---

24 Mar 2009 : Column 311W—continued

Governance of Britain: Public Consultation

Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what expenditure has been incurred since 3 July 2007 on (a) events and (b) consultations held as part of the Governance of Britain agenda. [265655]

24 Mar 2009 : Column 312W

Mr. Wills: The information requested is shown in the tables.

Table A includes events that have been held to date, involving external stakeholders and/or members of the public, where the Ministry of Justice incurred the expenditure. Table B includes the publication costs of all written consultations and the costs of deliberative consultations associated with the Governance of Britain agenda, but only where the Ministry of Justice incurred the expenditure. In addition we have attributed 50 per cent. of the costs associated with the development and maintenance of the Youth Citizenship Commission and Governance of Britain microsites to take account of the costs associated with running the online engagement and discussions.

Table A: Events
Description of event	Cost (£)
Governance of Britain event in Leicester: 10 December 2007	36,963.50
Five Governance of Britain ‘townhall’ events: June/July 2008	3929.42
Goldsmith Review of Citizenship:
Launch event: 5 October 2007	4,700
Intra-EU seminar: 14 December 2007	3,000
Press conference 11 March 2008	577.51
Publication event: 11 March 2008	4617.12

Table B: Consultations
Description of consultation	Cost (£)
Development of the Statement of Values ‘Framework for Discussion’	4,500
Costs of conducting the ‘Election Day: Weekend Voting’ consultation:
Design and Printing	6,135.86
Production of welsh version	1,827
Youth Citizenship Commission: deliberative research	255,000
Design and Printing costs for the Framework for Greater citizen engagement discussion paper—July 2008:
Design and Printing costs	982.25
War Powers and Treaties: Limiting Executive Powers:
Design and Printing costs	15,930.90
Rights and Responsibilities: developing our constitutional framework Green Paper: 23 March 2009:
Design and Print costs	15,747.81
Governance of Britain microsite: Cost of consultation elements of the site (50 per cent. of the total cost of development and maintenance to date)	5,287.87
Youth Citizenship Commission microsite Cost of consultation elements of the site (50 per cent. of the total cost of development and maintenance to date)	£17,507

Housing: Sales

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) mean and (b) median sale price in 2008-09 prices was of house sales registered with the Land Registry in each year since 2000. [265247]

Mr. Wills: Land Registry is able to provide data on the mean price paid of all residential sales registered in each year since 2000. Details of the percentage change
24 Mar 2009 : Column 313W
on annual average prices have been calculated on the basis of the 2008 calendar year prices as the RPI data covering the 2008-09 financial year are not yet available.

This question has been answered on the basis of recorded sales figures in England and Wales. Land Registry does not hold the information requested on median price paid and could not produce it except at disproportionate cost.

The figures are reflected in the following table.

	Mean price paid in (£)	Mean price paid in (£) (adjusted to 2008 prices)( 1)	RPI index (1987 = 100)
2000	108,164	136,428	170.3
2001	119,275	147,838	173.3
2002	138,200	168,475	176.2
2003	156,154	185,008	181.3
2004	178,542	205,414	186.7
2005	189,580	212,093	192
2006	203,708	220,881	198.1
2007	219,408	228,116	206.6
2008	217,010	217,010	214.8
(1) Prices adjusted using the UK all items Retail Prices Index (RPI).

Land Registry

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many properties registered with the Land Registry changed ownership in each month since January 2006. [265246]

Mr. Wills: Land Registry is able to provide information on the total number of registered properties sold in each month from January 2006 to January 2009. As these figures are extracted using price paid data, no information is available for any properties which have not been sold. The only way to identify other changes of ownership would be to extract data regarding every application event over the time period asked for. This could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The figures are reflected in the following table:

24 Mar 2009 : Column 314W

Month/year	Total sales
January 2006	78,006
February 2006	81,001
March 2006	106,341
April 2006	97,462
May 2006	107,618
June 2006	128,613
July 2006	119,610
August 2006	126,181
September 2006	121,013
October 2006	118,243
November 2006	120,144
December 2006	127,001
January 2007	90,989
February 2007	89,910
March 2007	110,260
April 2007	98,874
May 2007	111,931
June 2007	128,012
July 2007	120,878
August 2007	128,896
September 2007	101,607
October 2007	106,389
November 2007	104,527
December 2007	84,568
January 2008	59,831
February 2008	63,861
March 2008	60,296
April 2008	64,799
May 2008	67,217
June 2008	60,784
July 2008	54,239
August 2008	49,435
September 2008	42,438
October 2008	45,248
November 2008	36,238
December 2008	38,410
January 2009	23,458

Magistrates Courts: Cumbria

Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many cases were heard in magistrates courts in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland constituency in each year since 1997. [264072]

Bridget Prentice: The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts, heard at magistrates courts and committed for trial at the Crown court, for all offences in Cumbria police force area, 1997 to 2007 can be viewed in the following table.

Information held centrally cannot be broken down to constituency or court level, thus Cumbria police force area data have been provided in lieu.

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.

Court proceedings data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.

24 Mar 2009 : Column 315W

The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts, heard at magistrates courts and committed for trial at the Crown Court, for all offences in Cumbria Police Force Area, 1997 to 2007( 1,2) of which:
	Proceeded against	Heard at Magistrates courts( 3)	Committed for trial at the Crown Court
1997	21,167	20,500	667
1998	20,275	19,647	628
1999	19,842	19,215	627
2000	17,074	16,477	597
2001	14,653	13,972	681
2002	14,409	13,733	676
2003	18,923	18,282	641
2004	19,151	18,488	663
2005	18,251	17,504	747
2006	18,110	17,485	625
2007	17,7.95	17,079	716
1. These data are on the principal offence basis. 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 proceeding discontinued, discharged, withdrawn, dismissed, and found guilty at the magistrates’ courts. Source: OCJR—E&A: Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Evidence & Analysis Unit Our ref: PQ 264072 (Table).

---