---

14 May 2009 : Column 964W—continued

These figures have been drawn from the police’s administrative IT system, the police national computer (PNC), which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the police.

PNC data has been used here rather than court data, which is the usual source of published sentencing statistics. The PNC data provides more up to date figures ahead of the finalised annual court data and was used for the Ministry of Justice’s publication “Knife Crime Sentencing: Quarterly Brief” published on 12 March 2009 and available from:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/knife-crime-sentencing.htm

Magistrates Courts: Repairs and Maintenance

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much HM Courts Service spent on the maintenance of magistrates courts in each year since 1997. [274148]

Mr. Straw: Her Majesty’s Courts Service was created on 1 April 2005. Prior to that date ownership and operation of magistrates courts was the responsibility of the forty two magistrates courts committees in England and Wales. No detailed consolidated financial information is available for that period.

HM Courts Service costs related to the maintenance of magistrates courts buildings for financial years 2005-06 to 2007-08 were as follows:

£000
	Resource	Capital	Total
2005-06	22,941	—	22,941
2006-07	25,473	12,460	37,933
2007-08	22,403	14,900	37,303

Her Majesty’s Courts Service is unable separately to identify the capital maintenance expenditure element of magistrates courts capital expenditure for 2005-06.

Offences against Children

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people aged 21 years or over have been (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted for offences related to sexual activity with a child under 13 in each year since 2004. [274150]

Mr. Straw: Information on the number of persons aged 21 years and over who were proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for sexual activity with a child under 13 in England and Wales 2004 to 2007 (latest available) is contained in the table.

Data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 significantly modernised and strengthened the laws on sexual offences in England and Wales to provide extra protection to children from sexual exploitation. This makes direct comparisons with previous legislation very difficult. Many new offences created by the Act will not have a direct equivalent under the old legislation.

14 May 2009 : Column 965W

14 May 2009 : Column 966W

Number of persons aged 21 or over proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences relating to sexual activity with a child aged under 13( 1) , England and Wales( 2,3,4)
	2004		2005		2006		2007
Offence category	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty
Sexual assault of a male child aged under 13	19	4	72	36	82	41	81	41
Rape or attempted rape of a child aged under 13	45	3	112	37	142	64	142	69
Sexual assault of a female child aged under 13	128	29	367	152	400	238	448	246
Sexual activity with a child aged under 13	62	18	228	81	199	131	217	128
Familial sexual offences of a child aged under 13	7	4	35	20	34	17	37	24
Abuse of children aged under 13 through prostitution and pornography	—	—	1	—	—	—	2	—
Abuse of trust—sexual offences against a child aged under 13	2	—	2	4	1	1	2	—
Total	263	58	817	330	858	492	929	508
(1) Includes the following statutes under the Sexual Offences Act 2003: Sections 5, 6, 7, 8 (1) (2) & (3), 9 (1)(a)(b)(c)(ii) & (2) & (3), 10 (1)(a)(b)(c)(ii) & (3), 11 (1)(a)(b)(c)(d)(ii) & (2), 12 (1)(a)(b)(c)(ii) & 2, 25 (1)(e)(ii) and (2)-(4)(a)(b). S.47(1) (a), (b) & (c)(ii), (2), (3) & (6), 49 (1)(a)(b)(ii) & (2) (2) The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence 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. (3) The found guilty column may exceed those proceeded against, as it may be the case that the proceedings in the magistrates courts took place in the proceeding year and they were found guilty at the Crown court in the following year. (4) 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. Source: Evidence and Analysis Unit—Office for Criminal Justice Reform

Prison Accommodation

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 27 April 2009, Official Report, column 569WS, on prisons and probation, how many prison places will be built in each of the next three years. [274193]

Mr. Straw: In total 1,785 new places are planned for delivery in 2009. The table shows the number of new places currently planned for delivery in each of the next three years:

	Prison places
2010	2,968
2011	1,200
2012	1,980

Figures include new build places and those provided through conversions of existing buildings, for example the conversion to a new prison of former RAF accommodation at Coltishall, Norfolk. Places provided through other measures such as cell reclaims are excluded.

I announced on 27 April that we will provide 7,500 places through new 1,500 place prisons. The construction of the new prisons will allow for the closure of older less efficient places. We plan to begin the tendering process for the construction and operation of the first two 1,500 place prisons in the summer.

Prisoners Release

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether people sentenced to two months custody or less and then released on end of custody licence are entitled to receive a discharge grant; what proportion of such people received such a grant in the last period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [275491]

Mr. Hanson: Prisoners sentenced to two months or less in custody and released on End of Custody Licence (ECL) are not entitled to a discharge grant.

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been sentenced to two months custody or less and then released on end of custody licence before serving any part of the sentence since 1 July 2007. [275492]

Mr. Hanson: No prisoners sentenced to less than two months have been released on ECL without serving any part of their sentence.

Under the End of Custody Licence scheme eligible prisoners may be released up to 18 days earlier than the half-way point of their sentence subject to serving a minimum of seven days in custody after sentence.

Prisoners Release: Expenditure

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much expenditure has been incurred from the budgets of (a) prison governors and (b) his Department in subsistence payments to offenders in each of the last five years. [274152]

Mr. Straw: The expenditure paid by prisons on subsistence payments has been included in the recorded expenditure, for discharge grants. It would incur disproportionate costs to separate the expenditure on subsistence payments from discharge grants as we would need to survey all prison establishments.

Prisoners: Suicide

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many suicides within (a) adult prisons and (b) young offender institutions took place within the first seven days of custody in each year since 1997. [274147]

Mr. Straw: Any death in custody is a tragic event. The Government are committed to learning from such events and reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison custody. The National Offender Management Service has a broad, integrated and evidence-based prisoner suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This encompasses a wide spectrum of prison and Department of Health work around such issues as
14 May 2009 : Column 967W
mental health, substance misuse and resettlement. Any prisoner identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm is cared for using the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork (ACCT) procedures.

Research on prisons and prison deaths has highlighted the early period of custody as a particularly vulnerable period for self-inflicted deaths. A lot of work has been
14 May 2009 : Column 968W
put into reducing the number of such deaths in general, as well as specifically, in early custody. The following table details the number of self-inflicted deaths that occurred within seven days of commencing custody. Some prisons hold both adults and young offenders; therefore the figures are broken down by the age profile of the prison.

Type of prison	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
Adult	14	19	22	20	6	20	18	23	13	6	10	9
Adult/YOI	0	0	1	0	1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0
YOI	1	3	2	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0

The Prison Service definition of self-inflicted deaths is broader than the legal definition of suicide and includes all deaths where it appears that a prisoner has acted specifically to take their own life. This inclusive approach is used in part because inquest verdicts are often not available for some years after a death (some 20 per cent. of these deaths will not receive a suicide or open verdict at inquest). Annual numbers may change slightly from time to time as inquest verdicts and other information becomes available.

---