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11 Jun 2009 : Column 955W—continued
Departmental Billing
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of invoices his Department and its agencies paid within 10 days of receipt in each of the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [278819]
Maria Eagle:
The MOJ has only been collecting performance data for the proportion of invoices paid
within 10 days of receipt of a supplier invoice since November 2008. Performance since that date is sent out in the table.
| Percentage paid within 10 day target | Number of invoices paid within 10 days | |
The Ministry of Justice is fully committed to achieving compliance with the Prime Minister’s target of paying suppliers within 10 days where possible, and is a signatory to the Prompt Payment Code.
The Ministry recognised that its performance against the target needed to improve, and it implemented a prompt payment improvement programme to address the issue. The results for April and May indicate that this programme is beginning to have an effect.
Legal Aid
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many solicitor's firms in (a) England, (b) the South West, (c) Devon and (d) East Devon provided legal aid services in each of the last 10 years. [278410]
Bridget Prentice: The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However, figures for the numbers of solicitor offices in England and Wales providing legal aid services in each year since 2002-03 are available and are shown in the following table. Prior to the introduction of the civil unified contract in April 2007 and criminal unified contract in July 2008, legal aid providers delivering services in more than one office would hold separate contracts for each of those offices. In addition, where providers have decided not to continue providing civil legal aid services, they may nevertheless still have an account or accounts with the Legal Services Commission while they continue to deal with their remaining clients.
Over the period there has been a downward trend in the overall number of solicitor offices dealing with legal aid. This is because there has been a continuing process of offices that do only small amounts of legal aid work leaving the market or merging with other offices, so that the work is done in larger volumes at fewer offices. In addition, the Legal Services Commission has over time sought to terminate dormant accounts where no work was being done.
| Civil | Crime | |
Legal Aid: South West
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice for what reasons legal aid expenditure in the South West has decreased since 2004-05. [278346]
Bridget Prentice: The decrease in expenditure in the South West is primarily due to reduced expenditure on criminal matters.
The largest share of this was in the Crown court and here the reported decline is at least in part, only apparent. This is because with the development of contracting for very high cost cases, expenditure on these is assigned to the office from which the contract is managed, rather than the court in which the case is heard. Most high cost cases heard in the Crown court in the South West are not managed in that region.
There has also been a decline in representation costs in the magistrates courts. This is due to the reintroduction of the means test for legal aid.
Probation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offenders under Probation Service supervision were categorised as Tier 4 in each of the last five financial years. [278618]
Mr. Straw: The total number of offenders in England and Wales who were categorised as Tier 4 as at 31 March in each of the last three years was as follows:
| Number | |
Information on tier prior to 1 April 2005 was not recorded.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many years experience a probation officer is required to have before being assigned to a violent offender. [278664]
Mr. Straw: All probation officers undergo a two year training course before qualifying which equips them to deal with a wide range of offenders including those who commit violent offences. The local probation area holds responsibility for the allocation of a probation officer or probation service officer to an individual offender. The most serious offenders should be allocated to the most experienced and competent probation officers available.
Transport
Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency: Databases
Norman Baker:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport if he will require with immediate effect the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to deny access
to data on motorists and vehicles to any company which is in breach of the British Parking Association code. [278811]
Paul Clark: Private car-parking companies who request vehicle keeper data, via electronic means must be a member of the British Parking Association's (BPA) Approved Operator Scheme (AOS). Ongoing membership requires compliance with BPA's code of practice.
A consultation exercise has recently concluded on extending this requirement to also include private car parking companies who request data via the paper based process. The responses are currently being analysed. The effect of the proposed changes would be that all private car-parking companies will have to comply with the BPA's code if they wish to obtain keeper information from Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.
Driving: Licensing
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport for what reason holders of non-UK driving licences who have taken and failed a UK driving test are permitted to drive in the UK on a non-UK licence for up to 12 months following their arrival in the UK. [279049]
Paul Clark: Holders of non-UK driving licences may continue to drive in the UK for up to 12 months to build experience of traffic conditions and laws in Britain.
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many holders of non-UK driving licences have taken the UK driving test in each of the last 10 years; and how many have failed the test. [279050]
Paul Clark: Provisional entitlement for the relevant category of vehicle is required before a UK driving test can be taken. Holders of non-UK licences must obtain a UK licence in order to obtain the necessary provisional entitlement.
EU member state licence holders who hold a valid EU licence who wish to obtain further licence categories may obtain a UK counterpart document, which gives the provisional entitlement that allows the holder to take a test in that category.
The Driving Standards Agency does not hold details of previous licences held by driving test candidates.
London Gateway Port
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport when he expects the London Gateway Port to commence operation. [279099]
Paul Clark: The construction and opening for operation of London Gateway port is a matter for the port developer.
Motor Vehicles: Foreigners
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many foreign-registered cars entered the UK in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [278361]
Paul Clark: Information relating to the number of foreign registered cars entering the UK is not recorded.
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what mechanism his Department uses to establish whether a foreign-registered car has been driven in the UK for a period of longer than six months. [278412]
Paul Clark: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) records details of foreign registered vehicles as they are circulating in the UK from a range of sources. These include its own automatic number plate recognition cameras, reports from members of the public, the police, local authorities and DVLA’s wheel-clamping contractor. This information allows, on second and subsequent sightings, the length of time a vehicle is likely to have been circulating in the UK to be calculated, supporting wheel-clamping and impounding of non-compliant vehicles as appropriate.
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how many formerly foreign-registered cars were registered in the UK in each of the last three years. [278413]
Paul Clark: The following figures provide the number of vehicles previously registered abroad that have been registered in the UK in each of the last three financial years.
| Number | |
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what estimate he has made of the number of foreign-registered cars using UK roads which did not re-register within six months in the latest period for which information is available. [278414]
Paul Clark: The information requested is not held.
Road Traffic
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what methodology is used by his Department and its contractors to monitor levels of congestion on rural, urban and inter-urban roads. [278234]
Mr. Khan: The methodologies for the Department's inter-urban and urban congestion PSA indicators can be found on the DfT website at the following web addresses:
www.dft.gov.uk/adobepdf/162469/221412/221546/226956/coll_congestiononthestrategicroa/cs r07revisedbaseline.pdf
www.dft.gov.uk/about/howthedftworks/psa/spending review2004psatargets2
While strategic A-roads in rural areas are included in the inter-urban indicator, there is no separate indicator for rural roads.
Speed Limits: Cameras
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the effect of the frequency of the re-siting of fixed speed cameras on road safety. [278233]
Paul Clark: The Department for Transport has not assessed the effect of the frequency of the re-siting of fixed speed cameras on road safety. Any decision to re-site a fixed speed camera is entirely a matter for individual road safety partnerships and the practice is not monitored by the Department. DFT circular 01/2007, “Use of Speed and Red-light Cameras for Traffic Enforcement: Guidance on Deployment, Visibility and Signing” encourages road safety partnerships to, at least annually, review all their existing camera sites and other collision hot spots. A copy of the guidance is in the Libraries of the House and is also available on the Department’s website.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Fisheries: Manpower
Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time British sea fishermen have been operating in UK waters in each year since 1997. [278886]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Latest published information from Table 2.6 of UK Sea Fisheries Statistics 2007 showing the number of fishermen operating on UK registered vessels is shown in the following table.
| Number of fishermen on UK register vessels | |||
| Regular | Part-time | Total | |
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