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9 Dec 2009 : Column 432W—continued
Youth Opportunity Fund: Youth Capital Fund
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many young people received funding from the Youth Opportunity Fund and Youth Capital Fund in the latest period for which figures are available. [304991]
Dawn Primarolo: In 2008-09 (the latest period for which figures are available) a total of 905,227 young people were either involved in or benefited from use of the Youth Opportunity and Youth Capital Funds, with 14,163 grants approved during that period. These latest figures mean that almost 2.5 million young people have been involved in or benefited from these Funds in the first three years of operation.
Justice
Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people worked for the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity in each of the last three years. [304319]
Mr. Straw: The independent Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity, chaired by Baroness Neuberger, did not exist before April 2009 and is now due to produce its report and conclude its work in early 2010. Therefore, the panel will only be operational for less than a calendar year.
The Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity has no separate support. It is being supported by officials from within the Constitution and Judiciary Division of the Ministry of Justice, within existing budgets. None of the officials work full-time for or on the advisory panel, but seven spend significant time on it.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much the Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity cost in each of the last three years. [304320]
Mr. Straw: The independent Advisory Panel on Judicial Diversity, chaired by Baroness Neuberger, did not exist before April 2009 and is now due to produce its report and conclude its work in early 2010. Therefore, the panel will only be operational for less than a calendar year and so will not have ongoing annual running costs.
The costs of the panel, from April 2009 to the end of October, were £20,975, excluding secretariat staff costs.
Crimes of Violence: Sentencing
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what sentencing guidance is provided to courts on crimes of violence with a homophobic motive. [304761]
Claire Ward: The Criminal Justice Act (CJA) 2003 (section 146) applies to cases where immediately before or during the offence the offender demonstrated hostility towards the victim based upon sexual orientation or disability, or to cases where the offence is motivated by hostility towards persons who are of a particular sexual orientation or who have a disability. Courts must treat those circumstances as an aggravating factor, and sentencers must state in open court that the offence was so aggravated.
It is the responsibility of the independent Sentencing Guidelines Council to issue guidelines to the courts. The council's guideline on seriousness draws the courts' attention to the statutory provision for aggravation in such circumstances.
Driving Offences
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people (a) were convicted and (b) served a custodial sentence for drink-driving offences in each police authority area in (i) 2008 and (ii) 2009. [304785]
Claire Ward: Court proceedings data are planned for publication on 28 January 2010.
EU Law
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what (a) statutory instruments and (b) other regulations his Department has brought forward to meet obligations arising from EU law in this Parliament. [304182]
Mr. Wills: The Statutory Instruments Registrar has maintained central records of statutory instruments made under specific powers, including those in the European Communities Act 1972, since 2001. There is no central record of which statutory instruments were made using other powers in order to meet obligations arising from EU law, and it would be disproportionately costly to create such a record now. There is also no central record of "other regulations". Since 2001, the Ministry of Justice and its predecessor departments (the Lord Chancellor's Department and the Department for Constitutional Affairs) have been responsible for 17 statutory instruments made using the powers in the European Communities Act 1972. A list of those instruments is as follows:
Freedom of Information: Academies
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he plans to bring forward proposals to apply to academy schools the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [305408]
Mr. Wills: On 16 July 2009, the Government published the response to its consultation on extending the Freedom of Information Act by means of a section 5 order. Academy schools were one of four bodies proposed for inclusion in this first section 5 order. These bodies are currently being consulted about their possible inclusion in a section 5 order and their responses will be taken into account in reaching a final decision on whether to designate them as public authorities under the Act.
Subject to the outcome of this consultation, the Government aim to bring forward a section 5 order early in the 2009-10 session.
Hunting Act 2004: Prosecutions
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been at courts in Kent for offences under the Hunting Act 2004 in each year since the Act came into force. [304862]
Claire Ward: The Hunting Act 2004 came into force on 18 February 2005. For the period up to the end of 2007 (latest available) no prosecutions under the Act had been reported for the purposes of the Court Proceedings Database now held by the Ministry of Justice.
Data for 2008 are planned for publication on 28 January 2010.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there were for offences under the Hunting Act 2004 in (a) 2008 and (b) 2009 to date. [304574]
Mr. Straw: Court proceedings data for 2008 are planned for publication on 28 January 2010.
Legal Aid
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how much his Department received from each other Government Department from the legal aid impact test in each year since 1999; [304499]
(2) what proportion of money received from other Government Departments as a consequence of the legal aid impact test in the last 10 years has been allocated to the legal aid fund. [304500]
Bridget Prentice: Funding received from other Government Departments for legal aid since 2005-06, when the legal aid impact test was introduced, is shown in the following table.
All the funding received was allocated to the legal aid fund.
Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what assessment has been made of the efficacy of the legal aid impact test; [304501]
(2) what guidance his Department provides to other Departments on completing the legal aid impact test; and what models and analysis are used to assess the impact of proposed legislation on the legal aid budget; [304502]
(3) what research his Department has conducted into the effectiveness of the legal aid impact test. [304503]
Bridget Prentice: The legal aid and judicial impact test (LAJIT) was introduced in 2005 to formalise the arrangements under which Departments responsible for policy change had an obligation to meet the downstream costs falling to other agencies. The purpose of the LAJIT is to ensure that policy makers are aware of the potential impact that their proposals could have on legal aid and the courts so that resources can be better managed and, where appropriate, funding secured from other Government Departments. The Better Regulation Executive (BRE) has oversight of the overall Impact Assessment process across Government, and owns the relevant templates and guidance. Its guidance toolkit includes specific guidance for policy makers in Departments on the LAJIT.
The models and analysis used to assess the impact of proposed policy changes on the legal aid budget include identifying instances where legal aid could potentially be required and applying suitable unit costs. These estimates are agreed between the MoJ and the Department introducing the policy.
No formal research or assessment of the legal aid impact test has been carried out. The BRE is, however, revising the impact assessment template, toolkit and guidance in order to promote the continued improvement of impact assessments. This work is due for completion in the first half of 2010. As part of that project, Ministry of Justice officials are working with BRE to review the legal aid impact test.
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