HC Deb 15 February 1999 vol 325 cc596-7
12. Mr. Gordon Prentice (Pendle)

What is the annual cost of keeping a category A inmate in prison. [69116]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. George Howarth)

The average annual operating cost per place for 1997–98 in the five dispersal prisons which house the majority of category A prisoners was £38,100, excluding any Prison Service headquarters expenditure. There were 854 category A prisoners on 31 December last.

Mr. Prentice

Does not that figure simply take one's breath away—£08,000 a year each to keep just over 600 category A prisoners? [Interruption.] It costs £23,000 a year to keep every ordinary prisoner in gaol. The hon. Member for Southend, West (Mr. Amess) should listen to this because it was under his Government that crime doubled, which led to the explosion in the prison population. Given that this is a Government of targets, does my hon. Friend have a target for bringing the prison population down to more manageable levels? As we are about to consider adding to that population 2,700 people who may suffer from personality disorders but who have not been convicted, can we have a target for getting the prison population down?

Mr. Howarth

My hon. Friend is well aware that it is not the Home Office or Ministers who convict people and give custodial sentences but the courts. Our job, and that of Parliament, is to ensure that the legal framework is correct so that the courts can operate effectively. The important task is getting the rate of crime down so that courts do not have to have recourse to custodial sentences. In all places and at all times, there will be a need for some type of prison system, but if we can start to defeat crime, the number of people convicted and given custodial sentences will inevitably fall. That is what we have tried to achieve through the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and what all our legislative attention will go on in the coming period. It is right for everyone to get crime down. I am sure that the whole House accepts that and will support our legislation.