§ Mr. Don FosterTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what(a) number and (b) percentage of properties in his charge are empty; and what steps are being taken by his Department to reduce the number of such properties. [116915]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 3 April 2000]: There are currently empty properties at nine sites on the non-prison Home Office estate. Central records are not kept of the numbers of individual properties on large sites, but this comprises 3.4 per cent. of my Department's non-prisons Property Holdings (i.e. freehold buildings and sites, leaseholds, and occupations of other Departments' properties). Further detail on these and the action being taken to reduce the number were given in the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Lewes (Mr. Baker) on 19 January 2000, Official Report, columns 468–72W.
My previous reply accurately reflects the current status of prison land, but the figures for Prison Service's residential properties are more volatile. The position as at 446W 30 March is that the Service owns some 983 residential properties of which 160 (16.3 per cent.) are vacant. Of these, 78 are retained on security/operational grounds, for occupation by future chaplains or for future development. The remaining 82 are being (49) or will be (33) offered for sale.