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2 Jun 2009 : Column 320W—continued
The following table shows the number of secure training centre places purchased by the Youth Justice Board since 2002. Young people are not accommodated in secure training centres for welfare reasons. The data have been provided by the Youth Justice Board and relate to the contractual position as at 1 April in each year. Actual contracted places may vary through the year where a contractor fails to meet the requirements of the contract and places are declared unavailable until the issues have been addressed.
| Youth Justice Board contracted places in Secure Training Centres | ||||||||
| 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
The Department for Children, Schools and Families does not maintain a central record of contracted places in children’s homes in England and Wales since 2002 by each home and it is therefore not possible to provide data on the number of welfare places in secure children’s homes.
Youth Justice: Costs
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what the total cost of youth courts was in each of the last three years; and how many trials were carried out in youth courts in each such year; [276748]
(2) what the average cost to the public purse of a youth court trial was in each of the last three years. [276749]
Bridget Prentice: The HMCS accounting system reports court costs by court type; Crown, magistrates, combined, and location. It is not currently possible to separately identify and disaggregate youth court related costs. As a result it is not possible to calculate average court costs.
Youth court trials for the year ended 31 March were:
| Youth court trials | |
No statistics relating to youth court trials for the year ended 31 March 2007 are available.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Angling: Licensing
Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) junior concession, (b) senior concession, (c) disabled concession and (d) full season rod licences have been issued in each year since 1997. [276773]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The following table indicates the number of full, senior, disabled and junior rod licences issued by the Environment Agency (EA) since 1999. Prior to this, the EA used different systems to store rod licence information. Such information is, therefore, not available in the categories required.
| Full (trout and coarse and salmon) | Senior (trout and coarse and salmon) | Disabled (trout and coarse and salmon) | Junior (trout and coarse and salmon) | |
| Source: The Environment Agency’s rod licence database. | ||||
British Waterways Board: Finance
Charlotte Atkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what income British Waterways received from its non-operational canal side property portfolio was in the last 12 months; and how much of that income was allocated to spending on waterways maintenance and improvement. [276526]
Huw Irranca-Davies: British Waterways’ income from their canal side non-operational property for 2008-09 is estimated to be £43.2 million, pending final audited figures(1). All of this income was used in 2008-09 to fund operational expenditure on managing the waterways including maintenance and improvement.
(1) Figures obtained from British Waterways.
Charlotte Atkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to assist British Waterways to establish a business model to provide a sustainable future for the waterways; what options are under consideration for the future of the waterways; and how those options will be evaluated. [276532]
Huw Irranca-Davies: British Waterways has launched a national debate on its proposal to move towards third sector status over the longer term. My Department, the Treasury, and the Shareholder Executive are engaged with British Waterways in discussing what is the best model for supporting a sustainable future for the waterways. We will be interested to see the responses to the public debate on British Waterways’ third sector suggestion.
The Operational Efficiency Programme review, announced on 21 April 2009, concluded that a wholly owned subsidiary of British Waterways should be set up to manage its canal side non-operational property portfolio which is now being implemented. Government will monitor the impacts of the subsidiary and the progress of British Waterways’ strategy before taking any decisions on any further change to the British Waterways business model.
Cabinet: Glasgow
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) special advisers and (b) officials of his Department accompanied him to Glasgow for the Cabinet meeting on 16 April 2009. [273905]
Huw Irranca-Davies: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State was accompanied by one official only.
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what car journeys he undertook in attending the Cabinet meeting in Glasgow on 16 April 2009. [273906]
Huw Irranca-Davies: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State was driven from Glasgow Central station to the Cabinet meeting. Following the meeting, he was driven to visit the Forth and Clyde canal regeneration project, after which he returned to Glasgow Central.
Departmental Correspondence
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what procedure his Department follows for dealing with complaints received (a) by e-mail, (b) by post, (c) by telephone and (d) via his Department's website. [274525]
Huw Irranca-Davies: DEFRA has a Corporate Service Standard that complaints be dealt with within 15 working days of receipt.
The Department's aim is for complaints received by whatever means, i.e. (a) by e-mail, (b) by post, (c) by telephone and (d) via the Department's website, be dealt with where possible at the point of receipt.
Where this is not possible, the complaint is passed to the unit within the Department responsible for the area of work complained about to be dealt with there.
If a complainant is not satisfied with the outcome, DEFRA’s complaints procedure provides the complainant with the option to escalate the complaint as follows:
to the Department's impartial Service Standards Complaints Adjudicator for complaints about standard of service; or
to the Secretary of State for DEFRA or to a DEFRA Minister via a Member of Parliament for complaints about DEFRA policy or legal issues.
Departmental Dismissal
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many members of staff in his Department and its agencies were dismissed (a) for under-performance and (b) in total in each of the last 10 years. [274303]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The table details the number of staff in DEFRA and its agencies that were dismissed (a) for underperformance and (b) in total in each of the last eight financial years. DEFRA was created in June 2001 and therefore data is only available from this date. Included in the data are only DEFRA’s Executive Agencies and not Non-Departmental Public Bodies as sourcing this information would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.
DEFRA and its agencies improving performance policies and procedures are in line with the Civil Service Management Code. All staff have access to these policies and procedures via the DEFRA intranet.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 2 April 2009, Official Report, column 1295W, on departmental public expenditure, what progress has been made by his Department in allocating the £25 million capital spending brought forward from 2009-10 to 2008-09. [274246]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The £25 million capital spending referred to was brought forward from 2010-11 into 2009-10. This additional funding has been programmed into the budgets for Environment Agency flood risk management (£20 million) and British Waterways capital spending on network infrastructure maintenance (£5 million). Expenditure is being monitored on a monthly basis.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 5 May 2009, Official Report, column 5W on departmental public expenditure, how many (a) Ministers, (b) civil servants and (c) other parties attended (i) the internal conference held in October 2008 and (ii) the seminar with delivery bodies held in November 2008. [274879]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The internal conference in October 2008 was attended by 134 civil servants and four people from outside the Department. No Ministers attended the internal conference.
No Ministers attended the seminar with delivery bodies held in November 2008. Eight civil servants and 13 people from outside the Department attended.
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