§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners aged 65 years and over are serving prison sentences and were convicted after their 65th birthday. [152755]
§ Paul GogginsAt the end of November 2003, there were 689 sentenced prisoners in prison in England and Wales who were aged 65 and above. 403 of these prisoners had been convicted after their 65th birthday.
§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of prisoners are studying with the Open University. [152836]
§ Paul GogginsThe Government are committed to providing a range of educational opportunities to meet offenders' needs. From this year we are releasing more funds to support Open University study in order to ensure that we are offering a more balanced curriculum.
Our focus is primarily on helping offenders to improve their literacy, language and numeracy skills. Nevertheless, 601 Open University courses were taken by prisoners in the academic year 2002–03. This represents 3 per cent. of those prisoners who were involved in education at the end of that academic year.
§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps he has taken to reduce the number of prisoners escaping from prison. [152839]
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§ Paul GogginsAgainst the backdrop of a steadily increasing population, the Prison Service has achieved a much-improved performance on escapes from prison and from escort over the last decade. There have been no escapes by Category A prisoners since 1995. Escapes overall have been driven down from 347 in 1992–93 to 50 in 2002–03. There have been 45 escapes so far in the current financial year. The Public Service Agreement target is that there should be no Category A escapes and that the number of other escapes should not exceed 0.17 per cent. of annual average population. Performance is well within that target. The escape rate in 2002–03 was 0.07 per cent. of annual average population.
This improvement has been achieved through a range of measures, including investment in physical security technology; tighter procedural security; more effective performance management and audit and a strong lead from senior managers; greater security awareness and good levels of compliance with best practice.
The Escapes Delivery Plan seeks to ensure that the current good performance is maintained. The plan is managed by a project board, chaired by the Deputy Director General of the Prison Service. Membership includes representatives from the police and the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
The figures given for escapes relate only to escapes from closed prison or external escorts, mostly to court or hospital. They exclude those where the prisoner was recaptured within 15 minutes.
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people aged 60 years and over in England and Wales were(a) convicted of an offence and (b) received a custodial sentence in 2003. [153335]
§ Paul GogginsThe total number of persons aged 60 and over who were convicted of indictable offences in England and Wales in 2002, was 2,324 of whom 620 were sentenced to immediate custody.
Statistics on court proceedings for 2003 will be published in the autumn.
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many prisoners aged 65 years and over had long-term illnesses in each year since 1997; [153336]
(2) if he will make a statement on prison resources directed at the nursing care of prisoners over the age of 65 years. [153338]
§ Paul GogginsThe information requested is not available centrally. Prisons, work in partnership with their local health care partners to assess the health care needs of all prisoners, irrespective of age, and to develop services to meet them.
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people(a) of all ages and (b) aged 65 years and over died in prison in each year since 1997. [153337]
§ Paul GogginsThe information requested is provided in the table. 1435W
Number of deaths of prisoners aged 64 and under Number of deaths of prisoners aged 65 and over Total number of deaths of prisoners 1997 113 8 121 1998 128 10 138 1999 140 9 149 2000 127 17 144 2001 120 21 141 2002 148 18 166 2003 160 21 181 Total 936 104 1,040 Deaths in prison remain a rare but distressing event, affecting families, staff and other prisoners deeply. Prisons work in partnership with their local healthcare partners to assess the health care needs of all prisoners, irrespective of age, and to develop services to meet them.
Sadly, the largest proportion of under-65s who die in custody take their own lives; meanwhile, over-65s are more likely to die of natural causes. Good care and support from staff saves many lives, but such instances go largely unreported. 141 prisoners were resuscitated following self-harm incidents in 2002, and a further 197 prisoners were resuscitated during the first 11 months of 2003, which reflects a lot of staff effort and skill.
§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reported incidents of violence there have been against prisoners(a) of all ages and (b) aged 65 years and over in each year since 1997. [153339]
§ Paul GogginsIn April 2003 a new measure of violence toward prisoners was introduced, based on the number of reported serious assaults. This replaced the previous measure, which was based on positive adjudications for assault. Work to improve data quality may have had an impact on the figures reported. Information is not held centrally on those offences towards prisoners aged 65 and over. The figures given in the following table are based on the financial year.
Serious assault on inmate April—December 2003 611 2002–03 582 2001–02 507 2000–01 534 1999–2000 509 1998–99 380 1997–98 409 1996–97 372