House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 16 Mar 2009 (pt 0032)

16 Mar 2009 : Column 958W—continued

Fraud: Credit

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted of credit fraud in each of the last five years. [263179]

Maria Eagle: There is no specific offence of ‘credit fraud’, but persons involved in fraudulent activity may have been prosecuted under various sections of the 1968 and 1978 Theft Acts and the 2006 Fraud Act. Data covering offences under the relevant sections of these acts for the number of persons proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts in England and Wales 2003 to 2007 are shown in the following table. The Criminal Statistics data for 2008 are due to be published in November 2009.

These data are on the principal offence basis. The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one 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.

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Number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for selected offences relating to fraud, England and Wales, 2003 to 2007^{( 1,)}^{( )}^{( 2,)}^{( )}^{( 3)}
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Proceeded against	13,733	11,882	10,182	8,171	8,515
Found guilty	10,018	9,072	8,001	6,484	6,539
^{(1 )}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. ⁽²⁾ 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. ⁽³⁾ Includes the following statutes and corresponding offence description: Theft Act 1968 sec 15. Obtaining property by deception. Theft Act 1968 sec 15A as added by Theft (Amendment) Act 1996 s.1. Obtaining a money transfer by deception. Theft Act 1968 sec 16 (1)(2)(b) and (c). Obtaining pecuniary advantage by deception (except railway frauds). Theft Act 1978 secs 1 and 2. Railway Frauds. Theft Act 1978 sec 1. Obtaining services by deception (except railway frauds). Theft Act 1978 sec 2. Evasion of liability by deception (except railway frauds). Fraud Act 2006 s.1(2a)(3)(4), 2(1a)(b ) Dishonestly makes a false representation to make a gain for himself or another or to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk. Fraud Act 2006 s.1(2a)(3)(4), 3(1a)(b) Dishonestly fails to disclose information to make a gain for himself or another or to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk. Fraud Act 2006 s.6 Possession etc. of articles for use in frauds Fraud Act 2006 s.7 Make, adapt, supply or offer to supply any article knowing that it is designed or adapted for use in the course of or in connection with fraud, or intending it to be used to commit or facilitate fraud Fraud Act 2006 s. 11 By any dishonest act obtains services for which payment is required, with intent to avoid payment this includes ‘Attaching a decoder to her television to enable viewing access to cable-satellite television channels for which she has no intention of paying’ Source: Evidence and Analysis Unit—Office for Criminal Justice Reform

House of Lords: Reform

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the Government plans to provide for the representation of (a) the Church of England and (b) other faith organisations within the House of Lords when it is reformed. [262920]

Mr. Straw: In the 2008 White Paper on Lords reform, the Government confirmed that in a wholly elected second chamber there would be no reserved seats for Church of England Bishops or for any other group. However, the position of the Church of England is that of the Church by law established, with the Sovereign as its Supreme Governor. The presence of Bishops in the House of Lords reflects the relationship between Crown, Parliament and the Church. The Government propose, therefore, that if there is to be an appointed element in a reformed second chamber, then there should be a number of seats reserved for Church of England Bishops.

The White Paper also proposed that the Appointments Commission should encourage applications from church and faith leaders as it likely that many would be strong candidates for appointment. The Government sought views on whether the Commission should be given a specific remit to provide for representation of faith groups, in its appointment processes.

Offenders

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have entered the criminal justice system for the first time in each of the last 10 years. [263177]

Mr. Hanson: Figures for the number of offenders receiving, for the first time, a caution or conviction in each year from 2000 and 2007, are shown in the table. These figures cover offenders of all ages who were recorded by police forces in England and Wales on the Police National Computer (PNC).

Number of persons cautioned^{( 1)} or convicted with no previously recorded cautions or convictions, as recorded by the police on the Police National Computer^{( 2)} , 2000-07, England and Wales
	Number of persons
2000	272,000
2001	272,000
2002	270,000
2003	282,000
2004	289,000
2005	316,000
2006	329,000
2007	327,000
⁽¹⁾ Including reprimands and final warnings for juveniles. ⁽²⁾ Excludes some summary offences and also some offences prosecuted by authorities other than the police.

The performance of the criminal justice system has improved significantly in recent years. The number of offences brought to justice has increased by 42 per cent. since 2001-02, from just over 1 million offences brought to justice in 2001-02 to 1.43 million in the year to June 2008.

These figures have been drawn from the police's administrative IT system which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. Figures are presented from 2000 onwards; the PNC data held by the Ministry of Justice from before 2000 is not considered sufficiently complete for use in the answer.

PA Consulting Group

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been paid to the PA Consulting Group for advice on prison reform in each year since the PA Consulting Group was first commissioned. [260041]

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Mr. Malik: The information requested is not readily available due to the fact there is no centralised contracting team in the Ministry of Justice. To obtain it would therefore incur disproportionate cost.

Parenting Orders

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many parenting orders have been issued in each of the last three years; and what the cost was of the provision of relevant parenting classes and other supportive activities during each year. [263173]

Mr. Hanson: In 2007-08, 1,649 parenting orders were recorded by youth offending teams. These were mostly for parents of a child aged 10 to 17 years who was convicted of an offence. The number of parenting orders recorded has increased slightly from the previous year, when there were 1,507. In 2005-06 a total of 1,505 parenting orders were recorded.

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More detail on parenting orders issued, including a breakdown of the different types, is available from the Youth Justice Annual Workload Data 2007-08, published by the Youth Justice Board (p29).

The amount spent on these parenting interventions and other supportive activities is dependent on local priority, and data are not collected centrally.

Prison Sentences

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people (a) under the age of 17 and (b) aged 17 to 21 years have received a custodial sentence in each of the last five years. [263172]

Mr. Hanson: The requested information is shown in the following table.

The proportion of under-18s sentenced to custody—in comparison with all under-18 disposals (court and pre-court)—has fallen in recent years from 4 per cent. to 3 per cent. That reflects a greater use of out-of-court disposals (according to the 2005-06 Youth Justice Board annual statistics).

Number of offenders aged under 17 and 17 to 21 given custodial sentences 2003-07
	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Immediate custody
Aged under 17	3,438	3,472	3,347	3,477	3,220
Aged 17 to 21	24,017	22,925	21,684	21,101	21,381
Total	27,455	26,397	25,031	24,578	24,601


Suspended sentence
Aged under 17	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Aged 17 to 21	103	93	1,036	5,925	7,198
Total	103	93	1,036	5,925	7,198
n/a = not applicable Note: These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. 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. Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice

Prisoners: Racial Harassment

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2009, Official Report, column 1216W, on prisoners: racial harassment, what steps he has taken to reduce the number of the incidents of alleged racism; and how many such incidents took place in each year from 1995 to 2007. [262944]

Mr. Malik: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is committed to eradicating all forms of racism. The recently published ‘Race Review 2008’, which is available in the library of the House, sets out the current assessment of race equality in the Prison Service and recognises that there has been considerable success in moving towards the elimination of more blatant forms of racism.

Among the ways in which this has been achieved is by making racist incident report forms (RIRFs) more accessible, we have also introduced a level of confidentiality, and improved confidence through increased external scrutiny of the reporting process locally.

This has resulted in an increase in the number of reported incidents. While all reported incidents are taken seriously, few consist of serious allegations of misconduct by staff, and all such matters are subject to disciplinary investigation under the code of conduct and discipline.

The following table presents the number of incidents of alleged racism reported by prisoners from 2004-05 to the present—prior to this there was no central record. The table distinguishes between reports about the behaviour of other prisoners and those concerning service provision or the actions of members of staff.

	Total	Prisoner behaviour	Services/actions of staff
2004-05	5,641	2,268	3,373
2005-06	6,912	2,719	4,193
2006-07	7,569	2,993	4,576
2007-08	8,051	2,758	5,293
2008-09⁽¹⁾	6,862	2,186	4,676
^{(1 )}Figures for 1 April to 31 December 2008

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Prisoners: Self-harm

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many incidents of self-harm by prisoners have (a) been reported and (b) required hospital treatment in each of the last three years; [262400]

(2) how many incidents of self-harm in each young offender institution by (a) juvenile prisoners and (b) young adult prisoners have (i) been reported and (ii) required hospital treatment in each of the last three years. [262401]

Mr. Straw: The number of reported self-harm incidents and the numbers which involved a hospital visit⁽¹⁾ are detailed in the following table:

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^{(1 )}Attendance at an external health care facility is, in part, dependent on the level of health care facilities available within the prison and attendance at hospital should not be used as an indicator of the severity of self harm incidents.

	Self-harm incidents	Number of hospital visits	Hospital visits as a percentage of incidents
2006	23,395	1,304	6
2007	22,875	1,373	6
2008	24,884	1,308	5

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