Ms MowlemTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the rehabilitation programmes available in Northern Ireland for ex-offenders and the numbers of people who participated in them in each of the last five years. [2789]
§ Sir John WheelerInformation is not available in the form requested. However, in addition to pre-release programmes within the prisons and a full range of public services which are open to all citizens, there is available within the community a wide spectrum of programmes specifically for ex-offenders and persons at risk of offending. These are operated either directly by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland or by voluntary and community bodies to which, in 1995–96, it paid grants totalling over £2 million. The board itself, as part of its on-going activities, runs programmes for its clients on a range of themes including cognitive skills, alcohol management, sexual abuse, domestic violence and other forms of violent behaviour.