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2 Mar 2009 : Column 1254W—continued
Mr. Straw: The proposed information sharing clauses in the Coroners and Justice Bill would provide the power to make information sharing orders, providing certain conditions are met. The power in the Bill does not, in itself, allow personal information to be shared. Therefore, we do not plan to carry out a privacy impact assessment on the proposals in the Bill; rather such assessments will be a mandatory requirement for all orders proposed under the power in the Bill.
Crime: Economic Situation
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he has any plans to provide additional resources to (a) the police, (b) the courts, (c) the probation service and (d) prisons as a consequence of any changes to the level of crime during 2010 and 2011 resulting from the recession. [258568]
Maria Eagle: I refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor’s reply on 3 February 2009, Official Report , column 1166W. There are no plans to increase the Department’s budget, which was agreed in the comprehensive spending review 2007. Forecasts of demand for services have been taken into account when agreeing allocations to business groups for 2009-10, and there are no plans to provide additional resources for this year. Forecasts of demand will again be taken into account when agreeing financial allocations to departmental business groups for 2010-11, but these have not yet been agreed. The Department has set up a Performance and Efficiency programme to deliver ways of working more efficiently in order to deliver our objectives from within existing budgets. Police funding is the responsibility of the Home Office and not the Ministry of Justice.
Crime: Victims
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent steps his Department has taken to improve the services provided to victims of crime. [258855]
Maria Eagle: The Government have a comprehensive strategy to help victims of crime access appropriate services. We recently appointed a victims champion who will listen to the views of victims and the community and make recommendations on how to improve the system.
Since introducing a statutory code of practice for victims of crime which established minimum rights for victims, we continue to embed best practice across the CJS agencies. This includes working with local criminal justice boards to ensure they have comprehensive victim and witness strategies that make a difference on the ground.
We recognise the importance of working with third-sector organisations to deliver direct services for victims. We recently provided additional funding for the national organisation Victim Support to introduce an improved business process, so that victims can be contacted more quickly, have their needs assessed and offered a wider range of practical services than was previously available.
The Government have invested further resources into specialist services for victims. This includes sexual assault referral centres, independent domestic violence and sexual
violence advisors and national and local specialist third-sector organisations. We have also made legal changes that will impact on certain victims: for example we ratified the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against the Trafficking in Human Beings creating minimum protection rights.
The recently published Youth Crime Action Plan sets out how we will improve support for young victims of crime. The plan has been developed jointly between the OCJR, Ministry of Justice, the Department for Children Schools and Families and the Home Office.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority’s major reform programme completely overhauled the case working processes. This included the introduction of geographically based teams; a new in-house telephone support service and the development of a new case working model placing greater emphasis on applicant support and focussing resources at the front end of the case working process.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been spent on (a) maintaining, (b) decorating and (c) otherwise improving departmental buildings in each year since the Department's inception; how much has been spent on wallpaper in that time; and what plans there are for further spending on departmental decoration. [248803]
Maria Eagle: The total expenditure for the provision of maintenance, decoration and additional costs to the Ministry of Justice HQ estate for period May 2007 to November 2008 is £4,099.439. There are no current plans for future spend on departmental decoration for the next two years on the HQ estate.
Departmental Furniture
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many items of furniture (a) were purchased and (b) remained in use following the refurbishment of 102 Petty France. [252834]
Mr. Straw: Phase 1 of the London Accommodation Programme (LAP) rationalised a number of MOJ buildings:
Selborne House (1,209 staff)
Abbey Orchard Street (353 staff)(1)
Steel House (221 staff)
together with a further six London locations, affecting an additional 330 staff. This has resulted in 2,113 staff moving into the refurbished 102 Petty France.
(1 )Abbey Orchard Street was released fully furnished to Legal Services Commission
The original design capacity of the refurbished 102 Petty France was for 2,275 desks. Through the introduction of flexible workspace arrangements—moving
from a 1:1 to an 80 per cent. average desk allocation and utilising 1600mm workstations—by August 2009, 102 Petty France will be able to accommodate approximately 3,300 staff. This will enable MoJ to reduce further the number of buildings it occupies. The projected savings from this estate rationalisation are approximately £10 million per year.
An early review of existing furniture in the affected offices identified three broad categories:
suitable for re-use within 102 Petty France:
suitable for re-use within MoJ and other Government departments;
furniture at the end of life and/or requiring refurbishment.
Damaged or unsuitable furniture has been disposed of via Greenworks—a not-for-profit enterprise—who will refurbish and distribute to charities, schools or small businesses.
This “cascade” policy has resulted in a zero landfill outcome. The units are summarised in the following table:
| Furniture group | Purchased | Re-used | Greenworks |
Departmental Plants
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department spent on cut flowers in each of the last three years. [256175]
Maria Eagle: The purchase of cut flowers has now ceased across the estate. Upon retender of the FM contract, the provision of cut flowers was seen as an area for immediate cost reduction and duly ceased in August 2008.
The total expenditure for the cut flowers across the Ministry of Justice HQ estate (formerly Department of Constitutional Affairs) between fiscal years 2006 to 2009 is shown in the following table:
| £ | |
Government Departments: Privacy
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 15 January 2009, Official Report, column 871W, on Government Departments: privacy, how many privacy impact assessments for Government projects have been commissioned. [258662]
Mr. Straw: No central records are kept of the number of privacy impact assessments (PIAs) commissioned by Government Departments. The Data Handling Review mandated that all Government Departments carry out PIAs on new policies affecting privacy; there is no obligation to report these to MoJ.
Judges: Public Appointments
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) black persons, (b) Asian persons, (c) women and (d) men were appointed as judges in 2008. [256677]
Mr. Straw: There were 309 salaried judges and fee-paid judges appointed to courts and tribunals in England and Wales in 2008. Of these, 117 (37.8 per cent.) were women and 192 (62.1 per cent.) were men. We do not hold the ethnic breakdown in the form requested, but 28 (9 per cent.) appointees described their ethnicity as other than white, with 17 (5.5 per cent.) appointees not responding.
Offenders: Housing
Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what period (a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public will have to make representations to agents acting for the National Offender Management Serviceprior to any purchase of property for subsequent use as housing under accommodation and support services for bail and home detention curfew provision. [259843]
Mr. Hanson: It is my practice to write to the appropriate hon. Member when this service is made available in his or her constituency. Planning permission is not required and there is no formal period for representations. For the most part the houses used for this service are leased, not purchased, by the contractor. The houses are the private rented homes of those living in them and it is not appropriate to consult local residents or the wider public. People bailed by the courts or released from prison return to live in the community without hon. Members or the public having any input as to where they may reside. It would be inappropriate and inequitable to identify as defendants or offenders those living at an address rented through ClearSprings when others on bail and home detention curfew living at private addresses are not subject to such identification. The contractor does consult the police, local authority and probation about the location of properties and they are provided with the opportunity to provide comments.
Hon. Members may write to the contractor at any time and I am always ready to consider representations from hon. Members before or after houses for this service are established in a constituency. The National Offender Management Service, regional offender managers and directors of offender management determine where the contractor is asked to source property. The requirement is defined in terms of towns and boroughs, not by constituency.
Members of the public are of course free to write at any time to the contractor, to the Ministry of Justice or to myself.
Offenders: Rehabilitation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of offenders on the end of custody licence schemes have not completed their rehabilitation while in prison. [257638]
Mr. Straw:
Rehabilitation may be a long and complex process and it is not always possible to determine when it is complete. Rehabilitation may continue to be provided on release from prison; this may be in the form of supervision by Probation Services according to sentence length, and/or assistance with accommodation, employment, resettlement, programmes, treatment or
other support. This is risk and needs-assessed on an individual basis and in accordance with the sentence plan.
In custody, of the prisoners who participated in offending behaviour programmes in 2007-08. 0.03 per cent. failed to complete due to release and during the same period 5 per cent. of prisoners failed to complete drug treatment programmes due to release. The percentage of these who were released on ECL cannot be disaggregated without disproportionate cost as each prisoner record would have to be checked individually.
Prisoners required to undertake a treatment programme as a condition of their supervision licence are excluded from release on ECL unless arrangements can be made for the programme to be followed in the community.
Political Parties: Finance
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will review the regulations relating to donating to political parties in order to encourage smaller donations from a wider number of individuals. [259035]
Mr. Wills: There are no such plans. The Government believe it is for political parties to decide how to conduct their fundraising activities within the legislative framework. One potential option to change the legislative framework would be to introduce a cap on the level of permissible donations, and an associated increase in the amount of public funding available to parties. This option was put to the major political parties following the review conducted by Sir Hayden Phillips in 2007. However, the inter-party talks that followed that review did not result in agreement to proceed with the wider package of reforms that Sir Hayden recommended to the party funding legislation.
The Government’s White Paper, “Party finance and expenditure in the United Kingdom” (CM7329) considered the issues of donation caps and public funding in considerable detail. The Government believe that any arrangements for increased public funding and associated cap on donations would need to be considered carefully as part of a wider public debate. There would need to be clear support from both the public and political parties before such steps could be taken. It is not clear that such a broad consensus of support currently exists. However, the Government stands ready to continue that debate.
Prisoners Release: Reoffenders
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many mandatory life sentence prisoners released on licence in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available have reoffended, broken down by offences committed. [258190]
Mr. Hanson: The only centrally held data on prisoners who reoffend while on licence are in respect of those offenders who are recalled to prison for reoffending. This information is available only from 2003 onwards.
Our records show that for the period from 1 January 2003 until 17 February 2009, there were 758 releases recorded of mandatory life sentenced prisoners, of which 48 (6.3 per cent.) were recalled and subsequently found guilty of a further offence or offences.
In addition, we have recorded a further 17 who were released prior to 2003, were recalled over the same period and subsequently found guilty of a further offence or offences.
This gives a total of 65 mandatory life licences recalled and convicted for further offences from 1 January 2003 to 17 February 2009.
The offences committed while on licence are listed as follows in order of recall.
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