In the temporary absence of Mr. Lewis, the Director General, from the office, the Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the number of prisoners, in each court region, who escaped from private hire vehicles over the last five years.

Information on escapes has only been collated centrally since June 1988 but in any event it is recorded by prisons rather than court regions. The table below shows the number of escapes from vehicles used by the Prison Service on escort duties for each year from June 1988 to the end of December 1992. I am afraid we do not know which of these vehicles were owned by prisons and which were hired and this information could be obtained only at disproportionate expense.