reasons of victim safety and (iii) other reasons. [318045]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is not collated centrally. Offenders are transferred between probation areas for a variety of reasons, including rehabilitation and victim safety. However, there is no mechanism is place to record centrally the reasons behind these transfers.
To answer the question, each probation area would need to review their case load to establish the number of offenders who have been transferred between probation areas, and then to examine those cases to determine the reasons behind each move. This could be achieved only by incurring disproportionate cost.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost to the public purse was of transferring prisoners to Crown Dependencies in each of the last five years. [317133]
Mr. Straw: The cost of the transferring prisoners from England and Wales to the three Crown Dependencies (Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man) was as follows:
£ | |
The costs shown cover the cost of the flights for the prisoner and escorting staff. The cost of transferring the prisoner from a prison to the airport is covered by
the inter prison transfer contract and is not separately recorded. The cost of transfer before 2006 was met from the contract in place at the time. Costs incurred under that contract were not separately recorded.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department and its predecessors spent on (a) prisoner education and (b) drug treatment programmes for prisoners in each of the last five years. [317245]
Maria Eagle: Table 1 following shows the amount spent on prisoner education and training in each of the last five years in public sector prisons in England, funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and its predecessors:
Table 1 | |
£ million | |
The current budget has increased threefold since 2001.
In 2003 a ministerial decision was taken that the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) took responsibility for planning, funding and, with the then Regional Offender Managers (ROMS), commissioning of a new Offenders' Learning and Skills Service (OLASS) in public sector prisons and for offenders under supervision in community in England. OLASS came into effect across England with effect from 31 July 2006.
The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) also spent a further £30 million in European Social Funds. This was used for a number of regionally commissioned projects around vocational training and employer engagement in both prisons and the community for the two calendar years 2006 and 2007. They also established a £13.9 million budget from EQUAL funding for the period December 2006 to March 2008 to meet additional provision for offenders both in custody and in the community.
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) gained co-financing organisation status in January 2009 and successfully bid for a total of £50 million of European Social Funding to enhance the skills and employment services to offenders in prison and the community. NOMS has been granted the funding over 27 months to increase offenders' employability and improve their access to mainstream support provision. Planning is already under way to extend the funding into a second phase up to 2013.
In addition, training for prisoners is undertaken, mainly by Prison Service staff, while prisoners work or are engaged in various areas such as prison industries, catering, physical education, land based activities, industrial cleaning and laundries. The central costs of the training elements of these, mainly production functions, are not kept centrally.
Table 2 shows Ministry of Justice/Home Office additional funding allocations for the delivery of drug interventions
in prisons over the last five years. The figures include funding for accredited drug treatment programmes, Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare services (CARATs), the Young People's Substance Misuse Service (for 15 to 18-year-olds only) and Compact Based Drug Testing.
In addition to this the Ministry of Justice has permanently transferred £11.3 million a year to primary care trusts for the delivery of clinical drug treatment in prisons.
Table 2 | |||||
£ million | |||||
2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | |
(1) CBDT includes voluntary drug testing and incentive based drug testing. |
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he has made an estimate of the number of foreign nationals likely to serve custodial sentences in England and Wales in each year to 2014. [317130]
Mr. Straw: The Ministry of Justice does not undertake separate population projections for the foreign national population.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 27 January 2010, Official Report, columns 865-6W, on prisoners: gender identity disorder, in what form the advice and information contained within the draft guidance is made available to prisoners who do not request it. [316791]
Maria Eagle: The guidance or advice is normally given when requested by prison staff who have been approached by prisoners seeking this information, or where they identify a prisoner on reception who is undergoing gender re-assignment treatment. There are also occasions when prisoners have written direct to officials in the National Offender Management Service for advice or information.
The information or advice will normally be given to prison staff in the form of a detailed email with relevant attachments (a copy of the draft document). In the case of prisoners; they receive a detailed written reply which would also encourage them to speak to their personal officer or a member of the health care team. A copy of the draft document would not be supplied to prisoners.
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the number of women in prison who (a) have children, (b) have children and no husband or long-term partner and (c) have no registered address. [318058]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is not routinely collected. However, a recent Ministry of Justice study suggested that 55 per cent. of women in prison are mothers. Work has begun with the Department for Children, Schools and Families to implement the recently published Framework for Supporting Offenders' Families. Within four days of entering custody, prisoners should have an assessment of their accommodation needs and if necessary, prison staff will provide advice and guidance to help them find settled accommodation prior to release.
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average length of continuous employment in the same prison was of (a) prison officers and (b) prison governors in (i) privately and (ii) publicly managed prisons in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [318060]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is set out as follows:
Information on the length of continuous service in the same public sector Prison Service establishment for both prison officers and operational managers is contained in the following table. The information relates to the average length of time that the officers or managers, who were in post on 31 December each year, had previously spent at their then current establishment.
Average time in current establishment of public sector staff | ||
Average length of service (years) in current establishment | ||
As at 31 December each year | Prison officers( 1) | Operational managers( 2) |
(1) Prison officers only, does not include senior or principal officers. (2) Includes all grades of operational managers, not only the in-charge governor. Manager G to senior manager A. |
Private Sector Establishments( 1)
Information about private sector establishments has been provided by individual contractors where available. Limitations in the data available mean that not all private sector establishments have information available in a format that is compatible with the question. Information for these establishments is presented in a separate table.
The private sector establishments have been in operation for a relatively short time and consequently the average length of service is inevitably lower than in public sector establishments where some individual officers have been in post for up to 40 years.
(1) Information on average length of service was not available from the HR systems of Wolds and Parc without undertaking a large-scale manual data collection exercise.
Average time in current establishment of private sector staff( 1) | ||
Average length of service (years) in current establishment | ||
As at 31 December each year | Prison custody officer s | Governors( 2) |
(1) Information relates to Altcourse, Bronzefield, Dovegate (since 2007 only), Forest Bank and Peterborough. (2) The definition of governor differs across contractors from all managers to only the in-charge manager. |
Proportion of all staff( 1) with more than two years service | |
Proportion of staff with more than two years service in establishment (Percentage) | |
(1) Information relates to all staff at Ashfield, Doncaster and Lowdham Grange. (2) Information not available for 2005. |
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