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4 Feb 2009 : Column 1211W—continued
Departmental Pensions
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department is taking to advise staff of pension options available to them in relation to added years or additional voluntary contributions. [253272]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) asks new and re-employed civil servants to complete a pension questionnaire which enables them to be sent details of the pensions options available to them on joining the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS). On the basis of their reply, information is subsequently provided to them on added years and additional voluntary contributions.
For existing staff, information is available on the Ministry of Justice’s intranet site. This site also directs staff to the Civil Service Pensions website and provides contact details for Capita Hartshead who are the Ministry of Justice’s Authorised Pensions Administration Centre (APAC), both of which can also provide information about these options to interested staff. NOMS staff have access to the Ministry of Justice intranet and can phone the Home Office Pension Service (NOMS APAC) help desk for advice and are also provided with details of the Civil Service Pensions website address when they join.
The purchase of added years was replaced by added pension from 1 March 2008 and this change was given prominent publicity in June 2007 and again in February 2008.
From time to time, relevant pension-related information is published on the Ministry of Justice’s intranet and brought to the attention of employees.
Information on the 36 probation boards and six probation trusts has not been included, as their members of staff are not employees of the Ministry of Justice. Probation staff are generally eligible for membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Glen Parva Young Offenders Institution
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when the building of the planned extension of Glen Parva Young Offenders Institution will be (a) started and (b) completed; how many additional places and what facilities for young offenders the extension will provide; what facilities currently available will be removed; and what the total cost will be of the extension. [253352]
Mr. Hanson: Solutions are being developed on behalf of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) to build a new prison adjacent to the site of the existing Glen Parva YOI; this is not an extension to the existing Glen Parva YOI for young adult males.
Planning permission is due to be submitted in the summer of 2009. If this is granted, work is anticipated to start in late 2009 and expected to be completed in early 2012.
The new prison will create approximately 360 new prison places and, as this is a new self-contained prison for young men aged 15-17, no existing facilities will be removed from the existing establishment. The development at Glen Parva will include facilities for young people to take part in a variety of training and education activities to help them gain the necessary skills they need on release to help reduce their risk of reoffending. The total cost of the project has not been determined and will be subject to competition over the next six to eight months.
Legal Services Ombudsman
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many (a) applications and (b) successful applications for judicial review of decisions made by the Legal Services Ombudsman have been made in each year since 2002; [253131]
(2) how many (a) applications and (b) successful applications for judicial review of decisions made by the Legal Services Ombudsman there have been in each year since 2002. [253318]
Bridget Prentice: Although the Legal Services Ombudsman is independent of Government, we understand from her annual reports that:
In 2004-05, 14 applications for Judicial Review were made. None were successful.
In 2005-06, eight applications were made. None were successful.
In 2006-07, nine applications were made. None were successful.
In 2007-08, eight applications were made. Five have been unsuccessful. The three remaining cases continued into 2008-09 and were subsequently unsuccessful.
According to the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman there are no records available to confirm the number of applications for Judicial Review between 2002-04.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent representations he has received on the performance of the (a) Legal Services Ombudsman and (b) Legal Complaints Service. [253284]
Bridget Prentice: The Legal Services Regulation and Redress Division (LSRRD) in the Ministry of Justice is responsible for the policy relating to the regulation of legal services in England and Wales.
During 2008, LSRRD received 56 representations regarding the performance of the Legal Services Ombudsman, and 37 representations regarding the performance of the Legal Complaints Service.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many complaints he has received regarding decisions made by the Legal Services Ombudsman in each of the last five years. [253319]
Bridget Prentice: The Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman is independent of Government. Therefore, the Department does not deal with complaints regarding decisions made by the ombudsman.
The ombudsman’s report in individual cases is final and there is no appeal against it. However, consumers can challenge her decisions in the courts through application for Judicial Review.
Magistrates: Age
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many magistrates are aged between (a) 20 and 29, (b) 30 and 39, (c) 40 and 49, (d) 50 and 59 and (e) 60 and 69 years old. [253157]
Bridget Prentice: The information requested is as follows:
| The age of magistrates as at 28 January , 2009 | |
| Age | Number |
Mental Health Tribunals
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether specialist legal advice is routinely made available to people who are the subject of a mental health tribunal. [253296]
Mr. Malik: Legal aid is available for representation in the first-tier tribunal and upper tribunal for mental health proceedings. It is available without reference to the means of the applicant in the first-tier tribunal.
National Mediation Helpline: Finance
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what funding his Department provided to the National Mediation Helpline in each of the last three years. [253585]
Bridget Prentice: Since the launch of the National Mediation Helpline in March 2005, the year on year costs are as shown in the following table:
| Justice Department funding of the National Mediation Helpline, 2005- 08 | |
| £ | |
Prison Accommodation
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many new prison places he plans to provide by 31 December 2009. [253677]
Mr. Hanson: At 31 December 2009 we will have delivered over 6,000 new prison places since April 2007. This includes over 2,100 new prison places in 2009.
Prisoners Release: Reoffenders
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people released from prison less than half way through their sentence had reoffended before the date originally set for the end of the sentence in each of the last three years, broken down by offence. [253388]
Mr. Hanson: Information about the length of time that a prisoner spent in prison cannot be extracted from the Police National Computer database and we do not collate this information from the prisoner discharge dataset in the production of reoffending data. These are the two key sources for producing statistics on reoffending following a discharge from prison.
Further information on the one year rates of reoffending can be found at
Prisoners: Bullying
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what measures are in place to prevent bullying of prisoners by other inmates. [253154]
Mr. Malik: Since 2004, every public sector prison has been required to have in place a local violence reduction strategy. From mid 2007 this policy has been applied to both the public sector and contracted estate. Under the strategy each prison is required to undertake regular analysis of any problem areas, consider solutions and provide an action plan to improve personal safety and reduce violence. All closed establishments are required to undertake a cell-sharing risk assessment to inform cell allocation. The violence reduction strategy is due to be reviewed during 2009.
Prisoners: Islam
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of prisoners in each high security prison in each of the last five years were Muslim. [253160]
Mr. Hanson: Figures showing the numbers and percentages of Muslim prisoners in each high security prison establishment in England and Wales on 30 June each year can be found in the following table.
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.
| Numbers and proportions of Muslim prisoners by each high security prison, June 2004 - June 2008. | ||
| Prison | Muslim prisoners | Percentage of total |
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