§ Ms RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many escapes there were from Group 4 Court Escort Services during 1993–94.
§ 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.
Letter from D. Lewis to Ms Joan Ruddock, dated 14 June 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the number of escapes from Group 4 escorts in the East Midlands and Humberside.496W
Notified reductions in numbers of Section 11 posts, with effect from Grant recipient Grant cost £ 1993–94 Allocation £ 1994–95 April 1994 September 1994 Avon 818,931 615,251 — — Barking and Dagenham 323,379 230,860 — — Barnet 863,312 748,243 — — Bedfordshire 3,151,026 2,361,022 — — Berkshire 1,423,166 1,053,875 214.00 — Bexley 161,586 100,138 — — Birmingham 5,483,109 4,046,501 — — Blackburn 68,107 49,539 — — Bolton 1,171,230 880,595 21.00 — Bradford 5,611,597 4,204,150 — — Brent 2,402,307 1,742,385 1— 1— Buckinghamshire 1,490,140 1,180,697 — — Burnley 25,772 18,774 — — Bury 486,477 354,547 1— 1— Calderdale 1,165,370 853,361 — 9.00 Cambridgeshire 1,335,768 976,563 — — Camden 1,563,056 1,111,346 — — Cardiff 10,727 7,888 — — Cheshire 99,664 73,862 — — Cleveland 653,286 479,638 — — Coventry 2,785,023 2,108,375 — 276.76 Croydon 1,327,959 949,775 — — Derbyshire 1,432,669 1,046,415 — 22.50 Devon 15,816 11,949 1— 1— Doncaster 137,275 100,338 — — Dudley 1,121,136 877,198 — — Durham 171,737 119,090 — — Ealing 3,418,619 2,632,879 — 1— Between the commencement of the service on 5 April 1993 and 31 May 1994, there have been a total of 31 escapes, excluding 19 prisoners immediately recaptured. The Group 4 court escort and custody service covers work previously undertaken by both the prison and police services within the contract area. In the first year of operation Group 4 carried out a total of 100,656 prisoner movements and the escape statistics should be seen in that context.