§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what criteria have been adopted following the Chief Inspector of Prisons' recommendation in his report on prison categorisation procedures that security requirements should be determined by applying objective and explicitly stated criteria;
(2) what criteria have been laid down following the Chief Inspector of Prisons' recommendation that there should be standard recategorisation procedures and criteria;
(3) if the recommendation of the Chief Inspector of Prisons in his report on prison categorisation procedures that all four regional offices should, in co-operation with headquarters, develop a common approach has been inplemented;
(4) what action has been taken to implement the recommendations of the Chief Inspector of Prisons that the work of observation, classification and allocation units in local prisons should be accorded priority by (a) improving the availability of prison files and lists of previous convictions, (b) not moving observation, classification and allocation staff to other duties except in an emergency, (c) having observation, classification and allocation units deal with long-term prisoners rather than transferring them to long-term allocation centres, and (d) reducing the range of cases in which headquarters or regional office must confirm the decision.
§ Mr. MellorA study of categorisation systems in the USA and Canada which we commissioned from an outside consultant has recently been completed and is now being considered. Revised guidelines on categorisation, allocation and recategorisation are being produced taking into account the recommendations of the chief inspector and of the control review committee.