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15 Jun 2009 : Column 57W—continued
Welfare Tax Credits: Education Maintenance Allowance
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will bring forward proposals to extend entitlement to tax credits to people with children under the age of 25 who receive education maintenance grant on the basis of parental income. [279866]
Mr. Timms: The Government do not provide financial support to parents of young people who are taking advanced courses. In these cases, young people are entitled to a separate stream of support. This reflects that the move into work or advanced education is seen as the point at which young people become independent. It is the Government’s view that the student support mechanism is the most appropriate way of providing support.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Climate Change
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of his Department's potential gross (a) costs and (b) savings arising from its climate change adaptation measures in the next three years. [277714]
Mr. McFadden: It is not currently possible to provide estimates of the potential costs and savings over the next three years. It has, however, been shown in the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change that timely and well-targeted climate adaptation measures will yield benefits in excess of their costs. The main rationale for investment to address climate risk will be to reduce the UK's vulnerability to longer-term climate change impacts.
The Government are undertaking a climate change risk assessment and economic analysis, which will provide estimates of the costs and benefits of adaptation to the UK. This analysis will be presented to Parliament within three years of the Climate Change Act coming into force.
Departmental Air Conditioning
Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much has been spent by his Department on carrying out inspections of air conditioning systems within departmental buildings in accordance with the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 since the Regulations entered into force. [272131]
Mr. McFadden: BIS will spend £5,574 on carrying out the inspection of its air conditioning system at its Headquarters building at 1 Victoria Street in accordance with the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007, this being the only building on its HQ Estate with a rating of over 250kW.
Departmental Buildings
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department spent on building maintenance in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [274551]
Mr. McFadden: In the last five financial years, BIS has spent the following on building maintenance on its HQ Estate:
| £ million | |
South West Regional Development Agency
Mr. Harper: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the recession on the (a) spending plans, (b) income and (c) capital receipts of the South West of England Regional Development Agency of the recession. [268640]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 20 April 2009]: RDAs are required to produce spending plans showing how they will use their resources to deliver their priorities. The Department has asked the RDAs to review those plans in the light of changes to their budgets and the changed economic conditions.
On an ongoing basis BIS monitors the Agencies use of resource budgets including the RDA's projected income for the year and the total value of write downs in relation to the RDA's capital assets.
Justice
Antisocial Behaviour: Fixed Penalties
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 21 April 2009, Official Report, column 616W, on antisocial behaviour: fixed penalties, how many penalty notices for disorder were issued (a) in a police station and (b) on the street in (i) 2002, (ii) 2003, (iii) 2004, (iv) 2005 and (v) 2006. [278426]
Mr. Straw: Information available to the Ministry of Justice on the number of persons aged 16 and over issued with a penalty notice for disorder (PND) in (a) a police station and (b) on the street, in England and Wales, 2004 to 2006 is shown in the following table.
PNDs were introduced under the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 to provide the police with a simple financial punishment to deal with minor antisocial and nuisance offending either at a police station or on the street. Operational guidance to forces issued by the Secretary of State for Justice sets out the criteria which should be considered by officers in deciding where to issue a PND.
The PND was made available to all forces from April 2004.
| N umber of persons aged 16 and over issued with a penalty notice for disorder in a police station and on the street in England and Wales, 2004 to 2006( 1) | ||
| Police station | Street | |
| (1) 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 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. (2) The penalty notice for disorder scheme commenced in 2004. Source: OCJR E and A (Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Evidence and Analysis Unit), Ministry of Justice | ||
Crimes of Violence: Young Offenders
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent assessment he has made of the effect of subsection 3 of section 91 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 on custodial sentencing for serious violent crimes committed by those aged under 21 years; and if he will make a statement. [278922]
Claire Ward: Custody for young people under 18 is the last resort. Where a person under 18 has committed a very serious offence (generally one for which a person aged 21 years or over could be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 14 years or more), section 91 of the Powers of Criminal Court (Sentencing) Act 2000 enables the court to impose a term of detention not exceeding the maximum term of imprisonment that a person aged 21 or over could receive for the same offence. Before the court may decide to impose a sentence of detention under section 91, subsection 3 requires it to consider all other possible disposals, including a shorter period of custody under a detention and training order.
Data provided by the Youth Justice Board indicate that at the end of March 2009 there were 2,036 young people under 18 serving custodial sentences, including 349 serving a sentence imposed under section 91. Of those, 150 had received a section 91 sentence principally for an offence of violence against the person.
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people aged under 18 years were convicted of (a) grievous bodily harm and (b) violent disorder in each year since 2000; and what the average length custodial sentence was in each case. [278924]
Claire Ward: The number of persons aged 10 to 17 years who were found guilty at all courts for grievous bodily harm and violent disorder in England and Wales from 2000 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in table 1; with information on the average custodial sentence being in table 2.
These data are on the principal offence basis. The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one 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.
Court proceedings data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.
| Table 2: Average custodial sentence length (months)( 1) for grievous bodily harm and violent disorder, offenders aged 10 to 17, 2000-07 | ||
| GBH | Violent disorder | |
| (1) ACSL excludes life/indeterminate sentences Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice. | ||
These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems.
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.
Departmental Billing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much (a) his Department and its predecessor and (b) its agencies paid in interest to suppliers under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 in the last three years for which figures are available. [275197]
Maria Eagle: Information for 2008-09 is currently being compiled and audited and will be published in the Ministry's 2008-09 resource accounts which are expected to be laid before Parliament in July 2009.
The Ministry of Justice and its agencies paid the following interest to suppliers under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 in the last three years for which published data are currently available:
| Financial period | £ |
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