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2 Dec 2009 : Column 797W—continued
Figures on absconds and a range of other prison performance statistics are available on:
Legal Aid
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many legal aid lawyers working in (a) family, (b) housing, (c) employment and (d) immigration law were available in each procurement area in each year since 2000. [302191]
Bridget Prentice: The tables containing the information requested have been placed in the Library of both Houses.
Legal Aid: Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many applications there have been for (a) civil and (b) criminal legal aid from residents of Newcastle upon Tyne in the last five years. [302460]
Bridget Prentice: Applications for civil legal aid help and advice are made to individual providers. Existing data collection arrangements record 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 (LSC). The LSC collects data on the number of applications submitted to providers located within the local authority area for Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and this is broken down for each of the past five financial years in table 1 as follows. A proportion of these applications will come from individuals resident outside Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
| Table 1: Applications for civil legal aid representation in the local authority area of Newcastle-upon-Tyne | |
| FY | Number |
Applications for criminal legal aid cannot be identified on the basis of postcode information so it is not possible to provide details of applications submitted from residents in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. However, the LSC can identify the numbers of legal aid applications submitted to Newcastle-upon-Tyne magistrates court since means testing was introduced in October 2006, and these are set out in table 2. These applications include those submitted from defendants charged with an indictable only offence and facing trial before Newcastle-upon-Tyne Crown court. Some of these applications will have been submitted on behalf of individuals who do not reside in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
| Table 2: Legal aid applications submitted to Newcastle-upon-Tyne magistrates court | |
| October to September each year | Number |
Offenders: Electronic Tagging
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of electronically monitored offenders on (a) community sentences, (b) bail and (c) release from prison licence (i) deliberately tampered with their tag and (ii) breached their curfew in each year since electronic monitoring was introduced. [302190]
Maria Eagle: We are able to provide data for those electronically tagged, for the last two years. This is shown in the following table. Earlier data are no longer available and obtaining that information would be possible only at disproportionate cost. The table includes the proportion of those who have tampered with their tags or breached their curfews, which are also new starts. These figures represent a percentage of electronic monitoring orders received by the service providers and not individuals.
The data provided are from the electronic monitoring service providers. The information held refers to breaches reported to the courts or to the relevant authority such as probation service, Prison Service, Youth Offending Service, or police, and does not necessarily relate to breach action taken.
| Community sentence | Bail | Post release | |
Office for Criminal Justice Reform
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many first time entrants into the criminal justice system there were in each local authority area in each year since 1997. [301480]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 30 November 2009]: I have been asked to reply.
The data on first time entrants (FTE) to the criminal justice system from 1997 to 1999 are currently unavailable in this format.
FTE data from 2000-01 to 2008-09, by local authority, are published at table 2 here:
Open Prisons
Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many prisoners convicted of murder are held in open prisons; [302249]
(2) how many prisoners serving life sentences are held in open prisons. [302250]
Maria Eagle: At the end of June 2009, the last date for which data is available, there were some 360 life prisoners, including 260 prisoners convicted of murder detained in exclusively open prisons in all the prison establishments in England and Wales.
Prisoners are assessed objectively in a process looking at all aspects of their offending behaviour, actions they have taken to reduce their likelihood of reoffending, and the risk they pose to the public. They are placed in the lowest security category consistent with their assessed risk. Only prisoners placed in the lowest security category (D) may be allocated open conditions.
Transfer of any prisoner to open conditions will only take place if continued detention in closed conditions is no longer necessary for the protection of the public. Open conditions allow prisoners to find work, re-establish family ties and reintegrate into the community. All these are essential components for successful resettlement and an important factor in protecting the public.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing, and have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Prison Accommodation
Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what criteria are used to determine whether a prisoner is eligible to be held at open prison; and whether a conviction for premeditated murder is an automatic bar to being so held. [302248]
Maria Eagle: There is a well established categorisation and allocation system which aims to ensure that all prisoners are allocated to a prison with a security category consistent with managing their needs in terms of security and control. The categorisation process assesses the risks posed by individual prisoners in terms of: likelihood of escape or abscond; the risk of harm to the public in the event of an escape or abscond and any control issues that impact on the security of the prison and those within it. The risk assessment will take account of issues including: the nature and circumstances of the index offence, any previous convictions, positive and successful efforts to reduce identified risk levels.
Prisoners convicted of pre-meditated murder cannot be held in open prisons on their initial categorisation decision, but may be transferred to open prison conditions at a later stage as part of their sentence progression. Convicted murderers serving life sentences and other indeterminate sentence prisoners will be transferred from closed to open prison conditions only following the decisions of the independent Parole Board. Before making such a decision, the Parole Board must be satisfied that the case meets the criteria set out in the Directions to the Parole Board under section 32(6) of the Criminal Justice Act 1991.
Prisoner Escapes
Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether convicted murderers serving life sentences are considered to be at a high risk of absconding from open prisons. [302120]
Maria Eagle: Any prisoner considered to present a high risk of absconding from open prisons will be held in closed conditions pending further assessments of risk, and systems are in place to achieve this.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners have escaped from custody (a) during transfer between prisons and (b) in other circumstances in each month of the last five years. [302920]
Maria Eagle: There have been two escapes on an inter-prison transfer in the past five years. These occurred in October 2005 and March 2006.
The following data show the number of prisoners who have escaped from custody in England and Wales between April 2004 and December 2008. The number of escapes from custody has been falling since 1995 when centrally collated records began; this is against the backdrop of an increasing prison population.
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