HC Deb 23 March 2000 vol 346 cc676-7W
Mr. Stinchcombe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to accommodate prisoners closer to their homes. [115623]

Mr. Boateng

In its management of the prison population, the Prison Service aims to hold prisoners in establishments which provide the degree of security that they require, are suitable to their gender, age and legal status and which are near to their homes, or for unconvicted and unsentenced prisoners near to the courts dealing with their cases.

However, high population levels throughout the prisons and remand estate can lead to prisoners being transferred from their home area to establishments with a greater number of vacancies.

Mr. Stinchcombe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are held in prison establishments(a) over 25 miles, (b) over 50 miles and (c) over 100 miles from their homes. [115625]

Mr. Boateng

The Prison Service does not have home address records for every prisoner in its custody. The centrally available information is based on the distance that prisoners are held from their committal court town and is set out in the table in the nearest format to that requested. This information is based on data collected on 30 November 1999. There are in the region of 24,000 prisoners held under 25 miles from their committal court town.

Distance from home area Number of prisoners 1
Between 25 and 50 miles 16,000
Between 50 and 100 miles 14,000
Over 100 miles 11,000
Total over 25 miles 41,000
1 Rounded to nearest thousand

Mr. Stinchcombe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to implement the recommendations in "Prison Disturbances 1990: report of an Inquiry by the right hon. Lord Justice Woolf and His Honour Sir Stephen Tumim", that(a) no establishment should hold more prisoners than is provided for in its certified normal accommodation, and (b) Parliament be informed if there is a material departure from this rule. [115616]

Mr. Boateng

There are no plans to introduce a new prison rule to limit the maximum number of prisoners an establishment can hold to the level of its certified normal accommodation, also known as uncrowded capacity.

This is because there is no immediate prospect that overcrowding will be ended. However, by a combination of providing additional accommodation and the introduction of new legislation (for example Home Detention Curfew), the Government are ensuring that overcrowding is contained within the maximum safe operational capacity of establishments.

Forward to