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1 Feb 2010 : Column 122W—continued
Reoffenders
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether his Department has commissioned research on reoffending patterns. [313773]
Claire Ward: The Ministry of Justice makes a key contribution to the goal of reducing reoffending through the National Offender Management Service and the work of the courts. Research in support of the goal to reduce reoffending, which assesses patterns of reoffending, includes: a study to predict the future costs of an offender and three large surveys of offending during and after their contact with the criminal justice system. National Statistics on reoffending are also produced annually for adults and juveniles and quarterly for probation caseload by probation area and upper-tier local authorities.
Young Offender Institutions: Food
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which young offender institutions provide food in accordance with Department of Health guidelines on (a) eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day and (b) other aspects of healthy eating. [313801]
Maria Eagle: Young offender institutions in England and Wales provide a multi-choice, pre-select menu that includes healthy options-and they must offer at least five portions of fruit and vegetables each day.
There are a number of initiatives to encourage healthy eating including working towards food specifications with reduced sugar and salt content, favouring steaming and baking rather than shallow and deep frying and avoiding adding salt and sugar during the cooking process. A balanced approach to nutrition is being pursued in line with the Department of Health's guidelines.
Educating all prisoners, including young offenders, to eat a more healthy diet is key. Increasingly the National Offender Management Service is adopting a multi-disciplinary approach and working with the Department of Health, the Food Standards Agency and others to encourage individual prisoners to eat more healthily.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his latest estimate is of the average cost of providing food for an inmate for one week in each young offender institution which holds juveniles. [313802]
Maria Eagle: The average Prison Service weekly food expenditure per prisoner(1) in public sector young offender institutions holding juveniles during 2008-09 (latest available data) is shown in the table.
(1) The daily food cost has been calculated using available management information from the National Offender Management Service finance systems and assumes that all transactions have been allocated and recorded against the correct accounting codes.
Youth Custody
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2010, Official Report, column 1158W, on youth custody: manpower, how many (a) children and young people and (b) staff there are in each (i) secure children's home and (ii) secure training centre. [314682]
Maria Eagle: The population of each secure children's home and secure training centre is set out in the following table. The data have been supplied by the Youth Justice Board and 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 may be subject to change over time.
| Young people in secure training centres and secure children's homes, as at 1 January 2010 | |
| Unit | Young people in custody |
The Youth Justice Board agrees minimum staffing levels with providers of secure training centres.
The total number of staff employed at secure training centres and secure children's homes is decided by the relevant provider. This information is commercially confidential, as it would be of value to competitors when tendering for contracts.
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2010, Official Report, column 1158W, on youth custody: manpower, what the ratio of staff to prisoners is in the (a) Down View, (b) Eastwood Park, (c) Foston Hall, (d) New Hall, (e) Parc and (f) Keppel Unit, Wetherby young offenders institution. [314683]
Maria Eagle: The following table shows the staff to prisoner ratio for each of the establishments listed at 31 December 2009. The data have been drawn from administrative systems which, as with any large-scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing and may be subject to change over time. The ratios relate to staff across the entire establishments and not just those parts which hold young offenders. The ratios are calculated as the number of unified staff, which consists of officers and operational managers, employed for each prisoner.
| Officer and operational manager to prisoner ratios (as at 31 December 2009) | |||
| Establishment | Unified staff | Total population | Ratio of unified staff to prisoners |
| (1) Figures for Keppel unit are not available, full establishment figures provided. (2) Figures for Parc relate to 30 November 2009. | |||
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 12 January 2010, Official Report, columns 940-1W, on youth custody, how many accommodation units there are in (a) Down View, (b) Eastwood Park, (c) Foston Hall, (d) New Hall, (d) Parc and (e) Keppel Unit, Wetherby young offenders institution; how many staff are employed in each such unit; and how many young people each such unit accommodates. [314684]
Maria Eagle: The following table shows the number (and operational capacity) of those accommodation units that are used to hold young people (under 18) in the relevant establishments. The table also includes the operational capacity and the total number of staff in post at these establishments.
| Establishment | Number of units | Operational capacity of units | Operational capacity of establishment( 1) | Total number of staff in post( 1) |
| (1) December 2009 (2) Including Kepple Unit | ||||
These figures have been drawn from central administrative/recording systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Broadband
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of households in the UK and which geographical areas he estimates will be without broadband access after the Universal Service Commitment has been fulfilled in 2012. [313762]
Mr. Timms: Our ambition is to ensure a service is available to all households and businesses in the UK. There may be some areas which for technical reasons prove prohibitively expensive to serve using any technologies, but I expect these to be somewhat less than 1 per cent. These premises-if any-will be identified through the tender process.
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which geographical areas of the UK have no broadband access. [313778]
Mr. Timms: According to Ofcom's Communications Market Report published in August 2009, over 99 per cent. of households are connected to a broadband enabled exchange. The Report can be found at:
We estimate that 89 per cent. of homes can readily get a 2 Mbps (or higher) broadband service (as reported in the Digital Britain White Paper, June 2009). According to the website "Sam Knows" there are currently 24 unenabled exchanges throughout the UK: Barvas, Berneray, Bornish, Carloway, Carnan, Drinnishadder, East Marden, Eriskay, Great Bernera, Grogarry, Isfield, Leverburgh, Locheport, Lochmaddy, Manish, North Tolsta, Northbay, Plaistow, Roding, Scalpay, Scarista, Scarp, Sutton and Timsgarry. Other homes unable to access a 2 Mbps level of broadband due to line length or other factors are widely dispersed throughout the country.
Business
Mr. David Hamilton: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department has taken to ensure that people with legal responsibilities for companies in liquidation are not able to form new companies before having met the liabilities of the original company. [312550]
Ian Lucas: There are no plans to require directors to meet the liabilities of a company in liquidation before being allowed to form a new company. It is a long established principle that the debts of a company do not fall on the directors save in certain limited circumstances, for example where they have given personal guarantees. To breach this principle would run the risk of deterring entrepreneurial behaviour.
It should be remembered that not all companies fail through the fault of directors, but where their behaviour falls short of that expected, we can and do take action to have them disqualified.
Successful action against a director, under the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, debars him or her from participating in the formation, promotion, or management of a limited company for a period of up to 15 years.
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