| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
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.
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:
| £000 | |
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
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:
More offenders are being sent to jail (23 per cent.): the number of offences resulting in immediate custody rose from 1,125 in the last quarter of 2007 to 1,386 in the same period of 2008. On average there was a 40 per cent. increase in the number of prisoners serving a sentence for possession of an offensive weapon between the same periods.
Fewer cautions being issued: the number fell 31 per cent. over the same period (1,706 in the last quarter of 2008 compared to 2,455 in the same period of 2007).
More use of tougher community sentences: the number of offences resulting in community sentences rose 16 per cent. (from 1,861 in the last quarter of 2007 to 2,151 in the same period of 2007)
Longer sentences: the average immediate custodial sentence has risen by 38 per cent. (from 133-days in the last quarter of 2007 to 184 days in the same period of 2008.
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).
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |