To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list for each of the London prisons the number of applications for transfer from officers at those prisons to other prisons in England and Wales for each of the last three years; and what is the number of applications that have been granted;(2) if he will list the present number of transfer applications that have been submitted by officers serving at each of the London prisons for transfers to another prison in England and Wales; and what is the longest period of time such an application has been waiting for a decision to be made.

The available information is given in the following table.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are taken to help prison officers transferred from other establishments into London prisons with accommodation.

Prison officers who are transferred to London prisons on permanent compulsory transfer terms are entitled to reimbursement of the expenses incurred in moving home. They are eligible to receive, for example, travel and subsistence allowances, removal expenses, estate agents' and solicitors' fees, a transfer grant or a miscellaneous expenses grant and in certain circumstances the interest charges on bridging loans.