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30 Jun 2009 : Column 171W—continued

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he last discussed the criteria for judicial appointments with the chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission. [282556]

Mr. Straw: I have regular bilateral meetings with the chairman of the JAC at which the criteria for judicial appointments are sometimes discussed. The last of these meetings was held on 13 May 2009.

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many applications for the position of recorder the Judicial Appointments Commission has received in each of the last three years. [282578]

Mr. Straw: No recorder selection exercises were run in the financial years 2006-07 and 2007-08. In 2008-09 the number of applications received in respect of recorder selection exercises is as follows:

The Judicial Appointments Commission today released diversity data in respect of these exercises save for the Recorder South East exercise which has yet to complete. These data can be found on their website at:

Judicial Appointments for England and Wales: Consultants

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much the Judicial Appointments Commission has spent on external consultants in each of the last three years. [282580]

Mr. Straw: The Judicial Appointments Commission has spent the following sums on consultants in each of the financial years:

£

2006-07

112,000

2007-08

87,000

2008-09

154,000


Judicial Appointments for England and Wales: Manpower

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) permanent and (b) temporary staff the Judicial Appointments Commission employs. [282555]

Mr. Straw: On 31 March 2009, the Judicial Appointments Commission employed 43 permanent staff (JAC employees) and 62 temporary staff (comprising 15 staff on fixed-term JAC contracts, 44 seconded or loaned to the JAC from public sector bodies, and 3 agency staff). On 31 May 2009, the Judicial Appointments Commission employed 47 permanent staff (JAC employees) and 58 temporary
30 Jun 2009 : Column 172W
staff (comprising 18 staff on fixed-term JAC contracts, 39 seconded or loaned to the JAC, and one agency staff).

The Judicial Appointments Commission publishes headline information about its staffing in its annual reports, which can be found on their website at:

Legal Aid

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make it his policy to undertake a full impact assessment before implementing reforms relating to (a) family law legal aid and (b) legal aid client criteria arising from the Legal Service Commission’s review of family law legal aid funding; and if he will make a statement. [282438]

Bridget Prentice: An initial Impact Assessment was conducted and published alongside the Family Fees consultation paper “Family Legal Aid funding from 2010”. The LSC is currently modelling the proposed final scheme and accompanying Impact Assessment, which will be published with the final policy proposals on family fees. This follows consideration of the consultation responses and the commissioning of the research by Ernst and Young on the family advocacy market to provide additional data for the Impact Assessment. The LSC has agreed to share the outcome of the research with a number of stakeholders representing legal service providers and will do shortly.

The LSC is committed to conducting Impact Assessments on all its public consultations on policies and adheres to its own Impact Assessment Code of Practice. A copy of the Code can be found on its website.

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what estimate he has made of the proportion of the population who will be eligible for legally-aided representation in the Crown Court once means-testing is re-introduced; [282669]

(2) what estimate he has made of the proportion of the population eligible for legally-aided representation in magistrates' courts. [282670]

Mr. Straw: Every defendant appearing before the Crown court for trial once the new means testing scheme is introduced will be granted a representation order, subject to the submission of a completed application form. We estimate that just over three-quarters of defendants will receive legal aid without needing to make any contribution. Further information is available in the “Impact Assessment”, published alongside the Government's response to the consultation on the principle of Crown court means testing.

Defendants in the magistrates court need to pass both the Interests of Justice test and the means test to qualify for legal aid. Recent estimates suggest that around half of the population of England and Wales would be financially eligible to receive legal aid in the magistrates courts if they were charged with an offence that satisfied the Interests of Justice test. The majority of defendants who are not legally-aided in the magistrates courts are ineligible because their cases do not meet the Interests of Justice criteria.


30 Jun 2009 : Column 173W

Mentally Disturbed Offenders

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners have been transferred from prison to a secure mental health unit in each of the last five years. [282569]

Mr. Straw: The information requested is given in the following table.

Number transferred

2004

890

2005

907

2006

967

2007

941

2008

997


National Offender Management Service

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff with a (a) prison and (b) probation background are employed in the Department of Violence, Extremism and Psychopathy within the National Offender Management Service. [282403]

Maria Eagle: While there is no specific Department of Violence, Extremism and Psychopathy, there is a team within NOMS Interventions and Substance Misuse Group which focuses on interventions in these three areas. There are currently 17 staff and of these 10 have a prison background, two probation, two have worked directly for both settings, three have neither. The majority of these staff have experience of delivering work which spans both services.

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people working at the National Offender Management Service Head Office have a background in (a) a probation service and (b) a prison service. [282405]

Maria Eagle: There are no centralised records held on the background of employees. These records may be held locally and to collect this for the National Offenders Management Service headquarters would incur disproportionate cost.

Offences against Children: Prosecutions

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prosecutions for offences relating to child abuse there have been in each local authority area since 1997. [280667]

Claire Ward: The number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for sexual offences against children, 2004 to 2007 is shown in the table. As there is no specific offence of “child abuse,” statistics are only provided where the age of the victim can be identified as a child from the description of the offence. The term “child abuse” describes harm caused to a child arising from emotional, physical, sexual abuse or neglect caused by a parent, guardian, carer, or stranger. A number of other offences such as offences against the person including physical assault may frequently be used by the police to charge offenders.


30 Jun 2009 : Column 174W

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 significantly modernised and strengthened the laws on sexual offences in England and Wales to provide extra protection to children from sexual exploitation. This makes direct comparisons with previous legislation very difficult. Many new offences created by the Act will not have a direct equivalent under the old legislation.

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.


30 Jun 2009 : Column 175W
N umber of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences relating to child abuse( 1) England and Wales, by police force area, 2004 - 07( 1,)( )( 2,)( )( 3,)( )( 4)
Police force area 2004( 5) 2005 2006 2007

Avon and Somerset

66

110

88

81

Bedfordshire

27

46

37

32

Cambridgeshire

34

58

41

56

Cheshire

44

80

62

81

City of London

1

Cleveland

27

43

58

60

Cumbria

21

46

32

48

Derbyshire

49

100

86

89

Devon and Cornwall

21

65

94

110

Dorset

18

29

33

28

Durham

49

67

72

68

Essex

52

58

54

24

Gloucestershire

18

37

40

45

Greater Manchester

159

234

248

245

Hampshire

105

134

129

195

Hertfordshire

40

65

82

39

Humberside

48

55

61

53

Kent

47

39

33

49

Lancashire

81

159

149

155

Leicestershire

49

66

78

78

Lincolnshire

52

59

54

51

Merseyside

49

60

60

90

Metropolitan Police

356

495

483

452

Norfolk

22

44

41

53

North Yorkshire

39

42

69

59

Northamptonshire

18

30

24

11

Northumbria

56

121

122

129

Nottinghamshire

68

91

92

80

South Yorkshire

61

89

85

101

Staffordshire

91

89

91

72

Suffolk

28

59

60

48

Surrey

17

50

39

44

Sussex

27

73

79

79

Thames Valley

40

122

112

139

Warwickshire

13

30

22

34

West Mercia

60

88

88

98

West Midlands

308

286

332

293

West Yorkshire

117

159

130

140

Wiltshire

25

54

38

34

Dyfed-Powys

41

25

24

26

Gwent

51

79

52

54

North Wales

50

56

49

25

South Wales

120

117

108

130

England and Wales

2,664

3,810

3,731

3,778

(1) Includes the following offences:
Causing or allowing the death of a child or vulnerable person.
Cruelty or neglect of children.
Abandoning children under two years.
Sexual assault of a male child aged under 13.
Rape, attempted rape of a male or female aged under 13 or under 16.
Sexual assault of a female child aged under 13.
Sexual activity with a male or female child aged under 13.
Sexual activity with a male or female aged under 16.
Familial sexual offences of a male or female child aged under 13.
Abuse of children aged under 18 through prostitution and pornography.
Abuse of trust sexual offences against a child aged under 18.
Meeting a male or female aged under 16 following sexual grooming.
(2) Covers offences which identify the victim as a minor at the time the offence was committed.
(3) 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.
(4) 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.
(5) The Sexual Offences Act came into force on 1 May 2004.
Source:
Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Evidence and Analysis Unit. Ministry of Justice.

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