§ Mr. Andrew F. BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on prisoners in police cells in Greater Manchester and surrounding areas; what is the number of convicted and remand prisoners held in cells and the number of places available in prisons, which are not available due to industrial action; and when it is expected police cells will be free of such prisoners.
§ Mrs. RumboldOn 25 April there were 444 prisoners in police cells as a result of the loss of accommodation at Manchester prison following the disturbance last year. Prison Service management is giving priority to the resolution of this problem, but is constrained by the availability of accommodation and by the policy of the Prison Officers' Association not to accept into local prisons and remand centres inmates from outside the catchment areas of those establishments. Of the 444, 101 are adult remand prisoners, and this element of the population can be removed from police cells when further refurbished accommodation in Manchester becomes available this summer.
I have been especially concerned at the numbers of young men on remand held in police cells. There were 55 on 25 April. The principal difficulty in respect of such inmates is the limited capacity of Hindley remand centre. Prison Service management has been working to transfer some young men awaiting trial to Stoke Heath remand centre to create space for those on remand. The Stoke Heath branch of the Prison Officers' Association was initially unwilling to agree that the establishment should accept prisoners awaiting trial, but I am glad to be able to tell the hon. Member that management has reached agreement with the union branch and that trial prisoners should begin to be transferred from 7 May. This means that young men on remand should be cleared from police cells over the next few weeks.
Prison Service management is seeking to transfer convicted inmates in police cells to training prison accommodation. While most of the training prison estate is being operated at a very high level of occupancy, new accommodation is available at Full Sutton—192 places—and Acklington—152 places. This accommodation could be used to relieve other northern establishments so as to provide space within the prison system both for adult sentenced inmates, of whom there were 149 in police cells on 25 April, and for convicted persons awaiting sentence, of whom there were 98 in police cells. I very much regret that the local POA branches at these establishments have so far refused to allow this accommodation to be used. As a result, convicted prisoners are being held unnecessarily in 560W police cells. If these places could be brought into use, and the spaces created at northern local prisons, the use of police cells could be substantially reduced immediately.
My right hon. Friend and I are most grateful to the Greater Manchester police and to other police forces for the way that they have coped with the burden placed on them by the Prison Service's recourse to police cells. Prison Service management remains committed to removing that burden in the shortest possible time.