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13 Mar 2009 : Column 796W—continued

Michael Shields

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to take a decision in relation to whether to grant a pardon for Michael Shields; and if he will make a statement. [263412]

Maria Eagle: On 17 December the High Court decided that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor could consider an application from Mr. Shields for a free pardon and he immediately appointed senior counsel to advise him. On counsel's advice he asked the Merseyside police to look at certain matters arising on Mr. Shields' application.

My right hon. Friend is determined to make the best and fairest decision that he can, but he can do so only after properly assessing all of the material that is available and his consideration needs to be thorough. Regrettably he does not anticipate that it will be possible to make a decision before the end of May at the earliest.

13 Mar 2009 : Column 797W

National Offender Management Service: Temporary Employment

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been spent by the National Offender Management Service on (a) agency and (b) temporary staff in each financial year since its inception. [259774]

Mr. Straw: NOMS expenditure on agency and temporary staff is shown in the following table. Owing to the way data is recorded on accounting systems it is not possible to show a split between agency staff and temporary staff. Within NOMS centre and HMPS staff on short-term employment contracts are not included as their costs are included in overall salary account codes. For Probation—NPS—both agency staff and temporary staff are within the figures shown in the table. It would not be possible to split these figures without asking for work to be carried out at each business unit within the NOMS agency, which would incur disproportionate costs.

£
	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
NOMS	2,159,550	3,542,483	5,428,550	5,932,227
NPS	12,025,000	19,764,000	14,565,000	15,476,000
HMPS	45,883,000	30,999,000	25,028,000	21,461.000
Total	60,067,550	54,305,483	45,021,550	42,869,227

13 Mar 2009 : Column 798W

Offensive Weapons: Mentally Disturbed Offenders

Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people convicted of knife crimes have been admitted to a mental health institution in each of the last five years. [263132]

Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.

This information is not held centrally.

Police Custody

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners were held in police cells in each police force area in each month in the last three years; and at what cost. [262466]

Mr. Straw: Operation Safeguard was activated in mid-October 2006 and ended just before Christmas 2006. It was then re-activated between 16 January 2007 and 31 October 2008. Police cells have not been used since 22 September 2008 and no police cells have been on stand by since the end of October 2008.

The following tables detail usage by police force area between October 2006 and 31 October 2008 and gives the aggregated total of the number of prisoner nights in which a police cell was used. It is not possible to ascertain how many individual prisoners these totals cover.

Invoices to the value of £14,373,500 were paid for the activation of Operation Safeguard in the 2006-07 financial year, £50,687,200 for the 2007-08 financial year and £10,790,000 for the 2008-09 financial year (up to 31 December 2008).

13 Mar 2009 : Column 799W

13 Mar 2009 : Column 800W

	2006			2007
	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Avon and Somerset	—	—	—	24	1	32	6	20	6	1	6	6	11	9	0
Bedfordshire	—	—	—	6	0	52	51	73	60	0	3	56	55	43	15
Cambridgeshire	32	118	62	23	17	132	94	174	173	0	82	195	183	155	34
Cheshire	—	32	71	85	105	288	117	506	562	37	321	754	935	706	21
Cleveland	—	—	—	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Cumbria	—	—	—	0	3	36	25	77	78	0	0	7	77	48	0
Derbyshire	15	52	46	51	14	137	45	19	24	2	42	38	43	30	9
Devon and Cornwall	—	12	26	84	10	194	131	376	314	36	167	241	209	197	36
Dorset	3	38	30	26	7	66	52	85	92	0	10	1	0	40	1
Durham	—	11	31	24	9	73	58	216	189	6	120	188	204	134	5
Dyfed Powys	—	—	1	34	4	99	118	186	120	0	5	2	114	0	0
Essex	199	423	387	107	196	452	406	538	563	62	332	541	538	448	204
Gloucestershire	—	—	—	7	0	4	1	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
GMP	—	—	15	96	109	381	163	504	507	69	163	184	417	446	47
Gwent	—	—	—	17	0	18	2	14	38	38	160	225	240	191	19
Hampshire	—	—	65	70	31	220	77	50	226	37	183	203	221	210	27
Hertfordshire	—	—	40	26	27	89	90	184	140	11	125	201	175	115	33
Humberside	—	—		30	1	18	11	8	13	0	0	0	0	0	0
Kent	85	58	192	56	177	385	362	467	428	116	359	383	410	382	129
Lancashire	—	—	—	54	36	175	143	296	244	23	88	189	312	220	22
Leicestershire	—	—	—	0	6	1	151	379	542	64	334	491	460	366	176
Lincolnshire	27	109	32	71	32	233	81	204	263	0	26	246	251	135	27
Merseyside	—	111	85	3	0	51	3	40	24	0	4	32	7	6	0
MET	—	67	266	199	293	1061	902	1294	1622	73	947	1221	1320	1108	700
Norfolk	—	—	—	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	7	3	5	1	0
North Wales	8	6	—	30	11	144	121	467	379	0	0	0	385	243	5
North Yorkshire	—	—	—	3	0	3	3	10	7	0	2	2	2	6	1
Northamptonshire	32	118	69	68	21	241	122	249	254	0	3	53	108	78	35
Northumbria	—	—	—	36	46	193	63	254	216	0	3	55	228	148	0
Nottinghamshire	—	—	—	50	3	22	23	60	5	0	6	12	6	1	0
South Wales	14	52	15	47	9	110	67	281	237	19	123	128	112	244	24
South Yorkshire	—	—	—	8	0	27	27	202	221	0	54	122	190	135	29
Staffordshire	—	—	—	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
Suffolk	27	56	—	29	3	134	112	182	203	0	8	132	190	141	37
Surrey	—	—	—	33	0	10	14	20	11	0	3	16	0	0	0
Sussex	62	152	124	16	0	14	24	47	55	0	23	28	46	9	0
TVP	81	172	180	129	36	363	246	479	328	39	214	282	319	233	59
Warwickshire	12	46	35	30	1	125	49	138	158	2	70	200	175	189	54
West Mercia	—	—	—	14	0	6	4	8	5	25	1	0	0	0	0
West Midlands	30	235	305	155	62	755	330	1104	950	110	617	885	1044	827	120
West Yorkshire	—	—	45	188	16	337	165	396	578	40	328	518	567	448	91
Wiltshire	—	—	—	8	0	2	37	22	6	0	10	0	6	0	0
Total	627	1868	2122	1942	1286	6683	4498	9631	9845	810	4950	7840	9565	7693	1960

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