To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of prisons and young offender institutions reduced their number of probation staff in the financial year 1996–97. [11635]

Thirty-eight per cent. of the total number of establishments in use during 1996–97 reduced their numbers of seconded probation staff. In some, the reduction was in terms of the number of hours worked by probation staff, rather than full-time posts. Some establishments have increased their numbers of probation staff since the beginning of the current financial year.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many seconded probation officers there were in (i) June 1995, (ii) January 1996, (iii) June 1996, (iv) January 1997 and (v) June 1997; and what is the estimated national number in 1999; and nationally in (a) Manchester, (b) Leeds, (c) Birmingham and (d) each of the six London prisons. [11636]

The numbers of probation officers working in prisons on 30 June and 31 December each year from 1995 to 31 December 1996, the latest date for which figures are as yet available, are as follows:

Seconded probation officers working in prisons (whole-time equivalents)
	Number
30 June 1995	645
31 December 1995	639
30 June 1996	586
31 December 1996	543

Information on probation officers seconded to individual prisons is not held centrally, but I will write as soon as possible to my hon. Friend with the details she requests.The number of probation officers seconded to the Prison Service in future years will depend on the outcome of the comprehensive spending review and of discussions between governors and chief probation officers about what staff in what grades can most efficiently meet the services' joint responsibilities to provide good through care under the national through care framework published in 1993, a copy of which is in the Library.