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20 Feb 2008 : Column 776W—continued
Vocational Guidance: Science
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many and what proportion of school careers advisers have educational backgrounds in (a) science, (b) technology, (c) engineering and (d) mathematics. [187347]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not collected centrally.
GCE A-level
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what estimate he has made of the number of students who lost their place at university due to their exam papers having to be re-marked in the latest period for which figures are available. [163558]
Bill Rammell: I have been asked to reply.
Admissions are a matter for individual higher education institutions (HEIs) who, as independent bodies, have discretion over their own admission policies and procedures. The Department does not therefore issue guidance in this area.
The Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) have told us that HEIs which are members of the UCAS scheme will keep a place open for an applicant, in the event of a missing or queried exam result, up to 31 August unless an earlier date has been agreed.
Latest published figures on the number of inquiries about results and appeals are available on the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority website at: http://www.qca.org.uk/qca_10312.aspx The Department does not collect information on the number of HE admissions affected by those inquiries and appeals.
Justice
Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006
Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prosecutions there have been under the Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006; and if he will make a statement. [187187]
Maria Eagle: The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 came into force on 20 February 2007. We do not yet have prosecution figures covering 2007. We would expect the number of prosecutions to be small. Any act involving violence against emergency workers would be covered by the general law on assault and the new offence is limited to obstruction only.
Debt Collection: Standards
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to publish the findings of the consultation Regulation of Enforcement Agents (CP 02/07); and if he will make a statement. [187006]
Maria Eagle: The analysis of the responses to the Regulation of Enforcement Agents consultation is now complete and will be published in March 2008.
Departmental Publications
Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what public information booklets were published by his Department in 2007; and what the (a) print run and (b) cost to the Department was in each case. [185792]
Maria Eagle: The Ministry of Justice was created on 9 May 2007. The public information booklets which it has published since then, together with print runs and costs, are listed in the following table.
Lists of the public information booklets published by the Ministry of Justice's five agencies (National Offender Management Service, Her Majesty's Courts Service; Office of the Public Guardian, Tribunals Service, and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform) will be placed in the Library of the House.
| Ministry of Justice Information Booklets 2007-08 | ||
| Title of booklet | Print run | Total cost (£) |
| (1 )Printed in-house | ||
HM Prison Service's Race Equality Action Plan
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will place a copy of HM Prison Service’s Race Equality Action Plan in the Library; what steps have been taken to implement it; and what has been the cost of (a) producing and (b) implementing the plan. [186256]
Maria Eagle: The HM Prison Service Race Equality Action Plan (REAP) is updated approximately monthly, the most recent of which has been placed in the Library.
The REAP is a detailed and comprehensive plan that sets out all the high-level actions that the public sector Prison Service is taking on race equality. Its production involved contributions from a range of individuals and groups across the Prison Service, and its implementation
involves actions by a range of headquarters policy groups and in prison establishments. It is therefore not possible to give an estimate of the cost of producing or implementing the plan.
Knutsford Crown Court
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what consideration he has given to the potential use of Knutsford Crown Court for magistrates hearings. [185756]
Maria Eagle: Her Majesty's Courts Service in Cheshire-Merseyside has developed an estates strategy that aims to identify opportunities to maximise the utilisation of all its buildings. The option to utilise Knutsford Crown Court as a magistrates court does not presently form part of the strategy, although cases are occasionally listed at Knutsford magistrates court from both Macclesfield and Vale Royal magistrates courts. Dates on which such cases are currently listed are as follows:
| Date | Local justice area |
A feasibility study to improve and/or replace Macclesfield magistrates court and a potential integration scheme with Macclesfield county court is under consideration and the Ministry of Justice Building Review Group will shortly receive a bid in this respect.
Legal Aid Scheme
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were eligible for legal aid in each of the last 10 years. [179599]
Maria Eagle: Legal aid covers a number of different areas of justice, and the extent to which applicants’ financial circumstances are taken into account in granting legal aid varies considerably across these areas. It is therefore not possible to give figures for the number of people eligible for legal aid as a whole. However, some estimates of the likely number that would be eligible are available for certain areas.
In criminal cases, all those arrested in England and Wales are eligible to receive free advice and assistance at the police station. Defendants are financially eligible for representation in the Crown Court, subject to judicial discretion to recover costs. We estimate that around half the population of England and Wales would be financially eligible to receive legal aid in magistrates courts cases following the introduction of the means test in October 2006.
Prior to April 2001 there was a legal aid contribution scheme in operation for criminal cases. The court decided the level of contributions according to the defendant's means. Estimates of eligibility levels under this scheme would be available only at disproportionate cost.
The following table provides estimates of the proportion of the population of England and Wales that were in principle financially eligible for civil legal aid in those categories for which financial circumstances are taken into account in each of the past 10 years where figures are available. However, decisions on granting of legal aid also depend on the merits of the case, while some areas of civil law are not now covered by legal aid. The decline over recent years in the proportion of the population eligible for civil legal aid is likely to reflect increases in general levels of prosperity, changes to the structure of the benefits system, demographic changes, and also the Government’s drive to focus legal aid support on the most vulnerable people in society and to achieve the more effective delivery of civil legal aid.
More effective delivery is evidenced by the number of acts of assistance of civil legal aid not declining in parallel with eligibility over the last 10 years and increasing significantly from 856,000 in 2004-05 to 1,137,000 in 2006-07. Moreover, cash expenditure on civil legal aid (excluding immigration and asylum legal help whose costs reflect the volume of people arriving), rose from £615 million in 2001-02 to £730 million in 2006-07.
| Estimated proportion of the population of England and Wales eligible for civil representation (%) | |
Legal Aid: Expenditure
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent on legal aid where the case had been brought against a political party in each of the last five years. [184499]
Maria Eagle: The information is not readily available. In order to extract this information a manual inspection of all legal aid certificates issued in the past five years would be required. To do so would be of disproportionate cost.
Legal Aid: Negligence
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many legally aided clinical negligence cases were closed in 2007 which proceeded beyond the investigation stage; and how many of these cases resulted in an award of damages or settlement involving an agreement to pay damages or compensation. [187348]
Maria Eagle: Figures covering the whole of 2007 will not be available until after the end of the current financial year. However, during 2006-07, 2,415 cases are known to have progressed beyond the investigation stage to the issue of proceedings. These included 300 cases that resulted in an award of damages and 1,240 settled cases that involved an agreement to pay damages or compensation.
Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many legally aided clinical negligence cases were closed in 2007 which did not proceed beyond the investigation stage; and how many of these cases resulted in a settlement involving an agreement to pay damages or compensation. [187349]
Maria Eagle: Figures covering the whole of 2007 will not be available until after the end of the current financial year. However, during 2006-07, 3,009 cases were closed at the investigation stage, before the issue of proceedings. Of these, 468 cases had resulted in a settlement involving an agreement to pay damages or compensation.
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