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6 Dec 2007 : Column 1469W—continued
Certified normal accommodation is the uncrowded capacity of the women's prison estate and operational capacity is the total number of places in the women's estate.
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions women prisoners have been held in police or court cells over the last 12 months. [172125]
Mr. Hanson: Women prisoners are held in police cells, under Operation Safeguard, only in exceptional circumstances. This has occurred on 21 occasions in the last 12 months (an occasion equates to one prisoner on one night).
Prisoners are also sometimes held overnight in police cells as “lockouts”. A lockout is an operational measure normally only used when the designated prison’s reception will be closed before the prisoner’s arrival time. Women prisoners have been held in police cells as “lockouts” on 33 occasions in the last 12 months.
No women prisoners have to date been held in court cells.
Prisoners: Mental Health
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) prisons and (b) young offenders’ institutions receive funding for community mental health and reach teams to provide services for prisoners with severe mental health problems. [171983]
Maria Eagle: Since April 2006, commissioning responsibility for prison health services has been fully devolved to the national health service.
Funding for health services, including mental health in-reach, is therefore allocated to those primary care trusts which contain prisons in their areas.
In total, 102 mental health in-reach teams operate within prisons, including young offenders institutions, and their services are available across the entire prison estate. Since 2005-06, £20 million has been invested in these services each year.
Prisons: Finance
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice from what budget the funding for (a) the 8,000 new prison places announced by the previous Secretary of State for the Home Department and (b) the 1,500 new prison places announced by the previous Lord Chancellor will be drawn. [171184]
Mr. Hanson: The new prison places will be funded from the capital and resource budgets (as appropriate) of the National Offender Management Service, within the Ministry of Justice overall allocations. The 8,000 places are due to be delivered by 2012 and as such some of the funding falls after the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 (CSR07) period. 500 of the 1,500 places fall within the CSR07 period. The optimum timing and composition of the further 1,000 places will be considered in the light of the Carter report.
Prisons: Mother and Baby Units
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many women were not allocated places in mother and baby units in prisons in England and Wales due to (a) lack of space and (b) other reasons in each year for which data is available. [172121]
Mr. Hanson: From 1 December 2006 (the earliest date for which information is available) until 30 November 2007 no women were refused a place due to lack of space. The criteria for admission to a mother and baby unit focus on the best interests of the child. 29 applications for places were refused during the period because the criteria were not met.
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many places there are in mother and baby units in prisons in England and Wales. [172122]
Mr. Hanson: The current national capacity is 75 places (including the nine places that will become available once the temporarily closed unit at HMP/YOI New Hall re-opens).
Prisons: Television
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how the (a) licence, (b) equipment and (c) running costs of personal televisions in prisoner cells are met; by whom; how the costs arising from digital switchover will be allocated; and if he will make a statement. [171183]
Maria Eagle: The equipment and running costs (excluding electricity) of prisoners' in-cell television is met from the weekly charge levied on prisoners for the rental of a television from the Prison Service.
The switchover of the prison estate in readiness for the switch from analogue to digital television began in 2005 and is expected to be completed in 2012. It is intended that the cost of digital switchover in the
prison estate will be met primarily from the revenue generated by the weekly charge levied on prisoners for the rental of televisions from the Prison Service.
Television licences are not required because of Crown exemption.
Speed Limits: Cameras
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the number of speed cameras found to be operating illegally in each of the last 10 years; and how many fines, and of what amount, were issued through the use of these illegal cameras. [171121]
Mr. Coaker: I have been asked to reply.
The operation of speed cameras is an operational matter for the police and any challenge to their operation in a particular case would be for the courts. Information on fines imposed for offences detected by camera does not include details of the cameras involved in individual cases.
Youth Justice Board: Finance
Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will provide additional funding for the Youth Justice Board to increase the staff complement at Gladstone House Young Offender Institution. [169774]
Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Clegg) on 22 November 2007, Official Report, column 1104W.
Leader of the House
Christmas
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Leader of the House how much her Office has spent on Christmas (a) cards, (b) parties and (c) decorations in each of the last five years. [171429]
Helen Goodman: As a result of the machinery of government change in transferring the Leader of the House office from the Privy Council office to the Cabinet Office, the information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Members: Allowances
Mr. Maude: To ask the Leader of the House (1) pursuant to the answer of 19 November 2007, Official Report, column 538W, on Members: allowances, what is the maximum amount in cash terms in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09 that may be spent on communication allowance expenditure, assuming the maximum amount is transferred from staffing allowance and incidental expenses provision; [171029]
(2) how much was allocated for 2007-08 to the communications allowance; [171472]
(3) what the aggregate expenditure on allowances for hon. Members was in (a) 1996-97 and (b) the most recent year for which figures are available. [171473]
Helen Goodman: The information is as follows:
1. I refer the hon. Member to the rules in the Green Book which allow Members some flexibilities to transfer money between allowances to meet the needs of their parliamentary and constituency work. The amounts available for parliamentary allowances for 2008-09 are not yet available.
2. Parliamentary allowances expenditure is limited only to the extent of the maximum rate payable for each allowance. Each Member has access to the communications allowance set at £10,000 in 2007-08, which means a maximum possible spend across all members of £6.46 million in the year.
3. The combined expenditure for Members' allowances (excluding travel costs and auxiliary expenditure) reported in the House of Commons Members Resource Accounts for 2006-07 (HC832) was £77.8 million. In 1996-97 the figure was £36.8 million. The allowance system changed significantly in July 2001 on the recommendation of the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) when new allowances were introduced.
Northern Ireland
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidelines issued to staff maintaining his Department's corporate identity; and what the estimated annual cost is of (a) producing and (b) complying with such guidelines. [170228]
Mr. Woodward: A copy of the Northern Ireland Office, corporate identity guidelines for staff has been placed in the Library. Over and above the initial cost of £44,725 there are no annual costs associated with producing or complying with the guidelines.
Elderly: Abuse
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many elderly persons were assaulted in their homes in each year since 1998 in Northern Ireland; and how many persons were (a) charged with and (b) convicted of such assaults in each year. [168492]
Paul Goggins: The number of elderly persons assaulted in their homes in Northern Ireland for each year since 2002 is set out in the following table.
The table also sets out the number of non sanction clearances, in which no further action was taken by the police, and the number of offences cleared by means of a charge or summons.
As the exact location of assault and age of victim was not recorded prior to 2002 I am not able to supply figures from 1998 to 2002.
Figures for convictions do not record details of victims. Therefore it is not possible to supply information on the number of convictions for such assaults in each year.
| Recorded | Non sanction clearances | Cleared by means of charge/summons | |
Fear of crime, particularly among older people, vulnerable people, victims and children is one of the nine key issues of the Northern Ireland Community Safety strategy. One of the proposed actions flowing from this theme was to produce a draft strategy for the safety of older people. The Community Safety Unit (CSU) launched the document ‘Proposals for the Safety of Older People’ for consultation on 14 June 2007 and responses are currently being evaluated.
Irish language
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions his Department has had with Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive on an Irish Language Act; and how the Government propose to meet their undertaking to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language. [164023]
Paul Goggins: My Department has had no discussions on an Irish Language Act with Ministers of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Section 15 of the Northern Ireland (St. Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 places a duty on the Northern Ireland Executive to adopt a strategy setting out how it proposes to enhance and protect the development of the Irish language. The Government stand ready to support the Executive’s efforts in implementing this strategy, once it has been developed.
Prisoners Release
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many Northern Ireland prisoners were released under the end of custody licence scheme in each month since its introduction. [170461]
Paul Goggins: The Prison Service does not operate an end of custody licence (ECL) scheme in Northern Ireland. While prisoners transferred from Northern Ireland to serve their sentences in England and Wales may be released on ECL if they meet the eligibility criteria, I understand that none have since its introduction earlier this year.
Prisoners: Foreigners
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what percentage of prisoners in Northern Ireland are foreign nationals, broken down by nationality. [170462]
Paul Goggins: As of 3 December 2007, the total prisoner population in Northern Ireland prisons was 1,467. Of these 71 were foreign national prisoners which equates to 4.8 per cent.
The following table provides a breakdown of all foreign national prisoners by nationality.
| Nationality | Number |
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