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9 Sep 2009 : Column 2021W—continued
The Ministry's other agency, the National Offender Management Service, does not record expenditure on entertainment separately from expenditure on hospitality. Combined expenditure on hospitality and entertainment in 2008-09 was £238,039. To separately identify entertainment expenditure would incur disproportionate cost but it is likely to be a small percentage of the total figure.
The figure for the National Offender Management Service excludes expenditure by the 42 local probation boards and trusts whose records are held locally and could currently be collated only at disproportionate cost.
| (b) Advertising and promotion | £ |
Except for NOMS, the figures quoted are for advertising and publicity which are recorded as a combined expenditure category within the Ministry's accounting system. The Ministry does not have a separately identifiable expenditure category for promotion.
The figure shown for NOMS is recorded as recruitment expenditure on their accounting system.
As a result, the figure for NOMS may include other recruitment expenditure, not considered to be publicity and advertising. Work to split out publicity and advertising spend from the total recruitment amount would incur disproportionate cost.
The NOMS figure also excludes expenditure by the 42 local probation boards and trusts whose records are held locally and could be collated only at disproportionate cost. A one-off exercise undertaken in 2007-08 found that expenditure on advertising and promotion by local probation boards and trusts was £58,264. In the light of the hon. and learned Member's question, I have asked for advice on the cost of mounting a similar exercise in respect of 2008-09.
(c) Public relations consultancy
The Ministry does not distinguish between different types of consultancy expenditure in its accounting records. Analysing expenditure to determine the amount that relates to public relations would incur disproportionate
cost. Such an exercise was last undertaken in 2007-08 and found that expenditure on public relations consultancy was £290,476. There are no current plans to repeat this information-gathering exercise for 2008-09.
All the figures provided are unaudited.
All expenditure incurred is in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.
Departmental Training
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department has spent on health and safety training in each of the last two years. [287966]
Mr. Straw: The expenditure on Health and Safety Training by the Ministry is stated as follows:
| £ | |
The expenditure incurred is for external training courses only with the use of approved Health and Safety training consultants.
To supplement these external courses, internal Health and Safety training is provided across the Ministry by in-house staff. To obtain an accurate figure for this would incur disproportionate cost.
The National Offender Management Service employs over 50,000 staff in more than 140 locations. At present, there is no single central point for management information relating to health and safety training for staff. To obtain the information requested would involve identifying and contacting sources of information in many different locations and would thus incur disproportionate costs.
Departmental Work Experience
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what provision is made to enable students to undertake work experience in his Department; by what means members of the public may obtain information about work experience in his Department; and if he will make a statement. [288727]
Mr. Wills: While comprehensive information is not held centrally, records indicate that during the period 1 September 2008 to 31 August 2009 over 420 students have undertaken work experience.
The Department advertises its provision through, and members of the public may obtain placements, via:
Internships, such as those offered by the civil service-wide Ethnic Minority Summer Development Programme and Disability Summer Placement Scheme
Connections with local schools, colleges and universities
Local authority educational business partnerships
The Careers Advisory Service
Registered charities such as the Trident Trust
Students and their parents applying directly to courts, tribunals and other MOJ offices locally.
Fines: Drivers
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what average fine was imposed for the offence of driving uninsured against third party risks in each of the last 10 years. [287698]
Claire Ward: The average fine imposed at magistrates courts and at the Crown court for the offence of using a motor vehicle uninsured against third party risks in England and Wales for the years 1998 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in the following table.
Data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.
| The average fine (£) imposed at the magistrates' court and the Crown court for the offence of using a motor vehicle uninsured against third party risks( 1) , England and Wales, 1998 to 2007( 2,3) | ||||||||||
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003( 4) | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| (1) An offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988 s.143 (2) (2) It is known that for some police force areas, the reporting of court proceedings in particular those relating to summary motoring offences may be less than complete. (3) 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 limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) As from 1 June 2003, 'driving a motor vehicle while uninsured against third party risks' became a fixed penalty offence. Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform-Evidence and Analysis Unit | ||||||||||
Flags
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many flags his Department owns; and what the cost was of maintaining such flags in the latest year for which figures are available. [287974]
Mr. Straw: The number of flags within Ministry of Justice HQ is currently 13. This is due to two flag poles with multiple flags at both 102 Petty France and Selborne House (a building which we no longer occupy).
Data on the number of flags within HM Courts Service are not held centrally by HMCS Estates nor the Regional Estates Offices and the Judges Lodgings Management Team. Detailed information on the number of flags would necessitate calls to individual courts/lodgings with flag poles and can be collated only at disproportionate costs.
Every prison establishment within NOMS has a Union Flag and Prison Service Flag. There are 122 Public Sector Prisons with 244 flags.
The latest expenditure on flag maintenance by the Ministry in the financial year 2008-09 is stated as follows:
| £ | |
| (1) Of the £35,743 for HM courts service, £24,052 was incurred on the provision and removal of flags, as well as flag maintenance. It is not possible to separate the two elements without a detail review of invoices that would incur disproportionate cost. | |
Flag maintenance expenditure includes the testing, inspection and surveying of the flags to ensure that they are in full operating condition.
Every flag pole/mast is inspected each year by the maintenance department held locally by prisons and probation boards/trusts of the National Offenders Management Service and the information can be collated only at disproportionate cost.
Fraud: Unemployment Benefits
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many convictions for offences related to fraudulent claims for unemployment benefits there were in (a) England, (b) the East of England, (c) Essex and (d) Castle Point in each of the last 10 years. [289152]
Helen Goodman: I have been asked to reply.
Information relating to the number of convictions for offences relating to fraudulent claims for jobseeker's allowance is not available.
However, information is available for the number of people convicted for benefit fraud cases for all Department for Work and Pensions-administered benefits in each of the last five years. I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave on 14 July 2009, Official Report, column 289W, to the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon).
Freedom of Information
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hon. Members have referred responses to requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to the Information Commission in each of the last three years; and in each case how many such referrals were not resolved after 12 months of consideration. [287999]
Mr. Wills: The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the independent authority responsible for enforcing the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Information about the numbers of complaints referred by hon. Members to the ICO and the time taken to resolve them is set out as follows. However, it should be noted that this information was identified on the basis of complaints made from a respondent address of the Palace of Westminster. It does not include referrals made by hon. Members from their constituency or other address or from MEPs or MSPs.
| Number of hon. Members | Total number of cases | Resolved in over 12 months | |
The ICO is committed to resolving cases as efficiently as possible, and is improving its closure rates despite large increases in the volume of case receipts since the introduction of the Act.
This information was provided by the ICO.
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