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Polychlorinated Biphenyls
Lord Reay asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When they will publish the United Kingdom Action Plan for the phasing out and destruction of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and dangerous PCB substitutes.
Earl Ferrers: My right honourable friend the Minister for Construction, Planning and Energy Efficiency is publishing today the Action Plan which forms part of our strategy for fulfilling the commitment, which was made by the United Kingdom at the Third North Sea Conference at The Hague in 1990, to phase
out and destroy identifiable PCBs. It is also the first step towards meeting the requirements of EC Directive 96/59/EC, which will be implemented by regulations in due course.It has long been recognised that PCBs pose an environmental threat, particularly to marine life. That is why, in 1986, we banned their sale and most uses. There are many organisations, including factories, offices, schools and hospitals, which may have equipment containing PCBs.
A key element of the action plan is that there should be co-operation between the competent authorities, companies who destroy PCBs and those who may have equipment containing them. Our proposals are designed to ensure an orderly phase-out and the most effective use of destruction capacity, in the interests of industry and the environment.
A copy of the action plan has been sent to all local authorities, education authorities, health authorities and universities throughout the United Kingdom as well as the relevant trade associations. Copies of the action plan have also been placed in the Library of the House.
Electronic Monitoring Trials
Lord Dixon-Smith asked Her Majesty's Government:
- If they intend to continue the trials of curfew orders with electronic monitoring after March 1997.
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Blatch): My right honourable friend has decided to continue the existing trials in Berkshire, Manchester and Norfolk until March 1998.
General Election Campaigning Expenses: Foreign Donations
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What are the legal restrictions upon the acceptance by political parties of financial contributions from foreign government or business interests towards the campaigning expenses of a General Election.
Baroness Blatch: There are no restrictions on political parties receiving such donations, but each of the major political parties has adopted a voluntary code of practice which prohibits acceptance of donations from foreign governments or rulers.
Asylum Seekers: Detention at Haslar
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they have received a written protest from 90 detainees at HMP Haslar, Portsmouth, against their conditions of detention; what were the matters complained of; and whether they will review the
- practice of detaining asylum seekers without charge and for indefinite periods.
Baroness Blatch: We have received a copy of a letter from 90 detainees criticising food, water supply, health care, living conditions and staff attitudes at Haslar Holding Centre. The detainees also complain about length of detention and lack of information about their immigration position, including arrangements for removal.
The then Chief Inspector of Prisons, in his inspection in 1995, found that conditions and facilities for immigration detainees at Haslar were good. These good standards have been maintained. The water supply is checked on a regular basis and has been found to be satisfactory. Detainees are fully aware of the avenues of complaint available to them but no complaints have been received.
Detention is used only as a last resort and every effort is made to keep periods of detention to an absolute minimum. All detainees receive monthly reports of progress on their cases and it is Immigration Service practice to notify detainees' legal representatives of arrangements for removal. The Government are satisfied that adequate procedures exist for detention to be reviewed both internally and independently and see no need for a review of their detention policy and procedures.
Prisoners: On-line Data
Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Why they have sanctioned the design and establishment of different integrated central registers of inmates detained in prison in the different parts of the United Kingdom, and whether they are satisfied that there will be full on-line access to each system from each system and through the police national computer.
Baroness Blatch: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter to Lord Marlesford from the Director General of the Prison Service, Mr. Richard Tilt, dated 20 March 1997.
The Inmates Information System installed in Prison Service establishments and headquarters in England and Wales supports a wide variety of functions of which prisoner location is only one aspect. The original design of the system started some 10 years ago and aimed to deal with the detailed procedures used in England and Wales. As such, it was built to take account of the particular conditions there, such as the numbers of establishments and inmate transactions, both much greater than those for other United Kingdom services.
Police forces currently have access to location data through a central prisoner location service. Consideration is being given to the extension of on-line
access to these data from other criminal justice system agencies, including police forces, with a view to making operationally useful and relevant data more widely available. The practicability of this will be enhanced by proposals for replacement of the current system through the Private Finance Initiative.Young Offenders: Contractually-managed Prisons
Lord Brougham and Vaux asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether there are any plans for contractually managed prisons to hold sentenced young offenders.
Baroness Blatch: The Prison Service intends to hold sentenced young offenders in the new prisons which will be built and managed through the Private Finance Initiatives at Bridgend and Fazakerley after these open, during the coming financial year. This will give the service greater flexibility in its use of the contractually-managed estate and help to meet its requirement for additional young offender places. My right honourable friend will today lay a statutory instrument before the House which makes the necessary consequential changes to the Young Offender Institution Rules.
Prison Service Drug Testing Programme Statistics
Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:
- If he will make a statement on the present position on the availability of information from the Prison Service mandatory drug testing programme.
Baroness Blatch: As part of the programme of mandatory drug testing in prison establishments the Prison Service collect a range of statistical information, including information about the percentage of prisoners who test positive for drugs in the tests which are carried out at random. Since April 1996 the number of random tests that prove positive, expressed as a percentage of the total number of random tests carried out, has been one of the Prison Service's key performance indicators.
As a result of internal checking, a number of errors have been found in the information held centrally. The main problems are thought to relate to the recording of results of confirmation tests (carried out where a prisoner pleads not guilty at adjudication in response to an initial positive result) and to cases where an initial positive result should subsequently have been discounted because the prisoner concerned was on a course of prescribed medication.
The Prison Service have commissioned the National Addiction Centre to carry out an independent validation of a sample of the available statistical information on mandatory drug testing covering the period April 1996 to June 1996. This involves a detailed scrutiny of the information held in prison establishments and
comparison with the information held centrally. The validation exercise should provide a measure of the extent of the errors, the possible implications for performance against the key indicator, and more generally, of the reliability of data on mandatory drug testing held by the Prison Service. There is no reason to suppose, from the work completed so far, that the statistical information for the period from April 1996 is other than broadly accurate.Once the exercise is complete, the Prison Service expect to be in a position to provide reliable information on performance against the key indicator for the period April 1996. However, until such information is available, all previously published figures relating to the percentage of prisoners who test positive for drugs should be regarded as provisional.
In addition, no firm conclusions, including conclusions on any apparent trends on the use of drugs in prison, should be drawn from data relating to the first phase of the mandatory drugs testing programme (February 1995 to March 1996), since not all establishments were involved and some differences in testing protocols were in place. We are not yet in a position to say whether the use of cannabis has declined since mandatory drug testing was introduced. It remains the case that there is no clear evidence of switching from cannabis to opiates or vice versa.
This Answer should be taken as correcting any inadvertently misleading statements which may have been made in relation to mandatory drug testing statistics.
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