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Justice

Absent Voting

Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of votes were postal in (a) the 2005 general election, (b) the 2005 local elections and (c) the 2006 local elections; and how many postal vote applications were disallowed per local authority in each case. [188468]

Bridget Prentice: Research conducted by the Electoral Commission on turnout at the 2005 general and local elections concluded that 12.1 per cent. of the electorate opted to have a postal vote at those elections, and that postal votes accounted for 15 per cent. of all votes cast. The information for the 2006 local elections is not held centrally by Government.

The Government do not hold figures for how many postal vote applications were disallowed per local authority, though this may be held by local authorities.

Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps are being taken to (a) raise the awareness of postal voting availability and (b) reduce levels of disallowed postal votes. [188469]

Bridget Prentice: The Government have prescribed that the annual canvass form that is sent to every household each autumn contains a provision allowing an elector to request a postal vote application form. The Government have expanded the information that is included on the poll card that is sent to electors at an election, and it now includes information about how to apply for a postal vote and the deadline for making a postal vote application at the forthcoming election.

The Electoral Administration Act 2006 brought forward measures to increase the security of postal voting. While this increased the amount of data needed when electors completed their forms, this was balanced by the removal of the requirement for a witness signature. The available information suggests that the levels of disallowed postal votes remain low. We will wish to keep the matter under review and to explore the issues involved with the Electoral Commission and Association of Electoral Administrators.

Crime: Internet

Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what prosecutions there have been involving the posting
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or accessing of illegal content online in which legal proceedings are complete in each of the last three years. [188322]

Maria Eagle: The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for various offences
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relating to the publication, possession or distribution of obscene matter, and indecent photographs (including of children), in England and Wales for the years 2004 to 2006 can be viewed in the following table.

N umber of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for various offences relating to the publication, possession or distribution of obscene matter, and indecent photographs (including of children), in England and Wales for the years 2004 to 2006( 1,2)
Proceeded against
Statute	Offence description	2004	2005	2006
Obscene Publications Act 1959 Sec 2(1) as amended by Obscene Publications Act 1964 Sec 1(1)	Prohibition of publication of obscene matter	30	35	29
Protection of Children Act 1978 Section 1 as amended by Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 84 and Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 S.41(l)	Take, permit to be taken, or to make distribute or publish indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children	1,097	1,101	937
Criminal Justice Act 1988 Sec. 160 as amended by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000	Possession of an indecent photograph or pseudo-photograph	159	160	162
Total	—	1,286	1,296	1,128
(1) These data are on the principal offence basis. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Court proceedings database held by RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice

There is no specific offence of the posting or accessing of illegal content online as the UK prosecutes the offence, such as the creation or publication of illegal imagery, rather than the medium used. All published material is subject to the Obscene Publications Act 1959. Under the Protection of Children Act 1978 (as amended), the UK has an absolute prohibition on the production, circulation and possession with a view to distribution of any indecent photograph of a child under 18.

Court proceedings data for 2007 will be available in the autumn of 2008.

Departmental Sick Pay

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost of sickness pay to staff within his Department was in the most recent year for which figures are available. [187520]

Maria Eagle: It is estimated that the cost of sick pay within the public sector Prison Service during 2007 was £68 million. Estimated costs for other parts of the Department are not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

The Cabinet Office published a report on sickness absence in the civil service on 7 February 2008. The report included an analysis of the days lost due to sickness absence. The report included an estimate of £887.66 for 2006-07 as the cost of absence per staff year in respect of all civil servants.

Departmental Temporary Employment

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what average hourly rate his Department and its predecessors paid to employment agencies for agency staff in each year since 1999, broken down by employment agency. [187909]

Maria Eagle: The Ministry of Justice was created on 9 May 2007 therefore my response refers to the former Department for Constitutional Affairs. The following table provides figures from 2001 to the end of the last full financial year. Information for the preceding financial years is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

My Department and its predecessor has a national framework contract with Kelly Services that began in April 2001 for the supply of agency staff.

Information relating to workers employed through other employment agencies is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Information on average hourly rates paid to agency staff employed through Kelly Services appears as follows.

	Average hourly rate (£)
2001	10.41
2002	10.43
2003	10.53
2004	10.86
2005	10.57
2006	9.89

Domestic Violence: Rehabilitation

Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) longest, (b) average and (c) shortest waiting period for domestic violence perpetrators programmes was for each probation area in the latest period for which figures are available. [188270]

Maria Eagle: The information requested is contained in the following table. It covers the period from April 2006 to March 2007.

Offenders waiting for a place on a domestic violence programme are under the supervision of their offender manager from the day of sentence. The offender manager will monitor the risk posed by the offender and actively manage it. Additionally the offender manager will normally
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prepare offenders for the programmes by carrying out set work. This can take between six and 12 weeks.

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. The data take no account of time that elapses because of the need to deliver other
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requirements of the sentence, or because the offender is recalled into custody, for example.

The domestic violence programmes are still relatively new and demand from the courts has exceeded expectations. A series of measures are in place to reduce the period of time before an offender can start a programme.

Domestic violence programmes: time to commencements
Weeks
Area	Mean time to commence group	Minimum time to commence group	Maximum time to commence group
England
Avon and Somerset	39.0	9	101
Bedfordshire	20.8	4	146
Cambridgeshire	36.5	7	95
Cumbria	24.8	4	52
Derbyshire	30.6	6	68
Devon and Cornwall	41.4	7	200
Dorset	31.1	4	79
County Durham	25.1	1	57
Essex	39.5	10	77
Gloucestershire	32.3	7	91
Hampshire	25.0	2	79
Hertfordshire	30.0	2	57
Humberside	23.0	2	47
Kent	29.2	11	67
Lancashire	27.9	4	208
Leicestershire and Rutland	39.4	1	130
Lincolnshire	24.5	7	72
London	31.8	4	173
Merseyside	25.7	2	86
Norfolk	19.4	4	89
Northamptonshire	29.3	7	85
Northumbria	32.2	7	72
Nottinghamshire	12.9	4	49
Staffordshire	13.7	3	52
Suffolk	20.2	5	80
Surrey	28.1	12	59
Sussex	27.4	1	74
Teesside	25.2	9	43
Thames Valley	36.5	8	126
Warwickshire	19.9	5	60
West Mercia	13.0	4	33
West Midlands	28.6	5	78
Wiltshire	34.9	2	103
Yorkshire North	16.1	1	53
Yorkshire South	42.5	1	77
Yorkshire West	28.4	1	161
Wales
Dyfed-Powys	19.2	6	61
Gwent	40.8	12	101
North Wales	37.1	9	76
South Wales	23.2	4	63
Note: Comparable data from Cheshire and Greater Manchester areas are not available due to incompatible IT systems.

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