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6 Oct 2008 : Column 191W—continued

Voting Methods: Pilot Schemes

Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has for voting pilots in the 2009 local elections; and what assessment he has made of the effect of moving the date of the 2009 local elections to the date of the elections to the European Parliament on the feasibility of holding such pilots. [223071]

Mr. Wills: The Secretary of State for Justice is obliged by section 10 of the Representation of the People Act 2000 to consider any application from a local authority to run an electoral pilot. The provisions of the Act restrict piloting to local government elections only: it would not therefore be possible for any pilots to take place if the English local government elections were moved to be combined with the date of the European Parliamentary elections in June 2009. The Government published a consultation document on the combination of those elections on 20 May 2008 the consultation period closed on 11 August. The consultation paper is available at

Written Questions: Government Responses

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to answer question 172523, on the operation of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906, tabled on 4 December 2007 by the hon. Member for Southend West; what the reason for the time taken to reply is; what steps he has (a) taken and (b) plans to take to answer written parliamentary questions within a working week of them being tabled; and if he will make a statement. [222358]

Maria Eagle: The question was transferred to the Solicitor-General on 6 December 2007. The Ministry of Justice's Parliamentary Branch wrote to the hon. Member on that day informing him of the transfer.


6 Oct 2008 : Column 192W

Young Offender Institutions: Ethnic Groups

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of children in young offender institutions are (a) white, (b) black and (c) Asian. [221897]

Mr. Straw: Young offender institutions accommodate sentenced prisoners aged from 15 to 21. The following table gives the breakdown by known ethnicity of all such sentenced young offenders as at 30 June 2007.

Ethnic group Total sentenced young offenders aged 15 to 20 As percentage of all with known ethnicity

White

6,875

75

Black or Black British

1,312

14

Asian or Asian British

471

5

Chinese or other

64

1

Mixed

500

5


These figures are taken from table 9.2 of the publication Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System—2006-07 at the following link:

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.

Young Offenders: Sentencing

Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average length of sentence was for young offenders convicted for offences involving (a) violence against a person, (b) burglary, (c) robbery, (d) sexual offences and (e) illegal drugs where a custodial sentence was handed down in the financial year (i) 2006-07 and (ii) 2007-08. [224459]

Mr. Hanson: The requested information is contained in the following table.

Data are published on a calendar year basis. 2006 is the latest year for which annual figures have been published. The 2007 data will be published by the end of the year.

Average length of immediate custodial sentence( 1) for various offences by age group, all courts, 2006, England and Wales
Average sentence (months)
Age groups
Offence groups Juveniles (10-17 year olds Young Adults (18-20 year olds) 10-20 year olds

Violence against the person

12.8

16.3

15.2

Burglary

8.6

13.9

11.7

Robbery

16.9

31.5

24.4

Sexual offences

29.9

36.5

33.8

Drug offences

14.0

24.7

22.5

(1) Months. Excludes life and indeterminate sentences.
Source:
OMS Analytical Services

These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system.


6 Oct 2008 : Column 193W

The number of young offenders sentenced and given an IPP—imprisonment for public protection—or a life sentence is contained in the following table.

Number of persons sentenced( 1) to an IPP or life for various offences by age group, all courts, 2006, England and Wales
Number of persons
Age group Total number sentenced Imprisonment for public protection (IPP) Life sentence

Juveniles (10 -17 year olds)

Violence against the person

7,559

13

29

Sexual offences

500

11

12

Burglary

6,169

Robbery

3,733

13

13

Drug offences

4,460

Young adults (18-20 year olds)

Violence against the person

7,457

95

135

Sexual offences

360

25

28

Burglary

3,723

5

6

Robbery

1,642

67

71

Drug offences

5,841

1

10-20 year olds

Violence against the person

15,016

108

164

Sexual offences

860

36

40

Burglary

9,892

5

6

Robbery

5,375

80

84

Drug offences

10,301

1

(1) These data are on the principal offence basis.
Source:
OMS Analytical Services

These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system.

Transport

Aviation

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many passengers took flights from London Gatwick Airport to (a) Birmingham, (b) Manchester, (c) Edinburgh and (d) Glasgow in each of the last three years. [223970]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The following table shows the number of passengers who took flights from London Gatwick Airport to Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Passengers from London Gatwick to Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow
Thousand

2005 2006 2007

Birmingham

0

0

0

Manchester

241

239

210

Edinburgh

377

377

374

Glasgow

188

217

286

Note:
There are no flights from London Gatwick to Birmingham.
Source:
DfT analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data

Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assumptions her Department made in
6 Oct 2008 : Column 194W
calculating the price elasticity of demand for air travel in its (a) 2007 publication UK Air Passenger Demand and CO2 Forecasts and (b) 2000 publication Air Traffic Forecasts for the United Kingdom 2000. [224537]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The air price elasticities and explanation of how they are were calculated are set out in the forecasts documents.

The UK Air Passenger Demand and CO2 Forecasts report is available at:

The Air Traffic Forecasts for the United Kingdom 2000’ is available at:

Aviation: Disabled

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent steps the Government have taken to improve air travel for disabled passengers. [224282]

Jim Fitzpatrick: EC Regulation 1107/2006, which gives rights to disabled passengers when travelling by air, was implemented in the UK from 26 July 2008.

On 23 July 2008, the Department for Transport published a revised code of practice “Access to air travel for Disabled Persons and Persons with Reduced Mobility”, which provides guidance to the aviation industry on how to comply with its obligations under the regulation.

In addition to the code of practice, the Department has also published a passenger guidance leaflet which mirrors the contents of the code and covers the rights and responsibilities of passengers.

Aviation: Oil

Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what projection of oil prices per barrel for (a) 2010, (b) 2020 and (c) 2030 were used in the calculations contained in her Department's publication UK Air passenger Demand and CO2 Forecasts; and upon what assumptions such projections were based. [224538]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The oil price projections are set out at page 88 (Table B3) of the UK Air Passenger Demand and CO2 Forecasts report

Table B3: Range of real oil price assumptions, $/ barrel (2004 prices)

Low Central High

2005

55

55

55

2010

25

57

70

2015

25

50

75

2020

25

53

80

2025

25

53

80

2030

25

53

80


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