§ Mr. Hicksasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for the last two years for which statistics are available, how many single prisoner journeys were made between prisons and remand homes to and from Bodmin Crown Court; and what was the cost of these journeys including the estimated cost of providing escorts.
§ Mr. Merlyn Rees:Defendants remanded in prison department custody to appear at Bodmin Crown court are normally held at Exeter prison in the case of males, and at Pucklechurch remand centre in the case of females. The in- 910W formation that is readily available at these establishments shows that in the period since January 1977, 115 single prisoner return journeys were made from Exeter and 17 from Pucklechurch. The current cost of a return journey from Exeter to Bodmin is about £21, and of a return journey from Pucklechurch to Bodmin about £35, but these costs have fluctuated since January 1977, and the actual cost of these journeys and of providing escorts is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate expense.