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19 Jan 2009 : Column 1125W—continued
Magistrates Courts: Lyndhurst
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has for the future of Lyndhurst magistrates court. [249286]
Bridget Prentice: As part of the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), HMCS Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (HMCS HIOW) have to make efficiency savings over the next three years. No decisions have yet been made but there is a proposal to close Lyndhurst magistrates court temporarily and move its work to Southampton magistrates court, a modern purpose-built courthouse with courtroom capacity for the workload of Lyndhurst. Stakeholders will be consulted before any final decisions are made.
Dr. Julian Lewis:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what account he will take in determining the future of Lyndhurst magistrates court of (a) the assurances given to residents of Totton, the Waterside and the New Forest that the previous closure of the court facilities in Totton was being compensated for by new facilities in Lyndhurst and (b) expenditure on new court facilities in Lyndhurst when the court in Totton was closed; and what effect on the (i) workload of and
(ii) waiting times for courts in Southampton would result from the closure of Lyndhurst Magistrates' Court. [249287]
Bridget Prentice: A decision was taken in 1993 by the then Magistrates Courts Committee to close the five existing magistrates court facilities in the New Forest and replace these with a new facility at Lyndhurst. Any decision to close the magistrates court at Lyndhurst temporarily will take into account the needs of those who live and work in the New Forest area and their ability to access justice.
The cost of converting the police station building in Lyndhurst to a courthouse was £800,000. Southampton magistrates court currently has three courtrooms which are not used daily.
The workload of Lyndhurst can be easily accommodated in Southampton without any adverse impact and this would have no impact on waiting times.
Magistrates Courts: Welsh Language
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the Libra computer system will be able to provide magistrates court summonses in Welsh; and if he will make a statement. [249298]
Bridget Prentice: When the bilingual version of the new Libra IT system is introduced in Wales in September 2009, magistrates court summonses will be produced in Welsh as a matter of course. Until September 2009 summonses can be translated upon request within one working day.
National Offender Management Service
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what meetings staff of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) have held with ( a) the National Association of Probation Officers and (b) the Prison Officers' Association to discuss NOMS resources for (i) 2009-10 and (ii) 2010-11. [247072]
Mr. Straw: NOMS officials meet with NAPO officers and officials on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of Probation Service issues. Several recent meetings have included the subject of NOMS resources for (i) 2009-10 and (ii) 2010-11. In particular the chief operating officer briefed the trade unions, including NAPO, on budgets in November and the director general and chief operating officer met and discussed budgetary issues with NAPO full-time officials last week.
The NOMS Management Board meet on a quarterly basis with the POA NEC to discuss all matters relating to the operational management of the Prison Service and staff. The director general informs the POA NEC of any issues in relation to resources, during the course of the meeting. Issues are then subsequently discussed. There have been no specific meetings to discuss NOMS resourcing.
National Offender Management Service: Manpower
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff with (a) a probation background and (b) a prison background are currently employed in the National Offender Management Service at (i) Grade 7, (ii) Grade 6 and (iii) above Grade 6. [246928]
Mr. Malik: Information on the number of staff working within the Prison Service and National Offender Management Service headquarters in grades equivalent to grade 7, grade 6 and above grade 6, who have operational prison experience, is contained in the following table.
| Prison Service and NOMS HQ staff with operational experience, as at 30 November 2008 | ||
| Equivalent | With operational experience | Total staff |
The Probation Service does not collect information centrally on career histories. It is therefore not possible to provide figures of staff currently employed in senior roles who have progressed to that position from within the Probation Service.
National Probation Service for England and Wales: Greater Manchester
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what estimate he has made of the number of Probation Service staff expected to leave Greater Manchester probation area as a result of (a) natural wastage, (b) retirement and (c) redundancy in (i) 2009-10, (ii) 2010-11 and (iii) and 2011-12; [245490]
(2) what estimated share of national Probation Service savings the Greater Manchester probation area is expected to achieve in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12; [245491]
(3) what the forecast reduction in previously planned expenditure is for the Greater Manchester probation area in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12; [245492]
(4) what the flat cash grant allocation for the Greater Manchester probation area is for (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12. [245493]
Maria Eagle: The Ministry of Justice is seeking efficiency savings over the next three years as set out in the Department's annual report for 2007-08. As is the case across Government, the Probation Service will need to make efficiency savings.
The NOMS agency is providing guidance that will help achieve the savings by simplifying processes and reducing administration overheads but ultimately, staffing projections and decisions on the size and scope of any-staffing reductions will rest with the 42 areas and trusts who manage probation business at the local level.
The Greater Manchester probation area is expected to achieve approximately 5.2 per cent. of national efficiency savings required from the Probation Service. No efficiency savings expectations have yet been set for probation areas and trusts for 2010-11 or 2011-12.
Although some areas of the budget have yet to be finalised, the current indicative budget allocation for the Greater Manchester probation area for 2009-10 is approximately £51.1 million compared to £52.6 million in 2008-09. The difference of £1.5 million consists of £0.3 million training provision not yet allocated due to a full review of Probation Officer training currently
underway and efficiency savings of £1.2 million. No indicative budgets or efficiency savings expectations have yet been set for probation areas and trusts for 2010-11 or 2011-12.
The efficiency savings requirement for 2009-10 for the Greater Manchester probation area is in line with the national efficiency savings programme for the Probation Service and the NOMS Agency. The NOMS Agency is working to determine how the saving can be achieved in ways that protect front line services.
Parc Prison
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners there are in HM Prison Parc. [249337]
Mr. Hanson: At the end of November 2008, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 1,199 prisoners detained in Parc prison.
This information is available at the following website, which is updated monthly:
This 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.
Parc Young Offender Institution: Mental Health Services
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent discussions his Department has had with the Welsh Assembly Government on provision of mental health in-reach services at Parc Young Offender Institution. [247144]
Mr. Hanson: This is a matter for the Welsh Assembly Government and ongoing liaison takes place about the provision of mental health in-reach services at Parc Young Offenders Institution. The latest information is that the Local Health Board has submitted a draft business case for provision of Tier 2/3 Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to the Welsh Assembly Government and it is now under consideration.
Prisoners Transfers: Wales
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many transfers of prisoners (a) from prisons in Wales to prisons in England and (b) from prisons in England to prisons in Wales took place in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [249336]
Mr. Hanson: This information is not kept. To obtain this information would require a manual search through individual records for the past three years at a disproportionate cost.
Prisoners: Compensation
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 18 December 2008, Official Report, column 1023W, on prisoners: compensation, how many prisoners have instigated legal proceedings against his Department or its agencies under the Human Rights Act 1998 since the Act came into force. [247509]
Mr. Straw: The information requested is not held centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Many prisoners instigate legal proceedings, of these a proportion include reference to alleged breaches of human rights. In some cases the claim will be brought wholly on a Human Rights Act (HRA) basis and in others an HRA basis of claim will be one of a number of alleged grounds of claim. Whether HRA is relied upon entirely, or in part, or not at all legal proceedings, is to a considerable extent a choice of approach on the part of the claimant's lawyers as there is a considerable overlap between pre-existing domestic law rights and human rights.
Prisoners: Wales
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners ordinarily not resident in Wales are in prisons in Wales. [249335]
Mr. Hanson: Latest available data from September 2008 shows there were 433 prisoners held in prisons in Wales with a home address outside Wales.
Where no home address is listed for a prisoner the committal court is used as a proxy address.
Prisoners: Young People
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of people under the age of 18 were being held in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years. [247149]
Mr. Hanson: Information on the numbers of juveniles aged under 18 detained under sentence showing also their percentage of the prison population of England and Wales is contained in the following table.
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Notes: 1. 1999-07 taken from 7.3 in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2007. 2. 2008 taken from monthly published table for June 2008 | ||||||||||
The prison service does not normally accommodate 15 and 16 year old girls, only 17 year old girls.
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 which can also be found at the following website:
The figure for June 2008 was taken from the monthly briefing published at the following website:
This website is updated monthly.
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.
Prisons
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what progress has been made in his plans to build new prisons. [247722]
Mr. Straw: The Capacity Programme will deliver a total of 20,000 new places by 2014 through a number of new prisons, expansions at existing prisons, and more efficient use of the estate. To date, we have delivered over 4,200 places including a new prison, HMP Kennet (Merseyside), which became operational in June 2007.
Planning permission has been approved for new prisons at Belmarsh West (London), Belmarsh East (London; to be located within the existing Belmarsh boundary) and Maghull (Merseyside). Planning permission is currently being sought for new prisons at Featherstone (Wolverhampton), Littlehey (Cambridgeshire; to be located within the existing Littlehey boundary), and for the conversion of former RAF accommodation to a prison at Coltishall (Norfolk). We also plan to submit planning permission for a new YOI at Glen Parva (Leicestershire; to be located within the existing YOI boundary) later this year.
We will be publishing our response to the Prison Clusters (formerly known as Titans) consultation exercise by the end of this financial year. This response will set out more details on how we plan to develop these prisons.
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