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20 Jun 2007 : Column 1839W—continued

Prisoners: Females

Mr. MacShane: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many women (a) are being held in UK prisons and (b) were being held in each year since 2000. [141412]

Mr. Sutcliffe [pursuant to the reply, 11 June 2007, Official Report, c. 888W]: I erroneously informed my right hon. Friend that the number of female prisoners at 30 April this year was 4,502. The figure should in fact have read 4,370.

20 Jun 2007 : Column 1840W

The reason for the error is that the final figure included categories not consistent with the rest of the figures.

Prisons: Smoking

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what assessment she has made of the likely impact on the number of fire incidents across the prison estate of (a) Prison Service Instruction 09/2007 and (b) a complete ban on smoking within prisons; and if she will make a statement. [142872]

Mr. Sutcliffe: On average there are about 1,000 fire incidents each year in prison but too little time has elapsed since PSI 9/2007 came into force for any assessment to be made on the impact of the PSI.

Probation: Manpower

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many trainee probation officers are expected to qualify in 2007-08, broken down by probation area; and how many in each area she expects will subsequently be offered a contract of employment. [140422]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The numbers of trainee probation officers due to qualify in 2007-08 are contained in the following table. The trainees will graduate at the end of September so it is too early to know precisely how many vacancies there will be at that stage. It is already clear, however, that a significant number of graduates will not be offered contracts of employment with their training probation areas. Every effort will be made to re-deploy displaced graduates across the country because some employers are likely to have excess vacancies, but it is clear that not all graduates will be placed upon graduation.

20 Jun 2007 : Column 1841W

	Trainees due to qualify in September 2007-08
Probation area
Avon & Somerset	14
Devon & Cornwall	18
Dorset	4
Gloucestershire	4
Wiltshire	6
Bedfordshire	6
Cambridgeshire	4
Essex	16
Hertfordshire	9
Norfolk	7
Suffolk	5
Cheshire	6
Cumbria	5
Lancashire	0
Greater Manchester	30
Merseyside	9
Derbyshire	5
Leicestershire	5
Lincolnshire	8
Northamptonshire	7
Nottinghamshire	4
Durham	9
Teesside	14
Northumbria	0
Hampshire	13
Kent	16
Surrey	4
Sussex	16
Thames Valley	18
Humberside	5
North Yorkshire	0
South Yorkshire	8
West Yorkshire	14
Staffordshire	4
Warwickshire	3
West Mercia	0
West Midlands	25
London	95
London Cohort 7 (A&B)	21
Dyfed-Powys	8
Gwent	14
North Wales	9
South Wales	20
Total	488
Regions
South West	46
Eastern	47
North West	50
East Midlands	29
North East	23
South East	67
Yorks & Humber	27
West Midlands	32
London	116
Wales	51
Total	488

Probation Officers: Training

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what the average total cost was of training a probation officer in the latest period for which figures are available. [140423]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The average total cost of training a probation officer is approximately £74,102. This figure includes the trainee's salary cost, related pension contribution and university administration cost and is calculated over a two year period.

Public Appointments: Crown Dependencies

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice what steps her Department is taking to ensure greater transparency in the recommendation of Crown appointments to the dependencies. [141801]

Ms Harman: Crown appointments to the Crown Dependencies are made by the Queen on the recommendation of the Lord Chancellor. Every effort is made to ensure that the process is transparent.

20 Jun 2007 : Column 1842W

Regional Government: Freedom of Information

Michael Gove: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice if she will take steps to ensure that regional assemblies are classed as public authorities under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [143658]

Vera Baird: Organisations such as regional assemblies will be considered in the context of any review of extending the coverage of the Freedom of Information Act. We have no plans to review the coverage of the Act at present.

Sentencing: Appeals

Simon Hughes: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice how many and what percentage of sentences were taken to appeal by (a) the Attorney-General and (b) the convicted person in each of the last five years. [142707]

Ms Harman: The following table shows, for each of the last five years, the number and percentage⁽²⁾ of applications regarding sentence received by the Court of Appeal Criminal Division (a) upon referral by the Attorney-General and (b) upon lodgement by the convicted person. Figures regarding appeals against sentence by persons convicted in the magistrates court are not collected centrally and cannot be provided except at disproportionate cost.

		2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Number of defendants convicted in the Crown court(1)		60,861	61,344	62,156	60,412	60,761
Number of sentence referrals received from the Attorney-General by CACD(1)	Referrals	153	100	158	122	162
	Percentage(2)	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2
Number of applications for leave to appeal against sentence received by CACD*	Appeals	5,804	5,664	5,809	5,178	5,082
	Percentage(2)	9.5	9.2	9.4	8.6	8.3
(1 )The number of applications received by the Court of Appeal during any calendar year does not relate directly to the number of defendants convicted during the same calendar year. (2 )Percentage of referrals/applications for leave to appeal received by CACD compared to number of defendants convicted in the Crown court.

Small Claims: Legal Representation

Mr. Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (1) in how many and what proportion of cases heard by small claims courts claimants had legal representation in each year since 1990; [141455]

(2) what average payment has been made to successful claimants in cases heard by small claims courts where the claimant (a) had and (b) did not have legal representation in each year since 1990; [141456]

(3) what the average time taken from allocation to hearing for small claims was in each county court in Essex in 2006. [141458]

20 Jun 2007 : Column 1843W

Ms Harman: Detailed information concerning small claims was not collected centrally until 1996. Figures relating to legal representation, average awards and average waiting time for the years since 1996 are provided in the following tables.

	Legal representation			Monetary award (£)
	Yes	No	Percentage legally represented	Legally represented	Not legally represented
1996	(1)36,810	(1)57,250	39.1	680	586
1997	(1)43,500	(1)54,310	44.5	840	647
1998	(1)45,520	(1)53,180	46.1	813	611
1999	(1)46,140	(1)42,250	52.2	954	787
2000	(1)27,160	(1)28,680	48.6	1,152	974
2001	(1)29,880	(1)28,460	51.2	1,321	1,033
2002	(1)23,770	(1)31,960	42.7	1,206	1,015
2003	(1)22,110	(1)30,030	42.4	1,269	1,097
2004	(1)20,060	(1)26,040	43.5	1,345	1,111
2005	(1)20,580	(1)26,940	43.3	1,244	1,156
2006	(1)20,329	(1)26,503	43.4	1,385	1,091
(1) Figures have been weighted and rounded to provide overall national figures. Notes: 1. The figures relate only to those cases allocated to the small claims track with a claim value of £5,000 or less. 2. The data is collected from 29 selected county courts by way of a sample exercise conducted every February, July and October.

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