ANNEX
Supplementary notes by the Home Office
A. HOME OFFICE
ADMINISTRATION
1. Ethnic Minority Targets:
— Breakdown of ethnic minority staff
within the Home Office by Grade/Department;
— Translation of Ethnic Minority target
for Senior Civil Service into number of posts this represents.
(Q 53)
The total number of staff at Senior Civil Service
(SCS) and SCS equivalent at July 2000 is 206. Of these 143 are
in the core Home Office, 46 are in the Prison Service, 11 in the
Immigration and Nationality Directorate, three are in the Forensic
Science Service, two are in the UK Passport Agency, one is in
the Fire Service College, 18 are specialists and 19 are on loan
outside the Department.
Three of these are recorded as being from an
ethnic minority—representing 1.5 per cent.
The SCS has a target for ethnic minority staff
of 3.2 per cent in 2004—this would be equivalent to seven
people. This figure takes account of staff movements up to July
2000.
F. PRISONS AND
PROBATION
2. Home Detention Curfew (HDC) in the Prison
Service:
— Calculation of how many prison places
have been freed up by the introduction of HDC. (Q112)
In its first year of operation, after an initial
build up phase, around 2,000 people at any one time were on Home
Detention curfew who would otherwise have been in prison.
3. Time spent by prisoners on purposeful
activities
— Latest figures on the progress against
target for the amount of time prisoners spend on purposeful activities.
(Q119)
The target for 2000-01 is to ensure that prisoners
spend an average of 24 hours per week in purposeful activity.
The actual figure for the year to end of June 2000 was 23.5 hours.
4. Voluntary Drug Testing in Prisons
— Details on progress to date on the
Prison Service commitment to voluntary drug testing. (Q120)
In recognition that not all prisoners wish to
follow a voluntary testing regime, or are eligible for it—and
to provide a target that is measurable at prison level, Ministers
agreed a target to deliver 28,000 individual voluntary testing
compacts by April 2001. In the year to end of June, 30,355 prisoner
compacts have been signed.
5. HM Chief Inspector of Prisons
The Department is committed to driving up standards
of performance in both prisons and the probation service. Robust
and independent inspection has a key part to play in achieving
that objective, and there is no intention to weaken that role.
More than a third of those sentenced to custody will serve some
part of their sentence under probation service supervision in
the community.
The consultation document "Joining Forces
to Protect the Public" published in August 1998 discussed
the importance of HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate
of Prisons developing further the arrangements for shared or joint
inspections and links with other criminal justice inspectorates.
Since then, the Correctional Policy Framework
has been published setting out the strategy for developing working
links between the two services, and outlining the partnerships
and structures needed to support them. The recent announcements
of a joint prisons/probation Ombudsman and a Strategy Board for
Correctional Service support this strategy.
The role of inspection is vital in developing
the joined-up approach which has proved effective in dealing with
offenders, and the time is right to consider the issue of how
the Prison and Probation Inspectorates might work more closely
together—ensuring that both services continue to be inspected
rigorously and independently.
A consultation paper on future arrangements
for inspecting prison and probation services will be issued shortly,
and the Committee will be invited to express their views as part
of this consultation exercise.
No decision as to future appointments can be
taken until after this process is concluded.
Her Majesty The Queen has consented to the extension
of Sir David Ramsbotham's appointment as HM Chief Inspector of
Prisons beyond the original expiry date (November 2000) until
July 2001. Sir David is making a great contribution to the goal
he shares with Government of ensuring that prisoners are held
securely in safe, decent and healthy establishments.
HM Chief Inspector of Probation, Sir Graham
Smith, also retires close to the end of July 2001. Aligning the
dates when both posts will be vacant allows flexibility in considering
how best to ensure that inspection arrangements support closer
working between the prisons and probation services.
6. Publication of Reports by HM Chief Inspector
of Prisons (HMCIP)
— To feed back to HM Inspectorate the
Committee's concern with the time delays which occur between inspection
and publication of HM Inspectorate Reports. (Q157);
— Reason for delay in publication of
HM Inspectorate report on Blantyre House.
It should be noted that before September 1997
HMCIP establishment reports generally took seven to eight months
to be published—with some reports published over a year
after the inspection. The average time taken from inspection to
publication in 1999 was approximately 20 weeks, a reduction of
one third since 1996 when the average time taken was 30 weeks.
The prison Service received the HMCIP report
on Blantyre House on 21 March, and then undertook the normal process
of checking for factual accuracy—as set out in the agreed
protocol. Subsequently, the Chief Inspector and the Director General
of the Prison Service corresponded about various elements of the
report, which took some time to come to a conclusion.
The Chief Inspector was informed that the Prison
Service was content with the accuracy of the report on 13 July
and Ministers gave their agreement on 19 July.
The Chief Inspector gives the go-ahead to print
Inspectorate Reports once he has the agreement of Ministers to
publish. The Chief Inspector and the Prison Service then agree
a publication date.
I. ELECTORAL
ADMINISTRATION
7. "Rolling" Register Provisions
— To provide details of when it is
anticipated that it will be possible to register at any time of
the year. (Q168-9)
It is intended that "rolling" registration
will commence after the next electoral register is published—that
is from 16 February 2001. Anyone moving house after this year's
qualifying date of 10 October 2000 will be able to register in
respect of their new address from 16 February 2001, and the register
will be updated on a monthly basis thereafter.
Regulations to bring this into effect are currently
being drafted with the aim of laying them before the House by
the end of the year.
8. Youth Justice Targets
— Reasons for discrepancies in performance
on youth justice targets. (Q 101)
The West Midlands sentenced many more persistent
young offenders than Warwickshire in 1999 and this may explain
some of the difference in performance between the two areas.
The reasons for variation in performance are
often complex, although variance between one area and another
may be due to:
— non-appearance of defendants;
— lack of progress at first hearing
due to failure to serve or review advance information;
— avoidable adjournments between verdict
and sentence;
— delay in the preparation of committal
files when cases go to the Crown Court.
Additionally, these factors will be present
in a different mix in different areas. It is recognised that some
large urban areas have particular problems associated with socio-economic
circumstances.
The degree and quality of inter-agency working
and co-operation in any one area is also a powerful factor making
for progress.
Work is being undertaken to analyse performance,
identify issues to be addressed and set and agree milestones in
order to achieve the pledge.
28 July 2000
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