HC Deb 27 November 1995 vol 267 cc463-4W
Ms Janet Anderson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his estimate of the additional costs of implementing the recommendations of the Woodcock and Learmont reports during 1995–96. [1682]

Miss Widdecombe

The implementation of the Woodcock report is expected to cost about £60 million in 1995–96. Whether the Prison Service will require additional provision to cover these costs will emerge in February 1996 at the time of the spring supplementary estimates. No additional expenditure is forecast in 1995–96 for the implementation of the Learmont report. The Prison Service is now considering General Sir John Learmont's recommendations in detail and until that work is completed the likely cost of implementation cannot be assessed.

Ms Anderson

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the Woodcock report. [1684]

Miss Widdecombe

The timetable for implementation of the recommendations made in the Woodcock report was published on 8 February. To date, 33 recommendations have been implemented and the remaining 31 have been implemented in part.

The majority of the recommendations not yet fully implemented require major construction work. A construction programme—which started with those prisons holding the highest categories of prisoners—is under way. That programme is currently being reviewed in the light of the recommendations in General Sir John Learmont's review of security across the Prison Service.