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27 Oct 2009 : Column 326W—continued
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 9 September 2009, Official Report, column 2018W, on copyright: music, how many civil actions have been brought for offences related to copying music stored on a compact disc to a digital format for personal use in each of the last 20 years; what proportion of such actions resulted in a criminal conviction; and if he will make a statement. [296187]
Bridget Prentice: The Ministry of Justice does not hold any statistical information about civil actions being brought specifically for offences related to copying music stored on a compact disc to a digital format for personal use.
This is because the administrative computer systems used in courts do not presently identify this specific dispute type. While the relevant cases will be logged on the system, they cannot be distinguished from other types of actions brought to court. Obtaining the information requested would require the inspection of individual case files at disproportionate cost.
However, we do hold information in relation to the number of claims relating to copyright and design right issued in the Chancery Division of the Royal Courts of Justice, figures from 2004 to 2008 (the latest available figures) are shown in the following table.
| Claims relating to copyright and design right issued in the Chancery Division of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, 2004-08 | |
| Number | |
| Source: Chancery chambers, bespoke contribution for this publication. | |
Coroners: Armed Forces
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on which occasions public funding was made available to assist the legal representation of bereaved families at inquest proceedings relating to the deaths of service personnel in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008; and what the cost to his Department was on each occasion. [294957]
Bridget Prentice: Legal aid for representation is not usually available for inquests because an inquest is a fact-finding process and not adversarial. The Coroners system has been designed to function without the need for interested persons to be legally represented, unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Exceptional legal aid funding can be granted by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) on the recommendation of the Legal Services Commission (LSC) for representation at inquests, if the criteria are met.
In 2006 funding was granted on two occasions, totalling £32,541.65
In 2007 funding was granted on two occasions, totalling £37,089.78
In 2008 funding was granted on four occasions, totalling £80,496.83.
Case management is delegated to the LSC, so the final amounts agreed by the LSC may differ from the amount granted.
The MOJ has provided legal aid in every inquest into the deaths of service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan where the LSC has recommended it.
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the likely effect on the prison population of full implementation of section 26 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. [293617]
Mr. Straw: Section 26 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 deals with "Release of certain long-term prisoners under Criminal Justice Act 1991". This was expected to have an impact on the prison population, and the impact was included in the projections of prison population published in September 2008 and August 2009. Copies are in the House Libraries.
The impact of section 26 was estimated to gradually reduce the prison population from the commencement of the section in June 2008, reaching a reduction of around 400 in August 2009. After then the impact gradually reduces by around 100 per year to 2012, and then reduces more slowly to around 40 by 2015. The impact reduces after 2009 because there are fewer and fewer prisoners sentenced under the 1991 Act, which was replaced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the effect on (a) the number of sentences and (b) the average sentence length of full implementation of section 21 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. [293618]
Mr. Straw: Section 21 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act deals with "Credit for period of remand on bail: terms of imprisonment and detention". It allows the courts discretion to direct that up to half the number of days spent on tagged bail will count as time served against a subsequent custodial sentence. The credit is made on a similar, but not identical basis as remand to custody. It was expected that this measure would have no impact on the number or length of sentences given by the courts.
Departmental Advertising
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on which initiatives of his Department and its predecessor and its agencies expenditure on advertising has been incurred in each of the last five years; how much was spent on each such initiative; and which such initiatives were offered for tender through the Central Office of Information. [292529]
Mr. Straw: The Ministry of Justice was formed in May 2007 to take forward the work of the Department for Constitutional Affairs together with significant additional responsibilities transferring from the Home Office. These included the National Offender Management Service, which covers the Prison and Probation Services, and the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. The figures in the following table therefore relate to the Department for Constitutional Affairs where the financial years fall prior to 2007-08 and the Ministry of Justice on or after the 2007-08 year.
The nature of the Ministry of Justice's activities is such that it does not engage in significant levels of advertising on initiatives. More than 95 per cent. of departmental advertising spend is on recruitment, mainly by Human Resources (HQ and NOMS). To provide information for individual recruitment advertising campaigns would incur disproportionate cost.
National Offender Management Service (NOMS)
NOMS, which has responsibility for the prison and probation systems, has spent the following non-recruitment related amounts on advertising, external publicity and broadcasting. Amounts relating to specific advertising initiatives cannot be separately quantified.
| Advertising expenditure | |
| £000 | |
| (1) The figure for 2008-09 is for NOMS HQ and HMPS but excludes the 42 local probation boards and trusts within NOMS as this information is held locally and could be collated only at disproportionate cost. The figures obtained for the financial years 2004-05 to 2007-08 is for HM Prison Service (HMPS) agency only. They exclude NOMS HQ (previously a directorate within the parent department the Home Office) and the National Probation Service (NPS) which are now part of the NOMS agency. (2) The 2008-09 figures are therefore not comparable to previous years. It would be disproportionate cost to obtain figures for both NOMS and the NPS for 2004-05 to 2007-08. Furthermore, it would incur disproportionate cost to investigate what advertising initiatives make up the figures in the table. | |
The expenditure on recruitment for the NOMS Agency in 2008-09 is £3,409,968, mainly on recruitment of prison officers. This figure 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 stated figure for NOMS excludes expenditure by the 42 local probation boards and trusts whose records are held locally and could only be collated 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. There are no current plans to repeat this information-gathering exercise for 2008-09.
Headquarters and other agencies
For the rest of the department, the Ministry's central accounting records do not distinguish different types of advertising expenditure. To determine what expenditure relates to requires retrieval and examination of individual invoices and records held locally across the organisation.
Advertising, publicity and communications expenditure over the last five years is set out with some of the expenditure for advertising in recruitment. However, not all of the expenditure on recruitment advertising is included since it is not separately quantifiable from the accounts. The Criminal Justice Group, which is part of the Ministry's headquarters, was formed from various Home Office functions transferred to the Ministry in April 2007. It is not possible to extract historical information for the Criminal Justice Group from the Home Office's records prior to 2008-09, meaning that the figures for Headquarters are not directly comparable between the financial years.
| HQ( 1) (£000) | HM Courts Service (£000) | Tribunals Service ( T housand) | Office of the Public Guardian( 2) ( T housand) | |
| (1) For 2008-09 and 2007-08, headquarters relates to the Ministry of Justice. Prior to 2007-08, headquarters relates to the Department for Constitutional Affairs. (2) The Office of the Public Guardian was established from 1 October 2007. Its predecessor body was the Public Guardianship Office. (3) It is not possible to extract historical information for the Criminal Justice Group from the Home Office's records prior to 2008-09, meaning that the figures for Headquarters are not directly comparable between the financial years. | ||||
Business groups have identified the expenditure on specific advertising initiatives detailed as follows. These figures have already been accounted for in the figures within the table.
Democracy, Constitution and Law (DCL)
Total advertising expenditure for all years from 2004-05 to 2008-09 is £573,564 on the following initiatives:
Law Commission
Information Commissioner's Office
Elections and Democracy
Information Policy
It would incur disproportionate cost to split the expenditure between the four categories.
The two main advertising initiatives which are continuing are:
Victims Sup
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