§ Mrs. GillanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he last visited Durham jail; [176660]
(2) when Durham jail was last inspected; [176662]
(3) how many governors there have been at Durham jail since 1 May 1999; [176663]
(4) what the average length of service at any one prison has been of the current governor of Durham jail; [176664]
(5) how many prisoners absconded from Durham jail in each year since 1 January 1997;[176666]
(6) how many hours of the prisoners' day at Durham jail was devoted to purposeful activity in the last year for which figures are available; [176670]
(7) how many staff at Durham jail have been on sick leave in each month since 1 May 2003. [176671]
Paul Goggins: The current Home Secretary has not visited Durham prison, however, as Minister for Correctional Services, I visited on 19 March 2004. Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons last inspected Durham male prison between 19 and 22 August 2003 and the female prison between 5 and 9 January 2004. Mike Newell, has been the governing governor of Durham prison since May 1999, prior to that he was governor of Hull prison between March 1996 and May 1999. Since January 1997 there have been no escapes or absconds from Durham. Data show that each prisoner had an average of 18 hours purposeful activity each week.
In the last 12 months the following numbers of staff have been on sick leave each month:
Number May 2003 89 June 2003 87 July 2003 97 August 2003 106 September 2003 100 October 2003 125 November 2003 115 December 2003 103 January 2004 118 February 2004 100 March 2004 102 April 2004 96