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18 Oct 2006 : Column 1222W—continued
Judicial Appointments Commission
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how much was spent on renaming the Commission for Judicial Appointments the Judicial Appointments Commission. [93813]
Ms Harman: The Commission for Judicial Appointments was not renamed. The Judicial Appointments Commission is a separate body set up on 3 April 2006 to select candidates for judicial appointments under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. The Commission for Judicial Appointments, which closed down on 31 March 2006, had a different role in that it conducted audits of judicial appointment competitions and considered complaints about the procedures followed in making judicial appointments.
Judicial Staff
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many district judges (criminal) there are; and how many there were in 1997. [94155]
Ms Harman: There are 141 district judges (magistrates courts) currently and the equivalent figure for the same time in 1997 was 89.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the cost of the subsidy for court dress for judges was in each of the last three years; how much of that subsidy was for wigs; what the allowance for court dress given to each rank of judge is; whether the allowances are taxable; and if she will make a statement. [94261]
Ms Harman: According to the available information, total expenditure on court working dress for all judges over the last three years was as follows:
| £ million | |
Information as to that part of the expenditure attributable to wigs is not held.
The current allowance for judges working dress, payable on appointment, is as follows:
| £ | |
The allowances are not taxable. The Department also meets the costs of new or replacement items of court working dress for certain other judicial office holders within specified limits.
Legal Aid
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to the answer of 9 October to question ref 91956, on legal aid, what the value is of (a) legal aid certificates revoked and (b) cases closed in circumstances which require the client to repay costs to the Legal Services Commission; and what proportion of each has been repaid. [93557]
Vera Baird [holding answer 16 October 2006]: For civil matters, (a) The Legal Services Commission estimate that the total cost of all those 7,685 cases, where the legal aid certificate was revoked, to be in the region of £11.1 million. It is not possible to say at this stage what proportion of the sum due will be repaid because; (i) the total liability has not yet been quantified; (ii) not all of the applicants have yet received confirmation of the total amount due, and (iii) the recovery action is still proceeding in many cases.
(b) In cases closed in circumstances which require the client to repay costs to the Legal Services Commission, the value of that work £63.5 million. The total benefit to the clients represented in these was over £950 million. It is not possible to say what proportion of the £63.5 million has been recovered yet as costs may not be recovered until many years after the case has closed.
For criminal matters, the amount owed to the Criminal Defence Service by defendants, following Recovery of Defence Cost Orders issued by the courts during 2005-06, was £2.1 million. By the end of that year, the Legal Services Commission had recovered £0.9 million.
Magistrates Courts
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many magistrates courts there are; and how many there were in 1997. [94156]
Ms Harman: There are currently 334 magistrates courts in England and Wales. There were 435 magistrates courts in 1997.
Marc Lawrence
Mr. Gale: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when she expects the inquest into the death of Lieutenant Marc Lawrence RN to commence. [94796]
Ms Harman: The inquest will be listed for hearing by Sir Richard Curtis, one of the Assistant Deputy Coroners the Oxfordshire coroner has specially appointed to conduct the Iraq related inquests. No date has yet been set for the inquest into the death of Lieutenant Lawrence or the deaths of Lieutenant Wilson, Lieutenant West, Lieutenant Green, Lieutenant Williams and Lieutenant King who also lost their lives in the same incident.
People Trafficking
Mr. Bone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what discussions she has had with her ministerial colleagues in the Home Office on the treatment of people trafficked into the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation. [94364]
Ms Harman: I have had discussions with ministerial colleagues in the Home Office on the treatment of people trafficked into the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation in the course of meetings of the inter-ministerial group on sexual offences of which I am a member.
Sentencing
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what guidance is issued to magistrates on appropriate sentencing of persistent and prolific offenders. [94724]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 17 October 2006]: I have been asked to reply.
The principles that the court must follow when determining the seriousness of an offence are set out in statute. The court must consider the offender’s culpability in committing the offence and any harm which the offence caused, was intended to cause or might forseeably have caused. Any previous convictions, where they are recent and relevant, should be regarded as an aggravating factor which should increase the severity of the sentence. The Sentencing Guidelines Council published a guideline on “Overarching Principles: Seriousness” in December 2004, which is binding on all courts.
Education and Skills
Apprenticeships
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many people were on apprenticeships in each of the last 30 years. [93900]
Bill Rammell: The following table shows the average number of apprentices in training in England over the whole year back to 1996-97.
| Average number of Apprentices in training 1996-97-2004-05, England | |||
| Thousand | |||
| Advanced apprenticeships | Apprenticeships | Total | |
It is not possible to give figures for the last 30 years since the form apprenticeships have taken have changed meaning any time-series would not be consistent. Britain has a long tradition of apprenticeship, however from the mid 1960’s numbers fell from 243,700 in 1966 almost dying out completing during the 1980’s with only 53,000 participating by 1990. The current apprenticeship programme was launched in 1994 to address skill deficiencies at intermediate level, aimed both to expand and update existing apprenticeship schemes whilst promoting structured training in those occupations, industries and sectors with no tradition of offering apprenticeships. The table above gives numbers since this current format of apprenticeships (Level 2) and advanced apprenticeships (Level 3) was introduced and became fully operational.
Carers
Dr. Francis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to increase pastoral and other support for young carers at school; and if he will make a statement. [93225]
Mr. Dhanda: Schools are already required to promote the education and welfare of all their pupils, and should take all pupils’ individual circumstances into account. The purpose of the “Every Child Matters” agenda is to ensure that all children, regardless of their circumstances, should be given the opportunity to achieve their potential. We are currently looking at ways in which we can assist teachers further in carrying out that role for pupils who are carers, by improving the availability to them of information relevant to dealing with the issues which these young people face.
Child Protection
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether local child protection registers will coexist with the new children’s information sharing index. [92794]
Mr. Dhanda [holding answer 11 October 2006]: The Department for Education and Skills plans to replace the requirement on English local authorities to hold a separate child protection register with a requirement that local authorities can record within their electronic recording systems for children’s social care whether a child has a child protection plan. These systems will replicate all the information currently held on child protection registers. This arrangement is due to be implemented in April 2008 but a final date will not be set until we are confident that all local authorities have secure systems in place to hold these records. This means that this separate arrangement to record that a child has a child protection plan will coexist with and be separate from the information sharing index.
The information sharing index will be a tool enabling practitioners delivering services to children to identify and contact one another easily and quickly, so they can share relevant information about children who need
services. It will contain only basic information on all children in England (such as name, date of birth, address, education setting), and a facility for practitioners to indicate that they wish to be contacted in relation to a child because they have information to share, are currently taking action, or have undertaken an assessment. The index will not hold assessment or case information nor any indication that the child is on a child protection register.
Childcare Places
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many child care places there were in each of the last 20 years. [93671]
Beverley Hughes: The available information on child care places is shown in tables 1 and 2.
| Table 1: Number( 1, 2) of registered child care places for children under eight years of age by type of care—England | ||||
| Position at 31 March each year—2003-06 | ||||
| Type of care | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| (1) Rounded to the nearest 100 places. (2) Data source: Ofsted. | ||||
| Table 2: Number( 1,2) of day care places for children under eight years of age by type of provider—England | ||||||
| Position at 31 March each year—1990-2002 | ||||||
| Type of provider | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 |
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