| Previous Section | Home Page |
Mrs. Rumbold : The staffing complement in each of the units is as follows :
am |pm |Evening |Nights
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HMP Holloway
1 senior officer |1 senior officer|2 officers |2 officers
+2 officers |+2 officers
HMP and YOI Styal
1 officer |1 officer |1 officer |1 night patrol
HMP Askham Grange
1 officer |1 officer |1 officer |1 night patrol
At present, the prison officers who work on the units do not have qualifications in child care. However, nursing cover is provided on a 24- hour basis and the local health visitor attends each unit regularly. Each unit is being encouraged to make use of the facilities available in the local community, so that where appropriate mothers can attend social service run family centres. Officers from each unit have attended week long courses at HM prison Holloway devised specifically for staff working on the units. A full staff training needs analysis is being undertaken by the Prison Service College. In addition, HM prison Styal is planning to recruit nursery nurses to work in its unit in the new year.
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women prisoners have applied in the last year to have their babies with them in prison mother and baby units ; and how many have been successful.
Mrs. Rumbold : The numbers of women prisoners who applied for admission to the units in 1991 were as follows :
Askham Grange :
Out of 25 applications received, only three were refused ; in each case the mother had a history of child abuse.
Styal :
There have been 36 applications ; one was rejected in view of her unsuitability for the mother and baby unit. Due to lack of space, two women have been put on a waiting list.
Column 342
Holloway :There have been 65 applications. There have been no rejections but due to lack of space two women have been put on a waiting list. Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many places have been available in prison mother and baby units in each of the past five years ; and if there are plans to increase the number of such places in the future.
Mrs. Rumbold : The total number of places available in the three prison mother and baby units in each of the past five years has been 39. With the arrival of older babies at Styal, it has been necessary to reduce the number of mother and baby places from 12 to 10. The current number of places available is therefore 37. Consultations are taking place at Styal to determine both the medium and long-term requirements of mothers with older babies.
A new purpose-built unit, which will provide an additional closed facility for nine mothers and their babies, is planned at Her Majesty's prison New Hall. This unit should be ready for occupation by the spring of 1994.
Poll Tax
Mr. Doran : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are his Department's estimates of the cost to the prison service and the police force in connection with the imprisonment of poll tax defaulters.
Mrs. Rumbold : There is no central record of the number of people proceeded against and imprisoned for failure to pay poll tax. It is not therefore possible to estimate the associated costs to the prison service or to the police.
Mr. Doran : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are his Department's estimates of the costs of debt collection by local authorities, including court costs and legal aid fees, in conection with poll tax defaulters.
Mr. Key : I have been asked to reply.
My Department has made no such estimates.
Lotteries
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the Government have any plans to increase local authorities' powers to vet applications to hold lotteries.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : We keep the law governing the conduct and regulation of lotteries under review, but have no current proposals to increase local authorities' powers.
Styal Prison Steering Group
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department further to the reply given by the Minister of State on 7 November at column 219 , what is the membership of the Styal prison steering group ; and how many times it has met.
Mrs. Rumbold : The membership of the Styal prison steering group is as follows :
Area manager, Trans-Pennine (Chairman)
Governor, HM prison Styal
Head of residence, HM prison Styal
Principal nursing sister, HM prison Styal
Column 343
Group manager, HM prison StyalSenior psychologist, HM prison Styal
Probation officer, HM prison Styal
A representative from DIP 1 division, prison service HQ Principal officer from Cheshire social services
The steering group met for the first time on 12 December. Future meetings will be held on a quarterly basis.
Column 344
Historic Buildings (Broadcasting Complaints)
Mr. Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those cases considered by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission in 1991 concerning programmes which raised issues related to the payment of grants by historic buildings councils.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : I understand that the Commission have considered two complaints arising from a single programme which looked at the work of the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland. The details are as follows :
Column 343
Complainant |Date of |Programme |Date of |Nature of |Commission's |Date
|complaint |broadcast |complaint |adjudication
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mr. Marc Ellington |11 March 1991 |"Scottish Eye: |10 March 1991 |Unjust or |Upheld in part |23 October 1991
|Making History Pay" |unfair
|Hyndland Television |treatment
|Channel 4
Mr. Richard Emerson |21 June 1991 |"Scottish Eye: |10 March 1991 |Unjust or |Upheld |23 October 1991
|Making History Pay" |unfair
|Hyndland Television |treatment
|Channel 4
However, I understand from the Commission that the two complaints considered did not arise from the payment of grants by historic buildings councils. No other complaints have been received.
Closed-circuit Television
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration he has given to extending the use of closed-circuit television used for traffic management to such uses as crime prevention and detection ; and what guidance he has issued on these matters.
Mr. John Patten : The use of surveillance systems is an operational matter for chief officers. The Home Office has, however, issued guidance that closed circuit television should be used by the police only when necessary for the proper and efficient conduct of police operations.
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assistance he has given to pilot projects on the use of closed-circuit television as an instrument for tackling crime in city centres.
Mr. John Patten : The steering committees of a number of local safer cities projects have recommended giving financial support to a total of nine crime prevention schemes involving the use of closed-circuit television in city centre locations, including schemes confined to car parks. Home Office grant totalling £280,000 has been approved for these schemes. In the case of each scheme, the grant is a partial contribution only to the total cost.
Somalia
Mr. Parry : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has reviewed the working of the concession made in September 1988 to Somali refugees ; if he has plans to extend it ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The concession is kept under constant review in the light of circumstances both in Somalia itself and neighbouring countries. The original scheme was criticised on the grounds that those who could not reach
Column 344
the relevant British diplomatic post to apply for entry clearance in person were denied the right of appeal (under section 13(2) of the Immigration Act 1971) which normally applies to applications made abroad. Earlier this year new arrangements were introduced to allow sponsors here to make written application direct to the post concerned in the event of an adverse decision by the Home Office, thus qualifying the applicant for appeal rights. We have no plans to extend the concession any further at present although I will look into the points the hon. Member raised with me when we discussed this matter on 18 December.Mr. Parry : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the number of requests from Somalis in the United Kingdom for the issue of visas to relatives abroad seeking asylum at the latest date ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : On 29 November 1991 there were 1,371 outstanding visa applications from Somalis seeking to join relatives in the United Kingdom.
Animal Experiments
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received over increases in the number of tests on live animals carried out in respect of food additives.
Mrs. Rumbold : We are not aware of any such representations.
Ms. Hoey : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he will take to reduce the use of animals in experiments for food additive tests.
Miss Rumbold : My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is not one of the Ministers responsible for the national and international regulations under which the safety testing of food additives are required. His responsibility is for controlling the conduct of scientific procedures on living animals. We have no plans to refuse licences where my right hon. Friend is satisfied that the work is justified under section 5 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986.
Column 345
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many inspectors he employs to monitor tests on live animals ; whether he has received representations to increase this number ; and if he will make a statement.Mrs. Rumbold : There were 20 members of the Home Office animals (scientific procedures) inspectorate on 19 December. The Home Office receives representations from time to time to increase the number of inspectors, but I am satisfied that the present strength of the inspectorate is adequate.
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received urging the amendment of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 ; and whether he proposes any amendment or administrative action to end or reduce tests on live animals (a) for cosmetics and (b) for drugs similar to those already on the market.
Mrs. Rumbold : The Home Office receives a large volume of correspondence on a wide range of animal procedures matters, part of which will contain particular or general suggestions for changes to the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 or the way in which it is administered.
Provided that the requirements of the 1986 Act are fulfilled, my right hon. Friend will continue to grant under section 5 project licences authorising particular programmes of work involving living animals. The modification of drugs to improve their efficacy or reduce their unwanted side effects is an important route of scientific and therapeutic advance. Any application for a project licence which clearly sought to develop a drug already on the market would not, however, be granted. The use of animals in the safety testing of cosmetics accounted for less than one quarter of a per cent. of all animal tests carried out in this country in 1990. Reductions in the number of tests on animals for whatever purpose depend heavily on scientific advances in the development of acceptable alternatives, their validation, and their acceptance by regulatory bodies.
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what change there has been, since 1 January 1991, in his policy of counting the number of LD50 force feeding tasks on live animals ; and what were the numbers of such tests in each of the last five years ;
(2) what representations he has received over (a) recent increases in the LD50 force feeding test on live animals and (b) the utility and possibility of replacement of this test ; and if he will make a statement.
Column 346
Mrs. Rumbold : Substances administered in acute toxicity tests are not always given by means of a tube inserted into the stomach. The statistics do not differentiate between routes of administration. There has been encouraging progress in further reducing the need for formal LD50 tests. As a result of a British initiative led by the Department of Health and supported and part funded by the Home Office, a testing method which does not rely on lethality as an end point has been developed, validated and accepted by international regulatory bodies as a replacement of the LD50 test in many areas of toxicity testing. We understand that the new test will be incorporated into OECD guidelines next year.
There has been no change since 1 January 1991 in the counting of LD50 tests. However, it is not possible to identify these tests separately in the statistics because they are included in the wider group of acute and subacute quantitative whole body lethal toxicity tests. The 1990 figures for this group are given in columns (8) and (9) of table 14 of "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 1990" (Cm 1574), a copy of which is in the Library of the House. The descriptions of the classifications of toxicity tests were amended slightly for clarification in the 1990 statistics which means that this group now includes tests previously recorded in other columns of the tables. Taking all acute and subacute whole body toxicity tests together gives comparable figures for Great Britain as follows :
Thousands of procedures Acute and subacute whole body |1987 |1988 |1989 |1990 toxicity tests ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lethal |234 |233 |176 |206 Non-Lethal |166 |148 |143 |139 All |400 |381 |319 |345
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what figures he has for each of the last three years of the number bred of (a) animals with a harmful genetic defect or (b) transgenic animals ; and whether he will make a statement on trends indicated by these figures.
Mrs. Rumbold : The number of scientific procedures started in 1990 using animals bred with harmful genetic defects (including transgenic animals as a separate category) is given in table 15 of "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 1990" (Cm 1574), a copy of which is in the Library. As explained in paragraph 19 of the introductory notes and paragraph 24(m) of the Commentary in the Command Paper, there are no comparable figures for earlier years.
Column 347
Juvenile Offenders
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what was the number of juvenile offenders (a) cautioned and (b) found guilty by a court in each year since 1980 ;
(2) what (a) percentage and (b) number of incidents reported to police in each year since 1980 he estimates were committed by juveniles ;
(3) what was the source of figures on juvenile offending referred to in his oral statement on 12 December at column 1068.
Mr. John Patten : Information referred to in my oral statement at column 1097 on 12 December is published in the annual Command Paper (Cm. 1322) criminal statistics, England and Wales 1989, chapter 5, copies of which can be found in the Library.
Information on the number of incidents committed by juveniles reported to the police is not collected centrally. the data from "Criminal Statistics 1989" given in the table below relate to the number of juveniles (persons aged 10 to under 17 years) cautioned and found guilty of indictable offences and as a percentage of all persons cautioned and found guilty.
"Criminal Statistics 1990" will not be published until the spring of 1992.
Number of juveniles (persons aged 10 to under 17) cautioned and
found guilty of indictable offences and as a percentage of all persons
cautioned and found guilty 1980-1989
England and Wales Thousands
All Cautioned and Juveniles
persons found guilty (10 to under 17)
|cautioned and
|found guilty
(=100 per cent.) No. Per. No. No.
|cent.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1980 |555.3 |175.8 |32 |85.5 |90.2
1981 |567.3 |174.3 |31 |87.6 |86.7
1982 |585.1 |174.5 |30 |93.0 |81.8
1983 |574.5 |167.9 |29 |94.6 |73.4
1984 |571.3 |169.2 |30 |99.0 |70.1
1985 |587.0 |175.7 |30 |112.5 |63.1
1986 |518.6 |141.5 |27 |93.5 |48.0
1987 |533.8 |137.6 |26 |95.7 |42.0
1988 |524.3 |119.3 |23 |82.9 |36.5
1989 |472.7 |99.3 |21 |72.8 |26.4
Sir Basil Feldman
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many times in the last 12 months he has met Sir Basil Feldman ;
(2) when was the last time he met Sir Basil Feldman ; and what subjects were discussed ;
(3) when he last discussed Sunday trading with Sir Basil Feldman.
Mrs. Rumbold : To discuss Sunday trading, Sir Basil Feldman called on my right hon. Friend on 13 March 1991 and on me on 5 June.
Sunday Trading
Mr. Gale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to ensure that those shops that have been trading on Sundays in contravention
Column 348
of current English law do not retain the resulting profits, in the event of a European Court of Justice decision upholding that law.Mrs. Rumbold : I will write to my hon. Friend.
Mr. Anderson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has from police authorities and chief constables on the financial and manpower consequences for policing as a result of the opening of shopping facilities on the four Sundays before Christmas.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : None. Deployment of police officers is a matter for the chief constables concerned.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will bring before Parliament a statutory instrument to amend schedule 4 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 to include offences under section 47 of the Shops Act 1950.
Mrs. Rumbold : I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave on 16 December to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Mrs. Winterton) at columns 10-11.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he received the Durham university business school report "Women and Work" on women's attitudes to working unsocial hours in the retail trade ;
(2) what conclusions he has drawn from the Durham university business school report "Women and Work" for any changes to the law on Sunday trading.
Mrs. Rumbold : My right hon. Friend and I received copies of the report on 27 and 26 November respectively. The report is currently being evaluated.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has on changes to the Sunday trading laws in France.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the extent to which food superstores opening on Sundays are complying with the licensing laws in every respect.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Because the enforcement of the liquor licensing law in England and Wales is a local matter for the police, no such assessment is called for.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what account he has taken of the Robert George industrial tribunal decision on Sunday working in considering his policy on the reform of the law on Sunday trading.
Mrs. Rumbold : Policy implications, if any, of decisions of industrial tribunals are primarily for the Department of Employment. In developing policy on reform of the law on Sunday trading, we work closely with them on the interests of those who do and do not wish to work in retailing on Sundays.
Operation Container
Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his reply of 13 December, Official Report, column 580, what representations he has received from people and organisations in Lancashire outside Greater Manchester about Operation Container.
Column 349
Mrs. Rumbold : Representations have been received from Lancashire county council and from other sources in respect of the use of police cells in Lancashire. On 18 December the Lancashire constabulary held 100 adult prisoners who should be in prison. As my earlier reply explained, this use of police cells is unacceptable and my right hon. Friend and I are determined that it should be brought to an end in the shortest possible time.Foundation for Business Responsibility
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the organisation Foundation for Business Responsibility is recognised as a legitimate charity by the Charity Commission.
Mr. John Patten : The Foundation for Business Responsibilities was registered by the Charity Commission on 17 April 1967. Its objects are the promotion of education in industrial and commercial affairs.
BBC Wales
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what will be the pay for the new chairman-elect of the board of governors of BBC Wales, including the pay for being on the BBC main board of governors ; and what is the basis of days worked per week or month on which the appointment has been made of Dr. Gwyn Jones.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The BBC board of governors comprises 12 governors, of whom one is chairman, another vice-chairman and three more are respectively national governors for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. As part of their duties, the national governors also serve as chairmen of their respective national broadcasting councils. The BBC national governor for Wales is therefore chairman of the Broadcasting Council for Wales.
The remuneration of the BBC national governor for Wales (and that of the national governors for Scotland and Northern Ireland) is £14, 150 per annum on the basis of one and a half days per week. Dr. Gwyn Jones' appointment as the new national governor for Wales is therefore on the basis of one and half days per week.
Immigration
Mr. Darling : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many visas were granted at United Kingdom posts abroad for the purpose of entering the United Kingdom to seek asylum in (a) 1988, (b) 1989, (c) 1990 and (d) 1991 to the nearest available date.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The available information, which may understate, is of grants of asylum to principal applications which were made overseas. The recorded figures are shown in the table.
Grants<1><2> of asylum to principal applications received by British posts abroad and referred to the Home Office for decision Year |Number ------------------------- 1988 |15 1989 |15 <3>1990 |5 <3><4>1991 |10 <1> Excluding dependants. <2> Figures rounded to the nearest 5. <3> Provisional figures, which may understate because of delays in recording. <4> (January to June).
Miscarriages of Justice
Ms. Richardson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many applications for compensation for miscarriages of justice he received in the last year for which figures are available ;
(2) how many applications for ex-gratia payments for compensation for miscarriages of justice he received in the last year for which figures are available ; how many were successful, and what were the highest and lowest payments made.
Mr. John Patten : I will write to the hon. Member.
Ms. Richardson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications he has received for ex-gratia payments from women who were wrongly convicted under byelaws at RAF Greenham Common ; how many have been successful ; and what has been the average level of award.
| Next Section
| Home Page |