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Home Office;Prison Service

Answer

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list for each year since 1992, the number of women who (a) escaped from a prison, (b) escaped from an escort to or from prison, (c) attempted to escape from a prison, (d) attempted to escape from an escort to or from prison, (e) absconded from a prison, (f) escaped from custody while in a hospital undergoing medical treatment and (g) attempted to escape from custody while in a hospital undergoing medical treatment; and how many of (f) and (g) were (i) pregnant and (ii) in labour. [16867] Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. George Howarth, dated 20 March 1997: The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking if he will list for each year since 1992, the number of women who (a) escaped from a prison, (b) escaped from an escort to or from prison, (c) attempted to escape from a prison, (d) attempted to escape from an escort to or from prison. (e) absconded from a prison, (f) escaped from custody while in a hospital undergoing medical treatment and (g) attempted to escape from custody while in a hospital undergoing medical treatment; and how many of (f) and (g) were (i) pregnant and (ii) in labour. The information is contained in the attached table with the exception of answer to (f) (i), (ii) and (g) (i), (ii). This information is not held centrally. _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (a) (b) (c) (d) Escapes and attempted escapes by female prisoners from establishments and escort _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Establishment 6 1 5 0 0 Escort 9 8 6 2 0 Establishment attempt 0 0 2 0 6 Escort attempt 4 2 6 1 1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. (e) Absconds by female prisoners (including absconds from outside hospital) _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Absconds 84 99 144 103 91 (f) (g) Escapes and attempted escapes from hospital by female prisoners Hospital escape 8 5 0 0 0 Hospital attempt 0 0 1 0 0 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. 1. Escape figures exclude recaptures within 15 minutes where no further offence has been committed. 2. Attempt figures include those recaptured within 15 minutes where no further offence has been committed. 3. All years are financial years--figures for 1996-97 show the position to the end of January 1997. 4. Escort escape and attempted escape figures include Court Escort Service escapes which would have been the responsibility of the police in previous years. 5. Improved arrangements for gathering data on absconds were introduced in Septemberr 1995 and a review of past records has altered earlier statistics by eradicating inaccuracies.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

16867; 292 c847-8W;292 c846-8W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Women Hospitals Prisons Prisoner escapes Pregnancy Prisoner escorts Childbirth

Contains statistics

Yes