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14 July 2008 : Column 57W—continued
Justice
Credit Cards: Fraud
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been convicted of fraud involving credit card skimming in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [217109]
Maria Eagle: There is no specific offence relating to credit card skimming, however people may be prosecuted under various sections of the 1968 and 1978 Theft Acts. Data covering offences under the relevant sections of these acts for the number of persons found guilty at all courts in England and Wales for the years 2002 to 2006 can be viewed in the following table.
Frauds occurring after 15 January 2007 may be prosecuted under various sections of the Fraud Act 2006. Court proceedings data for 2007 will be available in the autumn of 2008.
These data are on the principal offence basis. The figures given in the following table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
| N umber of persons found guilty at all courts for certain offences relating to fraud, in England and Wales, 2002 - 06( 1,)( )( 2,)( )( 3) | |
| Found guilty | |
| (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. (3) Includes the following statutes and corresponding offence description: Theft Act 1968 Sec 15 Obtaining property by deception Theft Act 1968 Sec 15A as added by Theft (Amendment) Act 1996 S.1 Obtaining a money transfer by deception Theft Act 1968 Sec 16 (l)(2)(b) and (c) Obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception (except railway frauds) Theft Act 1978 Sees 1 and 2 Railway Frauds Theft Act 1978 Sec 1 Obtaining services by deception (except railway frauds) Theft Act 1978 Sec 2 Evasion of liability by deception (except railway frauds) Source: CJEAU—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice | |
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff in his Department and each of its agencies are assigned to a people action team. [217438]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice does not have staff who are part of a ‘people action team’.
Departmental Press
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent by his Department on subscriptions for magazines, newspapers and other publications in each of the last 24 months. [215214]
Mr. Wills: Details of my Department’s centrally funded expenditure on subscriptions for magazines, newspapers and other publications is as follows: 12 months to June 2007: approximately £1,250 per month; 12 months to June 2008: approximately £16,591 per month. However, approximately £4,400 per month is recovered locally from prisoner monies.
The latter figure includes expenditure for the National Offender Management Service, including Her Majesty’s Prison Service, following the creation of the Ministry of Justice in May 2007.
Expenditure on subscriptions held locally by courts, tribunals and other business areas for which my Department is responsible, could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Security
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 23 June 2008, Official Report, column 55W, on departmental security, what types of data breaches were notified by public sector organisations. [217439]
Mr. Wills: The Information Commissioner encourages organisations to report serious data breaches to his Office, although there is no legal obligation on them to do so. The severity and impact of the breaches varies, in part because of the subjective criteria used by organisations when deciding whether to notify. Breaches referred to the ICO only involve information relating to individuals.
The types of data breaches recorded by the Information Commissioner, based on voluntary notification by public sector organisations from November 2007 to July 2008 include the loss or theft of computer or laptop; website security problems; loss of paper records; loss of removable media or discs and inappropriate disclosure of information.
Economic and Monetary Union
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 17 June 2008, Official Report, column 886W, on economic and monetary union, for what reasons he is not planning to place a copy of his Department’s euro changeover plan in the Library. [217437]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice is undergoing a huge transformation, and is still in the process of settling into the reorganised structure.
It would be inappropriate to place a copy of the Plan in its current format in the Library, as it requires updating to reflect the new Department.
The Euro Team will consider the timing and appropriateness of updating the plan, and a decision to place an updated copy in the Library will be made in due course.
Electoral Register
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the number and proportion of people eligible to vote who are not on the electoral register in (a) England, (b) each English region and (c) each London local authority area. [217140]
Bridget Prentice: The Government have not made any estimate of the number and proportion of people eligible to vote who are not on the electoral register in England, each English region and each London local authority area.
The Electoral Commission estimated that 3.5 million eligible electors were not registered to vote in their report, “Understanding Electoral Registration”, which was published in September 2005. However the number of electors registered in England continues to grow and between 2 December 2006 and 1 December 2007 the number of parliamentary electors grew from 37,588,775 to 37,817,466 and the number of local government electors grew from 38,223,259 to 38,599,775.
The Government have taken a number of steps to increase voter registration rates. Section 9 of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 placed a new duty on electoral registration officers to take all necessary steps to maintain the electoral register, including sending the annual canvass form more than once, making house to house enquiries and inspecting records that they are permitted to inspect. It is for the ERO to decide on the best steps to use in conjunction with their local knowledge to ensure that requirements for making contact with persons and maintaining the register are complied with. To support such activities we have made £2.5 million available each financial year under our Participation Fund, which allows EROs to apply for additional funding to assist them in promoting electoral awareness within their areas.
The Electoral Administration Act also includes a provision for the Electoral Commission to introduce new performance standards for electoral registration officers. The Electoral Commission are currently developing these standards and the final set of standards will be published in July 2008. A copy of these standards which will be laid before the House and the information obtained from local authorities as a consequence will give us a better understanding of the actions taken to increase registration.
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the proportion of those eligible to vote who are registered as electors in (a) Luton South and (b) the UK; and what steps he is taking to increase levels of voter registration. [217434]
Bridget Prentice:
The Government have not made any estimate of the proportion of those eligible to vote,
who are registered as electors in Luton, South and the UK. However, as of the 1 December 2007 the parliamentary registration figure for Luton, South is 70,221 and the combined figure for local government electors in the Luton borough is 138,409. I am aware that the decrease in electoral registration rates in Luton, South may be due to a change in the local population, which is made up of student accommodation and large properties converted into dwellings of multiple occupancy.
The Office for National Statistics has recently published electoral registration rates for the UK following the 2007 annual canvass. These confirm that the levels of voter registration in parliamentary elections increased by 307,669 to 45,082,854 and the levels of voter registration in local government elections increased by 463,340 to 45,920,503.
The Government have taken a number of steps to increase voter registration rates. Section 9 of the Electoral Administration Act 2006 placed a new duty on electoral registration officers to take all necessary steps to maintain the electoral register, including sending the annual canvass form more than once, making house to house enquiries and inspecting records that they are permitted to inspect. It is for the ERO to decide on the best steps to use in conjunction with their local knowledge to ensure that requirements for making contact with persons and maintaining the register are complied with.
To support such activities we have made £2.5 million available each financial year under our Participation Fund, which allows EROs to apply for additional funding to assist them in promoting electoral awareness within their areas.
The Act also includes a provision for the Electoral Commission to introduce new performance standards for EROs. The Electoral Commission is currently developing these standards and the final set of standards will be published during July 2008. A copy of these standards will be laid before the House and the information obtained from local authorities as a consequence will give us a better understanding of the actions taken to increase registration.
Food
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how much was spent by his Department on (a) food and (b) food of British origin in each of the last five years; [214905]
(2) from which five countries of origin the greatest amount of food was procured by his Department in the last year for which figures are available; and what the (a) cost and (b) quantity procured was in each case. [214906]
Bridget Prentice: Catering services to meet the Ministry of Justice's requirements are contracted out and provided by commercial suppliers. It is not possible to identify the five countries from which the greatest amount of food was procured during the period 1 July to 30 June 2007 as this information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
However, information requested for Her Majesty's Prison Service is as follows:
| £ million | |
The only figure that is available for food of British origin procured by Her Majesty's Prison Service is £17,508,400 in 2006-07.
37 per cent. of food was domestically produced (as previously published in the DEFRA report:
George Kelly
Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what (a) discussions and (b) correspondence officials in his Department have had (i) internally and (ii) with the Treasury Solicitor’s Department on the proposal to resolve the outstanding issues in the George Kelly case by mediation; [217290]
(2) what invoices his Department has received for work undertaken by the Treasury Solicitor on his Department’s behalf in connection with matters related to the George Kelly case; and what payments have been made in respect of such invoices. [217291]
Bridget Prentice: The proposal to resolve the issues in the late George Kelly case by mediation is still under consideration and there have been a number of discussions both internally, and externally with Treasury Solicitor. In the case of the level of compensation due in respect of Mr. Kelly’s wrongful conviction and subsequent hanging in 1950, these are matters entirely for the independent assessor now that the case has been approved for compensation under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
Invoices totalling £39,102.25 (including VAT) have been raised in relation to Treasury Solicitor’s time spent on litigation involving Mr. George Kelly plus £10,434.07 (including VAT) for disbursements.
Government Departments: Freedom of Information
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what guidance (a) his Department and (b) the Information Commissioner has provided to Departments on whether the cost of time taken to redact information should be taken into account in deciding whether a response to a freedom of information request exceeds the appropriate fees limit. [217358]
Mr. Straw: My Department has published comprehensive guidance on its website to help public authorities calculate the fees limit under the Freedom of Information Act. We believe that redacting both exempt information and information that is not within the scope of a request are countable activities towards the section 12 cost limit.
The Information Commissioner has said he will publish guidance on this subject in the near future.
Hunting Act: Prosecutions
Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prosecutions have (a) been brought and (b) resulted in convictions under the Hunting Act 2004; and whether any convictions have been successfully appealed against. [217264]
Maria Eagle: The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Hunting Act 2004 in England and Wales for the years 2004 to 2006 can be viewed in the following table.
Court proceedings data for 2007 will be available in the autumn of 2008.
The Hunting Act 2004 came into force on 18 February 2005.
The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
| N umber of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Hunting Act 2004 in England and Wales for the years 2004 to 2006( 1,2,3) | ||
| Proceeded against | Found guilty | |
| (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. (3) Includes the following statute and corresponding offence description: Hunting Act 2004 SS.1 and 6 Hunting a wild mammal with a dog Hunting Act 2004 SS.3(1) and 6 Knowingly permitting land to be entered or used in the course of hunting a wild mammal with dogs Hunting Act 2004 SS.3(2) and 6 Knowingly permitting a dog to be used in the course of hunting a wild mammal Hunting Act 2004 SS.5(1) (a) and 6 Participating in a hare coursing event Hunting Act 2004 SS.5(1) (b) and 6 Attending a hare coursing event Hunting Act 2004 SS.5(1) (c) and 6 Knowingly facilitating a hare coursing event Hunting Act 2004 SS.5(1) (d) and 6 Permitting land to be used for the purpose of a hare coursing event Hunting Act 2004 S.5(2) Permitting etc a dog to participate in a hare coursing event Source: CJEAU—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice | ||
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