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5 Feb 2009 : Column 1397W—continued
Inheritance Tax: Housing
Robert Neill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what internal guidance documents the Valuation Office Agency uses for valuing properties for inheritance tax purposes. [253897]
Mr. Timms: The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) internal guidance for valuing properties for inheritance tax purposes is contained in its Inheritance Tax Manual, which is available electronically on the VOA website at:
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many letters from hon. Members are yet to be answered by his Department; what the average time taken to reply to a letter from an hon. Member has been in each of the last six months; what his Department’s target time for responding to a letter from an hon. Member is; and how many such letters have not been answered within that timescale in the last six months. [251269]
Angela Eagle: The Cabinet Office annually publishes a report to Parliament on the performance of Departments in replying to Members correspondence, which is available in the Library of the House.
Mike Penning: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will reply to the letter sent to his Department by the hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead dated 29 October 2008, regarding tax credits. [253972]
Mr. Timms: A reply has been sent to the hon. Member.
Pay
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the answer of 19 November 2008, Official Report, columns 468-9W, in relation to what other groups (a) HM Revenue and Customs and (b) its predecessor bodies have conducted similar sample surveys. [254108]
Mr. Timms: Inland Revenue, and more recently HMRC, has carried out similar sample surveys in respect of general practitioners and NHS dentists. Results of recent surveys are published on The NHS Information Centre for health and social care website:
Revenue and Customs: Chorley
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what date HM Revenue and Customs office in Chorley is planned to be closed. [253941]
Mr. Timms: As announced in February 2008 HMRC is planning to vacate Lingmell House, Chorley by autumn 2010. No specific vacation date has yet been set. Inquiry centre services will be continued in the locality.
Leader of the House
Offenders: Employment
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Leader of the House what her Office's policy is on the employment of former prisoners.[253809]
Chris Bryant: I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the answer given by the Cabinet Office on 15 January 2009, Official Report, column 872W. The Leader’s Office is part of the Cabinet Office.
The Cabinet Office does not require applicants who have spent convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 to provide details of those convictions when seeking employment. Applicants with current convictions are not precluded from taking up employment and each case is considered on the basis of individual circumstances.
Justice
Cannabis: Cumbria
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many successful prosecutions for the possession of cannabis there have been in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland constituency in each of the last five years; [253618]
(2) how many (a) arrests, (b) prosecutions and (c) convictions there were of people from each district council ward in Copeland for (i) the possession and (ii) the supplying of cannabis in the last five years; [253757]
(3) how many of the successful prosecutions for the supplying of cannabis in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland involved (i) offenders resident outside of Cumbria and (ii) young offenders in the last five years; [253758]
(4) how many successful prosecutions for the supplying of cannabis there have been in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland in each of the last five years; how many of each resulted in a custodial sentence in each year; and how many resulted in offenders taking part in a drug rehabilitation programme in each year. [253759]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is set out as follows:
Information on the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for the possession and supply of cannabis in Cumbria for 2003 to 2007, broken down by age is in table 1.
Information on the number of defendants given a custodial sentence and given drug treatment and testing
orders for the supply of cannabis are in table 2. Drug treatment and testing orders were replaced in 2006 by community orders (not currently collected by the Ministry of Justice) which can comprise a number of possible requirements including a drug treatment programme.
Information held centrally on the Court Proceedings Database from which the data has been derived does not include information on constituencies and the residence of defendants.
The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, covering categories such as violence against the person, sexual offences and drug offences. From these centrally reported data, we are not able to identify specific offences from within the main offence groups.
Data are reported to the Home Office at police force area level only therefore further breakdowns of data by district council ward are not available.
| Table 1: Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for the possession and supply( 1) of cannabis, in the Cumbria police force area, 2003-07, broken down by age ( 2, 3) | |||||||||||
| Proceeded against | Found guilty | ||||||||||
| Offence | Age | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| (1) Includes “Supplying or offering to supply” and “Possession with intent to supply”. (2) 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. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Evidence and Analysis Unit, Office for Criminal Justice Reform. | |||||||||||
| Table 2: Custodial sentences and drug treatment and testing orders for supplying cannabis offences( 1) , Cumbria police force area, 2003-07 | |||||
| Supply | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| (1) Includes “Supplying or offering to supply” and “Possession with intent to supply”. (2) Now replaced by community order which can comprise a number of possible requirements including a drug treatment programme, however, these data are not currently collected by the Ministry of Justice. Notes: 1. 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. 2. These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. 3. These data are based on the principal offence basis. Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice. | |||||
Courts: Closures
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) courts and (b) hearing centres have closed in each year since 1997. [253582]
Bridget Prentice: Up until 1 April 2005 magistrates courts were the responsibility of locally managed magistrates courts committees who were statutorily independent. They were not required by statute to inform the Department of closures that were not subject to an appeal under section 56(3) of the Justices peace Act 1997 (now repealed).
The following table shows details of court closures within Her Majesty's Courts' Service, (including Crown, magistrates and county courts) since 1997.
| Closures | ||||
| Magistrates court | Crown court (satellites ) | County court | Total court | |
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