Langley House Trust

Mr. Garnier
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the terms of the service level agreement with the Langley House Trust are for the provision of secure beds for persons supervised in the community; and when the contract was let.

Maria Eagle
The National Offender Management Service has a service level agreement (SLA) with the Langley House Trust, under which the trust is funded to provide two enhanced supervision beds at its Longcroft project for offenders assessed as high risk of serious harm on release from custody who are also identified as having mental health problems.

The National Offender Management Service has a second SLA with the trust, under which the trust is funded to provide accommodation in the community for offenders who are subject to statutory supervision by offender managers in probation boards. The level of supervision required for each offender is determined by the offender manager, taking into account the facilities at each trust project.

The current SLAs commenced on 1 April 2007 and will run until 31 March 2008.

Mr. Garnier
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people in Langley House Trust accommodation have (a) absconded, (b) breached the conditions of their curfew and (c) breached the hostels’ rules in another way in each year of the contract.

Maria Eagle
Figures for residents whose places are funded by the National Offender Management Service under the SLAs arc not recorded separately; the figures below are for the whole of the trust resident population. The proportion of trust residents under the SLAs during 2007-08 was around a third.

In 2007-08, (a) five trust residents absconded, and (b) 46 breached the conditions of their curfew, including three who had absconded. While all breaches of hostel rules, including minor ones such as use of bad language, are recorded in individual residents’ files, overall numbers are not compiled—(c). However, where breaches of rules lead to a resident’s eviction or recall to prison, that is recorded. In 2007-08, 99 residents were evicted, of whom 40 were recalled to prison,

One resident under the enhanced supervision SLA absconded during 2007-08. None breached curfew, and as explained above, there are no available records of other rule breaches.

Mr. Garnier
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he is intending to review the contract with the Langley House Trust for the provision of secure accommodation places.

Maria Eagle
Yes. The current service level agreements with the Langley House Trust came into effect on 1 April 2007 and will expire on 31 March 2008. We will review the position in light of our operational requirements before deciding whether to renew the arrangements and, if so, on what terms.

Mr. Garnier
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how performance against the contract with the Langley House Trust is monitored.

Maria Eagle
The trust provides a monthly return as set out in the service level agreements (SLAs), covering various matters, such as the admission and departure of offenders, breaches and convictions for further offences. Officials use the monthly returns to monitor the trust’s performance against the SLA, including through regular meetings during the year with the Trust’s Director of Offender Management Additionally, under the terms of the enhanced supervision SLA, the trust is required to complete a brief progress report on each resident and a departure report following the end of the placement.

An annual report on performance is also to be submitted. The trust is to co-operate with inspections and audits, internal and external as required and attend meetings as convened by the Public Protection Unit in the National Offender Management Service as is reasonable. The Ministry of Justice is currently carrying out an audit of the public protection processes in the trust.

Mr. Garnier
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether there have been breaches of the terms of the contract with the Langley House Trust since it was let.

Maria Eagle
The National Offender Management Service is aware of two breaches of the service level agreements (SLAs) since they were let. There has been one breach of the main SLA which was in respect of the performance standards audit, which was not finalised by the deadline, but is being finalised now.

Under the terms of the enhanced supervision SLA, the National Offender Management Service is aware of one occasion where checks were not made on a resident as frequently as was requested by the local multi-agency public protection panel.