Written question asked by John Mason (Scottish National Party) on Tuesday, 9 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 11 March 2010. It was answered by Jack Straw (Labour) on Monday, 29 March 2010 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Departmental Lost Property

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what property has been recorded as (a) lost and (b) stolen from his Department in the last 12 months; and what estimate has been made of the cost of the replacement of that property.

Answer: With the exception of HM Prison Service, details of individual cases of lost and stolen property are held at a local level across the Department. Occurrences of theft or loss are reportable to the central security team and amounts to 354 incidents during the period 1 January to 31 December 2009.To determine whether these occurrences relate to theft or loss and to estimate a replacement cost would involve a review of individual local records which would incur disproportionate cost.Separate records are kept by Her Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS), which is part of the National Offender Management Service agency. For the 12 month period 1 January to 31 December 2009 the value of lost or stolen property was £310,078. This comprises:"lost or stolen items: 1,178 instances at a total value of £194,609 of which 1,177 instances were for losses of stores at a value of £194,549;""loss of personal property for which compensation was paid to prisoners, staff or third parties: 1,982 payments at a total value of £123,468."These figures are currently unaudited. A full stock count will be undertaken at the end of the financial year 31 March 2010.

Secondary information