§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many prisoners' complaints have been referred to the Prisons Ombudsman in each prison service area; in how many cases he has found in the prisoner's favour; and how many and what proportion of his recommendations have been accepted by the prison service; [36893]
(2) if he will list by category the prisoners' complaints referred to the Prisons Ombudsman, the number and proportion where the ombudsman has found in the 61W prisoner's favour and the number and proportion of these recommendations which have been accepted by the prison service. [36894]
§ Miss WiddecombeThe Prisons Ombudsman had received 1,664 letters of complaint by 3 October 1995 of which 448 were eligible for investigation by his office; the eligibility of a further 117 was being considered. Two hundred and ninety three investigations had been completed. Of these, the prisoner's complaint was upheld on 128 occasions. A total of 154 recommendations had been made to the prison service, of which 121–78 per cent.—had been accepted. Twelve—8 per cent.—were not accepted. Four partially accepted and a further 17 were under consideration.
There are 15 prison service areas in England and Wales and as at 3 October 1995 the Prisons Ombudsman had received the following number of complaints about establishments in each area:
Area Number of complaints Central 99 Chilterns 62 East Anglia 112 East Midlands 144 Kent 131 London North 187 London South 157 Mercia 42 North East 134 North West 80 South Coast 79 Trans Pennine 143 Wales and West 101 Wessex 90 Yorkshire 72 The remaining complaints concerned matters which were the responsibility of prison service headquarters.
The number of complaints received by category were:
Category Number of complaints Adjudications 159 Assaults 54 Security categorisation 123 Food 26 General conditions 172 Regime activities 55 Links 88 Medical 48 Pre-release and release 237 Property and cash 295 Race 15 Segregation 43 Transfers and allocation 251 Miscellaneous 98