Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much was raised by his Department from the sale of the former Kingston Prison site in Portsmouth.
Answered by Andrew Selous
We are replacing older accommodation that is expensive to run with newer, cheaper and more efficient accommodation as part of our drive to modernise the prison estate and deliver value for money.
The portfolio of four former prisons – Dorchester, Gloucester, Kingston and Shepton Mallet – was sold for £5million. We worked with a number of organisations, including the local authorities and English Heritage, to ensure best value for the taxpayer from the sale.
The sale of these properties will contribute significantly to our target of raising up to £300m from the disposal of surplus assets in this Spending Review period.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people who are currently waiting for appeals relating to asylum applications have been waiting over (a) one year and (b) two years.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The First-tier Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) hears appeals against decisions to refuse a claim for asylum. The Upper Tribunal (Immigration & Asylum Chamber) hears appeals on a point of law against a First-tier Tribunal decision.
(a) As of 9 February 2015 case management records show there are 211 outstanding asylum appeals in the First-tier Tribunal and 121 outstanding asylum appeals in the Upper Tribunal that were received at least one year ago.
(b) Of these records, 55 First-tier Tribunal appeals and 83 Upper Tribunal appeals were received at least two years ago.
Only a tiny percentage of cases take more than a year, and when they do it is because they raise complex issues. Official statistics published on the 11 December 2014, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2014 show that the average time taken to dispose of an asylum appeal within the First-tier Tribunal was 12 weeks between July and September 2014.
Asked by: Mike Hancock (Independent - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners in England and Wales have died from drug overdoses in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Selous
The number of deaths in prison custody from drug overdoses for the last 3 years is published in the Safety in Custody statistical bulletin which is available at http://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics.
Table 1.12 of the Deaths in Prison Custody 1978-2013 shows self-inflicted deaths by method.
We are working hard to manage the levels of self-harm in prison and are carefully investigating the rise in self-inflicted deaths.
We are applying strenuous efforts to learn from each one and providing further resources and support to prisons to help support their safer custody work.