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24 Mar 2009 : Column 307W—continued
Prostitution
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had on the proposals contained in her Department’s review Tackling The Demand For Prostitution 08 with (a) the English Collective of Prostitutes, (b) the International Sex Workers’ Union, (c) the National Association of Probation Officers, (d) the Police Federation, (e) the Prison Officers’ Association, (f) local authorities, (g) organisations from the voluntary sector and (h) the Law Society; and if she will publish written submissions on the subject her Department has received from each such organisation. [247526]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government wrote to a range of interested organisations on 26 September to seek their views on proposed legislation. We received 67 responses from a variety of organisations representing the voluntary sector, statutory partners, local authorities and representatives of persons involved in prostitution and the lap dancing industry. This was not a formal consultation and we did not indicate to potential respondents that their responses would be published. We therefore do not feel it appropriate to do so, although individual organisations are, of course, free to publicise their own views.
The issues involved here have also been subject to detailed scrutiny and discussion during the passage of the Policing and Crime Bill.
Justice
Bail Accommodation and Support Service
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice for what duration he expects the next contract for the provision of the bail accommodation and support services to last. [266240]
Mr. Straw: Decisions about the duration of the next contract will be taken as part of any re-tendering process.
Care Proceedings: Applications
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many applications for care proceedings were made by local authorities in England and Wales in each month of (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008. [258201]
Bridget Prentice: The number of public law care and supervision applications under section 31 of the Children Act 1989 from April 2007 to December 2008 are shown in the following table. Public law cases are those brought by local authorities or an authorised person (currently only the NSPCC). Figures relate to the number of children that are subject to each application, are for England and Wales, and have been rounded to the nearest 10. Please note that 2008 figures remain subject to change, particularly the later months of the year.
The majority of applications are made in Family Proceedings Courts (FPCs). There have been data quality issues with figures for FPCs, and a new method of data collection was introduced in April 2007 which has improved the quality and level of recording on previous years. Prior to April 2007 the collection was on a quarterly basis, meaning that monthly data are not available.
Comparisons between short time periods (one or two months) as presented in this table should be made with caution as these figures are subject to more volatility than those covering longer time periods.
Departmental Public Consultation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what consultation documents have been issued by (a) the National Offender Management Service and (b) HM Courts Service in the last 12 months. [266242]
Mr. Straw: In the last 12 months, the National Offender Management Service has issued the following consultation documents:
Best Value in Probation
Rules for Mandatory Polygraphy for Sex Offenders
Reducing Reoffending in London
In the last 12 months, Her Majesty’s Courts Service has issued the following consultation documents:
Proposed closure of Nelson County Court
The Future of Camden and Islington Youth Work
Consultation on the proposal to merge the Dudley and Stourbridge and Halesowen Local Justice Areas
Proposed Merger of Warley and West Bromwich Local Justice Areas.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what contribution he expects each of his Department’s (a) agencies and (b) business areas to make to its performance and efficiency programme; [264637]
(2) what contribution he expects each agency for which his Department is responsible and each business area in his Department to make to the Performance and Efficiency Programme. [266241]
Mr. Straw: The performance and efficiency programme (PEP) has been established to ensure that the Ministry of Justice achieves £1 billion in value for money savings by 2011.
The following table shows the savings expected from each of the Ministry of Justice’s agencies and business areas, as published in the Value for Money Delivery Agreement in February 2008.
| MoJ business group/agency | Planned savings over CSR07 (£ million) |
The Department’s progress against these targets, the breakdown of which continues to be refined, was set out in the autumn performance report in December 2008 and will be published in the forthcoming Departmental Annual Report in May. The MoJ is ensuring its frontline services are protected while increasing efficiency in its back office areas.
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) staff and (b) ministerial away days were organised by his Department in each of the last five years; and what the total cost was in each year. [265103]
Mr. Straw: The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) does not hold centrally information on how many staff away days were organised. To collate this information would necessitate enquiring of all business areas across significant number of MOJ bodies, which would entail disproportionate cost.
The MOJ was launched on 9 May 2007. Since then there have been two ministerial away days. One in November 2007 cost £2,618 and one in October 2008 cost £1,505.70.
Domestic Violence: Sentencing
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offenders have been (a) fined, (b) imprisoned and (c) given community service following convictions for domestic violence in the last 12 months. [265336]
Mr. Hanson: The requested information is not available. Offences of domestic violence cannot be separately identified from other violent offences on the courts proceedings database, as only the offence is recorded not the circumstances of the offence.
Drugs: Sentencing
Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of the (a) male and (b) female prison population received their sentence for committing drugs offences. [265164]
Mr. Hanson: At the end of January 2009, 15.2 per cent. of all sentenced male prisoners (9,780 out of 64,136) and 26.9 per cent. of all sentenced female prisoners (899 out of 3,337) in all prison establishments in England and Wales were serving sentences for drugs offences.
This information is taken from the Ministry of Justice monthly bulletin to be found at the following website:
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Executive Agencies: Pay
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much non-consolidated performance pay was paid to staff of (a) HM Courts Service, (b) HM Prison Service and (c) the Youth Justice Board in each of the last three years. [263953]
Mr. Straw: Across the MOJ, end-year non-consolidated performance payments have been made to high performing members of the Senior Civil Service (SCS) to reflect their individual contribution during the previous performance year.
For staff in pay bands beneath the SCS, payment of non-consolidated performance pay may be either “in year” or “end of year”. “In year” non-consolidated performance payments are one-off payments to staff who have made an exceptional contribution on specific occasions. “End of year” non-consolidated performance pay has been paid as part of the Ministry’s pay award to staff who have performed at an exceptional level throughout the performance year.
The figures in the following table show the total of “in year” and “end of year” payments to all staff in both the SCS and grades below the SCS:
| £ | |||
| HMCS( 1) | HMPS( 2) | YJB | |
| (1) The figure for 2007-2008 includes “end of year” non-consolidated performance pay to staff in HMCS only, and “in year” payments for all core MoJ, including MoJ headquarters and the tribunals service. The figures for the two previous years include all performance related payments for core MoJ i.e. including MoJ headquarters and the tribunals service. It is not possible, other than at disproportionate cost, to disaggregate these figures further. (2) The figures for non-consolidated performance pay to staff in HMPS for 2005-06 only refer to those in the SCS. Details of payments to staff below SCS could only be provided at disproportionate cost. | |||
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