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11 Jun 2007 : Column 856W—continued
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what the value was of annual private finance initiative payments made by her Department from (a) capital and (b) revenue budgets in each of the last five years. [137825]
Ms Harman: Information on annual unitary charge payments is contained in the following table, with all payments coming from revenue budgets:
| Annual unitary charge (£ million) | |
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what value of annual private finance initiative payments by her Department was classified as (a) identifiable and (b) non-identifiable in each of the last five years, broken down by project. [137826]
Ms Harman: All payments made under PFI are identifiable. Prior to a PFI contract being signed the profile of unitary charge payments is agreed between the contractor and the public sector, subject to the operation of the payment mechanism.
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what value of annual private finance initiative (PFI) payments were (a) to repay capital and (b) expenditure on other parts of each PFI contract, broken down by project in each of the last five years. [137827]
Ms Harman: The Department does not hold records on this centrally. The information is not therefore currently available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departments: Travel Agency Fees
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how much her Department, its predecessor and its agencies paid in travel agencies' fees in each year since 1997. [139911]
Ms Harman: It is not possible to list the costs spent on travel agencies’ fees in each year since 1997 without incurring disproportionate costs as the expenditure is not separately identifiable within the Department’s accounts.
All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the ministerial code and ‘Travel by Ministers’, copies of which are available in the Library of the House for the reference of Members. All official travel by civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the requirements of the ‘Civil Service Management Code’, a copy of which is also available in the Library of the House for the reference of Members.
Expert Evidence: Expenditure
Laura Moffatt:
To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what proportion of the legal aid
budget dedicated to public law Children Act matters was spent on expert witnesses in each year from 2001-02 to 2005-06. [141096]
Vera Baird: The information is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Prison Service: Disciplinary Proceedings
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many (a) prison governors and (b) prison officers are suspended pending investigation at each prison establishment; and if she will make a statement. [141278]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the numbers of public sector Prison Service employees, of any grade, suspended pending investigation is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Prison Service: Injuries
Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many prison officers were refused payment of a section 11 benefit award following the issuing of a certificate of permanent injury qualification in each of the last five years. [141431]
Mr. Sutcliffe: This information is not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Prisoners
David Davis: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how prison population projections are calculated; and if she will place in the Library a copy of the models used to do so. [140913]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The models used to calculate the current prison population projections are described in Annex 2 of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin 11/06, ‘Prison population projections 2006-2013, England and Wales’, published on the Home Office website in July 2006. There are five elements to the modelling. In the very short term (the first three months) the XI2-ARIMA method developed by the USA Census Bureau is used. This method is publicly available at:
In the short term (between four months and two years) the population is modelled by a stock-and-flow model. This is not publicly available as it links to Prison Service databases that cannot be published. In the longer term (between two and seven years) the Grove-Macleod model is used. This has been published in OR Insight Vol. 11 Issue 1, January-March 1998, pp. 3-9, ‘Forecasting the prison population’. More detail is also available in Occasional Paper 80, ‘Modelling crime and offending: recent developments in England and Wales’ published on the Home Office website in 2003. The impacts of some changes in legislation and operational procedures are estimated using the Criminal Justice System Model and, if necessary, one-off bespoke calculations. The Criminal Justice System Model is owned by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform and is available to CJS practitioners but
is not publicly available. Any one-off calculations are described in the aforementioned mentioned Home Office Statistical Bulletin.
Prisoners: Suicide
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many (a) convicted prisoners and (b)
remand prisoners committed suicide in each financial year from 2000-01 to 2006-07. [141563]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested in respect of self-inflicted deaths according to legal status is provided in the following table.
| Remand/convicted self-inflicted deaths( 1) : 2000-01 to 2006-07 | |||||||
| 2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| (1 )Self-inflicted deaths include all deaths where it appears the individual acted specifically to take their own life, not only those that received a suicide or open verdict at inquest. (2 )Includes some with detainee status. (3 )Includes some with J/R status (judgment respited, convicted but awaiting further reports before sentencing). | |||||||
Prisons
Mr. Howard: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice pursuant to the answer of 21 May 2007, Official Report, column 1148W, on prisons, how many prison places have been provided (a) under the private finance initiative, (b) via other sources of funding and (c) in response to prison overcrowding. [141576]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Under the private finance initiative (PFI) the number of prison places provided (i.e. delivered) under this administration is 5,397, of which 894 places were contracted under the previous administration but delivered by this one.
Between the end of April 1997 and the end April 2007 a further 13,126 places have been provided through funding other than PFI. This includes a number of places in public sector managed prisons whose contract to build new accommodation will have been signed before 1 May 1997. It is not possible to identify those additional places associated with those contracts.
All this additional operational capacity has been provided as a response to increasing population pressures.
Prisons: Catering
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice if she will list the prison establishments that have reported difficulties with catering deliveries following the introduction of the shared service centre; what the cost of the shared service centre project has been; which prison establishments have returned to purchasing from local shops for catering purposes; and if she will make a statement. [140055]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Difficulties with catering deliveries cannot directly and definitively be attributed to the introduction of the shared service centre. As such there are no comprehensive central records that detail them exhaustively and compiling such a record would be prohibitively expensive.
The total cost of the shared service centre project is £84.8 million. This excludes capital costs and ongoing running costs.
Purchasing from local suppliers on an ad hoc basis is a recognised and legitimate contingency measure when failures are experienced in the main supply chain for foodstuff. For example, recent difficulties getting the bulk supply of long-grain rice from North America has caused the Prison Service to purchase existing stocks from local suppliers.
Royal Courts of Justice: Library
Mr. Arbuthnot: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice whether she plans to re-open the library at the Royal Courts of Justice to the public. [140831]
Ms Harman: There are no plans to re-open the library at the Royal Courts of Justice for use by the public.
Solicitors Regulation Authority
John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice which solicitors were disciplined by the Solicitors Regulation Authority in (a) 2006 and (b) 2007 to date. [140914]
Bridget Prentice: The Solicitors Regulation Authority has advised that only a limited amount of information is publicly available on solicitors whom it has disciplined. However, an individual may contact the SRA directly to find out about an individual solicitor or firm of solicitors.
In 2006 there were 743 matters involving 1094 individuals that had a disciplinary decision recorded against the solicitor (as listed). There were also 495 matters involving 529 individuals that were referred to other bodies, including the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) and the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
So far in 2007 there have been 396 matters involving 596 individuals with a decision recorded, and there have been 252 referrals of matters involving 334 individuals.
In extracting these figures the Solicitors Regulation Authority have defined “disciplined” as having one of the following decisions:
Disapproval
Finding and Warning
Intervention (this information is available to the public)
Practising Certificate—suspended under Section 13B of the Solicitors Act 1974 (this information is available to the public)
Reprimand
Reprimand severely
Vest Discretion (this information relates to conditions imposed on practising certificates and is available to the public)
The SRA defines a “matter” as a complaint or allegation. A single matter could be about a firm and
the disciplinary decision made against some or all of the partners; therefore a single matter can result in multiple decisions.
Young Offender Institutions: Suicide and Self-Harm
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many (a) suicides and (b) incidents of self-harm took place at each young offender institution in (i) 2002-03, (ii) 2003-04, (iii) 2004-05, (iv) 2005-6 and (v) 2006-07. [141564]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested in respect of suicides in young offenders institutions is provided in the following table.
| YOI self-inflicted deaths( 1) : 2002-03 to 2006-07 | |||||
| Establishment | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 |
| (1 )Self-inflicted deaths include all deaths where it appears the individual acted specifically to take their own life, not only those that received a suicide or open verdict at inquest. | |||||
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