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27 Oct 2009 : Column 336W—continued
Sexual Offences: Bail Accommodation and Support Service
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many convicted sex offenders are resident in approved premises in England and Wales. [295841]
Maria Eagle: The number of sex offenders accommodated in approved premises in England and Wales will change on a daily basis. Offenders are managed in approved premises according to the risk of harm they currently present rather than their offending history, and it is on that basis that information is collated centrally. Statistical information about the type of offences committed by offenders residing in approved premises at any one time is therefore not collated centrally.
Approved premises provide for enhanced and effective supervision of certain high risk of harm offenders on release from custody which would be much more difficult to achieve if such offenders were dispersed into less suitable accommodation in the community.
Tribunals: Legal Aid
Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on which tribunals of inquiry public funding was made available to assist the legal representation of bereaved families in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008; and what the annual cost to his Department was of each such inquiry. [295033]
Bridget Prentice: Although the Ministry of Justice has policy responsibility for the Inquiries Act 2005, it does not have a central operational responsibility for inquiries established under the Act. Nor does it have any operational responsibility for public inquiries either established before the Act came into force or established on a non-statutory basis. The costs of any such inquiry, including those on legal representation for the parties to the inquiry, fall to the sponsor Department and central records of expenditure are not kept.
Witnesses: Elderly and Mentally Ill
Mr. Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps HM Courts Service takes to support (a) older people and (b) people with mental health problems when appearing as witnesses in court proceedings. [294915]
Claire Ward: Standard 25 of The Witness Charter requires the defence or prosecution in criminal proceedings to ask court staff to make provision for any special needs which a witness may have as a result of a disability, medical condition or age, which mean that they need help attending court or in giving evidence.
Section 8.4 of the Code of Practice for victims of crime places a statutory obligation on court staff to ensure that, where possible, at criminal proceedings in respect of relevant criminal conduct victims have, and are directed to, a separate waiting area and a seat in the courtroom away from the defendant's family or friends.
The HMCS Reasonable Adjustments Guidance states that adjustments must be made for all court users, including witnesses, who are protected by the Disability Discrimination Act, which covers those with mental health problems. This could involve altering a procedure or practice for the benefit of the court user. The guidance can be viewed at:
The HMCS Disability Advice Factsheets include a section on court users who have mental health problems. This provides communication suggestions for providing a service to customers with a disability. The document can be viewed at:
with the section on mental health on pages 10-11.
The Judicial Studies Board's Equal Treatment Benchbook has a chapter on disabilities which refers to mental health frequently (section 5). Section 5.3 is devoted entirely to the topic of mental disability, with 5.3.3 referring specifically to mentally disabled witnesses. This document can be viewed at:
The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 provides a range of special measures to support vulnerable and intimidated witnesses when giving evidence in court.
Vulnerable witnesses include children and also adults who suffer from a mental disorder or otherwise have a significant impairment of social functioning. Witnesses in fear or distress of testifying may also receive assistance from special measures and when determining such
applications the court must take into account a number of factors including the age of the witness. It is a matter for the court to decide which, if any, of the special measures will be available to any particular witness.
The special measure provisions include:
Evidence by live link from outside the court room
Screens in the court room to prevent the witness from viewing the defendant
Video recorded evidence in chief
Evidence in private, in sex offence cases and those involving intimidation
Communication aids
Assistance with communication from an intermediary.
The 1999 Act also reformed the law on competency so that all witnesses, whatever their age or disability, are competent to give evidence unless they cannot understand the questions asked or cannot answer them in a way that can be understood.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Apprentices
Dr. Cable: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many Government-funded apprenticeship places were available in (a) England, (b) London, (c) Richmond-upon-Thames and (d) Twickenham constituency in each of the last five years; [294757]
(2) how many Government-funded apprenticeships have been undertaken in (a) England, (b) London, (c) Richmond-upon-Thames and (d) Twickenham constituency in each of the last five years. [294758]
Kevin Brennan: Apprenticeship funding for further education (FE) colleges and providers is set out in a maximum contract value (MCV). This amount reflects the anticipated cost for an academic year of supporting learners continuing on programmes from earlier years as well as new starts. We do not fund on the basis of expected places rather the number of total learners that can be supported in a given year with the funds available.
Planning assumptions for funded apprenticeship places for the 2009/10 academic year were published in the Grant Letter to the Learning and Skills Council (November 2008). Further to this, we announced a £140 million package to deliver 35,000 extra apprenticeship places over 2009/10. Although information on apprenticeship places is not available, we do publish the number of apprenticeship starts in each academic year, at both a national and sub-national level.
Apprenticeship Starts for 2003/04 to 2007/08 were published in a statistical first release (SFR) on 25 June 2009:
Supplementary table 5.1 shows apprenticeship starts by Constituency, Local Authority, Government Office Region and England for 2003/04 to 2007/08.
Provisional full-year figures for 2008/09 were published in a statistical first release on 22 October:
Supplementary geographic breakdowns will be available shortly after the main release.
Apprentices: Milton Keynes
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans he has to extend the apprenticeship schemes in operation in Milton Keynes, with particular reference to the scheme operated by ABB Robotics; and if he will make a statement. [295756]
Kevin Brennan: The development of high level technician skills in industry is one of our key priorities in responding to the economic downturn. The engineering apprenticeship programme operated by ABB Robotics UK in conjunction with Milton Keynes college is the type of high quality investment in emerging technologies we wish to encourage and the reason why we are continuing to expand our investment in apprenticeships. We expect to invest over £1 billion this year, and last week we published provisional data for 2008-09 showing 234,000 people started an apprenticeship-a record number.
The National Apprenticeships Service is managing plans to promote and expand apprenticeships and will work with companies such as ABB to develop and support their skills investment.
Business Links
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent progress he has made in evaluating the effectiveness of Business Link. [291954]
Ms Rosie Winterton: BIS works in partnership with regional development agencies (RDAs) to deliver Business Link services through a network of business advisers, and with HMRC to deliver a national helpline and an online portal at:
Customer satisfaction surveys and periodic evaluations are used routinely to assess the effectiveness of the service.
RDAs use monthly customer surveys and their own local evaluations to assess business benefits and monitor service provider contracts.
Serco, the businesslink.gov website service provider, carries out a biannual survey of website users on behalf of HMRC, to assess the benefits of the site as well as regular monitoring of website use statistics.
Additionally, BIS is carrying out its own assessment of the Business Link delivered Heath Checks that were set up as part of Real Help for Businesses support package.
A full economic impact evaluation of Business Link was published in 2007 which showed the service was cost-effective. This is available on the BIS website.
Business Links: Debts
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what percentage of outstanding trading debts had been paid by Business Link within 10 days in each month since November 2008. [292926]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 14 October 2009]: To gather this data to the level of detail and within the timeframe requested would incur disproportionate cost.
Business: Government Assistance
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding has been drawn down from the Working Capital scheme by each eligible financial institution in each month since it became operational; and if he will make a statement. [264416]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The following guarantees have been agreed on three bank loan portfolios under the Working Capital Scheme:
£0.5 billion to Royal Bank of Scotland in April 2009;
£0.6 billion to Lloyds Banking Group in April 2009; and
£1.1 billion to Lloyds Banking Group in July 2009.
Each bank has paid a premium to the Department for these guarantees; no money has been paid to any bank under these guarantees as there have been no defaults.
Business: Registration
Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what obligations companies registered in the UK have to list with Companies House their subsidiary companies; what sanctions exist for non-compliance with such obligations; and on how many occasions enforcement action has been taken in the last five years. [296182]
Ian Lucas: The requirement for companies to notify Companies House of subsidiary undertakings is covered in sections 409 - 410 of the Companies Act 2006 (it was formerly section 231 of the Companies Act 1985). Sections 409 - 410 should be read in conjunction with SI 2008/409 and SI 2008/410.
Unless an exception applies all companies with subsidiary undertakings must disclose them in a note to their accounts at the end of each financial year.
Alternatively, if section 410(2) applies a company can opt to provide a full list of subsidiaries as an annex to the company's next annual return but this would also need to be explained in the notes to the accounts in question.
If a company fails to comply with this requirement the company and every officer commits an offence. The fine for this offence on conviction is one not exceeding level 3 of the standard scale which is £1000 and for continued contravention, a daily default fine not exceeding one-tenth of level 3 of the standard scale.
Enforcement wise Companies House only deal with this type of breach following a complaint. In the last five years we have had only two complaints where compliance was achieved without prosecutions taking place.
Charities
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what grants his Department and its predecessors made to charitable organisations in each of the last five years. [292653]
Mr. McFadden: The Department may have given grants to charitable bodies through a number of our programmes, but the status of the organisations are not recorded. The Department, however, does provide grant in aid for operating purposes to the following organisations that are registered as charities. The organisations and amounts (where they are over £100,000) are as follows:
| Budget | |||||
| £000 | |||||
| 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | |
| (1) HMT allocated an additional £2.5 million in PBR November 2008 to enable CABx to extend their opening hours for 2008-09-this money is ring-fenced. | |||||
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