House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 20 July 2009 (pt 0081)

20 July 2009 : Column 1069W—continued

The statistics for the proportion of members of the public registered are similarly difficult to calculate because
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ONS figures on total population do not show whether those people are eligible electors. ONS reports that the total number of local government electors registered in the UK on 1 December 2008 stood at 46,147,877.

Firearms: Sentencing

Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what percentage of people in each age group who were convicted of carrying an illegal firearm under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 received the mandatory sentence provided for by that Act in each of the last five years; and what the average length of sentence was of those convicted of carrying an illegal firearm under the Criminal Justice Act 2003 in each of the last four years. [285759]

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

Persons sentenced for firearms offences liable for mandatory minimum custodial sentence as prescribed by the Criminal Justice Act 2003^{( 1)}
		2003	2004	2005	2006	2007
Juveniles⁽⁵⁾	Total sentenced	69	60	36	17	16
	Immediate custody	10	12	9	8	7
	Received mandatory minimum⁽³⁾ at least three years	n/a⁽²⁾	n/a⁽²⁾	4	5	2
	Percentage of offenders sentenced receiving mandatory minimum	n/a	n/a	11.1	29.4	12.5
	ACSL⁽⁴⁾	11.2	22.7	26.0	29.8	30.6

Young adults	Total sentenced	121	122	59	46	40
	Immediate custody	23	35	34	31	32
	Received mandatory minimum-at least three years⁽⁶⁾	n/a⁽²⁾	n/a⁽²⁾	7	14	15
	Received mandatory minimum-at least five years⁽⁶⁾	n/a⁽²⁾	n/a⁽²⁾	18	10	9
	Percentage of offenders sentenced receiving mandatory minimum	n/a	n/a	42.4	52.2	60.0
	ACSL⁽⁴⁾	18.6	39.5	45.5	43.6	42.1

Adults	Total sentenced	713	565	294	220	208
	Immediate custody	183	206	199	173	171
	Received mandatory minimum⁽⁷⁾-at least five years	n/a⁽²⁾	n/a⁽²⁾	124	126	132
	Percentage of offenders sentenced receiving mandatory minimum	n/a	n/a	42.2	57.3	63.5
	ACSL⁽⁴⁾	29.3	35.3	48.6	54.0	56.3
⁽¹⁾ Offences under Firearms Act 1968 of: Possessing or distributing prohibited weapons or ammunition, or Possessing or distributing firearm disguised as other object. ⁽²⁾ The mandatory is only applicable for offences that occurred on or after 26 January 2004. ⁽³⁾ Mandatory minimum for persons aged under 18 at time of offence and for offences taking place after 26 January 2004 is three years. ⁽⁴⁾ Average custodial sentence length (months) excludes life and indeterminate sentences. ⁽⁵⁾ Not all of those in this age bracket would have been eligible for the mandatory minimum as they may have been under 16 at the time of the offence. ⁽⁶⁾ Mandatory minimum is dependant on age at the time of the offence data held by the Ministry of Justice only shows age at time of sentence so offenders in this age group could have been liable for three or five years, offenders have not been double counted. ⁽⁷⁾ Mandatory minimum for persons aged over 18 at time of offence and for offences taking place after 26 January 2004 is five years. Notes: 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. Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice. Ref: PQ(OMSAS) 722 (8/07/2009).

These figures may also be found in the answer given to Dominic Grieve on 18 December 2008, Official Report, column 1014W. Data for 2008 will not be available until 'Sentencing Statistics 2008' is published later in the year.

The Criminal Justice Act 2003 prescribed mandatory minimum custodial sentences for the offences of: Possessing or distributing prohibited firearms or ammunition and Possessing or distributing firearm disguised as other object where the offences were committed on or after 26 January 2004.

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The minimum sentence it set was three years where the offender was aged between 16 and 18 at the time of the offence and five years for offenders aged over 18 at the time of the offence.

Data held by the Ministry of Justice cannot determine the date the offence took place or the age of the offender at the time of the offence rather it is the date the sentence was passed and the age of the offender at the time of sentencing that is held.

Data provided in this answer shows all offenders given the mandatory minimum from 2005-07, while all offenders sentenced in 2005 may not have been eligible for the mandatory minimum it is not possible to separately identify those cases that occurred prior to 26 January 2004.

Those offenders in the juvenile (10-17 years old) age band are all assumed to be eligible for the three year mandatory minimum, similarly those in the adult age band (21+) are all assumed to be eligible for the five year mandatory minimum, those offenders in the young adult age band (18-20) could potentially have been eligible for either minimum sentence so the numbers given between three and five years and over five years have been shown separately.

Freedom of Information

Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what representations he has received on the time taken by the Information Commissioner's office to investigate complaints relating to refusals by bodies to provide information requested by applicants under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [286816]

Mr. Wills: I have received correspondence from members of the public and from hon. and right hon. Members on this matter. I have also responded to Parliamentary Questions on this subject. In addition, the Justice and Constitution Select Committees have commented on the timeliness of the Information Commissioner's Office's handling of freedom of information cases.

For this financial year, the Government have identified additional funding of £500,000 for the Information Commissioner's Office's freedom of information work, over and above the baseline funding of £5 million. We are discussing with the Office how it can use this additional funding most effectively to reduce the number of outstanding cases. In addition, seven secondees from central government departments are working for the ICO to help clear the freedom of information cases at their home departments' expense.

Mrs. Laing: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which organisations have responded to his Department's consultation on extending the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to cover additional bodies. [287189]

Mr. Wills: On 16 July, the Government published their response to the consultation on extending the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to cover additional bodies through a section 5 order. Copies have been made available in the Libraries of both Houses, the Vote Office and Printed Paper Office and on the Ministry of Justice website. Annex B of the report lists all of the respondents to the consultation.

HM Courts Service: Pay

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was paid in bonuses to (a) directors, (b) senior managers, (c) specialist and delivery managers and (d) executive support and administration staff in HM Courts Service in each of the last five years. [280673]

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Mr. Straw: Non-consolidated performance payments are available for all staff in Her Majesty's Court Service (HMCS), as they are for all staff across the Ministry of Justice.

HMCS was created on the 1 April 2005 and the first reporting year ended on 31 March 2006. Non-consolidated performance payments are paid following the conclusion of the reporting year and the first non-consolidated performance payments for staff in HMCS were paid in the financial year 2006-07.

HMCS does not categorise its staff as asked in the question and to extract the data from Ministry of Justice records in relation to HMCS staff below the Senior Civil Service would involve disproportionate cost.

We have included all Senior Civil Servants within HMCS in providing the answer for the category 'Directors'. The figures for the last three years are as set out in the table:

		£
2006-07	Senior Civil Servants	358,250
2007-08	Senior Civil Servants	389,000
2008-09	Senior Civil Servants	345,500

Homicide: Rape

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) murders and (b) rapes were committed by offenders subject to Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) in each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by MAPPA level. [287887]

Mr. Straw: The following table shows the total number of offenders living in the community in England and Wales who were charged during the period in question with a serious further offence (SFO) allegedly committed by them at a time when their management was overseen via multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) meetings. This will include all charges of (a) murder and (b) rape but also those for other serious sexual and violent offences. The data is aggregated from the MAPPA annual reports produced in each of the 42 areas of England and Wales and it is not possible, except at disproportionate cost, to identify retrospectively which relate to murder and rape charges only.

The table relates to those offenders managed at MAPPA levels 2 and 3 at the point of charge. Offenders at level 1 are those who are eligible for MAPPA meeting oversight but whose risk management plan does not currently require it; offenders move between levels depending on the requirements of the risk management plan.

Over the years in question, between 0.4 per cent. and 0.6 per cent. of offenders subject to active multi-agency management have been charged with serious further offences.

England and Wales	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08
Total MAPPA managed offenders (i.e. level 2 and 3)	⁽¹⁾2,152	12,766	13,688	15,291	12,806
SFOs at level 2	n/a	47	50	69	72
SFOs at level 3	26	32	12	13	7
⁽¹⁾ Reflects only level 3 total. Data at level 2 not collected.

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