HC Deb 29 March 1995 vol 257 cc667-70W
Sir Ivan Lawrence

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress is being made on increasing private sector involvement in the Prison Service. [17602]

Mr. Michael Forsyth

In addition to existing plans for private sector involvement in the Prison Service, Lowdham Grange prison near Nottingham will be rebuilt as a 500-bed, category B prison to be operated by the private sector. This will increase from 12 to 13 the number of prisons to be operated by the private sector in the initial phase of the private sector programme.

Four prisons are already under private management and tendering for the first two of the six entirely new prisons to be designed, constructed, managed and financed by the private sector is nearing completion.

The programme of contracting out court escort and custody work is being accelerated. Contracts covering south-west England and south Wales, south-east England and the west midlands and central Wales will be let early in 1996. This builds on the considerable success of the programme so far. Escapes have been reduced by 40 per cent. in east midlands and Humberside and the courts are receiving a better service.

The combined effect of those prison and escort contracts already let will be cost savings of £18 million a year for the taxpayer.

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number of prisoners with 24-hours access to sanitation excluding new and renovated accommodation for each of the past 12 months in prisons in England and Wales. [16265]

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility 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 for Derek Lewis to Mr. George Howarth, dated 29 March 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about access to sanitation in prisons in England and Wales.

In the 12 months up to the end of Februry of this year 24 hour access to sanitation was provided for an additional 2202 prison cells, excluding new and renovated accommodation. The following table shows the month by month breakdown.

Month Additional cells (excluding new and renovated) Percentage of prisoners with access
March 1994 388 91
April 1994 38 91
May 1994 128 91
June 1994 151 92
July 1994 292 92
August 1994 247 92
September 1994 319 93
October 1994 163 94
November 1994 82 94
December 1994 297 95
January 1995 30 95
February 1995 67 95

Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number of prisoners who are held two or three to a cell in units of accommodation which are certified as being suitable for only one person for each of the past 12 months in prisons in England and Wales. [16230]

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility 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 Derek Lewis to Mr. George Howarth, dated 29 March 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the number of prisoners who are held two or three to a cell in units of accommodation which are certified as being suitable for only one person for each of the past 12 months in prisons in England and Wales. The information is given in the attached table.

Two prisoners sharing a cell designed for one Three prisoners sharing a cell designed for one
1994
March 8,488 24
April 8,406 0
May 8,106 0
June 8,434 0
July 8,618 0
August 8,662 0
September 8,728 0
October 8,600 0
November 8,480 0
December 7,754 0
1995
January 7,998 0
February 8,592 0

Mr. Jon Owen Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list the prisons in which operational capacity on at least one wing has been exceeded during the last 12 months and in each of the previous five years; [15942]

(2) under what circumstances a prison governor has authority to exceed the operational capacity of a prison wing. [15943]

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility 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. Jon Owen Jones, dated 29 March 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about prisons in which the operational capacity on at least one wing has been exceeded during the last 12 months and in each of the previous 5 years; and the circumstances in which a prison governor has authority to exceed the operational capacity of a prison wing. Operation capacity is the total number of prisoners which an establishment can hold without serious risk to good order, security and the proper running of the planned regime. Operational capacities are set for an establishment, rather than for individual wings, by area managers based on their operational judgement. The information you request is therefore not available. Governors may, with the agreement of area managers, accept prisoners in excess of operational capacity if there are compelling operational reasons for doing so. But every effort is made to avoid this by maximising the use of all available accommodation and allocation and transfers to other establishments.

Ms Janet Anderson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) women and (b) men are employed at each grade within the Prison Service, and what have been their responsibilities for every year since 1989, broken down by category and type of prison. [14861]

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has a been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Derek Lewis to Ms Janet Anderson, dated 29 March 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question requesting information about the numbers and responsibilities of men and women employed in the Prison Service for each year since 1989. The attached tables are based on information held in the personnel information computer system. This information varies slightly from the figures used in response to an earlier Question (House of Commons Hansard 24 January 1995, Vol 253, Number 36 Column 43–44) because of the differing source of information. The information contained in the tables was used as it provides a breakdown, by grade and sex, of all staff employed by the Service for each year since 1989, whose details were on the system at the relevant times. The totals for officers for 1 April 1990 and 1 April 1992 are slightly lower than those given in my reply to Mr Redmond on 23 January and slightly higher for 1 April 1993. As information for April"September 1991 is unavailable, the figures for October have been, provided. A breakdown of the information in the tables by category and type of establishment is not available for 1989–94 and could be obtained for 1995 only at disproportionate cost. Copies of these tables will be placed in the Library of the House. The responsibilities of staff are determined by their grade and by the structure and work of the establishment or unit concerned, it is not possible to provide meaningful overall categorisations of responsibility by grade.

Dr. Lynne Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what changes there have been in policy on searching in(a) women's gaols and (b) men's gaols between 1990 and 1994.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility 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 Derek Lewis to Dr. Lynne Jones, dated 29 March 1995: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about changes in policy on searching in male establishments and female establishments between 1990 and 1994. The policy changes are listed below.

For male establishments October 1992—Policy changed to allow women officers to "rub-down" search male prisoners. (This did not extend to intimate or strip-searching.) The change in policy was to ensure that women could carry out the majority of duties expected of male officers and so would not be debarred in practice from working in male establishments, so effectively limiting their career options as the great majority of establishments hold male prisoners.

For all establishments January 1993—Amendment to Prison Service Manual on Security which allowed instructions to be given to a prisoner during a strip search to bend over/spread legs, if they were suspected of concealing a weapon in the anal or genital area. Searching practices were also tightened following the attempted escape from Whitemoor prison in September 1994, although these did not involve changes in policy. We are now in the process of making further changes to our searching procedures following Sir John Woodcock's inquiry into the escape from Whitemoor prison. Sir John Woodcock made a number of recommendations which will have an impact on searching. The main changes are more rigorous procedures for searching cells, introduction of dedicated search teams, and searching of staff and visitors on entry to prisons and, on a random basis, on leaving for certain categories of prison. The Home Secretary published the implementation schedule for all the recommendations contained in the report on 8 February. A copy of that schedule has been placed in the Library of the House.