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3 Dec 2007 : Column 858W—continued
Departmental Domestic Visits
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what visits (a) he and (b) the Minister of State with responsibility for prisons have undertaken to (i) prisons, (ii) young offender institutions and (iii) secure training centres since 28 June 2007. [170008]
Mr. Hanson: Details of the prisons, young offender institutions and secure training centres visited by Ministry of Justice Ministers since 28 June 2007 are set out as follows.
| Visits to prisons, young offender institutions and secure training centres since 28 June 2007 | |
| Visit | |
| Key: HMP—Her Majesty’s Prison' HMYOI—Her Majesty’s Young Offender Institution HMRC—Her Majesty’s Remand Centre STC—Secure Training Centre | |
Departmental Official Hospitality
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what entertainment or hospitality members of the Department’s management board have received in each of the last three financial years; and if he will make a statement. [164742]
Maria Eagle: Paragraph 4.3.5 of the Civil Service Management Code sets out the rules on the registration of hospitality. The Government are committed to publishing an annual list of hospitality received by members of departmental boards. The first list for 2007 will be published as soon as it is ready after the end of the current calendar year.
Industrial Diseases: Compensation
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how his Department plans to handle complaints about the management of compensation claims of miners when the original claimant has died but a surviving family member wishes to pursue the complaint on their behalf. [170558]
Bridget Prentice: Responsibility for dealing with complaints about solicitors is solely a matter for the Law Society rather than Government, since the legal profession is independent.
I understand from the Law Society that:
Where the original claimant of miners compensation has deceased, the estate (or those acting on behalf of their dependants) can make a complaint to the Legal Complaints Service about how the original claim was handled by a solicitor.
This arrangement applies for existing and future cases and is not limited to miners compensation cases, rather is part of general LCS policy.
If a solicitor failed to comply with a decision by an adjudicator to pay compensation to the family of a deceased client, the case would be referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, who would ask the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal to order enforcement of the compensation decision.
In future all Legal complaints will be handled by the Office for Legal Complaints Ombudsman Scheme, as provided for by the Legal Services Act 2007, which will be completely independent of legal professions. The OLC is expected to be operational by late 2010.
Information Commissioner: Complaints
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many complaints the Information Commissioner has processed in the last 12 months; what was the average amount of time taken by the Information Commissioner to process these complaints; how many of these complaints have taken over (a) six months, (b) 12 months and (c) 24 months to be processed; and if he will make a statement. [169019]
Mr. Wills: The ICO is the UK’s independent authority set up to promote access to official information and to protect personal information.
The ICO receives complaints under the Data Protection Act (DPA), the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), and the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR).
Figures are available until the end of October 2007 as set out in the table as follows.
| Total complaints completed | Average completion time (days) | Completed cases taking over 6 months | Completed cases taking over 12 months | Completed cases taking over 24 months | |
Issuance of Penalty Notices for Disorder
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) with reference to the answers of (a) 16 January 2007, Official Report, columns 1027-28W, (b) 22 May 2007, Official Report, column 1252W, and (c) 26 November 2007, Official Report, column 111W, on the issuance of penalty notices for disorder for 10 to 15-year-olds, what factors have contributed to the length of time it has taken to publish the evaluation of the pilot project; and when the evaluation report was first given to Ministers; [170085]
(2) how many penalty notices for disorder have been issued to 10 to 15-year-olds in the six pilot police force areas, broken down by (a) police force area and (b) offences committed; and how many such penalty notices were (i) paid in full within the 21 day suspended enforcement period, (ii) paid in full outside the 21 day suspended enforcement period, (iii) registered as fines, (iv) contested in court and (v) cancelled; [170086]
(3) what plans he has to extend the use of penalty notices for disorder to persons under the age of 16 years. [170087]
Mr. Hanson: I refer the hon. Member to my reply of 26 November 2007, Official Report, column 112W, the evaluation report will be published as soon as possible. The report is going through validation and until that has been completed, it cannot be published. Also, as that process has not been completed, the report has not yet been seen by Ministers. The report will contain details of the number of notices issued and other details such as payment rates but until it is published, I am not in a position to provide that information. No decision has been made about extending the use of penalty notices for under-16s.
Medical Treatment
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2007, Official Report, column 820W, on consent to medical treatment, when he expects the Public Guardian to produce the first annual report on the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. [169470]
Bridget Prentice: The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (the MCA) is now fully in force and the new Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and Court of Protection were formally launched on 1 October 2007.
The MCA gives the Public Guardian statutory functions and requires him to make an annual report to the Lord Chancellor about the discharge of those functions. The first annual report of the Office of the Public Guardian will be published in April 2008 covering the operation of the Agency and the Public Guardian’s statutory responsibilities.
The OPG is also responsible for management of policy surrounding Mental Capacity and is planning an initial review of the MCA a year after enactment.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to reply to the letter of 23 July from the hon. Member for Torbay concerning Mr. David Newby. [170142]
Mr. Hanson: I apologise for the delay. I have now written to the hon. Member.
Peterborough Prison
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners were held at HM Prison Peterborough as at 31 October 2007; and if he will make a statement. [169583]
Mr. Hanson: At the end of October 2007 there were 967 prisoners in Peterborough prison. This consisted of 621 males and 346 females.
This figure is taken from the October 2007 Population in Custody report which is available at the following website
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Political Parties: Finance
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will ask the Electoral Commission to report on (a) the suitability of existing safeguards against anonymous donations and (b) the extent to which the Abrahams’ case is an isolated incident. [170782]
Mr. Straw: The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) contains a range of requirements to ensure that the source of donations is declared.
I announced on 25 November that I was seeking advice on the matters raised by The Mail on Sunday report of that date.
The Electoral Commission announced on 26 November that they had launched a formal investigation into whether there has been any failure to comply with the provisions of PPERA in connection with a number of donations made to the Labour party. The Commission has now referred matters to the Metropolitan Police Service. It is not therefore appropriate for the Government to comment on this matter.
Prison Sentences
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of those convicted of burglary received a custodial sentence in each of the last 10 years in (a) England and Wales and (b) North West Cambridgeshire. [169251]
Mr. Hanson: The following table gives the proportion of offenders that received a custodial sentence for burglary from 1995 to 2005. The figures are given for England and Wales and for Cambridgeshire Criminal Justice Area (CJA) as data for areas within CJAs are not available. They cover burglary in a dwelling and other burglaries.
| England and Wales | Cambridgeshire | |||||
| Sentenced | Immediate custody | Proportion (Percentage) | Sentenced | Immediate custody | Proportion (Percentage) | |
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