§ Mr. SoleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of properties owned by his Department and suitable for residential accommodation has been empty for(a) up to a year and (b) over a year; and where these properties are located, by region or local authority area.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe Home Office owns quarters available for members of the prison service. The Department is in the process of selling surplus prison service quarters, and in the last two years more than 3,600 properties have been sold, including 260 vacant quarters. Precise information about empty quarters still owned by the Department is not available on a regional basis, but a
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Rank Complement Staff in post Vacancies Police Officers Commander 1 1 0 Detective Chief Superintendent 1 1 0 Detective Superintendent 2 3 (-1) Detective Chief Inspector 3 2 1 Detective Inspector 8 8 0 Detective Sergeant 20 16 4 Detective Constable 48 39 9 Total 83 70 13 Civil Staff Grade 7 1 1 0 Principal Fingerprint Officer 2 2 0 Senior Fingerprint Officer 9 9 0 Fingerprint Officer Grade 1 33 30 3 Fingerprint Officer Grades ⅔ 133 127 6 Senior Executive Officer 1 1 0 Higher Executive Officer 4 4 0 Executive Officer 36 25 11 Administrative Officer 227 229 (-2) Administrative Assistant 74 66½ 7½ Typist 4 2 2 Support Manager 3 1 1 0 Support Grade Band 1 15 14 1 Support Grade Band 2 69 66 3 Total 609 577½ 31½ broad estimate is that 15 per cent. of the 400 quarters now owned by the prison department have been vacant for more than one year.
The following information is available about accommodation owned by the Property Services Agency but managed by the Home Office. Four properties in East Anglia managed by the directorate of telecommunications have been vacant for less than a year. One property at the emergency planning college in north Yorkshire has been vacant for over a year. The fire service college in Gloucestershire has four properties which became vacant only recently. These will be reoccupied shortly.