§ Dr. Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the organisations which have made representations to him opposing the Government's plan to introduce secure accommodation for juveniles.
§ Mr. MacleanIn March 1993, the Home Office invited views and comments from interested organisations on the details of the proposals which were then being developed following the statement by the then Home Secretary my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) on 2 March,Official Report, columns 139–42. Subsequently, more than 60 sets of written comments were received; and a range of meetings were held at both ministerial and official level. Although a substantial number of respondents were opposed to the introduction of a new secure training order, there was a very wide measure of agreement on the need for the courts to have a power to order the detention in secure accommodation of those juvenile offenders for whom it is clear that community penalties would be neither effective nor appropriate.
§ Dr. Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he intends to take to ensure that the quality of education provided in the secure accommodation units run by private contractors is of a sufficiently high standard.
§ Mr. MacleanContractors will be required under the terms of their contracts to provide education and training 199W for trainees to an agreed standard based on the requirements set out in the operational specification for a secure training centre. The contract terms will be underpinned by minimum standards laid down in secure training centre rules. Copies of the operational specification and an administrative paper setting out proposed rules have been placed in the Library of the House.
In addition, education standards in secure training centres will be subject to inspections arranged by Her Majesty's chief inspector of schools.