To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any temporary limit has been placed on the admission of prisoners to Brixton prison.

Prison officers voted in June to take national industrial action over staffing levels and overcrowding. The local branch of the Prison Officers Association at Her Majesty's prison Brixton, together with other branches, took industrial action between noon on 6 July and noon on 9 July. This took the form of reducing the prison population to its certified normal accommodation level by refusing admission of prisoners. As a result of this action at Brixton, 40 prisoners were accommodated in police cells overnight on 6 July and 43 prisoners overnight on 7 July.

Internally mounted management courses for Home Office managers contain an input on the management of stress and passport office managers attend such courses. All staff also have access to staff welfare facilities. I am not, however, aware that staff in passport offices are particularly prone to stress-related illnesses.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many visas have been issued from each passport office in the United Kingdom from 1985 to the present.

The information requested is shown in the table for the financial years 1985–86 to the present:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the present establishment for (a) prison officers and (b) all staff at Brixton prison; and what plans there are to increase it.

There are at present 916 in post at Brixton prison of whom 718 are prison officers (including principal and senior officers and specialists). The target officer-in-post figure set by regional management for 31 March 1991 is 720.