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19 Oct 2009 : Column 1238W—continued
Secure Accommodation: Young Offenders
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice to which secure facilities young people who had previously been detained at Orchard Lodge Secure Children's Home were moved when that facility was closed in July 2009. [294187]
Maria Eagle: The Youth Justice Board (YJB) announced its intention to stop contracting for places at Orchard Lodge Secure Children's Home on 26 March 2009. Between March and July, the YJB did not place any young people at the home whose period of detention would have extended beyond July 2009 and almost all young people at the home were either released or moved to other establishments as part of their sentence plan. The only young person remaining at Orchard Lodge at the time of its closure was transferred to the enhanced Carlford Unit at Warren Hill Young Offenders Institution on 31 July.
Sentencing
Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many of those people who received indeterminate public protection sentences and who have passed their tariff date have been released; [293963]
(2) how many indeterminate public protection sentences have been handed down in each year since they were introduced. [294046]
Maria Eagle: Prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence for public protection can only be considered for release once they have completed the minimum period imposed by the court for punishment and deterrence (the tariff). There is nothing automatic about release once the tariff has expired; an offender serving a sentence of imprisonment for public protection will be released only when the independent Parole Board determines that the risk of harm which he presents may be safely managed in the community.
The number of prisoners serving indeterminate sentences for public protection who had past tariff and were released on licence in each year since 2005 is as follows:
| Year of release | Number released |
These figures have been drawn from the Public Protection Unit database and the IPP database and, as with any large scale recording systems, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
The number of offenders received into prison establishments on indeterminate sentences of imprisonment for public protection since 2005 is as follows:
| Year of sentence | Number sentenced |
This table is an extract from tables 6.17 in Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2008, a copy of which has been placed in the House of Commons Library and which can also be found at the following 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.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Anguilla: Energy
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of progress made by Anguilla towards energy independence; and if he will make a statement. [293462]
Chris Bryant: Responsibility for energy issues has been devolved to the Overseas Territory governments.
The Government of Anguilla (GOA) advised us that their progress towards energy independence has so far included the following:
Formal Establishment of the Anguilla National Energy Committee under the Department of Environment;
A draft National Energy Policy has been verbally endorsed by the GO A. This is expected to be formalised by 1 December 2009;
A renewable Energy Co-ordinator, supported by OTEP funding (Overseas Territories Environment Programme, a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development fund), has been retained and is currently working to promote the goals of the Draft National Energy Policy;
Funds have been raised through the GOA (EC$ 500,000) and OTEP (£100,000) for the establishment of the Anguilla Renewable Energy Office;
A National Energy Committee covers high-level international consultancy, data collection and data analysis;
A business plan has been developed for a special entity currently called "RECorp" which will establish and operate a first phase 2-3 megawatt wind farm under a power-purchase agreement with ANGLEC, Anguilla's sole electrical utility.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proportion of Anguilla's energy production has been drawn from renewable sources in each year since 2004. [293463]
Chris Bryant: Less than 1 per cent. of Anguilla's energy production has been drawn from renewable sources in each year since 2004. This is primarily through solar panels and solar water heaters.
British Antarctic Territory: Climate Change
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what support the United Kingdom has given to assessment exercises of the effect of climate change on future levels of emperor penguin populations in the British Antarctic Territory. [293465]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have been using remote sensing satellite images to locate emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica. The colonies were identified by the reddish brown patches of guano left by the penguins on the ice, which are visible in satellite images.
The survey identified a total of 38 colonies in Antarctica, 10 of which were new. As the low resolution of the satellite imagery did not allow any population assessment, BAS will conduct new research, part funded by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, using high resolution satellite imagery to look at the distribution of emperor penguin breeding colonies in the British Antarctic Territory (BAT).
BAS are also collaborating with French, Australian and US colleagues to look at emperor penguin colonies elsewhere on the continent.
British Antarctic Territory: Polar Regions Unit
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what projects are being undertaken by the British Antarctic Survey and the FCO Polar Regions Unit. [293466]
Chris Bryant: The British Antarctic Survey (BAS) undertakes a very wide variety of scientific projects in Antarctica, South Georgia and the Arctic. These projects are managed through the strategic science framework of the BAS called Polar Science for Planet Earth (PSPE). PSPE concentrates on key scientific questions of global or fundamental importance that can be best answered by research requiring access to the polar regions. It consists of six major programmes each consisting of several projects. The PSPE Programmes are: Climate, Chemistry and Past Climate, Ecosystems, Environmental Change and Evolution, Ice Sheets and Polar Oceans. Further details of PSPE, and the component research programmes and projects, can be found on the BAS website:
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office Polar Regions Unit also support a range of projects each year to underpin delivery of the strategic objectives of the British Antarctic Territory; these include projects which contribute to the environmental protection, education and outreach, heritage and governance of the Territory, and many of these are undertaken in partnership with BAS. The unit is also working with BAS and the Royal Geographical Society to develop a new educational website on the Arctic:
British Indian Ocean Territory: Environment Protection
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what conservation schemes operate in the British Indian Ocean Territory to protect low-lying vulnerable atolls from the effects of climate change. [293467]
Chris Bryant: All coral atolls in the Indian Ocean are suffering attrition due to coral mortality and sea level rise. The northern Chagos atolls have been monitored for the key coral components, especially those primarily responsible for providing a breakwater effect in shallow water.
Coral atolls in the Chagos Islands fare much better than most because they do not face the additional stresses caused by human inhabitation (sewage discharges, shoreline development, dredging, etc). Observations have been made on erosion since 1996 in some areas.
The Overseas Territories Environment Programme (OTEP), a joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development fund totalling £1 million annually, funds projects in the Overseas Territories dealing with environment, biodiversity, energy, recycling, climate change adaption and mitigation, and sustainable development.
The programme is currently contributing funding to a two-year project involving specialist scientists from elsewhere in the Indian Ocean, which will collect data on the condition of all atolls in the British Indian Ocean Territory, looking in particular at the effects of climate change on the reefs, with a view to informing and improving environmental management.
British Overseas Territories Conservation: Meetings
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he plans to meet representatives of the United Kingdom Overseas Territories Conservation Forum in the next six months; and whether he has met them in the last six months. [293468]
Chris Bryant: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has not met representatives of the UK Overseas Territories Conservation Forum in the last six months and has no plans to do so in the next six months. However, I co-hosted a reception on 30 June 2009 with my ministerial colleagues from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Department for International Development for the British non-governmental organisation community involved in environmental protection work in the Overseas Territories at which we met members of the forum. In addition, my officials have regular meetings with members of the forum.
British Overseas Territories: Climate Change
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures are in place to ensure that the interests of the UK Overseas Territories are recognised at the forthcoming UN climate change summit in Copenhagen. [293303]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is working in concert with the Department of Energy and Climate Change, the lead UK negotiating department on the forthcoming UN climate change summit in Copenhagen, to ensure that any commitments entered into at Copenhagen or subsequently will take into account the interests of the British Overseas Territories.
British Overseas Territories: Crown Dependencies
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which (a) Overseas Territories and (b) Crown Dependencies are oil producers; and what their barrel production levels were in the latest year for which figures are available. [293447]
Chris Bryant: None of the British overseas territories is an oil producer. Information on the Crown dependencies is available from the Ministry of Justice which is responsible for the Crown dependencies.
British Overseas Territories: Environmental Charters
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures are being taken to ensure that the commitments outlined in the 2001 Environmental Charters signed between the United Kingdom and the UK Overseas Territories are being met. [293459]
Chris Bryant: We are in touch with the Overseas Territories about progress against the commitments set out in the Charters, and to establish how much the Territories use and value the Charters. The Charters were raised with Territory leaders at the Overseas Territories Consultative Council (the annual meeting of UK Ministers and Territory leaders) in 2007 and there have been discussions since then by officials at working level. The Overseas Territories Environment Programme, funded jointly by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for International Development, spends £1 million annually on projects in the Overseas Territories which are designed to help deliver the commitments in the Charters.
Both the UK and the Overseas Territories feel that, while the Charters provide a useful framework, they are too generic and need to be tailored to meet the specific needs of each territory. We are therefore looking to revise the Charters to make them more focused on individual territory needs.
British Overseas Territories: Prisoners
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the (a) prison capacity and (b) current jail population is in each of the UK Overseas Territories in the Caribbean. [293449]
Chris Bryant: The latest figures available are:
| Overseas territory | Certified normal accommodation | Current population |
| (1 )Rising shortly to 150 | ||
Cyprus
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent reports he has received of accounts of a large number of graves of missing Greek Cypriot people having been found in a Turkish military zone site near Lapithos in Cyprus; and if he will make a statement. [293710]
Chris Bryant: The Government have received no official account but is aware of reports in the Cypriot press.
Cyprus: Turkey
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Government of Turkey in the last 12 months on steps to secure a political settlement in Cyprus. [293715]
Chris Bryant: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has had frequent discussions with the Government of Turkey in the last 12 months on a Cyprus settlement, most recently with Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu on 25 September 2009.
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