HC Deb 03 July 2003 vol 408 c392W
Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many serious incidents there have been in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last 12 months involving(a) riots, (b) peaceful protests, including sit-down protests, (c) assaults and (d) other disturbances. [118791]

Paul Goggins

The information requested is detailed in the table. The Prison Service's incident reporting system records the number of acts of concerted indiscipline rather than "riots". Similarly, acts of passive concerted indiscipline are recorded rather than the number of protests or sit down protests. In the course of the 12 months from June 2002 to May 2003, the number of assaults recorded was 11,462. The figures in the table are of those assaults which resulted in an injury to either staff or prisoners. The Prison Service does not have a category for "disturbances".

Number of acts of concerted indiscipline Number of acts of passive indiscipline Number of assaults
June 2002 5 2 47
July 2002 6 9 59
August 2002 10 16 61
September 2002 1 6 67
October 2002 10 11 58
November 2002 3 3 56
December 2002 6 5 44
January 2003 6 5 50
February 2003 5 5 44
March 2003 6 4 66
April 2003 2 9 60
May 2003 2 10 90
Total 62 85 702