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20 Apr 2009 : Column 339W—continued

National Offender Management Service: Finance

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the planned budget is for each probation area in 2009-10. [268074]

Mr. Straw: Since 1997, the probation resource budget has increased by nearly 70 per cent. in real terms, with 7,000 more probation staff. The service now receives over £900 million of public money, and it is essential that this money is put to good use.

There is significant scope for savings in the probation service, particularly by reducing unnecessary management layers, streamlining changes and cutting bureaucracy. The potential for savings has been verified externally.


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Challenging efficiency targets have been set for probation areas that want to become trusts, but the priority is public protection. This will not be compromised.

The probation service's budget for 2009-10 is set at £894 million. Although this is £20 million less than the £914 million budget for 2008-09, outturn for this year is estimated at £889 million—£5 million less than 2009-10 budget allocation. In order to make funding allocations as fair as possible savings requirements vary between probation areas, taking identified potential savings and the number of convictions in the area into account. Planned budgets for individual probation areas in 2009-10 are:


20 Apr 2009 : Column 341W

£000

South West

65,132

Avon and Somerset

20.221

Devon and Cornwall

20.236

Dorset

9,040

Gloucestershire

7,626

Wiltshire

8,008

Eastern

71,746

Bedfordshire

9,497

Cambridgeshire

10,092

Essex

19,231

Hertfordshire

11,411

Norfolk

11,535

Suffolk

9,980

North West

130,982

Cheshire

15,074

Cumbria

8,586

Lancashire

24,351

Greater Manchester

51,342

Merseyside

31,629

East Midlands

66,942

Derbyshire

13,945

Leicestershire

15,129

Lincolnshire

9,373

Northamptonshire

9,320

Nottinghamshire

19,176

North East

52,817

Durham

10,532

Teesside

13,315

Northumbria

28,969

South East

100,077

Hampshire

24,769

Kent

21,359

Surrey

10,183

Sussex

17,989

Thames Valley

25,776

Yorks and Humber

92,717

Humberside

17,249

North Yorkshire

9,779

South Yorkshire

24,877

West Yorkshire

40,812

West Midlands

96,110

Staffordshire

16,829

Warwickshire

7,150

West Mercia

15,217

West Midlands

56,913

London

150,384

Wales

56,381

Dyfed Powys

8,626

Gwent

11,069

North Wales

12,409

South Wales

24,277


Nottingham Prison

Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he plans to implement the recommendations of HM Chief Inspector of Prisons' reports of 2005 and 2007 on the visits booking system at HM Prison Nottingham; and if he will make a statement. [268529]

Mr. Hanson: The recommendations on the visits booking system were accepted in both reports by HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. A computer booking system was introduced following the 2005 report. A new computer system will be introduced later this year in response to the 2007 report.

Offenders: Ex-servicemen

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what (a) account is taken by and (b) information is made available to offender managers of the services provided by the Service Personnel and Veteran's Agency in the drafting of supervision plans for offenders who have served in the armed forces; if he will ensure that such offenders are informed of the services for which they are eligible which are provided by (i) the Royal British Legion, (ii) Combat Stress and (iii) Soldiers, Sailors and Airforce Association; and if he will make a statement. [261045]

Mr. Hanson: The Veterans Prison In-Reach Initiative, a partnership between the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Defence, promotes the help and support for veterans available from the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency (SPVA) to prison establishments and probation offender managers. The SPVA website and free-phone helpline is promoted to front-line staff which can assist the development of supervision plans for veteran offenders.

As part of the Veterans Prison In-Reach initiative we are running an extensive cross-departmental marketing campaign aimed at staff, including offender managers, ex-veteran offenders and their families on services available. This exercise is conducted in close and active co-operation
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with the three veteran charities mentioned by my hon. Friend. This helps to inform the sentence planning for ex-veteran offenders.

Offensive Weapons: Sentencing

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have received the maximum sentence for possession of a knife in each region in each year for which figures are available. [260056]

Maria Eagle: The available figures, extracted from the dataset used to compile “Sentencing Statistics, 2007” published in November 2008, are contained in the following table. The maximum penalty has increased from two to four years imprisonment for offences committed after 12 February 2007. These penalties relate to possession of a knife. Where a knife is used to commit a crime a more severe sentence will be imposed. In some cases (e.g. for grievous bodily harm with intent) this could be life imprisonment.

The sentence imposed in individual cases is a matter for the courts to decide upon, within the statutory limits laid down by Parliament. It is entirely a matter for the court to determine the sentence taking account of all the circumstances in each case.

Provisional statistics, mainly from the police national computer, published by the Ministry of Justice in the first quarterly knife crime sentencing bulletin (on Thursday 12 March) and covering possession of an offensive weapon as well as possession of an article with a blade or point showed that:

The proportion of all possession offences resulting in immediate custody rose to 21 per cent. in the last quarter of 2008 from 17 per cent. in the same period of 2007. The proportion of offences resulting in a caution decreased from 36% in the last quarter of 2007 to 25 per cent. in the last quarter of 2008.

The statistics also show a decline in the total number of offences involving possession of a knife or other offensive weapon (6,704 offences were dealt with between October and December last year, compared to 6,808 in the same period of 2007).


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20 Apr 2009 : Column 344W
Number of persons given maximum custodial sentence( 1) for possession of an article with blade or point in public place or school premises, by r egion,1993 to 2007
Region 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007( 2)

North West

1

North East

1

Yorkshire and Humberside

1

1

East Midlands

West Midlands

1

East of England

London

1

1

South East

South West

1

Wales

1

Total

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

2

(1) These data are on the principle offences basis.
(2) These figures are for offenders sentenced to two years imprisonment which would be the maximum sentence if the offence had been committed before 12 February 2007 where a new provision came into force which increased the maximum sentence from two years to four years.
There was no person sentenced to four years custody in 2007.
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
27/002/2009
Ref: PQ(OMSAS)063-09

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