§ Sir Ivan LawrenceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 16 January to the hon. Member for Knowsley, North (Mr. Howarth),Official Report, column 352–66, on the levels of purposeful activity in individual prisons, for what reason the figures for privately managed prisons for 1995–96 were not included; and if he will make a statement on his policy towards the release of information relating to privately managed prisons. [19043]
403W
§ Miss Widdecombe[holding answer 11 March 1997]: Responsibility 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 A. J. Pearson to Sir Ivan Lawrence, dated 17 March 1997:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question asking about purposeful activity at privately managed prisons in 1995–96 and about what information is released about these prisons.The figures for 1995–96 are not available on a monthly basis. The average hours per prisoner per week spent on purposeful activity in each contracted prison in 1995–96 were:
Prison1 Average hours per week purposeful activity2 Blakenhurst 25 Doncaster 24 Wolds 29 1 Figures are not available for Buckley Hall as it was not fully operational during 1995–96. 2 These figures were published in October 1996 in the Home Office Economics Unit's review of comparative costs and performance of privately and publicly operated prisons in 1995–96. All four contracted prisons have been providing figures for purposeful activity on a monthly basis from April 1996.The Prison Service releases all available information about contracted prisons that is not confidential. Information may be confidential for different reasons. It may be because the information is commercially confidential or because of reasons that apply equally to all prisons such as information about security.