HC Deb 19 December 2003 vol 416 cc15-9W
Julie Morgan

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps to ensure that gender specific suicide and self-harm figures are(a) reported to Parliament and (b) monitored by the Women's Estate Policy Unit. [144541]

Paul Goggins

Women's Estate Policy Unit monitor female prisoner suicide and self-harm figures, and will be producing a report for 2003–04 which will be lodged in the Library.

Vera Baird

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under HM Prison Service's plans to manage the Women's Prison Estate geographically instead of functionally(a) what safeguards will be put in place to ensure that the needs of women prisoners are responded to appropriately, (b) what steps he will take to ensure that the budget set aside for the operational group remains ring-fenced for work with women in prison and (c) what specialist staff, with particular reference to those with skills and experience in suicide and self-harm prevention, mental health and detoxification for women will be maintained. [141621]

Paul Goggins

The Director of Operations will formally take responsibility for the Women's Estate from 1 January 2004 in order to facilitate a smooth transfer to the new arrangements on 1 April 2004. The Prison Service will retain a dedicated policy and management group to ensure that the needs of women prisoners are met across the prisons estate. The Director of Operations will hold responsibility for the work of that group which will be headed by a senior operational manager who reports directly to him. The new management structure will be appropriately funded to reflect the particular needs of women in custody.

The details of the staffing arrangements for the new structure are still being worked out but the women's policy and management group will include specialist staff with knowledge and skills in the prevention of suicide and self-harm and in the treatment of drug abuse and mental illness.

Vera Baird

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of children under 18 years of age whose mothers are in prison, where the mother is the child's primary carer. [141625]

Paul Goggins

The most recent information available on this matter is derived from a survey of 301 white and Afro-Caribbean (or mixed-race) female prisoners who were drug users. This survey was carried out in 2001 and published in 2003. It showed that 70 per cent. (211) had children under the age of 18. Between them, the 211 mothers had 473 children. This suggests that, for every female prisoner, there are roughly 1.5 children in the community. The same survey also indicates that, prior to going to prison, 60 per cent. of the female prisoners who were mothers had been looking after their children at home.

Joan Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to survey the women's prison population to determine prisoners' home locations in order to facilitate resettlement. [142887]

Paul Goggins

I would refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to a Question from my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Redcar (Vera Baird) on 8 December 2003 (141620).

Joan Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Government's strategy is for improving the level of support available to prisoners who have been victims of(a) domestic violence and (b) sexual abuse. [142888]

Paul Goggins

A range of support is offered to prisoners who report that they have been victims of domestic violence or sexual abuse. This includes: individual support and/or counselling; the provision of advice or information; and referral to appropriate outside agencies.

The Prison Service is currently seeking to improve the level of support offered. The specific initiatives include drawing up good practice principles for support services; developing links with community agencies and ensuring that assessment of risk is included in the sentence planning process.

Joan Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in extending the First Night in Custody Project from HMP Holloway to all female prison establishments. [142896]

Paul Goggins

The First Night in Custody Project at Holloway prison is part of a range of interventions across the women's prisons estate designed to reduce levels of suicide and self-harm as well as provide support and advice for women with a range of family, housing and other personal issues. These interventions are focused on prisons with a local function. There is no single model; the way in which the programme is delivered reflects local needs and circumstances, but important lessons have been learned from the Holloway project.

Joan Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the female prisoners who committed suicide had previously been identified as at risk through the use of the HM Prison Service form F2052SH in each of the past four years. [142897]

Paul Goggins

All of the women who took their own lives in prison from 1 January 1999 up to 8 December 2003 had been on an open F2052SH (self-harm at risk form) at some point during their period of imprisonment. The number of these women who were on an open F2052SH at the times of their deaths is shown in the following table.

Calendar year Number of female self-inflicted deaths(SIDs)1 Number of female SIDs on an open F2052SH at the times of their deaths Proportion of female SIDs on an open F2052SH at the times of their deaths (per cent.)
1999 5 2 40
2000 8 3 38
2001 6 4 67
2002 9 3 33
20032 14 9 64
Total 42 21 50
1 The Prison Service employs the term "self-inflicted death" rather than "suicide". This includes all those deaths where it appears the person may have acted specifically to take his/her own life
2 To 8 December 2003

The general prison population, and the women's estate in particular, contains a very large number of prisoners exhibiting a combination of factors which raise their risk of suicide: these include psychiatric disorders, relationship problems, previous abuse and family background problems; and histories of self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse and homelessness. As women tend to be the primary carers in their families, concerns about child care arrangements and associated issues also come to the fore with imprisonment.

Any member of staff who has cause for concern that a prisoner may be at-risk can open an F2052SH and it is mandatory to open an F2052SH following any incident of self-harm. The inherent vulnerability of many women in custody, combined with the high levels of self-harm in the women's estate, results in a very large number of women prisoners presenting themselves as requiring special care, and being made subject to F2052SH procedures. However, staff caring for women prisoners face exceptional difficulties in distinguishing between those women who are intensely vulnerable and those who may be actively suicidal.

To address this issue, the F2052SH system is under review. The pilot of a replacement care planning system will begin in January 2004 at five establishments, one of which is the women's prison and YOI Low Newton. The potential replacement for the F2052SH aims to build on the successful aspects of the existing system, yet be more flexible and task teams of specially trained staff to assess the level of risk that at-risk prisoners present.

In parallel with the review of the F2052SH, information booklets and posters to improve staff understanding of the issues surrounding self-harm have been widely distributed, and detailed guidance for staff n how to manage and care for prisoners who self-harm, as well as a video discussing self-harm, are under development.

Joan Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to ensure(a) that women prisoners have equal access to bail information and (b) that the information available is consistent and accurate. [142898]

Paul Goggins

All the remand prisons in both the male and the female estate have bail information schemes through which all new remand prisoners are made aware of the help available. All female remand prisoners have equal access to bail information schemes and assistance in seeking bail.

Bail information schemes provide information to courts to assist with decisions on individual prisoner's bail applications. The information provided will therefore vary from prisoner to prisoner, but in each case the information must be verified as accurate before being sent to the court.

Joan Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what counselling and support is available in women's prisons to assist prisoners who have been victims of(a) domestic violence and (b) sexual abuse. [142886]

Paul Goggins

A survey carried out by the Prison Service in 2003 demonstrates that a wide range of support is given across the prison estate to women who report that they have been abused. This includes offering women individual support and/or counselling; the provision of advice and information and referral to appropriate outside agencies. Individual establishments work closely with local community agencies with specialist expertise in abuse issues. The support offered to individual women who report that they have suffered any kind of abuse and have asked for help, will be determined following a full assessment of their needs.

The support offered varies between establishments and reflects local circumstances. The Prison Service is currently working with a small group of local practitioners, including both prison staff and voluntary agencies, to develop good practice principles so that consistency in the standard of support offered can be achieved. This work will be completed by March 2004 and will draw on a recently published literature review by Carol-Ann Hooper (2003), from the University of York on "Abuse, Interventions and Women in Prison".

In addition, examples of specific work being done for women who are the victims of domestic violence include working to help women avoid going back into circumstances that are high risk for violence when they are released and the provision in many establishments of posters/helpline information supplied by local domestic violence networks.