§ John McDonnellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the rights of prison officers to undertake industrial action; and whether the Government plans to review these rights. [97127]
§ Hilary BennSection 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 makes it unlawful to induce Prison Officers to withhold their services or commit a breach of discipline. For this purpose a breach of discipline means a contravention of Prison Rules or the 405W code of conduct and discipline in the Prison Service. If inducements occur and loss results, the Secretary of State may take legal action against the person or persons so inducing those staff for damages.
In addition, on the introduction of the Employee Relations Voluntary Agreement in April 2001, the union signatories (Prison Officers' Association (POA) and Prison Governors' Association (PGA)) also agreed not to induce, authorise or support any form of industrial action, which would have the effect of disrupting the operations of the Prison Service. The POA are contractually bound to honour this agreement, which in effect offers protection to the Prison Service against industrial action, in its ability to obtain injunctive relief.
There are no current plans to review the provisions of the Voluntary Agreement to which the Prison Service remain committed.
§ John MannTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drug misusers under treatment have been(a) arrested and (b) imprisoned since 1 January 2002. [98146]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthInformation is not available in the form requested. Emerging evidence from the National Arrest Referral monitoring system provides some data relating to drug misusers who are arrested and voluntarily screened by arrest referral workers.
Data for October 2000 to September 2001 show that of the 48,810 arrestees screened by an arrest referral worker, 12 per cent. (5,268) were to continue in treatment they were currently receiving. The arrestees concerned are likely to be problematic drug misusers and may not be representative of the wider arrestee population.
Other research, from the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring programme (NEW-ADAM), has shown that of a total sample of arrestees interviewed, 29 per cent. said that they currently had a need for treatment and, of those, nine per cent. said that they were receiving treatment and 29 per cent. said that they were not.
The numbers of prisoners who have engaged in one or more of the Prison Service's range of drug interventions since 1 January 2002 are shown in the table:
Drug intervention Number of prisoners engaging since 1 January 20021 Detoxification 47,811 CARATs2 49,675 Rehabilitation programmes and therapeutic communities 4,334 1 The data cover the period 1 January 2002 to 31 December 2002 2 Counselling, assessment, referral, advice and throughcare services—a low-level intervention that provides a gateway assessment, referral and support service to prisoners both within custody and upon their initial release.
§ John MannTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many problematic drug users have been in prison. [98151]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthRecords of the actual number of problematic drug-misusing prisoners who pass through custody are not kept centrally by the Prison Service.
406WData from the Office for National. Statistics show that around 80 per cent. of prisoners have used drugs at some point before coming into prison, with 54 per cent. reporting drug dependency in the year prior to custody. With an annual throughput of approximately 130,000 offenders, an average of 70,000 drug-misusing prisoners may be in custody during the course of a year; with around 39,000 present at any one time.
§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of the proportion of(a) the prison population, (b) those going through the court system and (c) those going through the court system charged under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 whose offending relates to the need to support illegal drug use over the last five years. [98177]
§ Mr. Bob AinsworthThe numbers of prisoners who have engaged in one or more of the Prison Service's range of drug interventions since 1 January 2002 are shown in the table.
Prisoners engaging in one or more drug interventions between 1 January and 31 December 2002 Drug intervention Number Detoxification 47,811 CARATS1 49,675 Rehabilitation programmes and therapeutic communities 4,334 1 Counselling, Assessment, Referral, Advice and Throughcare Services—a low-level intervention that provides a gateway assessment, referral and support service to prisoners both within custody and upon their initial release. Records of the actual number of problematic drug-misusing prisoners who pass through custody are not kept centrally by the Prison Service. Data from the Office for National Statistics show that around 80 per cent. of prisoners have used drugs at some point before coming into prison, with 54 per cent. reporting drug dependency in the year prior to custody. With an annual throughput of approximately 130,000 offenders, an average of 70,000 drug-misusing prisoners may be in custody over the course of a year.
The level of detail required about the court system is not collected centrally. However, the NEW-ADAM2 research programme shows that 65 per cent. of arrestees tested positive for one or more illegal drug. 40 per cent. of arrestees reported a connection between their illegal drug use and offending behaviour—and, when those who had committed acquisitive crime were examined, this figure rose to 55 per cent.
2 New England and Wales Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring programme—a study that collected data from arrestees in police custody during 2000–01.