§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list prison workshops which have been out of service for more than six months during each of the past three years, or have been working at less than half capacity;
(2) if he will list prison workshops which have operated for less than half the time, or at less than half capacity, during each of the last three years.
§ Mr. Mayhew:Information relating to the last three years is not readily available. But in the financial year 1981–82, out of a total of 305 operational industrial workshops in penal establishments, 210 workshops operated for less than half a working week of 37 hours or at below half capacity. One workshop was closed for more than six months in the year because it was required for an alternative use. My noble Friend is sending the hon. Member a list of the workshops concerned.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the percentage cuts in expenditure, and the periods of embargo on the recruitment of staff to fill vacant posts, which have been applied to the education service in adult prisons in England and Wales in each of the last four years.
§ Mr. Mayhew:The information requested is not readily available, but we will reply as soon as possible.
77W
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the cost effectiveness of prison industry and education in prison respectively, and indicate the basic of the computations.
§ Mr. Mayhew:The cost effectiveness of prison industries and education cannot be directly measured. But in the financial year 1981–82, 14,725 inmates of penal establishments worked in industries and farms for a total of approximately 17.25 million hours and produced goods and services to the value of £44.44 million. These activities resulted in a trading deficit of £9.78 million. The average annual net cost of employing an inmate on industrial or farming work was therefore £664 or 57p per inmate hour worked. These figures include various notional charges for rent, rates and administration: if they are excluded, the cost was £413 per annum or 35p per inmate hour worked.
During the academic year 1980–81, 9,323 inmates took part in daytime education, 2,452 in daytime vocational training, and 2,640 in daytime construction industry training. These figures cannot be aggregated, because they are based on enrolments, and some inmates attended more than one class. Nor do they take account of supervised cell study, for which no figures are available. Inmates spent a total of approximately 11.19 million hours in education, vocational training and construction industry training. The approximate cost of the staff salaries, equipment and materials, excluding various notional charges for rent, rates and administration, was £11.7 million in the financial year 1980–81. The cost per student hour was therefore about El .05 p .