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2 July 2009 : Column 410W—continued
National Probation Service for England and Wales
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on what date the post of Director of the National Probation Service was discontinued. [282962]
Maria Eagle: The post of the Director of the National Probation Service was discontinued on 29 March 2009.
The National Offender Management Service joins up both prisons and probation into one. There was no Director of Prison Service previously and due to the
joined-up nature of the new organisation, once the transitional phase was ended, the post of Director of Probation was discontinued.
Parole: Health Services
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent estimate he has made of the number of people who are subject to parole supervision in England and Wales who have (a) a drug addiction, (b) an alcohol addiction and (c) a mental health condition; and what funding he has allocated to services for such people in (i) 2008-09 and (ii) 2009-10. [282725]
Maria Eagle: Figures regarding the substance misuse and mental health needs of people subject to parole supervision are not routinely collected centrally and so are unavailable in the form requested.
Prison Sentences
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how long on average offenders with a minimum sentence of life spent in prison in the latest period for which figures are available. [283200]
Maria Eagle: The following table shows the number of first releases from prison on life licence in 2007, and the average time served at time of release.
| Number released | Average time served (years) | |
These figures are taken from table 9.5 of Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2007, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library, and which can be found at the website:
The 2008 figures will be published in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2008 on 31 July 2009.
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.
Prisoners : Housing Benefit
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what guidance his Department issues to prisons on informing local housing authorities that prisoners sentenced for a period of 13 weeks or less continue to receive their local housing allowance on an uninterrupted basis. [283623]
Maria Eagle: All prisons receiving offenders from the courts must conduct an initial housing assessment within the first four days of custody.
An integral part of the assessment ascertains if an offender is able to continue or initiate a claim for local housing allowance and triggers support to the prisoner to make or continue a claim where appropriate.
Prisoners: Foreigners
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many foreign prisoners were in open prisons on 31 May 2009. [282995]
Maria Eagle: At the end of March 2009 there were 204 foreign national prisoners detained in open prisons in England and Wales.
Data on foreign national prisoners are published quarterly in the population in custody bulletin, on the Ministry of Justice website:
Annual data on FNPs, and other characteristics on the prison population, have been published each year in Offender Management Caseload Statistics from 2003 and before that in Prison Statistics England and Wales. Both publications are in the House of Commons of Library and may also be accessed via the Ministry of Justice website:
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.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent estimate he has made of the number of Chinese nationals who are in prison in the UK. [283322]
Maria Eagle: Figures for foreign national prisoners (FNPs) held in prisons in England and Wales have been published quarterly since June 2007 and can be found at the following website:
Annual data on FNPs, and other characteristics on the prison population, are published each year in Offender Management Caseload Statistics from 2003 and before that in Prison Statistics England and Wales. Both publications are in the House of Commons of Library and may also be accessed via the Ministry of Justice website:
At the end of March 2009, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 445 Chinese national prisoners detained.
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.
Prisoners: Mentally Ill
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many mentally disordered prisoners have been transferred to hospital in the month before their release date in each year since 1999. [278553]
Maria Eagle: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor (Jack Straw) may direct prisoners with a mental disorder to be detained for treatment in psychiatric hospitals if their mental disorder requires it. The number of prisoners transferred to psychiatric hospitals has risen gradually over the last decade and is now about 1,000 a year.
Prison health care staff are advised to consult specialist mental health care providers and make proposals for transfer at the earliest possible time. The information requested is given in the following table.
| Number transferred in month before release date | |
| (1 )January to May only. | |
Probation Officers: Derbyshire
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of changes to the number of probation staff in Derbyshire in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12. [282964]
Maria Eagle: It is not possible to provide estimates of staffing figures for Derbyshire at this time. Resource allocations for 2010-11 and 2011-12 have not yet been set.
The Derbyshire Probation Board has been developing its financial and business plans for the next three years, as part of its application to become a Probation Trust. Unions are being consulted as these plans are being developed.
When the outcome of its trust application is known and the resource allocations for 2010-11 and 2011-12 have been set, Derbyshire will prepare its workforce plans to deliver the required service within available resources. I will write to the hon. Member when resource allocations have been set and the associated workforce plans have been agreed by Derbyshire Probation Board.
Responsibility for resourcing levels lies with each probation board or trust as they are the employers of probation staff. It is for them to take the action necessary at a local level, within available resources, to ensure they can deliver the required service.
Probation Officers: Manpower
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) qualified and (b) trainee probation officers there were in the Probation Service in England and Wales in each year since 2002. [282849]
Maria Eagle: The following table shows the number of qualified and trainee probation officers in the Probation Service in each year since 2002.
| Full-time equivalents | ||
| Probation officers( 1) | Trainee probation officers | |
| (1) Includes senior probation officers, senior practitioners, probation officers and professional development assessors. (2) Figures taken from the Home Office RDS Probation Statistics Report. (3 )Figures taken at 31 December each year. (4) Figures for 2007 will shortly be published on the Probation Service Intranet and Internet sites. | ||
This is also in the context of a 70 per cent. increase in probation funding in real terms over the last 10 years and an increase of more than a third in staff. The Probation Service continues to cut reoffending rates, increase successful drug treatments and offending behaviour programmes, and carries out visible and punitive Community Payback.
Probation: Sentencing
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions in the latest period for which figures are available the Probation Service recommended a custodial sentence in pre-sentence reports; and what guidance his Department issues to the Probation Service on whether to recommend custodial sentences for imprisonable offences. [282867]
Maria Eagle: During the period January to December 2008, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 17,164 cases where an immediate custodial sentence was the recommendation of a pre-sentence report. This information is available at the Ministry of Justice website at the following address:
The principal guidance provided to the Probation Service on sentencing proposals to make to the court is the Criminal Justice Act 2003: New Sentences and New Framework and the National Implementation Guide for the Criminal Justice Act 2003, both of which were issued in March 2005.
Both documents make clear that the report writer should propose a sentence that is proportionate to the level of seriousness and purpose, or purposes, of sentencing that the court intended, including the use of custodial or suspended custodial sentences. Separate guidance issued in June 2005 describes how the report writer should address sentences for public protection, also introduced by CJA 2003.
Further guidance was issued in April 2009 for court officers, report writers and offender managers that emphasised that reports should offer the court a clear proposal and that custody should be proposed where no other sentence was suitable. The Government believe that prison is the right place for the most dangerous, serious and persistent offenders, and we are increasing prison capacity to ensure that we always have enough places for these offenders.
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.
Probation: West Yorkshire
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the effect on service delivery of recent changes to the funding allocation of the Probation Service (a) nationally and (b) in West Yorkshire. [280687]
Maria Eagle: The funding reduction of £20 million for probation in 2009-10 should be viewed in the context of a provisionally reported £17 million underspend in 2008-09 and is therefore achievable without compromising front line delivery and public protection. The position nationally and for West Yorkshire, which shows a provisionally reported underspend of £325,000 in 2008-09, is similar.
From 1 April, regional Directors of Offender Management have been in place to provide the necessary strategic oversight of offender management services at a regional level.
The Director of Offender Management for Yorkshire and Humberside, Steve Wagstaffe, has met individually Chief Officers and Chairs from every area and trust in the region to discuss budget planning. He is carefully monitoring the work that is being undertaken locally to reduce the number of managerial and back office posts in order to concentrate resources on the front line.
Sentencing: Homicide
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what progress he has made on his review of the starting point for the minimum sentence for murder involving the use of a knife; and if he will make a statement. [283114]
Mr. Straw: I will be shortly be seeking the views of the senior judiciary and the Sentencing Guidelines Council on the appropriate starting point for determining the minimum term for murder using a knife.
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