HC Deb 21 July 1988 vol 137 cc1280-1
10. Mr. Wigley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received concerning the report on Risley remand centre following his answer to the hon. Member for Warrington, South (Mr. Butler) on 30 June, Official Report, column 301; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Hurd

One hon. Member has asked a question about implementation of suicide prevention measures and questions have been asked in another place about action on the report. I have had two letters from hon. Members, and three from the general public. The required suicide prevention procedures have been carried out since the inspection and measures are being taken, as the hon. Gentleman knows, to ensure an immediate and continuing improvement in conditions at Risley.

Mr. Wigley

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there was a general welcome for the rigorous nature of Judge Tumim's investigation, however disturbing its consequences? Is he further aware that there was a welcome for his positive attitude to it? As the future of Risley, as he sees it, is as a local prison, will he give an undertaking that there will be alternative remand facilities in north Wales, to avoid having to send people from that area to Risley?

Mr. Hurd

I shall look into that point and write to the hon. Gentleman. I am grateful for his general remarks. To use his terms, the report certainly was rigorous and disturbing, and I hope he feels that, as he said, our response to it was timely and vigorous.

Mr. Butler

Does my right hon. Friend believe that grisly Risley is a good advertisement for public sector prisons?

Mr. Hurd

If my hon. Friend waits until next week he will see how I propose that we should experiment with the private management of remand prisons.

Mr. John Evans

Will the Home Secretary take this opportunity to say a word on behalf of the prison officers at Risley, many of whom live in Culcheth where I live and are bitter and resentful about the way in which they have been treated by this report? Will he confirm that the crumbling, overcrowded conditions at Risley have nothing to do with the prison officers, but everything to do with the incompetence of the Home Office?

Mr. Hurd

The problems at Risley are the result of the same phenomenon that afflicts many of our prisons and most of our remand centres, namely overcrowding, which until recently has been unrelieved by a decent prison building programme. The hon. Gentleman is right to say that the staff at Risley have been undergoing a serious and testing time. I do not think that they complain about the nature of the report. I know that they have been disturbed by some of the headline publicity surrounding it, but I believe that they support the action that we have taken.