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17 Mar 2009 : Column 1123W—continued
No European parliamentary elections have been held in the last three years.
The names of individual returning officers are not held centrally. Under section 28 of the RPA 1983, the duties of the returning officer for constituencies at a parliamentary election will be discharged by the Electoral Registration Officer appointed by the local authority (as acting returning officer).
Magistrates' Courts
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were sentenced in each magistrates court in England and Wales on average each day in the latest period for which figures are available; and on average how many such sentences were custodial. [263355]
Maria Eagle: The requested information is not available, detailed data quality checks are not carried out at individual court level, making the data unsuitable for dissemination.
Magistrates: Cumbria
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many serving magistrates there are in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland constituency. [263711]
Mr. Straw: The number of serving magistrates in Cumbria is 272 which includes the area of Copeland.
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many magistrates are needed in order to meet the needs of the courts in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland constituency in the current year. [263715]
Mr. Straw: In the current year 288 magistrates are needed fully to meet the needs of Cumbria which includes the area of Copeland.
Office for Criminal Justice Reform: Temporary Employment
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been spent by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform on (a) agency and (b) temporary staff in each financial year since its inception. [259773]
Mr. Straw: The Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) was established in July 2004 as a trilateral organisation reporting to the Home Secretary, the Attorney-General and the Lord Chancellor. It transferred to the Ministry of Justice when it was established on 9 May 2007.
OCJR’s spend on agency and temporary staff in each year since 2004-05 is shown in the following table. It is not possible to separate agency from temporary staff.
| Agency and temporary staff | |
Police Custody: Compensation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many compensation claims for loss or damage to prisoners' property left in the custody of the Prison Service were made in the last year for which figures are available; and what amount of compensation was claimed. [263840]
Mr. Straw: In the period 1 April 2008 to 11 March 2009, 130 compensation claims were made by prisoners in respect of lost or damaged property. 79 of those were filed in the small claims court. Information is not available for the amount claimed, but 49 of the 130 claims have now been settled for a total of £6,139. Claims made through the internal request/complaints procedure or through the prisons and probation ombudsman are no recorded centrally.
Public Consultation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many public consultations his Department and its predecessor conducted in each of the last five years. [263951]
Mr. Straw: The departmental annual reports published by the Ministry of Justice and by its predecessor the Department for Constitutional Affairs provide the following information on public consultations conducted in the last five years:
Between 1 April 2008 and 12 March 2009, a total of 31 public consultations were conducted by my Department.
Re-offenders
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his most recent estimate is of the re-offending rates for convicted prisoners who served (a) less than six months, (b) between six months and one year, (c) between one year and five years and (d) five years and over in prison. [264160]
Mr. Hanson: Information about re-offending rates cannot be provided broken down by length of time served. The Police National Computer database, which is the source for statistics on re-offending, only holds data on the length of prison sentence awarded, and not the length of time that an offender serves of this sentence. We do publish re-offending statistics broken down by the length of prison sentence awarded, as shown in the following table. This table shows the proportion of offenders re-offending within one year of discharge and the number of offences committed per 100 offenders, for offenders leaving custody in the first quarter of 2006. These are the most recently available data.
| Number of offenders | Proportion of offenders offending (percentage) | Number of offences per 100 offenders | |
The latest adult re-offending statistics. “Re-offending of adults: results from the 2006 cohort”, were published on 4 September 2008. These indicate that we have had real success in reducing the re-offending of offenders released from custody. Between 2000 and 2006 the number of re-offences committed by offenders released from custody has fallen 15.1 per cent. from 245.5 to 208.4 offences per 100 offenders.
Further information on the one year rates of re-offending can be found in:
NOMS is working with the Ministry of Justice to review provision for the short sentence group.
The Integrated Offender Management projects are testing a new approach to working with repeat adult and young offenders.
Restorative Justice
Meg Munn: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what recent assessment he has made of the effects of the implementation of restorative justice schemes on victims of crime; [263647]
(2) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of restorative justice schemes in reducing rates of re-offending amongst adult offenders; [263648]
(3) what recent steps he has taken to assist the implementation of restorative justice programmes in respect of adult offenders. [263649]
Maria Eagle: Our assessment of the effectiveness of restorative justice for adults following the fourth and final report of the evaluation of the crime reduction programme restorative justice pilots is that it can deliver high levels of victim satisfaction and can be a positive service for victims if delivered appropriately and sensitively. It may also help to reduce re-offending.
We have already published “Best Practice Guidance for Restorative Practitioners”, which provided the basis for National Occupational Standards, a benchmark for the quality of delivery of restorative justice. We have also produced web-based guidance for local criminal justice boards, “Restorative Justice: Helping to meet Local Needs”. The latest research findings, together with the best practice guidance and the guidance to local criminal justice boards, have been widely disseminated, including to regional offender managers and regional commissioners, so that they can be taken into account in future business planning.
We are now considering what further encouragement we can provide to support the continued growth of adult restorative justice, in particular as a means of improving victim satisfaction with the criminal justice process. The National Criminal Justice Board has encouraged the local criminal justice boards to consider how restorative justice approaches for adult offenders could contribute to delivering on their priorities, particularly on victim and public confidence, and be included in their delivery plans. We are currently working with stakeholders, including the Restorative Justice Consortium, to develop a victim focused adult restorative justice strategy which will build on the learning from the pilots.
Supreme Court: Logos
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost of creating the emblem for the Supreme Court was. [263842]
Mr. Straw: The total cost of the design and development of the emblem is £26,200. This cost includes design and development by heraldic artist Yvonne Holton; redrawing and presentation to The Queen by Garter King of Arms; and development of the symbol in an electronic and adaptable format by design consultants. All costs are within original estimates announced by the Ministry of Justice on 14 June 2007.
Young Offenders
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when all pre-sentence reports for young offenders will include an assessment of the need for parenting support. [264028]
Mr. Hanson:
National Standards for Youth Justice set out what must be included in pre-sentence reports. These are currently being revised in preparation for the implementation later this year of the Youth Rehabilitation Order, the new community order for under-18s, with the
scaled approach, the Youth Justice Board's new risk based assessment. The revision will require the pre-sentence report to include an assessment of the need for parenting support and whether a recommendation should be made to the court for a parenting order to be made.
Young People: Remand in Custody
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost of detaining juveniles (a) under court-ordered secure remand and (b) otherwise remanded in custody was in the last year for which figures are available. [264099]
Mr. Hanson: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to him on 23 February 2009, Official Report, columns 361-362W.
The Youth Justice Board have calculated that in 2007-08 the total cost of detaining young people under a court ordered secure remand was £19,218,653. This includes contributions from both local authorities and the Youth Justice Board.
In respect of those young people remanded into custody there is no distinction made in the Youth Justice Board's service level agreement with the Prison Service between the cost of remands to custody and the cost of custodial sentences. However, based on the average costs of a bed in a young offenders institution and the average number of young people remanded to custody, the Youth Justice Board have estimated that the total cost of remands to custody in-2007-08 was £26.982,000.
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Audit: Licensing
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many auditors are licensed by each of the recognised supervisory bodies. [263435]
Ian Pearson: The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform does not hold this information. I have asked the Director of the Professional Oversight Board of the Financial Reporting Council to write directly to my hon. Friend.
Business Links: Sutton
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many Business Link staff were assigned to the London Borough of Sutton in each of the last five years; how many (a) contacts and (b) cases were recorded by Business Link in the London Borough of Sutton in each of the last five years; what steps are being taken by Business Link to support business in Sutton; and if he will make a statement. [262121]
Ian Pearson: Business Link in London (BLiL) delivers across London and does not structure its service delivery staff to cover specific London boroughs.
The BLiL company has only existed for the last two years and data relating to previous years are not available.
There are no data available for contacts other than when assistance is provided.
In the last two years in Sutton the number of business support cases recorded by BLiL are as follows:
over 2,000 established small and medium sized companies
over 350 start-ups,
over 1,000 pre start-ups
1,200 people being given generic business advice.
In addition, during the last two years BLiL has worked closely with Sutton's business community and strategic partners. These have included the local authority and the London borough of Sutton Employment and Skills Partnership.
BLiL has also worked with the London borough of Sutton to help develop their 10-point action plan on business support and is actively supporting the implementation of this plan. This includes, the promotion of advice and support for small businesses. In collaboration with BLiL and Business Focus, the borough will hold surgeries offering business support and a diagnostic service.
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