§ Miss WiddecombeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of the rise in the prison population on(a) the assault rate on (i) prisoners and (ii) staff, (b) offending behaviour courses, (c) staff-prisoner ratios, (d) family visits and (e) purposeful activity. [82424]
§ Hilary Benn[holding answer 2 December 2002]: The Prison Service is working to minimise the disruption caused to prisoners and their regime by the population increase.
The rate of positive adjudications of assault has reduced in recent months. This is due in part to prisoners spending more time in their cells but the current assault rate is also depressed pending the introduction of new adjudication arrangements brought in after the removal of added day punishments. Although the population increase has affected staff-prisoner ratios, the operational capacity of each establishment is set to minimise the risks to security, safety and control.
With population close to operational capacity, a greater number of prisoners must be moved to maximise the available accommodation. This increases the number of prisoners being held away from their home area and for some, the greater distance can disrupt family visits. Prisoners held temporarily in police cells are not granted family visits, although the aim is that the time an individual prisoner spends in police cells is kept to a minimum and that prisoners who are particularly vulnerable are accommodated in prisons, wherever possible.
The Prison Service aims to avoid transferring prisoners that are on or awaiting offending behaviour programmes, however some disruption is inevitable while programmes are relocated away from local establishments which suffer most from increased turnover. The average level of purposeful activity across the estate has fallen slightly.