§ Ms LynneTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason two different figures were given in letters of 29 October from the Director General of the Prison Service to the hon. Member for Rochdale for the number of assaults at HMP Buckley Hall since 14 December 1994. [3360]
§ 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 Richard Tilt to Ms Lynne, dated 13 November 1996:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your Question about the different figures given in my letters of 29 October about the number of assaults at Buckley Hall prison 14 December 1994.243WI very much regret that my replies did not distinguish between and explain the different kinds of data used in replying to each Question.The number of assaults given in response to your Question about all types of incidents was taken from information recorded on a central database. This provides an analysis of trends within the Prison Service on a wide range of types of incident for use in incident management. They do not take account of the number of individuals who have been involved in a single incident, whether an assault or otherwise, nor do they take account, in the case of assaults, of whether there is a resulting finding of guilt either in an internal disciplinary adjudication or criminal proceedings.The figures given in response to the Question about the number of assaults that had occurred were based on the number of charges of assaults proven following an internal disciplinary adjudication. This information is used for the purposes of a Key Performance Indicator.Steps are being taken to ensure that future Questions are answered in a way that makes this distinction clear.