§ Lord Lester of Herne HillTo ask Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Rooker on 16 July (WA 98), why men held in remand centres in May spent, on average, 2.6 hours longer in their cell per weekday than those held in Category B prisons and 3.9 hours longer than those held in Category C; and [HL614]
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Rooker on 16 July (WA 98), why men held in closed Young Offender Institutions in May spent, on average, 2.1 hours longer in their cell per weekday than those held in Category B prisons and 3.4 hours longer than those held in Category C. [HL615]
§ Lord RookerThe only establishment that is designated as a remand centre is Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution/Remand Centre Northallerton. This is because the majority of the prison's population are remand prisoners, compared with other establishments whose population consists of only a minority of remand prisoners. Remand prisoners spend, on average, less time out of cell because they have not been found guilty of any offence and therefore cannot be required to undertake any activity. Their time in prison is frequently interrupted by court appearances so they cannot engage on courses. Therefore, most of their time is spent on recreational activities or in their cells. Category B and C prisons hold sentenced prisoners who would be required to work, take part in education and undertake offending behaviour programmes. They will therefore spend, on average, more time out of cell than remand prisoners.
The Prison Service is making efforts to increase the amount of purposeful activity available for remand prisoners to participate in and so increase their time out of cell.
As of 13 August this year, Her Majesty's Young Offender Institution/Remand Centre Northallerton 3WA will be introducing a new activity programme that will greatly increase the time remand prisoners spend out of cell to levels more comparable to Category C and B prisons.
Most young offender institutions hold a mixture of sentenced and remand prisoners. Therefore, the average figure for time spent out of cell will again be lower than most Category B and C prisons which hold only sentenced prisoners.
The conditions and regimes for juvenile offenders have, however, been transformed by the Prison Service in partnership with the Youth Justice Board. One effect of these improvements has been to highlight that young adult offenders have not fared so well. We are committed to building upon reforms of the youth justice system to improve the standards of custodial accommodation and offending programmes for this latter age group. We are currently considering how best to give effect to this commitment.
§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Rooker on 16 July (WA 98), whether the figures quoted for the 'average weekday time out of cell May 2001' are representative of the average times for which different categories of prisoner are allowed out of their cell. [HL616]
§ Lord RookerThe Prison Service does not collect centrally the time out of cell for individual prisoners. The figures quoted for the 'average weekday time out of cell May 2001' are averages based on the time out of cell for all prisoners within a given establishment, regardless of the category of the prisoner.
When figures are aggregated by function of establishment, prisons are categorised by their main function only. This means that in establishments with multiple functions the time out of cell for different types of prisoners are contained within the average. For example, the female wing at Her Majesty's Prison Winchester is included within the average for that establishment and appears in the table as part of the male local estate. For that reason the averages quoted for categories of prison are not necessarily representative of the average times for which different categories of prisoner are allowed out of their cell.