§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will detail the prison disturbances which have taken place over the last 10 years to include(a) the nature of the damage, (b) the number of staff and prisoners injured and (c) the overall cost of the disturbance.
§ 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 Derek Lewis to Mr. Doug Hoyle, dated 5 May 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about prison disturbances over the past ten years.Any action by two or more prisoners against the smooth running of a prison may be classed as a disturbance. Such disturbances may be either passive such as sitting down and refusing to leave the exercise yard, or active such as damaging the fabric of the prison and fighting staff.
The table below shows the number of disturbances since 1984. Year Number 11984–85 38 1985–86 38 1986–87 45 1987–88 42 1988–89 67 1989–90 67 1990–91 105 1992–93 142 1993–94 147 1 For this year only the figures are for a 15 month period. I will write to you again about the more serious disturbances once this information is available.