§ Baroness Hilton of Eggardonasked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will publish the results achieved by the Prison Service on each of its key performance indicators in 2000–01. [HL2148]
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonThe key performance indicators (KPI) results for 2000–01 for the Prison Service are given in the table. The data are provisional and subject to final validation.
The results are extremely encouraging. The improvement in security is impressive, especially the reduction in escapes from prison establishments. There were 11 last year, compared with 30 in 1999–2000 and 232 as recently as 1992–93. The downward trend on drug-misuse has continued and performance is well ahead of the public service agreement (PSA) target. The level of drug abuse has fallen by 49 per cent since 1996–97. The service met the overall target for the number of prisoners completing accredited offending behaviour programmes and increased the overall number of completions by 30 per cent on the previous year and by more than 93 per cent on the number achieved in 1998–99. The purposeful activity target would have been met but for a sharp rise in the prisoner population since December, and we believe could have been met despite the increase in population had governors not responded to encouragement to concentrate investment in education and offending behaviour courses which provide high quality activity but for small numbers of prisoners.
The Director General of the Prison Service has introduced new arrangements for dealing with the high level of staff sickness in the service and, although the basic skills targets were not met, it is very encouraging to note that prisoners achieved more than 50,000 separate certificates last year, 12,500 of them at basic skills level 2.
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KPI Target Actual Category A prisoner escapes Nil Nil Total escapes, as a percentage of the average prison population 0.05% 0.03% Contractor escapes, as a ratio per 20,000 prisoners handled 1:20,000 1:21,649 Proven adjudications of assault, as a percentage of the average prisoner population 9% 9.9% Rate of positive random drug tests 16% 12.4% Number of voluntary drug testing compacts 28,000 77,861 Percentage of the population held two to a cell designed for one (doubling) 18% 17.2% Average weekly purposeful hours per prisoner 24 hours 23.8 hours
KPI Target Actual The proportion of prisoners discharged with basic skills in literacy below level 2 52.8% 76.6% The proportion of prisoners discharged with basic skills in numeracy below level 2 61.9% 67.6% Accredited offending behaviour programme completions 5,000 6,041 Accredited sex offender treatment programme completions 1,020 848 Cost per uncrowded prison place £27,031 £27,022 Cost per prisoner £26,118 £27,566 Average staff sickness days 11.25 days 13.6 days Public correspondence replied within 20 days 95% 95% Average telephone response time (Headquarters only) 12 seconds 12 seconds Percentage of abandoned telephone calls (Headquarters only) 5% 7.20%