| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 Oct 2007 : Column 186W—continued
Departments: Information Officers
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many press officers are employed by his Department; [153026]
(2) how many press officers are employed by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales. [154174]
Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many press officers are employed by the Land Registry; [154130]
(2) how many press officers are employed by HM Court Service. [154131]
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many press officers are employed by the Office of the Information Commissioner; [154683]
(2) how many press officers are employed by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority; [154680]
(3) how many press officers are employed by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. [154679]
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many press officers are employed by the Boundary Commission for England; [154659]
(2) how many press officers are employed by the Public Guardianship Office; [154660]
(3) how many press officers are employed by the Parole Board for England and Wales. [154661]
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many press officers are employed by the Legal Services Commission; [154435]
(2) how many press officers are employed by Criminal Justice Information Technology; [154427]
(3) how many press officers are employed by the National Archives. [154436]
Mr. Mackay: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many press officers are employed by the Boundary Commission for Wales; [154469]
(2) how many press officers are employed by the Law Commission. [154462]
Bridget Prentice: The information requested is in the following table.
| Press officers | |
| (1) The Boundary Commission for England or Wales have no dedicated press officers. However, press enquiries are dealt with by the general secretariat staff (primarily the Secretary to the Commission). (2) Media relations are handled centrally by the Ministry of Justice Press Office. (3) The Law Commission has a two-person communications team. It deals with press enquiries, the Commission's publicity and marketing, the Commission's website, and the publication of the Commission's reports and consultation papers. (4) The Office of the Information Commissioner has used the equivalent of 21 days of contracted press officer time. The information requested has been provided by the Information Commissioner's Office, an independent body created by statute with responsibility for handling complaints made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 1998. | |
Departments: Legislation
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what legislative provisions introduced by his Department since 1997 have been repealed; [149726]
(2) what legislative provisions introduced by his Department since 1997 have not yet been brought into force. [149727]
Maria Eagle: The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was launched on 9 May 2007 and took on all responsibilities of the former Department for Constitutional Affairs and for the National Offender Management Service and Office for Criminal Justice Reform from the Home Office. The information requested across my Department's entire legislative responsibilities and for the last 10 years would necessitate considerable staff resource across the Department and so cannot be provided except at a disproportionate cost.
Departments: Publicity
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his Department’s projected spending is on advertising and promotional campaigns for (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09, broken down by cost relating to (i) television, (ii) radio and (iii) print media. [155895]
Mr. Hanson: The Ministry of Justice was created on 9 May 2007. It has no current plans for spending on advertising campaigns during 2007-08 so there are no costs relating to television, radio and print.
Its planned expenditure on integrated promotional campaigns through external public relations companies from 9 May 2007-31 March 2008 comprises:
£25,000 to increase understanding of the work of courts and their role in the justice system.
£12,500 for a public awareness campaign about the legal status of cohabitation.
£12,500 to publicise the Family Mediation Helpline.
£55,000 for a public awareness campaign on human rights.
£40,000 for a public awareness campaign on community orders.
It is likely that the Ministry will spend money relating to the Governance of Britain programme during 2007-08/2008-09, but no decisions on resources for this and for advertising and promotion on other issues have yet been made.
The Office of the Public Guardian is mounting a campaign to increase public awareness of the Mental Capacity Act. The campaign will comprise media engagement using a public relations consultancy and will cost approximately £30,000.
Plans for advertising and promotion by the Ministry of Justice for 2008-09 are not yet advanced enough to indicate spend.
Departments: Racial Harassment
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 16 July 2007, Official Report, columns 141-2W, on Departments: racial harassment, how many of the 79 formal disciplinary investigations conducted in relation to the Prison Service concerned allegations made by (a) prisoners and (b) other members of staff; and how many people have been (i) disciplined and (ii) dismissed as a result of the 35 complaints that were upheld. [152819]
Mr. Hanson: The public sector Prison Service does not hold the information requested centrally in a format that would enable a detailed response to be provided.
From the information that is held on the central database, it is not clear if the individual making the allegation is a prisoner or a member of staff. It is also not possible to break the disciplinary outcome figures down any further as one investigation can involve a complaint being made against more than one person. In order to provide this information it would be necessary to recall and manually examine each individual report which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice following the implementation on 1 April 2007 of Section 145 of the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004, what the total amount outstanding is of surcharge payments. [155814]
Maria Eagle: Pending the rollout of a new IT system, my Department introduced an interim system that captures the amount of victims surcharge receipts collected. Between April and August the Department accounted for £455,021 in receipts by this arrangement.
My Department does not currently hold statistical information that shows the number of victim surcharge impositions outstanding. Existing IT legacy systems do not allow any kind of national overview around numbers of individuals with fines, victim surcharge or other impositions.
Driving: Licences
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been disqualified from holding or obtaining a driving licence under section 146(1) of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 since 1 January 2004. [156299]
Mr. Hanson: Although this disposal is meant to be recorded as part of court proceedings statistics, investigation shows that the data requested is not sufficiently well recorded to be given in this reply.
The Ministry of Justice has started a programme of work looking at the quality of existing data on court sentencing and how this might be improved.
Drugs: Rehabilitation
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of dependent drug users referred to a drug treatment and testing order or drug rehabilitation requirement successfully completed it in the latest period for which figures are available. [154060]
Bridget Prentice: Completion rates for Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) and Drug Rehabilitation Requirements (DRRs) have risen from 28 per cent. in 2003 to 44 per cent. in 2006-07.
Elections: Young People
Mr. Heath: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he has taken to measure the effect of action taken to make democracy more accessible by (a) lowering the age of candidacy and (b) opening polling booths to accompanied minors in elections held in (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland in 2007. [154308]
Bridget Prentice: The Government have not carried out any specific monitoring of these new provisions. I am aware that a number of persons aged 18 to 20-years-old have stood as candidates, and some have been elected. Allowing young people and children to accompany voters in polling stations will give young people the opportunity to gain first-hand experience of the electoral process which will hopefully make them more likely to participate in future elections when they reach voting age.
Electronic Tagging: Life Imprisonment
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the nature was of the offence referred to on page 11 of the report on Satellite Tracking of Offenders for which an offender subject to satellite monitoring received a sentence of life imprisonment; and what the offender's name was. [155502]
Maria Eagle: The offender received a sentence of life imprisonment for rape and false imprisonment. The offender cannot be identified as this would be likely to endanger the physical or mental health of the victim and their family. Moreover, undertakings were given to all participating offenders involved in the satellite tracking pilots protecting their anonymity in the researching of the report.
Family Conciliation Services
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward proposals to require the parties in cases concerning the residence of children and contact arrangements with non-resident parents to attend a mediation assessment before commencing court proceedings. [156195]
Mr. Hanson: Parties applying for public funding under the Community Legal Service are already required to attend a meeting with a mediator to consider mediation.
The Government continue to encourage the greater use of family mediation but do not believe that it should be made compulsory or that all parties in disputes over child residence and contact should be required to attend a meeting to consider its use.
The Government will make changes to court rules and application forms to facilitate referrals to family mediation where the court considers this would be beneficial.
The Children and Adoption Act 2006 when fully implemented will enable the court to direct parties to attend a meeting to learn about mediation in cases where it considers this is appropriate.
Fines: Compensation
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 30 April 2007, Official Report, column 1453W, on fines: compensation, what views were expressed by the Magistrates' Association and Justices' Clerks' Society to his Department during the consultation. [154644]
Bridget Prentice: During the consultation the Magistrates’ Association and the Justices’ Clerks’ Society were concerned about the operation of the scheme and its impact on judicial independence.
My Department worked with the Magistrates’ Association and the Justices’ Clerks’ Society to address these concerns via the Criminal Enforcement Policy Advisory Group.
Following those discussions the Magistrates' Association and Justices’ Clerks’ Society issued guidance on the application of the Victims’ Surcharge to magistrates through their members.
An internal audit on the operation of the Victims’ Surcharge process within the courts is currently being undertaken and my officials will continue to work with the Magistrates’ Association and the Justices’ Clerks’ Society on this matter.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 20 April 2007, Official Report, column 1453W, on fines: compensation, what representations he has received on the victims' surcharge since inception; and if he will make a statement. [154754]
Maria Eagle: Representations have been received by the Home Office, the former Department for Constitutional Affairs, and the new Ministry of Justice, since the surcharge was brought into force on 1 April 2007 on offenders whose sentence included a fine. The following information is the total received to date and updates the information given in the letter of 15 August 2007 by my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, East (Bridget Prentice) to the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew) and my written answer of 16 July, Official Report, column 151W, a copy of which was placed in the Library of the House.
Members of Parliament forwarded to the Government 72 letters and emails from members of the public about the surcharge. Forty-five of these were from people identifying themselves as magistrates. Of these, one magistrate sent letters to five different MPs, and two magistrates wrote jointly to four different MPs. The Government also received a petition signed by 48 magistrates from the Calderdale (North and West Yorkshire) Magistrates' Bench.
The Government also received 13 letters directly from members of the public (eight of whom identified themselves as magistrates) and two letters from the Magistrates' Association.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |