§ Mr. LeighTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to the answer of 27 June,Official Report, column 34, what information his Department collects regarding the downgrading of category B prisoners to category C;
(2) pursuant to the answer of 27 June, Official Report, column 34, if he will ensure that his Department in future obtains information and statistics on the numbers of prisoners downgraded from category B to category C.
§ Mr. Douglas HoggFrom information supplied by prison department establishments holding sentenced adult male prisoners, a central computer system, the prison index, maintains information on prisoners' current security categories. This infomation is used to compile statistics showing the distribution of prisoners by their current security categories. The prison index is not capable of analysing information relating to previous security categories which would be required to monitor the numbers of prisoners downgraded from category B to category C. Work is in hand to replace the prison index by a more modern and more powerful system which will enable this information to be extracted.