HC Deb 23 October 1990 vol 178 cc127-8W
Ms. Quin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what additional resources have been provided by his Department to the Northumbria police authority to meet the extra demands caused by dispersal of prisoners following events at Strangeways prison in April 1990.

Mr. Peter Lloyd

Police authorities are able to claim the reimbursement of certain extra costs incurred by the police in undertaking tasks which would normally be carried out by the prison service. No such claim has yet been received from the Northumbria police authority.

Ms. Quin

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if his Department will provide figures for each month from May 1990 onwards for the number of remand prisoners and newly sentenced prisoners being held in the police cells in Northumbria police authority area who would normally be housed in Strangeways or Armley prisons;

(2) if his Department will provide figures for each month from May 1990 onwards for the number of remand prisoners formerly imprisoned in Strangeways prison, Manchester, who are now being held in police cells in the Northumbria police authority area.

Mrs. Rumbold

The average numbers of convicted and unconvicted prisoners, who have been held in police cells in the Northumbria police authority area each month since May 1990, are given in the table. All would normally have been held in Strangeways.

Convicted Unconvicted
May 36 13
June 51 7
July 39 4
August 31 12
September 18 23
October 33 22

This information is not collected in a way that enables the number of newly sentenced prisoners or those held in Strangeways before the April riot to be readily identified separately.