HC Deb 31 January 1996 vol 270 cc760-2W
Mr. George Howarth

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give in respect of each private prison(a) the contractor, (b) the date the contract commenced, (c) the length of the contract, (d) the original contract price and (e) the projected cost of the contract including start-up costs and all other costs incurred by the Prison Service. [12768]

Miss Widdecombe

[holding answer 30 January 1996]: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. George Howarth, dated 31 January 1996: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the contracts at each of the contractually managed prisons. The information about the projected cost of the contracts is not readily available in the form requested and I will write to you separately on this. The other information you requested is set out in the attached table. Records are not kept centrally of outstanding repair and maintenance bills for individual establishments. The attached table shows the actual annual spending on repairs and maintenance in the twelve establishments holding female prisoners in each of the financial years since 1991–92, including the predicted spend for this year. The figures include both work which has been funded centrally and that funded locally with delegated authority. Figures for actual expenditure on maintenance for the years 1985–86 to 1990–91 are not readily available. For the three establishments which currently house both male and female prisoners, it has not been possible to separate the costs for repair and maintenance of the female wings from the male wings. Much maintenance work is covered during modernisation and redevelopment. In 1994–95 such schemes helped take the investment 'in improvements alone to the prison estate to £178 million. Of this around £14 million was devoted to the female estate. We are in the process of re-surveying every establishment to produce a forward maintenance register which will be kept up to date and will help us predict future finance needed for maintenance.

Maintenance and repair expenditure at female establishments 1991–92 to 1995–96
£000s
1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 11995–96 Total
New Hall 106 90 111 153 182 642
Pucklechurch3 26 17 58 31 20 152
Risley2 218 262 312 947 465 2,204
Styal 297 560 849 326 139 2,171
Total 1,956 2,934 3,891 4,090 2,268 15,139
1Estimated outturn.
2Establishments holding prisoners of both sexes. The costs relating to these establishments include an element for locally let maintenance and repair work for the entire prison, a figure which, unfortunately, cannot be easily apportioned between the female and male estate.

1. Eastwood Park is scheduled to re-open during 1996 as a female establishment following a 2 year modernisation programme.

2. Brockhill and Winchester have newly opened wings for female prisoners. These were modernised and will not yet have attracted significant spending on repair and maintenance.

3. Pucklechurch is scheduled for closure during 1996 following the re-opening of Eastwood Park.

Ms Jowell

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women were admitted to prison in each year since 1979; and what was(a) the total budget for women's prisons in each of those years and (b) the actual amount spent per prisoner.[11496]

Miss Widdecombe

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

Letter from Alan Walker to Ms Tessa Jowell, dated 31 January 1996: The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about the number of women admitted to prison in each year since 1979, the total budget for women's prisons in each of those years and the actual amount spent per prisoner. Information on female receptions into Prison Service establishments in 1979–1993 is published in successive volumes of "Prison statistics, England and Wales" (tables 1.14 of the 1989 edition (Cm 1221) for years 1979–1989 and table 1.11 of the 1993 edition (Cm 2893) for the remaining years). Information for 1994 and 1995 is given in table 1. The only information readily available on the cost of women's prisons over the period requested is for total net operating costs and average annual net operating cost per inmate. The figures are set out in table 2. These figures cover only establishments exclusively for female inmates; costs for female are not available separately for establishments holding both males and females.

Table 1: Female receptions1 into Prison Service establishments in England and Wales by type of custody, 1994 and 1995
Year
Typle of custody 1994 21995
Remand
Untried 2,922 2,940
Convicted unsentenced 1,812 1,689
Sentenced
Immediate custody 2,952 3,467
Fine defaulters 1,454 1,352
Non-criminals 290 195
1Total receptions cannot be calculated by adding together receptions in each category because there is double counting. A person received in more than one type of custody is counted each time.
2Provisional figures.

Table 2: Costs of female establishments
Financial year Net operating cost Average cost per inmate per year
1979–80 110,266 18,569
1980–81 113,796 111,207
1981–82 115,871 113,753
1982–83 117,659 116,054
1983–84 20,742 17,228
1984–85 22,664 18,902
1985–86 23,056 17,942
1986–87 23,706 17,891
1987–88 29,684 20,003
1988–89 31,310 20,763
1989–90 33,963 22,567
1990–91 41,272 29,250
1991–92 47,460 32,708
1992–93 47,000 34,207
1993–94 241,100 228,151
1994–95 44,200 226,675
1The figures for 1979–80 to 1982–83 are not strictly comparable with subsequent years due to changes in accounting policies.
2The figures for 1993–94 and 1994–95 are on a different basis to the preceding years which include some notional costs.