§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what percentage of(a) privately managed (b) police and (c) Prison Service escorts are carried out in secure cellular vehicles for the latest dates for which figures are available;
(2) what percentage of (a) Group 4's prisoners' escorts and (b) Prison Service escorts are transported in secure vehicles;
(3) how many prison escapes have occurred in the Metropolitan area since Securicor commenced escort services there;
(4) what are the number of prisoner movements for each escort area in the last five years.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility 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 17 March 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about prisoner escorts.Information on the number of prisoner escorts for each escort area in the last five years is either not available or could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Neither the Prison Service nor the police record it centrally. The limited information which is readily available relates to those areas where court escort and custody services have been contracted out and is given below.In Area 7 (East Midlands and Humberside) there were approximately 100,000 prisoner movements in 1993–94 and there have been approximately 107,000 such movements until 28 February in this financial year. A prisoner movement is defined as either the escorting of a prisoner from a prison or police station to court or from court to his place of custody. In Area 3 (the Metropolitan Police District) Securicor conducted approximately 57,000 prisoner escort movements between 27 June 1994, when they began operating, and 28 February 1995, although this does not represent all of the movements in the area.In Areas 4 (East Anglia) and 6 (Merseyside), Greater Manchester and North Wales) contracts have been awarded to Group 4 for the provision of prisoner escort services for operation from July this year. Special exercises were conducted in 1994 to establish the likely number of prisoner movements the contractor would have to manage. These produced estimates of approximately 95,000 prisoner movements in Area 4 and 201,000 in Area 6 each year.
Employment places Average population in prison service establishments industries farms Vocational training courses Total employment places, industries, Farms and vocational training Total Places as Percentage of Prison Population 1987 48,426 12,981 3,637 Not available 16,618 34.3 1988 48,872 11,848 3,706 1,942 17,496 35.8 1989 48,500 12,173 3,817 1,932 17,922 37.0 1990 44,975 11,898 3,609 2,187 17,694 39.3 1991 44,809 11,143 3,523 2,519 17,185 38.4 1992 44,719 11,003 3,474 2,589 17,066 38.2 1993 44,551 10,026 3,508 2,608 16,142 36.2 1994 48,621 10,024 3,508 2,597 16,129 33.2