| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
10 Nov 2008 : Column 870W—continued
The Government have not yet implemented provisions of the TCE Act relating to charging orders, and we are keeping this under review.
Judicial Pension Scheme
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the value of the liabilities of the (a) old and (b) new judicial pension scheme was at the latest date for which information is available. [234650]
Mr. Straw: The total value of the liability of the judicial pension schemes (including the 1981 schemes and the 1993 scheme) as estimated by the Government Actuary is included in the published resource accounts. Copies of the accounts are held in the House of Commons Library. As at 31 March 2007 the figure was £1,627 million.
Police: Personation
Chris Huhne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been (a) prosecuted for and (b)
found guilty of the offence of impersonating a police officer in each year since 1997. [233321]
Maria Eagle: The number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Police Act 1996 s.90 (1), (2), (3) in England and Wales, 1997 to 2006 can be viewed in the following table.
These data are on the principal offence basis. 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.
Court proceedings data for 2007 will be available in the autumn of 2008.
| N umber of parsons proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Police Act 1996 s.90(l),(2),(3) in England and Wales, 1997 to 2006( 1,2,3,4) | ||||||
| Police Act 1996 s.90(1) | Police Act 1996 s.90(2) | Police Act 1996 s.90(3) | ||||
| Proceeded against | Found guilty | Proceeded against | Found guilty | 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 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 descriptions: Police Act 1996 s.90(l), 90(2), 90(3) Impersonate a police officer Person not being a constable wearing any article of police uniform with intent to deceive Person not being a member of police force or special constable having in possession any article of police uniform gained unlawfully (4) Staffordshire police force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Evidence and Analysis Unit | ||||||
Prison Sentences
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) in respect of which offence most indeterminate sentences for public protection have been handed down since their introduction; [233337]
(2) how many prisoners are serving indeterminate sentences for public protection; [233338]
(3) how many indeterminate sentences for public protection have been issued in each year since their introduction; [233340]
(4) what percentage of those serving indeterminate sentences for public protection are (a) men, (b) women and (c) aged under 25. [233341]
Mr. Hanson: On 30 September 2008 the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPP) database indicated that the most common offence for IPP was robbery, with 27 per cent. of the current IPP prisoners in England and Wales serving a sentence for robbery.
On 3 November 2008, there were 4,863 IPP prisoners. Of these:
432 of those sentences were imposed in 2005;
1,582 of those sentences were imposed in 2006;
1,754 of those sentences were imposed in 2007; and
1,095 of those sentences were imposed in 2008.
This does not account for IPPs who have been released in this period.
From the current population of 4,863 IPPs prisoners, represented as a percentage, the requested categories are:
(a) men—97.25 per cent.
(b) women—2.75 per cent.
(c) under 25—30.39 per cent.
Most of the material contained in the NOMS IPP sentence database has been migrated from other file and IT sources. Measures are constantly taken to quality assure the information, but as with any large scale recording system with multiple users, the system remains subject to possible inaccuracies. The NOMS IPP database captures data linked to serving IPP population, and is updated on a bi-monthly basis, therefore is not a 'real time' record.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average period is between the end of the tariff of an indeterminate sentence for public protection and the release of the prisoner on licence. [233339]
Mr. Hanson: As of 5 November 2008, 38 IPP prisoners have been released on licence. The average period between the end of tariff and release was 49 weeks.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many of those serving indeterminate sentences for public protection have lodged complaints about the requirements for completion of the programmes necessary for them to be considered for release on licence. [233342]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is collated neither nationally nor locally, and to provide the information requested would require manual checking of individual records which could be carried out only at disproportionate cost.
Prisoners Release
Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many of the prisoners to be released by the end of 2009 under the end of custody licence scheme are estimated to be violent offenders. [233119]
Mr. Hanson: We have said that the End of Custody Licence (ECL) scheme will be phased out as soon as there is sufficient prison capacity to do so. However, if the scheme were to continue to the end of 2009 and there were no changes to the numbers of prisoners received, the eligibility criteria or the average number of monthly releases, we would expect around 14,800 prisoners, whose original offence was violence against the person, to be released, between the start of the scheme in June 2007 and the end of 2009.
Prisoners serving sentences for the most serious offences of violence are excluded from ECL. A full list of exclusions can be found in Prison Service Instruction 42/2007, a copy of which is in the House Libraries and may be found at the following web address:
http://psi.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/PSI_2007_42_end_of _custody_licence.doc
Information on numbers released under the scheme by category is published monthly in the statistics bulletin End of Custody Licence releases and recalls, available
from the Library of the House and the Ministry of Justice website at the following address:
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.
Religion: Discrimination
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 27 October 2008, Official Report, column 750W, on religion: discrimination, whether the Government plan to produce a consultation document on the law of succession. [234377]
Mr. Straw: The Government have no current plans to produce a consultation on the law of succession in respect of the monarchy.
To bring about changes to the law on succession would be a complex undertaking involving amendment or repeal of a number of items of related legislation, as well as requiring the consent of legislatures of member nations of the Commonwealth. We are prepared to consider the arguments in this complex area but have no immediate plans to legislate.
Reoffenders
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many of the alleged further offences committed by offenders on end of custody licences since June 2007 were (a) of rape, (b) of sexual assault and (c) of other sexual offences. [233326]
Mr. Straw: Between 29 June 2007 and 30 September 2008 39,406 prisoners were released under the End of Custody Licence scheme (ECL). As at 3 November 2008, the National Offender Management Service had been notified of five offenders who had allegedly committed seven sexual offences during their period on ECL. Of the five offenders, three were subsequently not convicted of a sexual offence. The alleged offences were: rape—two; sexual assault—one; other sexual offences—four.
Reoffenders: Young People
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offenders aged under 21 years reoffended within six months of release from custody within each of the last three years for which figures are available. [234139]
Mr. Hanson: We do not have figures on reoffending occurring within six months of leaving custody. On an annual basis, we publish rates which measure reoffending over a 12-month period.
The following table shows the reoffending figures for offenders aged between 13 and 17 who were released from custody in the first quarter of 2004, 2005 and 2006. Table 1 shows the proportion of offenders that committed at least one further offence and the number of further offences committed per 100 offenders. Please note that offenders aged between 13 and 17 are treated as juveniles, and therefore any offences which are proven by conviction or caution are counted as a reoffence.
The figures include offenders released from youth offenders institutions, secure training centres and secure children’s homes.
| Table 1 | ||||
| One year | ||||
| Age( 1) | Number of releases from custody | Rate of reoffending (Percentage) | Number of offences per 100 offenders | |
| (1) The figures relating to juveniles aged 10 to 12 have been removed as the extremely low numbers (fewer than 10 offenders) make the data unreliable for interpretation. (2) Greater than 10 and less than 50 offenders, treat the data with caution. | ||||
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |