| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
10 Dec 2008 : Column 115W—continued
Departmental Official Hospitality
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what records his Department maintains of its expenditure on (a) official hospitality and (b) alcohol for official hospitality. [240459]
Ann McKechin: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister of State for the Scotland Office on 17 April 2007, Official Report, column 765W.
Justice
Legal Services Ombudsman
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how long on average it has taken the Legal Services Ombudsman to (a) deal with and (b) decide individual cases in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [240549]
Bridget Prentice: The office of the legal services ombudsman (OLSO) aims to provide an excellent service to all of its customers.
The average turnaround time between 1 December 2007 and 30 November 2008 is 2.44 months for the legal services ombudsman to deal with and decide individual cases.
Migration: Isle of Man
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the number of former UK residents who have taken up residence in the Isle of Man in the last three years. [240810]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice has not made any such estimates. However, I am informed by the Isle of Man Government that according to the 2006 Census, between 2001 and 2005 some 6,910 new residents arrived from the UK and were still residing in the island at 23-24 April 2006. It should be noted that this figure would include previous Isle of Man residents, including those who were Manx-born, and non-British nationals.
Prisoners: Foreigners
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many Australian nationals were detained in HM prisons at the latest date for which figures are available. [240854]
Mr. Hanson:
At the end of September 2008, the latest date for which this information is available, there were
26 Australian nationals detained in prison establishments in England and Wales. Information on the number of foreign national prisoners by nationality is published quarterly in table 5 of the Population in Custody monthly brief at the following website:
The figure has been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Prostitution: Offenders
Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many women were serving prison sentences for offences in connection with prostitution at the latest date for which figures are available. [240415]
Mr. Hanson: The legal background to the offence of being a common prostitute, loitering, or soliciting for the purposes of prostitution is contained in Section 1 of the Street Offences Act, 1959.
Under the Act the maximum penalty for this offence is a fine, not imprisonment. Figures obtained from the prison service IT system confirm that there are currently no women serving prison sentences for the offence. Non-payment of any fine accruing from the offence would be recorded as defaulting on the payment of the fine.
Reoffenders
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of offenders released from prison in the first quarter of (a) 2000, (b) 2001, (c) 2005 and (d) 2006 reoffended between one and two years of release. [240405]
Mr. Hanson: Table 1 shows the one-year reoffending rates for offenders leaving custody in the first quarter of the years 2000 to 2006 (data for 2001 are unavailable due to problems with archived data for community sentences). The table shows the proportion of offenders that committed at least one further offence and the number of further offences committed per 100 offenders.
| Table 1: One-year reoffending rates, offenders leaving custody, 2000-06 | |||
| Number of offenders | Proportion of offenders offending (one year) (percentage) | Number of offences per 100 offenders (one year) | |
Two-year reoffending rates are available for the 2000 to 2005 cohorts. For these cohorts, the only figures available are the proportion of offenders who committed a further offence within two years. These figures are shown in Table 2.
| Table 2: Two-year reoffending rates, offenders leaving custody, 2000-2005 | ||
| Number of offenders | Proportion offenders offending (two years) (percentage) | |
It should be noted that comparisons between the one and two-year rates should be interpreted with caution. This is due to a slight improvement in the method used to count offenders released from custody (or starting court orders under probation supervision) when we moved to measuring reoffending over one year rather than two.
Information on the percentage of offenders that reoffended between one and two years of release is not readily available. However, some information on the rate of reoffending between the first and second year can be seen in Figure 2 (page 4) of the publication.
We have had real success in reducing the reoffending of offenders released from custody. Between 2000 and 2006 the number of reoffences committed by offenders released from custody has fallen 15.1 per cent.
Overall, the most recent reoffending statistics, published in September 2008, demonstrated that reoffending frequency fell among adult offenders in 2006.
The figures showed a 22.9 per cent. fall in the frequency rate from 189.4 to 146.1 offences per 100 offenders between 2000 and 2006.The number of adult reoffences classified as most serious fell 11.1 per cent. from 0.78 to 0.69 offences per 100 offenders.
Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal
Tim Loughton:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many representations his Department has
received on changes to the special educational needs and disability tribunal in the last six months. [240763]
Bridget Prentice: The Ministry of Justice has received 157 representations on the changes to the special educational needs and disability tribunal in the last six months.
Tourism: Isle of Man
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many tourists from the UK visited the Isle of Man in 2007. [240820]
Mr. Wills: The information is not held in the form requested. The Isle of Man Government estimate that there were approximately 295,600 visits to the Island in 2007 by UK residents, but this number does not equate to the number of visitors.
Young Offender Institutions
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many children between the ages of (a) 11 and 13, (b) 14 and 16 and (c) 17 and 18 years were held in young offender institutions in each year since 1997, broken down by sex; [241287]
(2) how many children were detained in the prison estate on 1 April in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) sex and (b) offence for which they were detained. [241288]
Mr. Hanson: In law, children are young persons under the age of 15. Young offender institutions accommodate sentenced prisoners aged from 15 to 21. No children under the age of 15 are held in prison. The following figures refer to children and young people under the age of 18 as at the end of June in each year since 1997 held in prison establishments in England and Wales.
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
This table is taken from table 7.3 in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2007, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library, and at the following website:
The following table gives the numbers of 15 to 17-year-olds held under immediate custodial sentence in all prison establishments in England and Wales between 2003 and 2007, by offence:
| 15 to 17-year-olds | |||||
| Males and Females | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |