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21 Jan 2008 : Column 1650W—continued
Honours
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether there is an upper limit on the number of honours awarded in (a) the new year honours list and (b) the birthday honours List to (i) citizens resident in the UK and (ii) citizens resident in the British Crown dependencies. [179804]
Mr. Wills: No more than 1,000 names may appear in the Prime Minister's recommendations for the new year honours list or the Queen's birthday honours list. There are no separate limits for citizens resident in the UK and citizens resident in the British Crown dependencies.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what arrangements are in place to administer nominations for honours for citizens of (a) the British overseas territories and (b) the UK. [179805]
Mr. Wills: Nominations for citizens of the overseas territories are administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Successful nominations appear on the diplomatic service and overseas list.
The process is the same for citizens of the British overseas territories as for citizens of the UK. Nominations are channelled through the relevant Department of State and submitted to the Cabinet Office ceremonial secretariat for consideration by the specialist honours sub-committees. The sub-committees make recommendations to the main Honours Committee which advises the Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary puts the recommendations to the Prime Minister for onward transmission to the Queen. The Prime Minister has stated that he will not seek to amend the recommendations in any way.
Honours: Channel Islands
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many honours have been awarded to individuals from the Channel Islands since 1997. [179802]
Mr. Wills: Until June 1999 figures for the Channel Islands were amalgamated with those for the Isle of Man. Between January 1997 and January 1999 47 individuals from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man inclusive were recognised in the Prime Minister's honours recommendations. Between June 1999 and December 2007 92 individuals from the Channels Islands were recognised in the Prime Minister's honours recommendations.
Honours: Crown Dependencies
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the process is whereby honours are awarded to citizens from British Crown dependencies. [179801]
Mr. Wills: In common with citizens in the UK there are two routes by which citizens from the British Crown dependencies enter the honours system:
Nomination by an individual or a public/private sector organisation familiar with the work of the candidate.
Submission by the Lieutenant Governors of the Crown dependencies, via the Ministry of Justice, who have identified candidates doing good work within their island communities or in a wider international field. (Candidates may be identified as a result of nominations sent to the Lieutenant Governors from public or private sources).
Honours: Public Service
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether individuals filling certain public roles are awarded honours as a matter of custom. [179806]
Mr. Wills: With the exception of High Court judicial appointments, honours are not automatically attached to particular posts in either the public or the private sector.
Land Registry Direct
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which Government (a) departments and (b) agencies have business user accounts with Land Registry Direct. [180373]
Mr. Wills: The following Government Departments and agencies have business user accounts with Land Registry Direct.
Assets Recovery Agency
Charity Commission
Child Support Agency
Crown Prosecution Service
Defence Estates
Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Department for Communities and Local Government
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Department for Work and Pensions
Environment Agency
Forestry Commission
Health and Safety Executive
Highways Agency
HM Courts Service
HM Prison Service
HM Revenue and Customs
Home Office
Home Office—Border And Immigration Agency
Insolvency Service
Legal Services Commission
National Offender Management Service
Rural Payments Agency
Serious Fraud Office
The Crown Estate
The Office of the Public Guardian
Treasury Solicitor’s Department
Valuation Office Agency
Vehicle and Operator Services Agency
National Offender Management Service: Border and Immigration Agency
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on what dates the Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service and the Chief Executive of the Border and Immigration Agency have met in the last 12 months. [179898]
Mr. Straw: Over the last 12 months the chief executive of the National Offender Management Service and the chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency have held regular meetings on both a bilateral and wider basis. These have been conducted through face to face and teleconferencing discussions.
Additionally, other NOMS and BIA directors have met on a regular basis to discuss issues concerning foreign national prisoners. Since April 2007 a monthly liaison meeting has been held between BIA and NOMS officials to ensure that the management of this group of prisoners and their detention and deportation, where appropriate, is as efficient as possible.
National Offender Management Service: Expenditure
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent on central management for the Probation Service and subsequently the National Offender Management Services in England and Wales in each financial year since 1997-98. [173806]
Maria Eagle: The National Probation Directorate (NPD) was the sponsoring unit of the National Probation Service (NPS) from 1 April 2001 to 31 March 2007.
The responsibilities of NPD included a number of front line and support services as well as central management. Expenditure on central management is not separately identified, but expenditure on "Administration Costs" as opposed to "Programme Costs", was as follows:
| £ million | |
Since January 2005 certain functions have transferred from NPD to the centre of the National Offender Management Service and from 1 April 2007, expenditure is completely subsumed within NOMS centre.
NOMS central costs are not specifically allocated to separate activities including central management of probation services and to attempt to separately identify the costs would be a disproportionate cost.
Prior to 2001, the NPS and NPD did not exist as such and comparable figures are not available.
National Offender Management Service: ICT
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been spent by the National Probation Service on development of C-NOMIS; and how much has been spent in total by his Department on making C-NOMIS available to the Probation Service. [179368]
Mr. Straw: As stated in the written ministerial statement laid before Parliament on 8 January 2008, and following the Strategic Review of the NOMIS Programme, probation areas will no longer be receiving the C-NOMIS application.
However, the probation specific projects now established within the new NOMIS Programme, and those which will provide arrangements to allow the sharing of information between public prisons and probation areas, and replace at risk probation case management systems, will continue to derive benefit from the investment and work on NOMIS to date. In addition, work completed by the programme on dependent projects, such as improving the OMNI infrastructure, will also provide further benefit.
C-NOMIS has been, and continues to be, funded centrally through the National Offender Management
Service and nearly all of the expenditure attributable to it is relevant to its future use in HMPS as ‘Prison NOMIS’. No separate funding has been provided. About £1 million of computer hardware was acquired for use by probation in association with C-NOMIS. This is being reallocated to other projects which have similar hardware needs.
Offenders: Accommodation
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many (a) suspects, (b) convicted unsentenced offenders, (c) convicted offenders on community sentences and (d) prisoners on licence were provided with accommodation by ClearSprings in each month since August 2007; [179922]
(2) how much was paid to ClearSprings for the provision of bail and home detention accommodation in each month since July; [179923]
(3) what the criteria are for identifying properties to be managed by ClearSprings for the provision of bail and home detention accommodation; [179924]
(4) what properties (a) are and (b) will be managed by ClearSprings for the provision of bail and home detention accommodation in England and Wales. [179925]
Mr. Straw: The Bail Accommodation and Support Service provided by ClearSprings is for defendants on bail and offenders on home detention curfew. It is not available for offenders on community sentences. Information on the breakdown of bail cases between those untried and those convicted but unsentenced cannot be obtained except at disproportionate cost. The numbers of those provided with accommodation in each month is shown in the following table:
| Bail (a) untried and (b) convicted unsentenced combined | Home detention curfew (d) | |
During the period July to December 2007 £2,391,470 was paid to ClearSprings Management Ltd. in respect of accommodation provided.
The Regional Offender Managers in England and the director of Offender Management in Wales identify the towns in which accommodation is required based on the distribution pattern of remand prisoner and offender origins. ClearSprings consult with the police and local authorities and probation when acquiring properties so that local knowledge can inform the selection of addresses and to avoid inappropriate locations. The scheme endeavours to return people to their own communities unless there is reason not to.
A list of towns or areas, by county, where accommodation is currently provided or is being sought is in the following table. The distribution will be reviewed regularly by the Regional Offender Managers
in the light of experience and adjustments will be made to the locations of addresses to match supply to the pattern of demand, so that in general people can be placed in the communities from which they originate.
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