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3 Feb 2009 : Column 1172W—continued
Homophobia
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to bring into force section 74 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. [252829]
Mr. Straw: Commencement of the offences of stirring up hatred on grounds of sexual orientation has been delayed to ensure compliance with the e-commerce directive. This issue will be resolved by provisions proposed in the Coroners and Justice Bill. We intend to commence section 74 as soon as possible thereafter.
Legal Costs
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) whether the Government plans to increase court costs for conviction in the magistrates' court for failure to pay a television licence in line with the proposed increase in costs for an application for a liability order against council tax defaulters; [253250]
(2) whether he plans to allow magistrates' courts to (a) reduce and (b) remit court costs in proportion to means for (i) unemployed persons on means tested benefits and (ii) other cases of hardship. [253251]
Bridget Prentice: A consultation paper ‘Civil Court Fees’ (CP31/08) was published on 10 December 2008. The consultation period closes 4 March 2009. The paper proposes to increase fees in order to maintain full-cost recovery for civil business in the county courts and High Court and increase civil fees for the magistrates court to 100 per cent. cost-recovery. The current fee for an application for conviction within the magistrates court is in three stages, costing a total of £90. The consultation proposes a single fee of £250. There are no plans to increase the fee of £3 for an application for a liability order against council tax defaulters.
The Ministry of Justice is committed to ensuring that court fees do not prevent access to the courts for those less well-off. A system of fee concessions is available in the High Court, county court and magistrates courts to ensure those of limited means are not denied access to the courts because they genuinely cannot afford to pay the fees. The system allows a full remission or part remission of the court fee and is aimed at people who are in receipt of a specific means-tested benefit, whose income is below a prescribed limit and for some whose financial commitments leave them with little or no disposable income.
Magistrates
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make it his policy to increase or abolish the maximum age at which a person can serve as a magistrate. [252983]
Mr. Straw: There are no current plans to review the retirement age for magistrates, which is set in statute at 70 years of age.
Magistrates Courts: ICT
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether all magistrates' courts have access to full Libra functionality. [252831]
Bridget Prentice: All magistrates courts have access to full Libra functionality. The application was deployed to the final courts on 9 December 2008.
Mentally Disturbed Offenders
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) men and (b) women were (i) sentenced to prison, (ii) given community sentences and (iii) detained in appropriate hospital accommodation prior to sentencing in each of the last five years. [252574]
Mr. Hanson: Information is not available to answer the question as posed.
The numbers of males and females (all ages) sentenced to custodial and community sentences in the last five years for which data are available are given in the following table.
| Number of persons given custody( 1) or community sentences, 2003-07 | |||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| (1) Immediate and suspended custodial sentences. Note: 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. | |||||
The annual Statistical Bulletins of Mentally Disordered Offenders show that for England and Wales, over the last five years for which figures are available, the numbers of mentally disordered offenders admitted to hospital as restricted patients were:
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | |
These figures do not include hospital orders without restrictions, for which statistics are not available. The figures include a relatively large group transferred from
prison either after sentence, or while untried or unsentenced. They also include a smaller group admitted under a hospital order with restriction order. Additionally, they include some patients recalled to hospital by the Secretary of State, and very small numbers admitted from other parts of the United Kingdom (see Table 5 of ‘Statistics of Mentally Disordered Offenders 2006 England and Wales’). Bulletins on mentally disordered offenders can be downloaded from:
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many (a) men and (b) women were transferred from prison to appropriate hospital accommodation under the provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983 in each of the last five years; and what proportion waited over (i) six and (ii) 12 weeks for transfer; [252575]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of (a) male and (b) female prisoners who have (i) one and (ii) two or more mental health conditions together with an alcohol or substance abuse problem; [252681]
(3) what the average size of a mental health prisoner in-reach team is; and what the average number of prisoners in the prisons they serve is. [252683]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The data requested are not held centrally in the format requested.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been spent on (a) mental health in-reach services for prisons and (b) other mental health services in prisons in each of the last three years. [252682]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
Since 2006 £200 million has been invested each year, including £20 million every year on mental health in-reach services.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average time taken to undertake routine screening of prisoners for health problems was (a) on initial entry to a prison establishment and (b) subsequently in the latest period for which figures are available. [252684]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
All new prisoners have a first reception health screen undertaken on entry into custody, this initial health screen generally takes up to 30 minutes to complete. A second health screen which provides a more in depth history of an individuals health and allows for care and treatment to be planned, is completed within the first five days of being in custody.
We do not hold the figures requested centrally.
National Offender Management Service
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will appoint a director with responsibility for reducing reoffending to the National Offender Management Service Board. [253820]
Mr. Hanson: The director of commissioning and operational policy is the member of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Board responsible for reducing reoffending. In addition, the director-general of NOMS is the lead official for the delivery of the departmental strategic objective on protecting the public and reducing reoffending on the Ministry of Justice Corporate Management Board.
Police Custody
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost of Operation Safeguard was in each of the last three years. [252825]
Mr. Hanson: Invoices to the value of £14,373,500 were paid between October 2006 and March 2007, £50,761,500 between April 2007 and March 2008 and £9,894,750 between April 2008 and 31 October 2008 for activation of Operation Safeguard.
Prison Accommodation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) certified normal accommodation and (b) operational capacity of prisons in England and Wales was in each year since 1997. [252823]
Mr. Hanson: The following table provides the information requested. These details are taken from the end of year statistics provided by HM Prison Service.
| Certified normal accommodation (CNA) and occupational capacity for prisons in England and Wales Since 1997 | ||
| In-use CNA | Operational capacity | |
Prisoners Release
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what percentage of convicted murderers had served less than half of their custodial sentence at the point of release in the last five years; how many of them committed a serious crime in the six months after their release; and if he will make a statement. [252557]
Mr. Hanson: When an offender is convicted of murder, the courts must hand down a life sentence. Such a sentence will include a minimum tariff which must be served before the offender can be considered by the Parole Board for release. This tariff is set by the courts and is the minimum term required for retribution and deterrence, which is set in line with Section 269 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
As a rule, no life sentence prisoner is released before the expiry of their tariff, although there are provisions under the Section 30 of the Crime Sentences Act 1997 for the compassionate release of life or other indeterminate sentenced prisoners. Compassionate release is granted only in the most exceptional circumstances and normally only when the prisoner is terminally ill and close to death.
In the period of 2002-08. there were just 16 compassionate releases of life or other indeterminate sentence prisoners, none of whom have been reported as having gone on to commit further serious crimes.
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