§ Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how much was spent on prison and court escort services in each of the last five years; [112138]
(2) how many prisoners escaped (a) at court and (b) while in transit between court and prison in each of the last five years; [112141]
(3) how many operational staff were employed by each of the private contractors responsible for prison and court escort services in each of the last five years; [112139]
(4) what penalties have been imposed on the companies responsible for prisoner escorts in each of the last five years; and what the reason was for the penalty in each case; [112142]
(5) what percentage of prisoners appearing at court arrived on time in the last year for which figures are available. [112140]
§ Paul GogginsThe table shows the number of escapes from escort contractors while the prisoner was either in court or in transit:
502W
Escape 1988–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 From court Not available1 Not available1 45 38 27 In transit Not available1 Not available1 11 2 4 Total 55 58 56 40 31 1 Although the total number of escapes for 1988–89 and 1999–2000 is available, specific information on whether the escape took place while the prisoner was in court or while in transit was not available until 2000–02.
Expressed as a percentage of the national average of prisoners handled during 2002–02, 76.39 per cent, of prisoners were delivered contractually on time to courts and 86.61 per cent, were delivered to courts before the court start times.
The table gives the level of payments made to contractors for the provision of the prisoner escort contracts service for the five years from 1998–99:
Year Amount paid (£) 1998–99 93,291,529 1999–2000 101,889,243 2000–01 104,833,064 2001–02 106,343.811 2002–03 110,216,636 The table shows the total amount of financial remedies applied to the escort contractors since 1999:
Company Number of remedies applied Total value (£) Group 4 Court Services 1 60,000 Premier Prison Services 1 36,000 Securicor Custodial Services 2 500,000 Reliance Custodial Services 2 25,000 Totals 6 621,000 The table shows the average number of operational staff (excluding senior managers) employed on courts escorts services duties over each of the last five years by each of the escort contractors.
Group 4 (4)1 Premier (2)1 Securicor (1)1 Reliance (1)1 1998–99 1,522 738 848 390 1999–2000 1,613 787 810 386 2000–01 1,635 788 823 400 2001–02 1,606 787 840 397 2002–03 1,617 794 844 396 1 shows the number of contracts held by each company