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28 Oct 2009 : Column 404W—continued


Legal Aid: East of England

Nadine Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many applications for legal aid from residents of (a) Mid Bedfordshire constituency and (b) the East of England there have been in each of the last five years. [295414]

Bridget Prentice: Applications for civil legal aid advice are made to individual providers, and the LSC records the number of instances of advice provided, rather than the number of applications made. Applications for civil legal aid representation are made to the Legal Services Commission. Not all applications are granted. The applications received for representation for the last five years in the requested areas is as follows:

Financial year Mid Bedfordshire constituency East of England England

2004-05

173

15,732

180,591

2005-06

187

15,498

182,187

2006-07

151

14,935

177,309

2007-08

114

13,365

161,206

2008-09

130

13,670

171,492


Legal Aid: Immigration

Frank Dobson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice for what reasons the Legal Services Commission does not allow consortium bids for funding on immigration cases. [294862]


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Bridget Prentice: Following consultation, the LSC proposed that consortium arrangements should only be permitted for core social welfare law categories such as debt, housing and welfare benefits. This was in order to ensure that integrated services can be provided for people who will often have multiple problems. In immigration cases, the necessary services are capable of being delivered by single providers; therefore there is not the need to allow consortium bids.

Providers will be able to bid for asylum and immigration new matter starts as part of the 2010 process and the number of starts available will vary from area to area according to demand. Providers will be required to do a minimum volume of cases in each area of law (except in Devon where only non-asylum starts will be made available).

Members: Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to reply to the letter of 15 September 2009 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard Mr. D Smith. [296118]

Mr. Straw: I replied to the right hon. Member on 21 October. I apologise for the delay.

Prisoners Release

Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners released in each year since 2000 for which figures are available had already completed (a) a community sentence, (b) one custodial sentence, (c) more than one custodial sentence and (d) more than five custodial sentences. [295843]

Maria Eagle: The following table shows actual reoffending rates and frequency of reoffending per 100 offenders who were discharged from custody in the first quarter of each year from 2000 to 2007 (latest available data), broken down by the number of previous custodial sentences. Information is not available for the number of community sentences that an offender has previously received.

Further information on the one year rates of reoffending can be found in:


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Table 1: Actual reoffending rates and frequency per 100 offenders for those discharged from custody, by number of previous custodial sentences, 2000, 2002-07 cohorts
Number of previous custodial sentences Cohort year Number of offenders released from custody Actual reoffending rate Number of offences per 100 offenders

No previous custodial sentences

2000 Q1

5,657

28.8

108.2

2002 Q1

5,134

30.8

122.7

2003 Q1

4,610

26.7

99.0

2004 Q1

4,773

25.1

85.9

2005 Q1

4,500

22.4

75.4

2006 Q1

4,637

21.5

67.8

2007 Q1

3,939

22.7

72.3

One previous custodial sentence

2000 Q1

2,475

50.8

220.5

2002 Q1

2,342

51.6

236.3

2003 Q1

2,039

50.4

214.4

2004 Q1

2,232

45.2

202.0

2005 Q1

2,000

42.0

164.2

2006 Q1

1,927

39.4

153.1

2007 Q1

1,767

41.3

146.0

Between two and five previous custodial sentences

2000 Q1

4,612

63.8

319.3

2002 Q1

4,739

66.9

361.9

2003 Q1

4,337

65.0

336.4

2004 Q1

4,760

61.1

286.7

2005 Q1

4,315

58.7

256.3

2006 Q1

4,015

54.4

226.0

2007 Q1

3,534

53.8

237.4

More than five previous custodial sentences

2000 Q1

2,973

75.4

413.4

2002 Q1

3,350

77.8

473.4

2003 Q1

3,360

78.9

491.2

2004 Q1

3,984

76.8

441.6

2005 Q1

3,764

73.8

413.9

2006 Q1

3,785

72.3

390.2

2007 Q1

3,570

70.8

413.9

Total

2000 Q1

15,717

51.4

245.6

2002 Q1

15,565

55.0

288.1

2003 Q1

14,346

53.9

279.0

2004 Q1

15,749

51.9

253.1

2005 Q1

14,579

49.1

228.5

2006 Q1

14,364

46.5

208.4

2007 Q1

12,810

47.2

223.2

Note:
Please note that data are not available for 2001 due to a problem with archived data on court orders. Since it will not substantially increase the knowledge on the current progress on reoffending, no resources have been allocated to fix this problem.

Prisoners: Drugs

Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were found guilty of (a) possession of and (b) drug dealing offences involving (i) cannabis,
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(ii) ecstasy, (iii) cocaine, (iv) crack cocaine and (v) heroin in each year since 1997; and how many received (A) a custodial sentence, (B) a community sentence, (C) a treatment order, (D) a fine and (E) another punishment. [295898]

Claire Ward: The number of defendants found guilty at all courts for possession of, and dealing in, certain drugs, by sentence, England and Wales, from 1997 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in the following table.


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The statistics given relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. For example, 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.

Court proceedings data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.


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