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26 Feb 2009 : Column 981W—continued
Visas: Overseas Students
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of time was to determine applications for foreign medical students to extend their student visas in the last period for which figures are available. [258630]
Mr. Woolas: The information is unavailable in the format requested and could be obtained by examination of individual case records and therefore only at disproportionate cost.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign students were (a) granted and (b) refused student visas for the purpose of completing medical training in the UK in the last period for which figures are available. [258632]
Mr. Woolas: The information is unavailable in the format requested and could be obtained by examination of individual case records and therefore only at disproportionate cost.
Justice
Care Proceedings: Fees and Charges
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average fee charged to local authorities on receipt of an application for care proceedings to the courts was in England and Wales in the latest period for which information is available. [257511]
Bridget Prentice: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer provided on 21 January 2009, Official Report, column 1555W.
The fee to issue an application under section 31 of the Children Act 1989 is fixed at £2,225. Two additional fees may be charged at a later stage of the process if the stages are required. A full list of fees for family proceedings is set out in the Family Proceedings Fees Order 2008. This order came into force on 1 May 2008.
Civil Servants: Pay
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many bonus payments were made in 2007-08 to (a) senior civil servants and (b) other staff of (i) the Judicial Appointments Commission and (ii) the Office of the Public Guardian in 2007-08; and how much was paid in total. [257746]
Mr. Malik: I refer the hon. and learned Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor on 23 February 2009, Official Report, column 347W.
Commonhold
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 28 October 2008, Official Report, column 851W, on commonhold, what issues the consultation document on commonhold tenure was intended to cover; and what the timetable for a decision on whether to publish is. [258020]
Bridget Prentice: No date has yet been set for the publication of the commonhold consultation paper. This paper is intended to identify any changes that need to be made to the commonhold legislation to address any actual or perceived barriers to take-up. Topics covered will include consideration of developer’s rights; cost sharing arrangements for complex developments; ways of providing shared ownership; conversion from leasehold and issues relating to termination.
As I said in my reply to the hon. Member for Peterborough, we are reviewing our plans for publication in the light of other priorities and I will make a statement when a decision has been made.
Cremation: Standards
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) with reference to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) of 25 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1291-92W, on Department for Constitutional Affairs Cemetery and Burials Advisory Group, and the minutes of the meeting of the Advisory Board on 25 February 2008, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of the meetings of the sub-group on guidance on memorial safety; [258022]
(2) with reference to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) of 25 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1291-92W on Department for Constitutional Affairs Cemetery and Burials Advisory Group, and the minutes of the meeting of the Advisory Board on 25 October 2007, if he will place in the Library a copy of the completed survey data report undertaken in association with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health on the number and cost of local authority welfare funerals; [258023]
(3) with reference to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) of 25 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1291-92W on Department for Constitutional Affairs Cemetery and Burials Advisory Group, and the minutes of the meeting of the Advisory Board on 23 March 2007, if he will place in the Library a copy of the opinion on memorial safety prepared by the Church of England Legal Advisory Commission and circulated to members of the Advisory Group; [258024]
(4) with reference to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) of 25 November 2008, Official Report, columns 1291-92W, on the Department for Constitutional Affairs Cemetery and Burials Advisory Group, and the minutes of meetings of the Advisory Board of 9 March 2006, if he will place in the Library a copy of the report on memorial safety produced by Mr. Jon Wallsgrove for Coroners Division; [258025]
(5) if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of each meeting of his Department's Burials and Cemeteries Advisory Group in the last 24 months. [258063]
Bridget Prentice: All agreed minutes of the Advisory Group meetings are already available from the Library. The draft minutes of the last meeting in October 2008 will be considered next month and, once agreed, a copy will be provided for the Library. I am also arranging for copies of the minutes of the meetings of the memorial safety sub group to be placed in the Library, together with copies of the other material requested.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make it his policy for his Department to sign the Information Commissioner's Personal Information Promise. [258971]
Mr. Wills: The Government welcomed the Promise as a commendable initiative to raise awareness of the importance of effective data protection safeguards, particularly for those organisations with no similar commitments already in place.
The Government take data protection very seriously. Following the Cabinet Office Review of Data Handling Procedures in Government, Departments have implemented a raft of measures to improve data security.
We are considering actively with the ICO how the Promise might add additional value to those measures we have already signed up to. These include the Information Charters, the recommendations of the Data Handling Review and the Thomas/Walport Review and, of course, our legal obligations under the Data Protection Act and other legislation and regulations.
Departmental Internet
Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which documents series which his Department and its predecessors formerly published in paper form have been made available solely via his Department’s website in the last five years. [257466]
Mr. Wills: Ministry of Justice (MOJ) uses its website to publish its documents as the primary delivery channel for external audiences including the direct.gov and HMSO websites.
There are low levels of hard copies produced for some documents for internal use and some documents are produced in alternative formats when requested.
MOJ can identify a series of IT security guides and research and statistical papers that were formerly published in paper form and are now solely produced online. A list of these is as follows.
The Ministry is using electronic publishing wherever possible to reduce print costs, be more environmentally sustainable and to provide access for as wide an audience as possible.
Statistical publications from May 2007 to February 2009;
Company winding up and bankruptcy petitions;
Mortgage and landlord possession statistics.
Criminal Statistics Annual Report;
Race and the Criminal Justice System;
Motoring Offences and Breath (Tests);
Arrests—recorded annually;
Women and the Criminal Justice System;
Average time from arrest to sentencing for persistent young offenders.
Sentencing Statistics for England and Wales (quarterly);
HM Courts user surveys;
Time intervals for criminal proceedings in magistrates courts;
Local variation in sentencing;
End of custody licence releases and recalls;
Mentally disordered offenders.
Offender Management caseloads;
Population in custody;
Prison population projects 2008 to 2015;
Probation statistics brief.
Re-offending of adults 2006 results;
New measures for re-offending;
Re-offending of juveniles 2006 results;
Local adult re-offending.
Coroners—statistics on deaths reported;
Survey of burial grounds—results of a survey in England and Wales.
Freedom of Information Act: Implementation in Central Government (quarterly).
Since June 2008 research reports and summaries released by the research and analysis directorate as part of the Department’s research series, have been subject to electronic publication on the MOJ website at
Research publications since June to November 2008:
Explaining attitudes towards the justice system in the UK and Europe;
Restorative justice and re-offending;
Witnesses and victim experience survey: early findings;
Implementing services for women offenders and those ‘at risk’ of offending;
County court antisocial behaviour co-ordinators—a pilot scheme;
Early evaluation of the victims of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act;
Inform, persuade and remind—An evaluation of a project to improve public confidence in the criminal justice system;
The problems and needs of newly elected prisoners;
Factors linked to re-offending;
Evaluation of the victims’ advocate scheme pilots;
Piloting penalty notices for disorder on 10 to 15-year-olds.
IT Security Guides for internal use only
IT Security Awareness Guide;
Remote Working and Mobile Computing Guide;
IT Systems Operations and Management Security Guide;
Project Manager’s Guide to IT Security.
IT product catalogue and order forms for internal use only
catalogue for former Aramis users;
catalogue for former Libra users;
catalogue for former LOCCS users;
plus order form.
Departmental Written Questions
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 22 January 2009, Official Report, columns 1597-98W, on departmental written questions, which question for which the cost of answer was estimated to be over the disproportionate cost threshold was answered. [258701]
Mr. Wills: The question that was estimated to be in excess of the disproportionate cost threshold was tabled in March 2008 by Baroness Stern (HL2252). It asked how many new imprisonable offences have been created since May 1997. The information was collated manually across the whole of Government therefore my noble Friend Lord Hunt gave an undertaking to write to Baroness Stern in his answer of 24 April 2008, Official Report, column WA314, when the information was available. My noble Friend Lord Bach wrote to Baroness Stern on 24 November with a full response. A copy of the letter was also placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Discrimination: Civil Proceedings
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) companies and (b) other organisations have (i) been subject to a legal claim of discrimination and (ii) lost a discrimination claim (1) twice, (2) from three to five times, (3) from six to 10 times, (4) from 11 to 20 times and (5) 21 times or more in the last four years; and if he will make a statement. [258359]
Bridget Prentice: The Employment Tribunal does not keep the information which the hon. Member has requested in readily available format. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Tribunal keeps data on the total number of appeals received, the discrimination jurisdiction and the number of appeals where claimants have been successful.
| Table 1: Discrimination claims accepted 2004-05 to 2007-08 | ||||
| Discrimination jurisdictions: sex, race, disability, equal pay, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age | ||||
| Discrimination jurisdiction | Financial years | |||
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Notes: 1. Age discrimination jurisdiction came into force in October 2006. 2. This data is for ALL. organisations subject to a legal claim of discrimination. Source: FT Annual Statistics 2004 to 2007 and ET Central Database. | ||||
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