Malcolm Moss (Shadow Minister (Culture, Media & Sport), Culture, Media & Sport; North East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in Whitemoor Prison, Cambridgeshire are currently receiving payments to encourage them to participate in leisure activities; what the level of payments are; when the programme commenced; how much the programme has cost to date; which category of prisoners are eligible to participate; what the maximum payment which may be made to each participating prisoner is (a) per day and (b) per week; and which other prisons in England and Wales operate similar programmes.

Gerry Sutcliffe (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Bradford South, Labour)

The programme is restricted to the six prisoners in the Close Supervision Centre. The CSC system holds the most dangerous, difficult and disruptive prisoners in prison custody. Payments made are not solely for leisure purposes but cover a range of constructive activities including education, contact with the mental health nurse, gardening, the workshop, cleaning and cooking with a tutor. The programme commenced with the opening of the Whitemoor CSC unit in October 2004.

The aim of the programme is to encourage prisoners to engage in purposeful and rewarding activity and to reintegrate prisoners back into the main prison system as a step towards encouraging them to address their offending behaviour. The maximum sum a prisoner may earn is £2 per day or £14 per week.

Whitemoor is one of three prisons in England and Wales containing CSC units. The other two are Wakefield and Woodhill prisons. Each unit is designed to deal with a specific type of CSC prisoner and provides a range of activities designed to meet their needs accordingly.