§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the average number of prisoners being transferred from prison to court and from police station to court in the Greater London area on any day when the courts are sitting;
(2) how many prisoners in custody were transferred between police stations and prisons to the London courts in each year since 1988.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the prison service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
216WLetter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Jeremy Corbyn, dated 22 April 1993:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about the numbers of prisoners escorted to the London courts.I am afraid that the information which you requested is collected neither centrally nor routinely by the establishments now responsible for this work. We are in the process of collecting such information covering the last few months for inclusion in the invitation to tender for the court escort service in London, but as yet this work is incomplete. Our best guess is that in excess of 200,000 prisoner movements to and from court are performed each year.
§ Mr. CorbynTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners escaped from custody whilst being transferred from police stations and prisons to courts in the Greater London area in each year since 1988.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the prison service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Jeremy Corbyn, dated 23 April 1993:
The Home Secretary has asked to me to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many prisoners escaped from custody whilst being transferred from police stations and prisons to courts in the Greater London area in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992.I regret that information is not available centrally on escapes from escorts staffed by the police. This information could only be gathered at disproportionate cost. The information provided relates only to escorts staffed by the Prison Service. Additionally, this information is recorded against individual prison establishments and not by geographical area. The information relates to court escorts manned by the Greater London prisons and refers to escapes between 20 June 1988 and 31 December 1992. This information was not collected centrally until June 1988.
Escapes from court escort (London Prisons) Number 1988 4 1989 3 1990 6 1991 12 1992 8 The information above is derived from incidents reported to the Incident Management Support Unit, a part of the Directorate of Custody.