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16 Oct 2009 : Column 1188W—continued
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the stated aim of the Youth Crime Action Plan Initiative is; how much funding has been (a) distributed to and (b) spent by local authorities through the grant in each year since the grant's inception; and how much his Department expects to spend in the next two years; [292421]
(2) what categories of expenditure are covered by funding through the Youth Crime Action Plan Initiative grant; and what assessment has been made of the success of the funding against its objectives of (a) preventing youth offending, (b) reducing re- offending, (c) building public confidence and offering better support to young victims and (d) ensuring that those in the youth prison system are able to achieve the five Every Child Matters outcomes. [292422]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Youth Crime Action Plan, published in July 2008, is the cross-Government strategy for dealing with the full range of issues around youth crime and justice through a triple track approach of prevention, non-negotiable support, and tough enforcement.
The action plan is backed by £100 million of new funding, including funding for 71 local areas to implement a package of intensive measures to address youth crime. In 2008-09, the 69 areas in England received a total of £4.5 million, plus an additional £1.7 million for positive activities on Friday and Saturday nights, and the areas report that this money has been spent in its entirety. The 69 areas will receive £24.2 million in 2009-10, plus an additional £1.4 million for summer alcohol activity, and a further indicative amount of £24.2 million in 2010-11. In addition, two areas in Wales will receive a total of £350,000 in 2009-10 and can expect the same in 2010-11 to implement the elements of the package that are non-devolved.
The action plan funding covers expenditure to support the triple track approach. For example, to provide support for families in the greatest difficulty; police and social workers taking unsupervised young people off the streets
at night; and to ensure that more young offenders carry out unpaid work to repay their communities in their leisure time.
The action plan's achievements so far are set out in Youth Crime Action Plan One Year On, published in July 2009, and build on the Government's earlier successes which have seen recently a fall in the number of children entering the criminal justice system for the first time and a fall in the rate of reoffending.
International Development
Building Britain's Future
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many recent functions he has attended to promote the proposals contained in Building Britain's Future, Cm 7654. [290431]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: I attended one official function for Building Britain's Future which took place on 16 July 2009 in Swindon.
Justice
Burges Salmon Solicitors
Dan Rogerson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when the Solicitors Regulation Authority expects to complete its investigation of Burges Salmon LLP; and whether he expects the adjudication process to be expedited in that case. [290072]
Bridget Prentice: Although the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) does not usually comment on ongoing investigations, it is aware that matters relating to this particular investigation are already in the public domain. The SRA has informed me that it is giving high priority to this case. The SRA considers the investigation to be complex but expects it to be completed within a few months, at which time a decision will be made about appropriate action.
Channel Islands: Tidal Power
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the Answer of 7 May 2009, Official Report, column 359W, on British Overseas Territories: renewable energy, what progress has been made by the Islands of Jersey and Guernsey in establishing tidal energy commissions. [293421]
Mr. Wills: Guernsey has put in place a 'shadow' Renewable Energy Commission. In June 2009 the States of Guernsey directed the drafting of legislation for arranging the licensing of the operation and deployment of macro renewable energy systems in Guernsey. The intention is to establish a commission by the end of 2010.
Jersey has put in place a 'shadow' Tidal Power Commission that is looking at the feasibility of harvesting offshore renewable energy resources. Should this appear economically viable they will make recommendations to Jersey Ministers in respect of the composition of the
Tidal Power Commission and the commercial, fiscal and legislative regimes necessary to regulate the harvesting of this resource.
Councillors: Data protection
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent guidance his Department has issued to local authorities on whether councillors are required to register individually under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998. [292638]
Mr. Wills: The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK's independent authority with responsibility for enforcing the Data Protection Act 1998 and administering the register of data controllers under that Act. The ICO produces guidance to help individuals and organisations understand their rights and obligations and has published a good practice note entitled "Advice for the elected and prospective members of local authorities" which includes advice on the issue of councillors' notification under section 18 of the Act. This advice is available on the ICO's website and I have placed a copy in the Library.
Crown Dependencies: Prisons
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the prison (a) capacity and (b) population is in each of the British Crown Dependencies. [293450]
Mr. Wills: The maximum capacity of prisons in the Crown Dependencies is as follows: HMP La Moye (Jersey) 258, Guernsey Prison 122, and 138 on the Isle of Man. On 13 October 2009 their prison populations were 187, 72 and 110 respectively. The capacity of each prison is restricted in terms of limits on male, female and special categories.
Departmental Manpower
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff there were in (a) his Department's predecessor in 1997 and (b) his Department on the latest date for which figures are available. [292067]
Mr. Wills: In 1997 the Ministry of Justice's predecessor was the Lord Chancellor's Department, which had responsibility for appointing and advising on the appointment of judges, running the court system and a certain number of tribunals and assisting in the reform of the English law. To this end it controlled the Public Trust Office, the Courts Service, the Official Solicitor's Office, the Office of the Judge Advocate General, the Legal Aid Board and several more government agencies.
Since 1997 there has been a number of machinery of government changes, which resulted in the establishment of the Ministry of Justice in May 2007. These changes included the establishment of the Department for Constitutional Affairs from the Lord Chancellors Department in June 2003; the creation of Her Majesty's Courts Service from the Magistrates Courts Service and the Courts Service in April 2005; the setting up of the Tribunals Service from other Government Departments in April 2006; and the transfer of HM Prison Service, as
part of the National Offender Management Service, with the creation of the Ministry of Justice in May 2007.
Along with the organisational changes, the management information systems and the data they hold have been subject to significant change. As a consequence, information on numbers of staff in all the Department's predecessors for 1997 could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
However, it is possible to provide for 1 April 1997 published information on civil service staff numbers from the Cabinet Office website. The number of full-time equivalent staff recorded as working within the Lord Chancellor's Department was 10,652 and for HM Prison Service it was 37,704.
The latest staff figures for the Ministry of Justice are published quarterly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and they form part of their public sector employment statistics. The latest published data for the Ministry of Justice (30 June 2009) are set out in the table. The table provides full-time equivalent (FTE) figures for the Ministry of Justice (as published by the ONS).
| Staff numbers (FTEs) as at 30 June 2009 | |
| Number | |
| (1) The figures for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) refer to HQ and directly employed staff in public sector prisons only. They do not include the National Probation Service where the responsibility for staffing lies with the 42 areas and trusts who employ these staff. (2) The total figures do not include the Land Registry (5,860) or National Archives (630) recorded by the ONS under the category of Justice. These agencies are not reported as part of the Ministry of Justice's departmental annual report. | |
Family Courts
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which family courts have plans to hold open days. [291658]
Bridget Prentice: Open days are held by many courts across HMCS covering a broad range of jurisdictions including family. The extent and regularity of these are determined locally, by local managers, according to local needs, and there is no central record kept of past events or future plans.
Fraud: Prosecutions
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prosecutions which resulted in a conviction there have been for offences related to credit card fraud in each of the last three years. [293487]
Claire Ward:
There is no specific offence of credit card fraud. Prior to January 2007 persons involved in this type of activity are likely to have been prosecuted under the deception offences in the 1968 and 1978 Theft Acts relating to obtaining property by deception. From January 2007 offenders are likely to have been proceeded
against under the various fraud offences contained in the Fraud Act 2006. The common law offence of conspiracy to defraud might also be relevant, depending on the circumstances of the case. Data covering offences under the relevant sections of these acts for the number of persons proceeded against at magistrates' courts and found guilty at all courts in England and Wales, for the years 2005 to 2007 (latest available) are shown in the following table.
Data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.
| Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts and found guilty at all courts for selected offences relating to fraud, England and Wales, 2005 to 2007( 1,2,3,4) | |||
| 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| (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) Defendants may be proceeded against in one year and found guilty in the following year. (4) Includes the following statutes and corresponding offence description: Theft Act 1968 Sec 15. Obtaining property by deception. Theft Act 1978 Sec 1. Obtaining services by deception (except railway frauds). Common Law. Conspiracy to defraud. Fraud Act 2006 S.1(2aX3X4) & 2 Dishonestly makes a false representation to make a gain for himself or another or to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk. Fraud Act 2006 S.1(2bX3) Dishonestly fails to disclose information to make a gain for himself or another or to cause loss to another or to expose another to a risk. Fraud Act 2006 S.6 Possession etc. of articles for use in frauds Fraud Act 2006 S.7 Make, adapt, supply or offer to supply any article knowing that it is designed or adapted for use in the course of or in connection with fraud, or intending it to be used to commit or facilitate fraud Source: Evidence and Analysis Unit - Office for Criminal Justice Reform | |||
Human Trafficking
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what services will be available for trafficked women under the Poppy project in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11. [292800]
Claire Ward: The Council of Europe Convention on Trafficking which the Government ratified in December last year commits the UK to provision of sheltered accommodation for all those trafficked women who need it.
The Government have consequently invested £4million into specialist support services for victims of human trafficking over the next two years. This includes an investment of £3.7 million into the Poppy project to expand and improve the services that are available to victims that have been trafficked into the sex-industry
and domestic servitude. The additional investment will see an expansion of supported accommodation, with refuge places for victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation and domestic servitude in London, Sheffield and Cardiff. The investment will also fund a new national co-ordinator who will help set best practice standards and work with areas to raise awareness with local agencies and funding commissioners. There will also be an increase in advocacy workers to help provide one-to-one tailored support and the community outreach team will also be extended with two link workers based within the UK Human Trafficking Centre to work in partnership with the police, UK Border Agency and other partners to help with victim identification and onward referral into support.
Additionally, £300,000 is being invested into the UK Human Trafficking Centre to develop flexible support services for victims of labour trafficking.
Trafficked women in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne can therefore access the full range of support provided by the Poppy project; including tailored support from the community outreach team and if needed, be relocated to supported accommodation in the identified locations, safety permitting.
Legal Profession: Fees and charges
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many clients have been represented by no-win no-fee solicitors in employment tribunals in the most recent 12 month period for which figures are available. [292601]
Bridget Prentice: The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) does not hold the information requested. A survey of Employment Tribunal Applications (SETA) conducted by the (then) Department of Trade and Industry in 2003 suggests that damages-based agreements funded 11 per cent. of cases. A further survey was conducted in 2008 the results of which are expected to be published later this year.
Means Warrants: Greater London
Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his most recent assessment is of the monetary value of means warrants written off in Greater London in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [290080]
Bridget Prentice: The total values of financial penalties administratively cancelled by the HMCS London area in the last five years are shown in the table.
| Amount administratively cancelled (£) | |
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