§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many, and what proportion of, prisoners leaving Liverpool, Birmingham, Pentonville, Manchester, Holloway, Bullwood Hall and Rochester prisons in any recent convenient period received discharge grants; how many of these were male and female, respectively; how many were aged 21 years and over and how many were under 21 years; how many in each category received the higher rate of discharge grant given to homeless offenders; and for what reasons some prisoners were ineligible for a discharge grant.
§ Mr. MellorThe statistical information is not available centrally and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.
The discharge grant replaces the supplementary benefit which a prisoner could otherwise have claimed from the DHSS for the first week after release and the criteria for eligibility are broadly similar. In addition, discharge grants are not paid to the following:
- (i) those serving sentences of 14 days imprisonment or less;
- (ii) fine defaulters;
- (iii) civil prisoners;
- (iv) unconvicted and unsentenced prisoners;
- (v) those prisoners remanded in custody who are later dealt with and discharged from magistrates courts.