§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what was the estimated number of prisoner escorts in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those involved the use of custom-built cellular vehicles;
(2) how many prisoners escaped from prison escorts in each of the last five years; and how many of those escapes were from custom-built cellular vehicles;
(3) how many escapes have occurred from Group 4 prisoner escorts since April 1993; and if he will give details of each case;
(4) how many category A prisoners have escaped from prison service escorts in the last five years; and how many of those escorts involved cellular vehicles.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for these matters has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Doug Hoyle, dated 28 March 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about escapes from escorts, and the estimated number of orison escorts over the last five years, and the proportion in which custom built cellular vehicles were used.
556WThe information you requested is not recorded centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Escapes from prison escort over the last five years and the number of escapes from cellular vehicles—the following table lists all escapes from escort of prisoners supervised by Prison Service staff from both the public and private sectors and from the private escort contract. It does not, however, include prison escorts conducted by the police forces in England and Wales.
Year Number of inmates 1989 118 1990 119 1991 144 1992 147 1993 1192 1 Thirty of these escapes would have been the responsibility of police escorts in previous years and are not reflected in prior year figures. Information about escapes from Prison Service cellular vehicles is not readily available and could only be produced at disproportionate cost.
Escapes from Group 4 since April 1993 with details of escapes.
From 1 April 1993 to 28 February 1994 40 inmates escaped from Group 4 prisoner escorts.
The following table provides details of the escapes:
Location of escape Number of prisoners Attendance at court 31 En route from vehicle 8 Outside hospital 1 Total 40 Before Group 4 undertook prisoner escort work, 34 of the above inmates who escaped would have been the responsibility of police escorts.
This information is derived from the Incident Management Support Unit, a part of the Directorate of Custody.
Category 'A' prisoners and escapes from Prison Service escorts over the last 5 years.
No Category 'A' prisoner has escaped from a Prison Service escort in this period.
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have escaped while under escort from Preston prison in the past 12 months; how many of those escapes were from private taxi hire; and how many of those escapes were from custom-built cellular vehicles.
§ Mr. Peter LloydResponsibility for these matters has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Doug Hoyle, dated 28 March 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about the escape of prisoners whilst under escort from Preston prison in the past 12 months.
During the past year three prisoners from Preston prison have escaped whilst under escort. Two of these escapes were whilst the prisoners concerned were receiving treatment in an outside hospital. In the first of these incidents the prisoner was recaptured almost immediately by the escorting prison officers. In the later incident the prisoner was recaptured by the police within three hours of his escape. The remaining incident involved the escape of a prisoner from a privately hired bus. This prisoner was subsequently recaptured by the police some six weeks after his escape.
557WThere have been no escapes from private taxi hire vehicles or custom built cellular vehicles during the past year.