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2 Feb 2009 : Column 929W—continued
Prisons
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what progress his Department has made towards its objective of increasing the prison capacity in England and Wales to 86,000 by September 2009. [252343]
Mr. Hanson: We estimate that prison capacity in England and Wales will reach 86,000 places around November 2009.
We are expanding prison capacity by 20,000 places and aim to achieve an overall net capacity of just over 96,000 by 2014.
Reoffenders
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offenders placed on the end of custody licence scheme have been recalled to custody since the scheme's inception; and how many of the alleged further offences committed were (a) robbery, (b) burglary, (c) theft and handling, (d) fraud and forgery, (e) drug offences, (f) rape, (g) attempted rape and (h) other sexual offences. [252345]
Mr. Straw: 47,515 offenders have been placed on the end of custody licence scheme (ECL), of whom 1,594 (approximately 3 per cent.) have been recalled to custody from the start of the scheme on 29 June 2007 to 31 December 2008.
Independent of the number of recalls is the number of offenders notified to the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) as having allegedly re-offended during their period of ECL. NOMS may be notified of an alleged further offence for which it is not possible to recall the offender to custody because, for example, the ECL period has expired by the time the offender is charged with the offence.
Between 29 June 2007 and 31 December 2008, 712 offenders were notified to NOMS as alleged to have committed a total of 959 further offences while on the scheme. The following table shows the types of offences allegedly committed in the categories requested.
Special Educational Needs: Tribunals
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many appeals to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal were made by a local authority children's services department on behalf of a looked-after child in 2007-08. [251770]
Bridget Prentice: The First-Tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability), known as Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST) prior to 3 November 2008, does not retain any statistical information on how many appeals are made by Local Authority Children's Services Departments on behalf of looked-after children. This information could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
The tribunal keeps data on the total number of appeals, the type of appeal, the category of the special educational need, the outcome of the appeal and the length of time to reach a decision.
In 2007-08, SENDIST received a total of 3,396 appeals.
Television: Licensing
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people per 10,000 of the population in each region of the UK were prosecuted for non-payment of television licence fees in each of the last three years. [253086]
Maria Eagle: Information on the number of persons per 10,000 of the population proceeded against for television licence evasion in England and Wales from 2005 to 2007 (latest available), broken down by region is in the following table. Information data held by the Ministry of Justice only cover England and Wales.
The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the principal offence is the offence 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.
Valuation Office: Land Registry
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer of 7 January 2008, Official Report, columns 153W, on Land Registry Direct, what property data the Land Registry Direct Service provides to the Valuation Office Agency. [252150]
Mr. Wills: The Valuation Office Agency will be able to obtain the same information as any other users of Land Registry’s services, whether they are in the public or private sector. As users of Land Registry Direct the Valuation Office Agency will have access to our register. The Land Register has been available for public inspection since December 1990 and Official Copies of registers, title plans and deeds and most documents referred to on the register can be obtained by post or electronically. The information included on a register is:
title number of property or land
the tenure (freehold or leasehold)
the price paid (where available)
the name of the registered proprietor(s)
lease details (deed date, term, rent)
property address, including town name
property description (detached, flat etc)
local authority name.
There are over 22 million titles registered with Land Registry covering England and Wales.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer of 25 November 2008, Official Report, column 1317W, on the Valuation Office: Land Registry, how much the Valuation Office Agency paid the Land Registry for access to the Land Registry Direct Service in the latest year for which figures are available. [252165]
Mr. Wills: There is no charge to access Land Registry Direct. All registered users, whether public or private sector, hold a credit account and only pay for particulars that they download.
Health
Asthma
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) children and (b) adults were admitted to hospital due to asthma in the last five years. [252155]
Ann Keen: The Department uses information from Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) for data of this kind. HES is the national statistical data warehouse for England of the care provided by national health service hospitals and for NHS hospital patients treated elsewhere. The data are freely available from:
For hospital admissions for asthma the HES data are not broken down by age, but they are broken down into age categories of 0-14 years old and 15 plus years old for finished episodes of asthma. Note that a patient may have more than one episode for each hospital admission, which explains why episode data exceed admission data in the following table. Data are currently only available for the five years previous to 2006-07, collected from April to April:
| Admissions | Episodes (ages 0-14) | Episodes (ages 15 plus) | |
Breast Cancer: Screening
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the (a) current and (b) planned capacity in each of the next five years is for the number of breast screenings in each primary care trust; and if he will make a statement; [252381]
(2) what steps his Department has taken in preparation for the planned extension of breast screening; and if he will make a statement. [252411]
Ann Keen: Information on current and planned capacity for breast screening in each primary care trust (PCT) is not collected centrally. It is for PCTs, in partnership with strategic health authorities, local services and other local stakeholders, to determine how best to use their funds to meet the healthcare needs of their local populations. PCTs are required to provide breast screening services for their eligible populations. They are responsible for ensuring that breast screening services are delivered to national standards.
The NHS Breast Screening Programme is a huge success, saving an estimated 1,400 lives each year. It is now screening more women and detecting more cancers than ever before. In 2007-08, 1.71 million women were screened and 14,110 cancers were detected.
We are extending routine breast screening to women between the ages of 47 and 73 years, with a guarantee that women will have their first screening before the age of 50. As a result, over 400,000 more women will be screened each year. This extension is being managed by NHS Cancer Screening Programmes in partnership with local health services and will be piloted in six sites from January 2009. The pilots will meet strict quality and performance criteria and will act as a learning platform to enable remaining services to model their rollout plans. Full implementation of the breast screening extension across England is due by the end of 2012.
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