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Prisons: Greater London

Jon Cruddas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what (a) meetings he has held with and (b) representations he has received from the Mayor of London on possible sites for new prisons within London. [277474]

Mr. Straw: As part of an exercise to identify potential sites for a prison in London, officials from the Ministry of Justice met the current Mayor in mid-2008 to discuss possible prison sites. Prior to this, a meeting was held in autumn 2007 with the former Mayor.

In addition, I spoke to the Mayor on 27 April 2009, the day of announcement of the site at Beam Park West to Parliament.

Probation Officers

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps are being taken to ensure that sufficient probation officers are trained over the next two years. [277055]

Mr. Hanson: Five hundred and fifty probation officers graduate from their diploma course in autumn 2009 and 300 will graduate in autumn 2010. This is sufficient to meet expected vacancies for probation officers over the next two years. I intend to publish shortly a consultation on a new framework for qualifications’ training and career progression for probation practitioners which will be in place from April 2010.

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Repossession Orders: Reading, Berkshire

Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many court orders have been issued for the repossession of homes in Reading, East constituency in each month of the last 10 years. [276995]

Bridget Prentice: Figures for Reading, East constituency are not available. However, the tables show the number of mortgage and landlord possession orders made in Reading county court for each month from 1999.

These figures do not indicate how many homes have actually been repossessed. Repossessions can occur without a court order being made while not all court orders result in repossession.

The civil procedure rules state that all claims for the repossession of land must be commenced in the district in which the land is situated. However, geographical boundaries of county courts may not necessarily be consistent with other administrative or constituency boundaries. Repossession orders made at Reading county court may therefore relate to properties in other constituencies besides Reading, East constituency.

The Ministry of Justice has published a consultation note on proposed changes in the National Statistics on mortgage and landlord possession actions in the county courts of England and Wales. One of the proposed changes is to publish these statistics by local authority area, based on the physical locations of the properties which are the subject of the possession actions, as part of the regular statistical publication from 2009 quarter 2.

Further information can be found on the Ministry of Justice website at

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/docs/stats-mort-landlord-note.pdf

Number of mortgage( 1 ) possession orders made( 2,3) in Reading county court by each month, 1999-2009
	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009( 4)
January	48	6	31	18	23	3	41	85	56	46	41
February	28	32	7	22	12	66	19	43	32	56	(5)30
March	32	16	27	17	27	38	58	51	42	55	(5)30
April	20	25	20	37	8	25	37	46	39	63	—
May	13	28	29	8	55	12	37	37	50	69	—
June	25	38	21	20	25	24	46	26	41	50	—
July	13	9	34	27	24	38	42	43	51	67	—
August	10	16	34	9	2	38	79	56	42	64	—
September	39	34	27	30	70	34	71	84	60	78	—
October	0	42	0	24	29	16	39	40	44	67	—
November	38	15	11	11	2	36	46	64	39	43	—
December	29	20	13	14	59	49	19	53	28	42	—
Total	295	281	254	237	336	379	534	628	524	700	41

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Number of landlord( 6) possession orders made( 2,3) in Reading county court by each month, 1999-2009
	1999	2000	2001	2002	20Q3	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009( 4)
January	51	77	71	74	46	58	70	79	76	77	67
February	61	54	44	37	41	50	47	66	67	70	80
March	55	71	66	56	57	64	82	53	68	55	96
April	52	77	45	53	68	51	61	49	38	97	—
May	64	92	39	58	91	49	54	51	47	51	—
June	66	86	33	40	35	51	28	37	67	62	—
July	67	77	64	89	49	34	94	59	56	70	—
August	52	69	32	54	65	71	44	70	63	35	—
September	80	106	57	76	85	71	42	63	64	70	—
October	26	95	47	57	40	39	56	58	66	77	—
November	113	48	62	68	47	44	65	61	60	54	—
December	53	42	31	49	53	74	59	45	57	75	—
Total	740	894	591	711	677	656	702	691	729	793	243
(1) Includes all types of mortgage lenders. (2) The court, following a judicial hearing, may grant an order for possession immediately. This entitles the claimant to apply for a warrant to have the defendant evicted. However, even where a warrant for possession is issued, the parties can still negotiate a compromise to prevent eviction. (3) Includes outright and suspended orders, the latter being where the court grants the claimant possession but suspends the operation of the order. Provided the defendant complies with the terms of suspension, which usually require the defendant to pay the current mortgage or rent instalments plus some of the accrued arrears, the possession order cannot be enforced. (4) Figures for the latest quarter (January-March 2009) are provisional. And figures for quarter 2 (April-June) are yet to be released by Ministry of Justice as National Statistics. (5) The Mortgage Pre Action Protocol for possession claims relating to mortgage or home purchase arrears was introduced on 19 November 2008. Its introduction has coincided with a substantial fall in the number of new mortgage possession claims in 2008 quarter 4 and subsequently In the number of mortgage possession orders in 2009 quarter 1. (6 )The landlord data include all types of landlords whether social or private sector, and cover orders made using both the standard and accelerated possession procedures. The accelerated procedure is used by landlords in relation to shorthold tenancies, when the fixed period of tenancy has come to an end. It enables orders to be made by the court solely on the basis of written evidence and without calling the parties to hearings. Source: Ministry of Justice

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