Written Answers to Questions
Friday 20 March 2009
Justice
Coroners
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the longest time taken to conclude a Treasure inquest was in each of the last three years. [265348]
Bridget Prentice: The Ministry of Justice collects statistics on the number of finds under the Treasure Act 1996 reported to coroners in England and Wales during each calendar year, the number of treasure inquests concluded during the year and, of these, the number of verdicts of treasure returned. Information is not collected on the time taken to conduct treasure inquests.
Informal figures are collated by the British Museum, which record the time between the inquest being requested by the British Museum and a verdict being returned. However, these figures only relate to treasure inquests which have been requested since 2006. The figures do not include inquests which were requested in earlier years, and so they do not reveal the longest time taken for treasure inquests which were concluded in each of the last three years. The British Museum figures show that the current longest-running ongoing treasure inquest was requested by them in March 2007.
Family Courts: Fees and Charges
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) when he plans to appoint an independent person to lead the review of the effect of court fees in children protection; and which candidates are being considered for the role; [264384]
(2) when he expects the review of the effects of court fees on child protection to be completed. [264385]
Bridget Prentice: The Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Blackburn (Mr. Straw) has appointed Francis Plowden to lead the review. His report is expected in September 2009.
Fraud: Civil Proceedings
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether recourse regarding alleged fraud in entries in (a) deed and (b) title plans is provided through the civil courts. [264420]
Bridget Prentice: Allegations of fraud may lead to proceedings in civil or criminal courts, or both. Fraudulent misrepresentation (or "deceit"), whether or not it leads to a particular entry being made in an individual register or title plan, is a tort. The civil courts have jurisdiction to hear these cases.
In addition, disputes arising out of objections to applications to Land Registry are referred to the Adjudicator to HM Land Registry, an independent tribunal. Such objections may involve, for example, an allegation that a deed was executed as a result of fraudulent misrepresentation. Decisions of the Adjudicator may be the subject of an appeal to the High Court.
HM Inspectorate of Probation: Statistics
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much time was spent by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation in assessing ethnic monitoring statistics in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009. [264578]
Mr. Hanson: Such figures are not precisely discernible. This information is valuable. HM Inspectorate of Probation considers the regular information produced by NOMS on the ethnicity of offenders as background to each of its individual inspections. HMI Probation is able to segment findings over a whole inspection programme by a number of characteristics including race, but this does not involve any additional inspection resources.
Mentally Incapacitated
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what remit the Court Funds Office has to manage funds on behalf of Court of Protection clients. [264342]
Bridget Prentice: The Court Funds Office provides a banking and investment service to the civil courts in England and Wales, including the Court of Protection. Where the Court of Protection has directed that funds be lodged with the Court Funds Office, or where a deputy appointed to manage funds on behalf of a Court of Protection client has chosen to lodge funds with the Court Funds Office, those funds are dealt with as directed by the deputy, in accordance with the Court of Protection order. The Court Funds Office does not make investment decisions, or deal with funds lodged other than as instructed by the deputy or by way of a direction from the Court of Protection,
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) enduring powers of attorney have been applied for and (b) living wills have been made in each year since the Mental Capacity Act 2005 came into force; and if he will make a statement. [264343]
Bridget Prentice: The Mental Capacity Act 2005 was fully implemented on 1 October 2007. It introduced new Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) to enable people to appoint someone to make decisions on their behalf in relation to their property and affairs and/or their health and welfare.
In addition, Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPAs) made prior to October 2007 remain valid.
EPAs only need to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) once the person to whom they relate has lost capacity.
All LPAs must be registered with the OPG before they can be used. Between October 2007 and September 2008 the OPG received
21,200 applications to register EPAs.
9,600 applications to register health and welfare LPAs
28,500 applications to register property and affairs LPAs
During the period October 2008 to January 2009 the OPG received
8,200 applications to register EPAs.
6,000 applications to register health and welfare LPAs
22,000 applications to register property and affairs LPAs
The Mental Capacity Act 2005 gave statutory force to valid and applicable advance decisions to refuse treatment (previously also sometimes referred to as ‘living wills'). The Ministry of Justice has no information regarding how many advance decisions have been made.
Offenders: Rehabilitation
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent by HM Inspectorate of Probation assessing diversity issues during the delivery of restrictive interventions to offenders in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009. [264581]
Mr. Hanson: Precise figures are not discernible. A major element of HM Inspectorate of Probation's inspections is an assessment of the effectiveness of the management of offenders' Risk of Harm to the public, including the delivery of restrictive interventions, in a representative sample of individual cases. While the Inspectorate's assessment of the effectiveness of the delivery of restrictive interventions takes into account any diversity issues, the latter forms only a small—though important—part of that assessment.
Culture, Media and Sport
Big Lottery Fund: Equality
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 25 June 2008, Official Report, column 331W, on regional planning and development: electronic government, how much the Big Lottery Fund has provided for each regional equality and diversity partnership to date; and for what purposes such funds have been provided. [259608]
Barbara Follett: Information from the DCMS Lottery grants database, which is searchable at:
uses information supplied by lottery distributing bodies and indicates that a grant of £495,933 was paid by the Big Lottery Fund to Equality South West in November 2007. The purpose of this award was to support the development of the organisation's work in training voluntary and community organisations to ensure that equality and diversity are systemic within their work.
Museums and Galleries
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how many educational visits have been made to publicly funded museums in each region in each year since 1997. [263144]
Barbara Follett: Figures are not available for all museums. The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council advises that regional figures for museum visits specifically in regard to the Renaissance programme 2002-08 are as follows.
| Table 1: Number of educational visits to Renaissance hub museums | ||||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
Since 2001-02, 18(1) of DCMS's sponsored museums have collected figures measuring the number of children aged 16 and under attending on and off-site organised educational sessions. DCMS cannot disaggregate the data by region, to provide a regional breakdown, because some institutions who have branches across different parts of the country provide a single return for the organisation. The figures are as follows:
| Table 2 | |
| Number | |
(1) British Museum, Geffrye Museum, Horniman Museum, Imperial War Museum, Museum of London, Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, National Gallery, National Maritime Museum, National Museums Liverpool, National Museum of Science and Industry, National Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Royal Armouries, Sir John Soane’s Museum, Tate Gallery, Tyne and Wear Museums Service, Victoria and Albert Museum and Wallace Collection.
National Lottery: Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Heritage Lottery funding was provided to each of the principal seaside towns in England and Wales from the inception of the Heritage Lottery to date, listed in descending order of amount of funding. [262995]
Barbara Follett: The Heritage Lottery Fund was founded in 1994. The Heritage Lottery Fund has advised that Heritage Lottery funding as provided to each of the principal seaside towns in England and Wales since that date is as follows.
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