HC Deb 01 April 1965 vol 709 cc269-70W
Mr. Lomas

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money was spent on after-care and criminology research for each year from 1959 to 1964; and how much has been allocated for the period 1965 to 1970.

Miss Bacon

Home Office contributions towards the expenditure of the after-care organisations during the financial years 1959–60 to 1965–66 are:

£
1959–60 176,326
1960–61 212,092
1961–62 279,493
1962–63 332,077
1963–64 411,887
1964–65 650,000 (Estimated)
1965–66 761,000 (Estimated)

The figures for 1964–65 and 1965–66 include some £150,000 in each year for travel warrants and clothing given to inmates on their discharge. In earlier years expenditure on these items was incurred but not separately recorded. The figures for 1964–65 and 1965–66 also include £30,000 and £120,000, respectively, for cash payments on discharge, not made in earlier years, in cases in which immediate application to the National Assistance Board would otherwise have been necessary. The figures do not include any payments made by the National Assistance Board to former inmates or their families or after-care work undertaken by probation officers. The cost of these services is not readily ascertainable. All figures are exclusive of expenditure by the after-care organisations from voluntary funds.

The estimated cost of the Home Office Research Unit is £60,000 a year. In addition grants made under Section 77(iii)(f) of the Criminal Justice Act, 1948, for research into the causes of delinquency and the treatment of offenders during the financial years 1959–60 to 1965–66 are:

£
1959–60 12,725
1960–61 17,402
1961–62 35,376
1962–63 44,283
1963–64 47,576
1964–65 70,000 (Estimated)
1965–66 93,000 (Estimated)

No figures for later years have yet been settled.