§ David DavisTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many life sentence prisoners have been released on parole in each month since January 1995. [171248]
§ Paul GogginsRelease details for all life sentence prisoners are only available in the monthly format requested from 1 April 2000 onwards. Information for the period 1995–99 is available only by calendar year.
The annual release figures for the calendar years 1995–99 are as follows.
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Number (first time releases only) 1995 92 1996 85 1997 98 1998 98 1999 122 The release details from 1 April 2000 onwards are shown in the table.
Releases on life licence April 2100—March 2004 Month Year Number of releases April 12000 8 May 12000 13 June 12000 19 July 12000 13 August 12000 4 September 12000 7 October 12000 8 November 12000 6 December 12000 4 January 12001 16 February 12001 14 March 12001 13 April 2001 25 May 2001 12 June 2001 14 July 2001 11 August 2001 17 September 2001 9 October 2001 18 November 2001 15 December 2001 10 January 2002 10 February 2002 13 March 2002 10 April 2002 12 May 2002 17 June 2002 12 July 2002 22 August 2002 26 September 2002 14 October 2002 26 November 2002 14 December 2002 18 January 2003 18 February 2003 28 March 2003 29 April 2003 18 May 2003 30 June 2003 22 July 2003 38 August 2003 32 September 2003 22 1Relates to first time release cases only. Subsequent data includes cases where prisoners have been re-released following recall from life licence.
Releases on life licence April 2000—March 2004 Month Year Number of releases October 2003 40 November 2003 15 December 2003 30 January 2004 15 February 2004 31 March 2004 38 The lifer population in June 1995 stood at just under 3,300 and has risen at roughly 8 per cent. per year to the current level of over 5,500. This increase in population 1170W has been reflected in the number of lifer cases considered each year by the independent Parole Board and in the number of cases where release was recommended (or directed) by panels. Following the European Court of Human Rights judgment in the case of Stafford in May 2002, the Parole Board is now responsible for the release of all tariff expired lifers, including mandatory lifers.
§ Colin BurgonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason the Prison Service uses Contracted Supplementary Hours rather than exgratia payments to cover for staff shortfalls. [178404]
§ Paul GogginsContracted Supplementary Hours is a contracted agreement between management and staff for working additional hours, allowing advance planning of attendance patterns to cover periods of staff shortfall. For this purpose, Contracted Supplementary Hours are used in place of ex-gratia payments, which are primarily one-off payments to cover individual circumstances in unforeseen cases of operational emergency.
§ Colin BurgonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the cost-effectiveness of the Contracted Supplementary Hours scheme to cover for staff shortfalls in the Prison Service. [178405]
§ Paul GogginsThe Contracted Supplementary Hours scheme was introduced to provide prison governors with the flexibility to provide immediate additional working hours to meet operational needs. Since it has been in operation for the majority of prisons for just over a year, no assessment has yet been made on the cost-effectiveness of the scheme in covering staff shortfalls in the Prison Service.
§ Colin BurgonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the relative cost-effectiveness and flexibility of ex-gratia payments in covering for staff shortfalls. [178406]
§ Paul GogginsEx-gratia payments provide flexibility in individual circumstances for unforeseen cases of operational emergency. In view of the unpredictable nature of these payments, it would be very difficult to draw generalised conclusions about them. Hence, no assessment has been made to date of their cost-effectiveness.
§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average ratio of prisoners to wardens was in (a) privately and (b) publicly run prisons in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by category. [177846]
§ Paul GogginsThe information is as follows:
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Contracted prisons1 Category Ratio for the number of prisoners to prison officers2 Category B 3.97 Category C 3.63 Juvenile 1.61 1Privately operated. 2 Prison custody officers are the equivalent of the public prisons prison officer.
Public prisons Category Ratio for the number of prisoners to prison officers Category B 2.78 Category C 3.58 Juvenile 1.78
§ Tom CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many full-time teachers are employed in each London prison. [177816]
§ Paul GogginsThere are 64 full-time teachers employed in the London prisons, broken down as follows:
Prison Number Wandsworth 10 Wormwood Scrubs 10 Feltham 17 Holloway 6 Pentonville 4 Brixton 8 Latchmere 0 Belmarsh 9 Total 64 Learning opportunities for prisoners are also provided by a range of other staff including part-time teachers employed by the contractor, Instructional Officers, Prison Officer Instructors and other prison staff.