Prison Escapes (Hansard, 20 March 1997)

§ Miss Widdecombe

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 Richard Tilt to Mr. Irvine Patnick, dated 20 March 1997: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about prison escapes. The number of escapes, expressed as a proportion of the prison population, is the first of the Prison Service's key performance indicators. The attached table shows that the rate of escapes is now less than one quarter of the level in 1992–93, the last year before the Prison Service became an executive agency. The Service has taken a number of steps over this time to reduce escapes and has drawn on recommendations from a number of reports including more recently the Woodcock and Learmont reports written following the escapes of category A prisoners in 1994 and 1995. Measures taken include:

undertaking regular and rigorous security audits
use of new technology, such as closed circuit television, x-ray machines, metal detectors
more intensive searching programmes for prisoners, visitors and the accommodation they occupy
improvements to perimeter security
improved security awareness and training

Our main priority for the future will be to continue to make every effort to prevent escapes by the most dangerous prisoners and we shall also continue to set rigorous targets for an overall decrease in escapes.

	Escapes	Escapes excluding those previously the responsibility of police¹
	Rate (per cent. Of population)	Number	Rate (per cent. Of population)	Number
1992–93	0.79	347	0.79	347
1993–94	0.65	296	0.60	273
1994–95	0.44	217	0.41	202
1995–96	0.24	122	0.17	88
1996–97	0.24	123	0.10²	52
¹ Excludes escapes from court escort and custody services, previously the responsibility of the police.
² Annualised rate.