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Written Answers
Tuesday, 28th November 1995.
Prison Building Costs
Baroness David asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the average capital cost of a prison place in the current prison building programme.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch): Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to Baroness David from the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, Mr. Richard Tilt, dated 28 November 1995:
Lady Blatch has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the average capital cost of a prison place in the current prison building programme.
Publicly financed new prisons typically cost about £100,000 per prisoner place, although the most recent--Buckley Hall--cost £57,000 per place because of the use of innovative building techniques. New houseblocks in existing prisons cost approximately £40,000 per place. All further planned new prisons are due to be built and managed using private finance. The negotiations for these contracts are continuing and for this reason I am unable to disclose the likely costs. When the contracts have been signed, the fees paid by the Prison Service per prisoner will be published.
Prisoner Numbers by Length of Sentence
Baroness David asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the average daily number of prisoners serving (a) sentences of under twelve months;
(b) sentences of twelve months or more but under four years; and (c) sentences of four years or more respectively.
Baroness Blatch: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to Baroness David from the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, Mr. Richard Tilt, dated 28 November 1995:
Lady Blatch has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking what is the average daily number of prisoners serving (a) sentences of under twelve months; (b) sentences of twelve months or more but under four years; and (c) sentences of four years or more respectively.
The latest available information is for 30 September 1995 and is given in the attached table.
| Length of sentence | Number |
| Less than 12 months | 6,758 |
| 12 months to less than 4 years | 15,130 |
| 4 years and over | 17,241 |
| Total | 39,129 |
(1) Excluding fine defaulters.
Baroness David asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Blatch: The available information is published in Chapter 9 of Criminal Statistics England and Wales 1994 (Cm 3010), a copy of which is in the Library. Table 9.1 gives the proportion of those sentenced for burglary and drugs offences in 1993 who had been convicted on two or more previous occasions. Tables 9.3 and 9.4 give the proportion by age and gender given custodial sentences and non-custodial sentences according to the number of previous conviction occasions.
The Countess of Mar asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Blatch: The information requested in relation to coroner's districts is not held centrally.
I understand from the Office of Population Census and Surveys that the number of deaths of farmers from injury and poisoning reported to registrars of deaths are as given in the attached table. Data for 1993-95 are not yet available.
Lord Braine of Wheatley asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Blatch: The existing law, which already provides a defence of provocation to a charge of murder, responds with flexibility to the particular circumstances of domestic violence victims. The recent judgment of the Court of Appeal, which quashed Emma Humphries' conviction for murder and substituted a conviction for manslaughter, does not suggest that the law on provocation requires amendment. We have no current plans to change the law in this area.
Lord Braine of Wheatley asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Blatch: We have not had any discussions on these matters with Justice for Women in the last year.
The Earl of Arran asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe): Earlier this year the Government created a specialist housing division within MoD, the Defence Housing Executive, to undertake the management and maintenance of the Married Quarters
The DHE will continue in its current form, as a unit within MoD, for a guaranteed period of at least three years. That will enable it to focus on the management improvements we expect it to deliver. I pay tribute to the DHE and its Chief Executive for the progress already made.
Beyond that, the Government have been considering, with financial and other advisers, possibilities for transferring ownership of the Married Quarters Estate to the private sector. We are satisfied that we should take this forward.
The main points of our proposal are that MoD should transfer the ownership of the Married Quarters Estate in England and Wales to the private sector on a series of very long leases, renting back the accommodation which is needed to meet Service housing needs. To that end, we would enter into detailed agreements governing the maximum and minimum levels of MoD occupancy, allowing sufficient flexibility to cater for inevitable uncertainties about our long-term accommodation needs. Several thousand surplus properties would be transferred on a freehold basis immediately--and future surpluses would similarly be returned to the new landlord. Special arrangements would allow MoD to share in the enhanced value where the subsequent disposal of such properties was particularly successful. MoD would retain, through the Defence Housing Executive, responsibility for maintenance and the allocation of housing. It is intended to include the bulk of the Official Service Residences in the sale, where it is possible and sensible to do so.
Our fundamental requirement is to be able to provide our Services with the housing that they need and deserve. That requirement flows from operational circumstances which demand mobility of Service families, and from the imperative to deal fairly with our personnel and their families, upon whose commitment, dedication and forbearance we so heavily rely.
Meeting that requirement, however, is not dependent upon retaining ownership of the Married Quarters Estate. Indeed, it is inappropriate for Government to own a large estate of this kind if it can avoid doing so. As far as possible we want to place the business of owning Married Quarters, and disposing of them when they are no longer required, in the private sector, where significant efficiencies can be expected. Accordingly, we have decided to take forward the transfer of the Married Quarters Estate to the private sector.
We are confident that this proposition will meet the Services' housing needs, in a manner consistent with operational and security requirements, and will safeguard the welfare and interests of our personnel and their families. We will also be able, if such a transfer is successfully achieved, to fund additional investment in upgrading the housing stock where necessary. Much of the Married Quarters Estate is in good condition. But there are areas where improvements are overdue and this sale offers the opportunity to put this right more quickly. It also offers the prospect of real progress in dealing with the current empty homes problem. At present some 20 per cent. of our housing stock is unoccupied; even allowing for the unique requirements of Service housing, and the particular difficulties associated with the changes and redeployments of recent years, that is unsatisfactory. By involving the dynamism and expertise of the private sector in dealing with surplus properties, we believe we can help to put that right and improve the supply of housing to the public.
We therefore intend to test the market. If a good price is available, the Government will transfer the stock. Such a transfer would depend upon reaching agreement on terms which satisfy the interests of the Services and on a price which properly reflects the public interest.
The Government will in due course publish a Preliminary Information Memorandum, which will set out the proposals in greater detail, and invite interested parties to prequalify for the opportunity to tender for the Estate.
How many burglars and drug dealers respectively aged 18 or over with two or more previous convictions were sentenced in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what proportion received non-custodial sentences.
How many sudden deaths in male farmers under the age of 45 have been reported for each Coroner's District in Wales since 1985.
Districts 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992
Wrexham Maelor 1 0 1 3 1 0 0 1
Delyn 0 0 2 1 1 1 0 1
Carmarthen 4 0 1 2 1 0 2 2
Glyndwr 0 1 2 2 1 0 1 0
Ceredigion 1 1 3 2 1 3 2 0
Colwyn 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0
Dinefwr 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1
Llanelli 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 1
Preseli Pembrokeshire 4 2 4 0 1 1 0 2
Newport 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0
Monmouth 1 2 2 4 1 1 0 2
Norfaen 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Aberconwy 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Dwyfor 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1
Meirionnydd 3 1 2 1 1 1 0 0
Arfon 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 1
Ynys Mon--Isle of Anglesey 1 0 0 2 0 2 1 0
Rhuddlan 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Brecknock 1 0 2 1 2 0 2 0
South Pembrokeshire 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Montgomeryshire 2 3 1 2 1 5 1 1
Cynon Valley 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Radnorshire 2 0 1 1 0 2 1 0
Taff-Ely 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
Cardiff 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Swansea 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1
Neath 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alyn and Deeside 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
Lffw Valley 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0
Vale of Glamorgan 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Whether, in view of the recent acquittal of Emma Humphries, they will reconsider their decision not to support legislation to provide a defence of provocation for those accused of murder.
What discussions they have held within the last year with Justice for Women concerning the case of Emma Humphries and the question of whether there is a need to change the law to provide a defence of provocation for those accused of murder.
What further steps they intend to take to improve the quality and management of service housing.
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