§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the nature of all(a) medical and (b) health care research currently being undertaken within the Prison Service for each United Kingdom prison. [27616]
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility 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 Brian Landers to Mr. Martin Redmond dated 7 May 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about (a) medical and (b) health care research currently being undertaken within the Prison Service for each United Kingdom prison.
The Directorate of Health Care for the Prison Service in England and Wales holds a central register of medical and health care research receiving central support and approved by the independent Prison Service Health Research Ethics Committee. The attached list sets out the centrally approved and supported projects recorded on the central database as currently in progress.
Information on local studies, approved by the governor of an establishment and a recognised Research Ethics Committee, is not notified to the Directorate of Health Care in all cases and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
The situation in Scotland and Northern Ireland is a matter for the respective Departments.
80WPrison Service Health Research Ethics Committee approved Medical and Health Care Research Projects receiving central funding
Assessment of the needs and best management of severely behaviourially disturbed young offenders at Aylesbury young offenders institution;
Evaluation of a pilot scheme for the contracting-our of Genito-Urinary Medicine services to the NHS by Wormwood Scrubs, Brixton and Wandsworth prisons;
Evaluation of the drugs rehabilitation programmes implemented in 22 prisons under phase 1 of the Prison Service Strategy for Drugs;
Analysis of the doctor patient relationship in the prison setting. Four sample prisons are in the process of selection;
Assessment of throughcare arrangements and needs for prisoners with a history of mental illness discharged from prison direct to the community—Yorkshire prisons;
Evaluation of a project jointly funded by the Department of Health and the MACA for development of care plans prior to release of mentally disordered prisoners—Leicestershire prisons;
A study into the effect of the application of section 48 of the Mental Health Act 1983. This involves central records without the direct involvement of establishments.