§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if the report on allegations of bullying at Blantyre House will be published before the end of the year; [21843]
(2) if he will list the (a) prison service officials, (b) inmates and (c) former staff interviewed as part of the investigation into allegations of bullying at Blantyre House; and on what dates they were interviewed. [21844]
§ Beverley HughesI am unable to provide a list of the people interviewed as part of this investigation. This is because all witnesses are assured that their participation in, and any information resulting from, interviews during the course of a prison service disciplinary inquiry is treated in the strictest confidence. However, these allegations are being thoroughly investigated. The report into allegations of bullying will be completed by the end of the year and submitted to the commissioning authority in the new year. It is not intended to publish the report.
§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the budget was for education at Blantyre House in(a) 2001 and (b) the preceding three years. [21842]
§ Beverley HughesThe education budget for Blantyre House for the period 1997 to 2001 was:
£ Period Total 1998–991 164,000 1999–20001 204,775 2000–011 197,820 2001–022 170,000 1 Actual spend 2 Projected budget During the period 1999 to 2000 the actual spend included one-off provision of information technology equipment for a new course.
§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many hours were spent by inmates at Blantyre House in colleges of further education outside the prison in 2001; and what the figures were in(a) 2000 and (b) 1999. [21841]
§ Beverley HughesThe information requested can only be collected by manual collation of the data from prisoner records and databases and would be at a disproportionate cost. However, 21 prisoners at Blantyre House attended college in 1999–2000, 12 attended in 2000–01, and eight 249W are attending in 2001–02. Details of hours spent by these prisoners on courses at further education colleges is not collected.
§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many resignations there have been by members of staff at Blantyre House in the last 12 months; and if he will list them. [21840]
§ Beverley HughesOne member of staff, a plant attendant, resigned and was re-engaged as an Operational Support Grade. There have been no other resignations of Prison Service in the last twelve months. Teaching staff are provided under contract by the Kent Adult Education Service. During the last twelve months one full time tutor and one sessional tutor provided to Blantyre House under this contract have resigned from their employment.
§ Mr. NormanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the ratio of short-term to long-term inmates at Blantyre House is; and what the ratio was in(a) 2000 and (b) 1999. [21839]
§ Beverley HughesBlantyre House only accepts prisoners with a minimum length of four years, and all its prisoners are therefore classified as long-term. This was also the case in 1999 and 2000.
It may be, however, that the hon. Member is interested in any change in periods prisoners have left to serve when coming to Blantyre House. To maximise the numbers of prisoners who can benefit from the resettlement opportunities available at Blantyre House, the establishment is now accepting prisoners with a minimum of two years left to serve, which is shorter than was formerly the case. In order to maintain a balance in the population, however, the number of life sentence prisoners held there is being increased. Historical data on the lengths of sentence remaining to prisoners at Blantyre House are not available.