§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the present list of Her Majesty's prisons in England and Wales which are now under consideration for privatisation.
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§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility for this matter 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 Mr. Derek Lewis to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 25 November 1994:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about those prisons that are being considered for market testing.We are not considering privatising any prisons. Privatisation means removing an activity from the sphere of the government responsibility with full responsibility and ownership, being transferred to private sector. That is not what we are doing with regard to the management of prisons. Contracts have been awarded to private companies for the management of for prisons: Wolds, Blakenhurst, Doncaster and Buckley Hall. The contracted out prisons remain part of the Prison Service: I am accountable to the Home Secretary four contracted out as well as directly managed prisons and the Home Secretary remains accountable to Parliament for them.Six new prisons are to be built in the next few years using private sector finance. Sites have been identified in South Wales and Merseyside for the first two, which are expected to open in 1997–98 and tenders have been issued for contracts for the design, construction, management and finance of these prisons.We are also considering twelve existing establishments with a view to selecting one or more of them for market testing. In-house bids will be allowed and therefore market testing may or may not lead to contracting out depending on whether the in-house hid is successful.
Conviction rates and average sentence length (months) given for the offences of theft and handling stolen goods and all offences in the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Petty Sessional Divisions by age group, 1993 Theft and handling stolen goods All offences 10–17 18+ All ages 10–17 18+ All ages Barking PSD Conviction rate (Per cent.) 75 52 52 36 61 61 Average sentence length (months) 3.0 2.7 2.7 3.0 3.5 3.5 Havering PSD Conviction rate (Per cent.) 75 66 67 60 77 77 Average sentence length (months) — 3.3 3.3 3.0 3.4 3.4 Redbridge PSD Conviction rate (Per cent.) 60 53 54 60 71 71 Average sentence length (Months) — 3.0 3.0 3.7 3.6 3.7 England and Wales PSDs Conviction rate (Per cent.) 62 63 63 58 70 69 Average sentence length (Months) 3.9 3.0 3.1 3.8 3.2 3.2 All offences - Indictable, summary non-motoring and summary motoring.
Percentage based on less than 50 defendants and average sentence length based on less than 50 sentenced to immediate custody.