| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
12 Nov 2009 : Column 838W—continued
No other abandoned IT projects have been identified for this period from available records.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with which organisations his Department has had exclusivity agreements for information technology (a) hardware and (b) software in each of the last five years; how many such agreements have been breached in each year; and what the cost to his Department was of each breach. [299692]
Mr. Straw: The Ministry of Justice had one exclusivity agreement with regard to information technology (hardware or software) in the five-year period covered by this question.
A contract awarded to EDS Ltd. in 1996 for hardware and software (the LOCCS Local Offices and County Courts contract) included an exclusivity provision that related to the award of future work. There has been no breach of the exclusivity terms of that contract, and no costs of breach incurred by the Ministry. The contract was live in the five-year period, but has now expired.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was claimed in reimbursable expenses by press officers in his Department and its agencies in 2008-09. [299281]
Mr. Straw: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Departmental Postal Services
Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with which providers (a) his Department and (b) its agencies had a contract to provide postal services in (i) 2007, (ii) 2008, (iii) between 1 January 2009 and 1 July 2009 and (iv) since 1 July 2009. [299431]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice currently has no formal contracts for postal services. However, it has a number of local agreements with both Royal Mail and DX limited. We recognise that the absence of established contracts is not satisfactory and are in the process of completing a further competition against the Buying Solutions Postal Framework. It is expected that we will have a formal contract in place by January 2010.
Driving Offences: Reading East and Berkshire
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) hit and run accidents, (b) hit and run accidents in which the driver did not have insurance and (c) hit and run drivers taken to court there were in Reading East constituency in each of the last five years. [299543]
Claire Ward: Data on the number of reported hit and run personal injury road accidents in Berkshire and Reading East constituency provided by the Department for Transport (DfT) from 1999 to 2008 can be viewed in Table 1. The DfT do not collect information centrally on uninsured drivers involved in hit and run accidents.
Information available on the Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database cannot identify those defendants, proceeded against for offences of using a motor vehicle uninsured against third party risks, that have been involved in a hit and run accident.
The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts for the offence of 'failing to stop after an accident' in Thames Valley Police Force Area, from 1998 to 2007 (latest available) are given in Table 2.
Court proceedings data are not available at parliamentary constituency level, therefore information is given for the Thames Valley police force area in which the Reading East constituency is located.
Data for 2008 are planned for publication on 28 January 2010.
| Table 1: The number of reported hit and run personal injury road accidents in Berkshire and the Reading East parliamentary constituency area, from 1999 to 2008 | ||
| Number | ||
| Berkshire | Reading East( 1) | |
| (1) Based on 2004 Parliamentary Constituency boundaries. Source: Department for Transport. | ||
| Table 2: The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts for the offence of failing to stop after an accident( 1, 2, 3) in the Thames Valley police force area, from 2003 to 2007( 4, 5) | ||||||
| Offence description | Statute | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| (1) Not all hit and run incidents are pursued through the courts-minor ones in particular may not involve police attendance and may not be reported to the police by the injured party. (2) "Hit and run" usually refers to a collision in which someone was injured or killed. The offence of failure to stop is also committed if there has only been damage but such incidents cannot be distinguished from those involving injury or death. (3) A person involved in a hit and run incident may be convicted of a more serious offence such as dangerous driving. (4) The figures given in the table 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 it 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. (5) 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. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services-Ministry of Justice. | ||||||
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many convictions for (a) drink-driving and (b) each other motoring offence resulted in a custodial sentence in (i) Reading East constituency and (ii) Berkshire in each of the last 10 years; [299542]
(2) how many people in Reading East constituency have been disqualified from driving as a result of (a) drink-driving, (b) speeding and (c) dangerous or reckless driving since 1999. [299544]
Claire Ward: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Elections: Costs
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 16 September 2009, Official Report, columns 2251-2W, on elections: costs, in what cases expenditure by hon. Members, other than from parliamentary allowances, is included in the new pre-candidacy election spending limit; and whether expenditure by constituency offices is counted towards that limit. [299325]
Mr. Straw: Expenditure by hon. Members who intend to stand at the forthcoming general election, other than from Parliamentary allowances, will be regulated by the pre-candidacy election spending limit where it is the case that it satisfies the three conditions clearly set out in the previous answer given by my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for Justice, 16 September 2009, Official Report, columns 2252-3W. Where expenditure by hon. Members' constituency offices is in connection with hon. Members' parliamentary duties only, that would not normally be regarded as being 'for electoral purposes'. Such expenditure should not, therefore, be counted against the pre-candidacy expenditure limit.
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what types of expenditure will be included in the new pre-candidacy election spending limits; and how expenditure will be calculated against the limits if it partially or wholly promotes local government candidates for a party. [299457]
Mr. Straw: The types of expenditure which will be regulated by the new pre-candidacy election spending limit, as introduced by section 21 of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009, are identical to the types of expenditure that are regulated by the pre-existing candidate spending limit. These are listed in Part 1 of Schedule 4A to the Representation of the People Act 1983.
Expenditure will only be regulated by the pre-candidacy spending limit if it is for the purposes of the candidate's election at the following general election. Expenditure which promotes local government candidates for a party would therefore not be counted against the pre-candidacy spending limit for the general election. Where an item of expenditure promotes both the candidate for the following general election and local government candidates for a party, an appropriate fraction of the costs should be recorded against the pre-candidacy expenditure limit for the general election.
The Electoral Commission has published detailed draft guidance on its website on candidate election expenses at the forthcoming election, and has stated that it will issue final guidance in December 2009. The Commission's draft guidance includes detailed advice on splitting costs between different campaigns. Its guidance states that the guiding principle when splitting costs is that a candidate
"should make an honest assessment on the facts of the proportion of the costs that can be attributed fairly to (his/her) election expenses-that is, to promoting or processing (his/her) election during the regulated period."
Foreigners: Prisoners
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many foreign national prisoners were ineligible for deportation due to interference with their family life in the last three years. [295997]
Mr. Woolas: I have been asked to reply.
As the Chief Executive of the UK Border Agency indicated in her letter to the Home Affairs Committee on 19 October (copies available in the Library of both Houses), management information in this area is particularly complex and, as such, identifying the exact number of foreign nationals who became ineligible for deportation due to interference with their family life in any given year would necessitate a review of every case file for each year. This would incur a disproportionate cost.
The Chief Executive will continue to update the Committee as further data become available.
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many applications were received for the position of (a) chairperson and (b) board member of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority; how many such applicants were shortlisted; and when he expects further appointments of board members to be made; [299620]
(2) what the cost to date has been of establishing the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), including preparation and publication of the report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life on hon. Members' expenses and allowances and the appointments to the IPSA board made to date. [299622]
Mr. Straw: It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Intellectual Property: Internet
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many convictions there have been for offences of internet piracy in each of the last five years. [299535]
Claire Ward: Information showing the number of defendants found guilty for offences under the 1988 Copyright, Patents & Designs Act in England & Wales from 2003 to 2007 (latest available) is shown in the following table.
Data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.
Section 107 of that Act contains a number of offences relating to, for example, the making, importing or distributing of illicit recordings. It is not, however, possible to distinguish between convictions for the offence of online piracy and other forms of piracy, such as the offence of optical media piracy.
Copying from one media to another becomes a criminal offence under Section 107 only if it is conducted on a scale prejudicial to the interests of the legitimate rights holder, or in the course of business.
Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much has been levied in fines from those convicted of offences related to internet piracy in each of the last five years. [299536]
Bridget Prentice: Her Majesty's Court Service systems do not identify the value of fines collected for specific offences and this information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The total value of all financial penalties collected in England and Wales for the last five years is as follows:
| £ | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |