§ Mr. BurtTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what basis his Department considers requests by prisoners to serve the remainder of their sentences in another United Kingdom jurisdiction.
§ Mr. HurdMy Department, in conjunction with the Scottish and Northern Ireland Offices, has recently reviewed the policy governing requests by prisoners to be transferred to another jurisdiction in the United Kingdom. Any inmate in England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland who applies to be transferred to either of the other jurisdictions to serve the rest of his or her sentence will normally be transferred, provided that (1) the inmate would have at least six months left to serve in the receiving jurisdiction before his or her date of release; (2) the inmate was ordinarily resident in the receiving jurisdiction prior to the current sentence; or his or her close family currently reside there and there arc reasonable grounds for believing that it is the inmate's firm intention to take up residence there on release; and (3) both Departments concerned are reasonably satisfied that the inmate will not, if transferred, disrupt or attempt to disrupt any prison establishment, or otherwise pose an unacceptable risk to security.
Even if these conditions are met, however, transfer may be refused if it is considered that the inmate's crimes were so serious as to render him or her undeserving of any degree of public sympathy or to make it inappropriate that the inmate should benefit from a substantial reduction in time left to serve, if that would be a consequence of transfer. Similarly, transfers may be refused if there are reasonable grounds for believing that the inmate's primary intention in making the application is to secure a reduction in the time left to serve. On the other hand, an application that does not meet these conditions may nevertheless be granted where there are strong compassionate or other compelling grounds for transfer.
Budgeting loans Crisis loans Community care grants Social Security Office Number of applications Number of awards Number of applications Number of awards Number of applications Number of awards Downpatrick 1,155 678 433 375 446 238 Newcastle 465 309 169 143 202 134 Kilkeel 164 146 33 32 165 133 Ballynahinch 204 141 84 73 168 109 Newry 2,011 1,496 392 352 956 548 Banbridge 744 493 210 158 420 289