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25 Jun 2009 : Column 1144W—continued

Table 2: Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences relating to having sexual intercourse with an underage person, by region, England and Wales 2004 - 07, under the Sexual Offences Act 2003( 1, 2, 3)
	2004( 4)		2005		2006		2007
Region	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty
North East	50	20	79	28	79	46	71	49
North West	176	49	199	110	199	93	204	114
Yorkshire and the Humber	123	56	155	86	130	90	121	95
East Midlands	109	31	147	61	118	65	118	77
West Midlands	137	33	158	76	158	105	148	90
East of England	80	21	122	55	97	79	80	59
London	193	38	207	36	197	55	164	58
South East	115	40	162	81	138	97	150	102
South West	75	30	106	50	98	81	98	69
Wales	112	34	84	37	80	49	88	34
England and Wales	1,170	352	1,419	620	1,294	760	1,242	747
(1) The figures given in the table on court proceedings 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 it 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. (2) 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. (3) 2004 to 2007 figures include the following offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003: —Rape of a child under 13 —Rape of a person under 16 —Sexual Activity with a child (where penetration is involved) (4) Act came into force on 1 May 2004. Source: Evidence and Analysis Unit—Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Ministry of Justice

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were prosecuted for sexual offences against those under the age of 18 years in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008; and how many such prosecutions resulted in a conviction. [281879]

Claire Ward: The number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for sexual offences against children, 2006 and 2007 can be viewed in table.

Data provided are for those statutes where the age of the victim is specified. These data are on the principal
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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
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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.

Number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts of sexual offences against persons aged under 18 years, England and Wales 2006 and 2007( 1, 2, 3, 4)
	2006		2007
Offence class	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty
Sexual assault of a male child aged under 13	118	63	130	77
Rape, attempted rape of a male or female aged under 13 or under 16	1,100	416	1,020	434
Sexual assault of a female child aged under 13	531	315	582	342
Sexual activity with a male or female child aged under 13	293	181	337	206
Sexual activity with a male or female aged under 16	697	644	692	620
Familial sexual offences of a male or female child aged under 13	108	74	128	91
Abuse of children aged under 18 through prostitution and pornography	29	17	43	27
Abuse of trust sexual offences against a child aged under 18	20	18	17	18
Meeting a male or female aged under 16 following sexual grooming	43	36	41	51
Total	2,939	1,764	2,990	1,866
(1) 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. (2) 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. (3) The numbers found guilty may exceed those proceeded against in table 1, as it may be the case that the proceedings in the magistrates court took place in the preceding year to the defendant being found guilty at the Crown court in the following year, or the defendant was found guilty for a different offence to the original offence proceeded against. (4) Covers offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which identify the victim as a minor at the time the offences was committed. Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Evidence and Analysis Unit, Ministry of Justice

Prime Ministers

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will consult on the merits of direct elections to the Office of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom as part of his programme for constitutional renewal; and if he will make a statement. [281249]

Mr. Straw: No, Sir.

Prisoners’ Discharge Grants

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners who had been in custody for less than 14 days received discharge grants upon release in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available; and how many days the offender had spent in custody in each case. [281956]

Maria Eagle: Prison Service Order (PSO) 6400 (Discharge) stipulates that, to be eligible for a discharge grant, prisoners must have been given a custodial sentence of more than 14 days.

Following the introduction of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, prisoners serving sentences of one year or less were to be released at the halfway point of their sentence. The National Offender Management Service has recently become aware that, in the light of this, PSO 6400 was not sufficiently clear and its original intention has been open to possible misinterpretation. Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 21/2009, issued on 9 June 2009, clarifies that a prisoner must serve a sentence of which the custodial period is more than 14 days to be eligible for a discharge grant.

Information on the number of prisoners who may have been paid a discharge grant in error, having spent 14 days or less in custody, is not held centrally and could be obtained only by examining the individual records of discharged prisoners at disproportionate cost.

Prisons: Barking and Dagenham

Jon Cruddas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what his estimate is of the cost of constructing a new prison at Beam Park West; [275825]

(2) whether he has made arrangements to deal with the eventuality that a private contractor is unable to provide a prison on the Beam Park West site. [275962]

Mr. Straw: The exact cost of constructing the proposed prison at Beam Park West has yet to be determined. However, it is estimated that the capital cost of constructing five 1,500 place prisons at 2008-09 prices is around £1.2 billion, excluding VAT and site purchase costs.

We will consider the options available to us in the event we are unable to find a suitable contractor to build the proposed prison.

Probation Officers: Manpower

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many vacant probation officer positions there are in each region. [280832]

Mr. Straw: The following table shows the number of vacant Probation Officer positions in each of the regions:

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	Vacant probation officer positions( 1,2,3,4)
North East	3.0
North West	11.0
Yorkshire and Humberside	11.0
East Midlands	14.20
West Midlands	10.80
East of England	6.40
London	2.0
South East	15.81
South West	24.43
Wales	13.60
(1) Figures shown as FTE as at 30 June 2007 and can be found in Issue 13 of the Workforce Information Report. (2) Includes: Senior Probation Officers, Probation Officers, Practice Development Assessors and Senior Practitioners. (3) Vacancies are defined as “active vacancies”, which includes any post that is being actively recruited into. (4) Due to the HR System in use, Hampshire Probation Area (South East Region), Greater Manchester Probation Area (North West Region) and West Midlands Probation Area (West Midlands Region) have been unable to provide any vacancy figures and are excluded from this return.

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