Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many sex offenders are held at HM Prison Lewes; and how many places on sex offender treatment programmes are available at that prison. [180559]

Jeremy Wright, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation: As of 30 September 2013 there were 71 prisoners held at HMP Lewes with an index offence of a sexual nature, of whom 46 were sentenced and 25 were on remand. The prison has been proposed as a treatment support site for other prisons in Kent and Sussex, particularly HMP Isle of Wight. A treatment support site's role is to support offenders before they get to treatment. SOTP is long (six months plus); resource intensive in terms of specially trained staff resources (including psychologists) and often emotionally demanding of staff who run these programmes. For these reasons (as well as others such as the numbers of sex offenders who deny their offence) SOTP has never been offered in all prisons that hold sex offenders but instead a network of prisons offering SOTPs has developed, allowing expertise to be built.

The sex offenders at Lewes will be managed in a dedicated accommodation area and in accordance with the principles set out by the National Sex Offender Board. Lewes does run the Thinking Skills offender behaviour programme, and some places will be specifically allocated to sex offenders held in the prison.

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