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3 Feb 2009 : Column 1175W—continued
Prisoners Release: Foreigners
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many foreign national prisoners formerly held in (a) HMP Canterbury and (b) HMP Bulwood Hall have been released. [254130]
Mr. Straw: In 2007, the most recent annual data available, a total of 7,450 foreign national prisoners were discharged from prison establishments in England and Wales. This includes those transferring to immigration centres, those removed from the country, and those released into the community. Of the total (7,450), 210 were released from HMP Bulwood Hall and 500 from HMP Canterbury. It is not possible to identify how many others were released from other prison establishments having previously been held in HMPs Bulwood Hall or Canterbury while serving their sentence.
These figures have been drawn from IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and so the numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Prisoners Release: Reoffenders
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offences of (a) murder, (b) attempted murder, (c) rape, (d) attempted rape and (e) homicide have been committed by offenders on release on temporary licence in each of the last five years. [252836]
Mr. Straw: To provide the information requested would involve the manual examination of many hundreds of individual records which could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much in subsistence payments has been made by (a) prison governors and (b) his Department to offenders on end of custody licence in each of the last 12 months. [252838]
Mr. Hanson: The available information is shown in the accompanying table. Figures for subsistence paid locally are collated on a quarterly basis; breaking this figure down monthly would entail revisiting local records at disproportionate cost. Figures for more recent months are not yet available.
When the end of custody licence (ECL) scheme was first introduced, offenders released for the maximum of 18 days received their subsistence payments in instalments through the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), who make payments on behalf of the Ministry of
Justice. Offenders released for less than 18 days were paid in full by prisons on release. From 23 June 2008, payment in instalments by DWP was extended to offenders spending 15 days or more on ECL, and the effect of this is shown in the table. From 15 December, payment in instalments by DWP has been further extended to offenders spending eight days or more on ECL.
| £ | ||
| Month | Paid centrally by Department of Work and Pensions on behalf of MoJ | Paid locally by prison establishments |
| (1 )Figure shown covers the three rows. | ||
Prisoners: Foreigners
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many foreign nationals are being held on indeterminate sentences for public protection; [252840]
(2) how many foreign nationals being held on indeterminate sentences for public protection have completed their minimum tariff. [252841]
Mr. Straw: The National Offender Management Service in the process of completing an audit of prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence of imprisonment for public protection and who are recorded centrally as being a foreign national. This audit is scheduled to be completed by the end of February, and I will write to the hon. and learned Member, providing the data which he has requested and will place a copy of the letter in the Library.
Prisoners: Per Capita Costs
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average annual overall resource cost per prisoner was in England and Wales in each of the last five years. [252691]
Mr. Hanson: The overall average resource cost per prisoner in England and Wales was:
| £ | |
| Note: Figures are to the nearest £500. | |
The average costs comprise the public sector establishments' direct resource expenditure as published in the Annual Report and Accounts of Her Majesty's Prison Service (HMPS), increased by an apportionment of costs borne centrally by HMPS and the National Offender Management Service; and the resource expenditure of contracted-out prisons also increased by certain costs borne centrally. This involves some estimation. Income from the Youth Justice Board (YJB) in respect of services recharged to the YJB is excluded in order to show the overall cost to the Ministry of Justice. The figures do not include prisoners held in police and court cells under Operation Safeguard, nor expenditure met by other Government Departments (e.g. for health and education). The amount of expenditure met by other Government Departments may have altered over the period, possibly affecting comparability of the figures. The prisoner escort service is included.
Prisoners: Voting Rights
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to undertake the second stage of consultation on prisoners' voting rights. [252816]
Mr. Straw: In response to the Hirst (No. 2) judgment, the Government committed to undertake a two-stage consultation process. The first stage concluded in March 2007. The Government remain committed to carrying out this a second, more detailed public consultation, but we have not yet set a time-scale for this.
Prisons: Drugs
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects Lord Patel’s Prison Drug Treatment Review Group to report their findings to him; and when he plans to publish the report and his response to it. [254135]
Mr. Hanson: The Prison Drug Treatment Strategy Review Group reports jointly to the Ministry of Justice and the Department of Health. Work on the review started in September 2008 and is expected to take two years to complete.
I expect to receive quarterly updates on progress and will report periodically to the House. A decision has yet to be taken on publication of the final report.
Prisons: Wind Power
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what representations (a) he, (b) Ministers and (c) officials in his Department have made to (i) the Department for Communities and Local Government and (ii) the Department for Energy and Climate Change on issues arising from the proposed siting of wind turbines near prisons; and if he will make a statement. [253821]
Mr. Hanson:
No direct representations have been made by Ministers or officials to the Department for Communities and Local Government or the Department for Energy and Climate Change on issues arising from the proposed siting of wind turbines near prisons. Officials would however comment on proposals submitted to them from local planning authorities such as in the case
of HMP Whitemoor and would approach local authority planning departments about any Ministry proposals to erect wind turbines on prison land. Officials are liaising with the Carbon Trust regarding potential prison land for the erection of wind turbines.
Speed Limits: Cameras
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many persons have been acquitted of speeding offences as a consequence of speed measure devices (a) not having been properly calibrated and (b) used by officers who have not received specialist training, in each of the last three years. [253004]
Maria Eagle: Statistical information collected centrally by my Department on the number of persons dealt with for offences of contravening speed limits does not identify the reason why the court, after hearing the evidence, decide the defendant is not guilty.
Victims of Crime
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of victims of crime reported satisfaction with the criminal justice system in each of the last 10 years. [252815]
Maria Eagle: From 2003-04 to 2007-08, victim satisfaction with the criminal justice system (CJS) was assessed through the British Crime Survey (BCS), as part of an overall measure of victim and witness satisfaction. The BCS is a survey of the general public and includes a question to those members of the public who have been victims or witnesses about their experience of the CJS. The following table shows results for England and Wales from the last six months of 2003-04 to the end of 2006-07.
| Victim and witness satisfaction with the CJS (British Crime Survey) | |
| Period | Percentage |
Since 2008, the public service agreement for the CJS has changed to use the Witness and Victim Experience Survey (WAVES) to measure victim and witness satisfaction with the CJS. WAVES surveys victims and witnesses whose cases resulted in a charge being brought. The survey was introduced to give more detailed feedback about the experience of victims and witnesses. Unlike the BCS, WAVES gives both national and Local Criminal Justice Board-level data and contains many more questions about every aspect of the CJS.
The following table shows results for England and Wales from 2007-08 (the latest available data).
| Victim and witness satisfaction with the CJS (WAVES) | |
| Period | Percentage |
There are a number of reasons why there is a disparity between the two sets of figures. The BCS is a survey of the general public and although it interviews nearly
50,000 people, this includes only a relatively small proportion of victims whose cases have gone all the way through the CJS. WAVES focuses specifically on victims whose cases have got to the stage of a charge being brought or beyond, and interviews nearly 40,000 victims and witnesses. Hence the two surveys sample different groups. The BCS and WAVES also use different measures of satisfaction. The BCS defined satisfaction as the percentage of victims who were fairly or very satisfied with the contact they had with the CJS. WAVES gives victims the choice of three different levels of satisfaction defining overall satisfaction as the percentage of victims who were fairly, very or completely satisfied with the contact they had with the CJS. This is the standard scale now used by most customer satisfaction surveys and allows a more detailed breakdown of different levels of satisfaction.
Witnesses
John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what procedures govern the selection and termination of appointments of witness intermediaries. [253006]
Maria Eagle: Intermediaries come from a range of professional backgrounds including speech and language therapy, psychology, occupational therapy, education and other health care professions. To register as intermediaries they must undergo a rigorous assessment process overseen by the Intermediary Registration Board. They are also required to successfully complete an initial five-day procedural training requirement introducing them to the criminal justice system before being placed on the register.
There is a formal complaints process where the users of the service—the police, prosecutors and defence—can raise a specific complaint about individual intermediaries which is then subject to investigation by a member of the Quality Assurance Board for Intermediaries. The remedies available include the removal of the intermediary from the intermediary register.
John Howell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what methods are used by witness intermediaries to interpret statements by those diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder. [253007]
Maria Eagle: The methods used by intermediaries to interpret statements by witnesses diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder will be determined by the intermediary concerned on a case by case basis in the light of their professional qualifications, training, experience and knowledge. Intermediaries come from a range of professional backgrounds including speech and language therapy, psychology, occupational therapy, education and other health care professions.
Duchy of Lancaster
Cabinet: Press
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he place in the Library a copy of the press cuttings pack prepared for the most recent meeting of the Cabinet. [249901]
Mr. Byrne: A press cuttings pack is not prepared for meetings of the Cabinet.
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