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26 Nov 2009 : Column 330W—continued
Fixed Penalties: Fines
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will reject any proposals to introduce a victims' surcharge for fixed penalties and on the spot fines; and if he will make a statement. [300468]
Claire Ward: It is Government policy that, where possible, offenders should contribute to victims' services as part of their reparation. Provisions were therefore included in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 providing for a surcharge to be payable on criminal convictions, penalty notices for disorder and on fixed penalty notices for road traffic offences where the offences are persistent and serious.
The victim surcharge was introduced on 1 April 2007 and has been applied initially only to fines imposed in
magistrates and Crown courts at a rate of £15. We intend to add the surcharge to other disposals as soon as it becomes feasible to do so. Proceeds raised from the surcharge provide a ring-fenced source of funding for a wide variety of organisations providing non-financial support to victims and witnesses of crime.
Magistrates' Courts: Welsh Language
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how much his Department has spent on translating summonses into Welsh in each month since January 2009; and if he will make a statement; [301483]
(2) how many requests there have been for summonses to be translated into Welsh in each month since January 2009; and if he will make a statement. [301484]
Bridget Prentice: From 9 December 2008 to 13 September 2009, HMCS operated a national process for manual translation of documents into Welsh. This was the period between completion of Libra IT rollout across all magistrates' courts, and the release of the bilingual version of the system. During this time documents were manually translated upon request, within one working day.
Since 13 September, bilingual documents have been produced automatically from Libra where customers indicate a Welsh language preference.
From January 2009 to September 2009, HMCS spent a total of £2,605 on manual translation of summonses into Welsh. The following table gives a breakdown per month.
| Cost of translation of Libra documents into Welsh (from January to September 2009) | |
| Month | Cost (£) |
| Number of requests | |
| Number | |
Mentally Ill: Health Services
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent estimate he has made of the operational cost per patient per year of a (a) low, (b) medium and (c) high security mental health unit. [300798]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The latest figures for the cost per patient per year in a high secure hospital for 2009-10 is £291,780 (figures from the service level agreement with the hospitals). This is the average cost per annum for all high secure services except for patients with dangerous and severe personality disorder.
The latest figures for costs for patients in medium and low secure units are the 2007-08 NHS reference costs. For 2007-08, the national average cost per patient per year in a medium secure unit was £171,915 (based on cost per patient per bed day of £471). For the same period, the national average cost per patient per year for low secure mental health units was £142,715 (based on cost per patient per bed day of £391).
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many patient places in (a) low, (b) medium and (c) high security mental health units were vacant at 1 June 2009. [300800]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
At 1 June 2009 there were a total of 771 commissioned patient beds in high secure units (excluding dangerous and severe personality disorder services). On that date, there were 691 inpatients. In addition, there were 55 high secure patients on trial leave to other secure services.
Figures are not available for vacancies broken down by low and medium secure units. Information is available on the average daily number of mental health and learning disability beds in national health service secure units, and this is contained in the following table.
| Average daily number of mental health and learning disability secure unit beds in NHS units 2008-09 | |
| Source: The Department of Health Dataset KH03. | |
National Offender Management Service: Consultants
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much the National Offender Management Scheme spent on consultants in (a) 2004-05, (b) 2005-06 and (c) 2006-07. [300262]
Mr. Straw: The Ministry of Justice was formed on the 9 May 2007. This merger included the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). NOMS previously formed part of the Home Office.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data in relation to NOMS, including on consultancy costs, for years prior to 2007.
The Ministry of Justice is in the process of implementing a new procurement system that will capture data on consultancy spend. Implementation is due to be completed in the new year, and the information will be available in the second quarter of 2010.
National Probation Trust Programme: Expenditure
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) budget and (b) projected actual cost of the National Probation Trust Programme was for 2009-10. [300280]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is shown in the following table:
| Resource total (£) | |
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what total budget was set for the National Probation Trust Programme over the lifetime of the programme; and what his latest estimate is of the total projected cost of the programme. [300281]
Maria Eagle: The allocation of funds to the Probation Trust Programme has been managed on an annual basis. The annual differences in allocation reflect the changes to the scale and scope of the programme in each of the three years.
Throughout its lifetime the programme has consistently come in under budget; this is as a consequence of in-year changes to the scope of the programme.
The total budget allocation for the Probation Trust Programme is £11.095 million; the latest estimated cost over the three years is £8.346 million.
Offenders: Mentally ill
Alan Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent assessment he has made of the relative effectiveness in alleviating mental health problems of (a) prison, (b) secure mental health units and (c) other disposals. [300802]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
Primary care trusts are responsible for commissioning mental health care in prisons. Where possible they aim for an equivalent service to that provided in the community with general practitioners providing the initial assessment and a gateway to psychological therapies, visiting
psychiatrists and prison in reach teams. When prisoners' mental health problems require them to be sectioned under the Mental Health Act, they are transferred to secure mental health units.
Measuring relative effectiveness is complicated by the different levels of care provided in each setting. However, the Department has recently commissioned a call for research into the evidence base on secure forensic inpatient services in England (high, medium and low secure forensic services). This review will systematically assess the context and mechanisms through which high, medium and low secure forensic inpatient services produce outcomes. It is envisaged this review will improve current evidence about why services work, what might work in specific circumstances, and the impact on resources, deliverability and health equity.
Office for Criminal Justice Reform: Finance
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what projects the Office for Criminal Justice Reform has funded in each year since it was created; and how much funding was provided for each such project. [301479]
Claire Ward: To provide the information requested for all the years since the Office for Criminal Justice Reform was created would incur disproportionate cost. Information is readily available for 2008-09: financial information for the projects the Office for Criminal Justice Reform supported in for 2008-09 is shown in the table.
In addition to the projects shown in the table, the Office for Criminal Justice Reform supports local projects through the Community Cashback scheme. The scheme (worth £4 million this year) gives local people a say in how recovered criminal assets should be used to support local communities.
Details of the projects supported by Community Cashback can be found at:
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