Justice
Crimes of Violence
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice in how many incidents of (a) domestic violence and (b) other offences of violence which resulted in a conviction a child was killed in each of the last 10 years. [316494]
Maria Eagle: The Court Proceedings Database holds information on defendants proceeded against, found guilty and sentenced for criminal offences in England and Wales. These data include information on the age of the defendant, their gender, the police force area and court where proceedings took place as well as the specific offence and statute for the offence. The Court Proceedings Database does not hold specific information on offences beyond descriptions provided by the statutes under which prosecutions are brought nor details of the victim of a criminal offence. Therefore it is not possible to separately identify domestic violence offences from other offences of assault and violence against the person. Unless specified in the statute it is not possible to identify the age of a victim of a criminal offence.
Available information is given in the table for the number of defendants found guilty at all courts in England and Wales for murder of an infant under one year of age and manslaughter offences of infanticide and child destruction, from 1999 to 2008. Data included in the table exclude offences resulting in the death of a child that are not covered by specific statutes and where the age of the victim is not known.
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Data for 2009 are expected to be published in the autumn, 2010.
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| Number of defendants found guilty at all courts in England and Wales for selected offences against the person, from 1999 to 2008(1, 2) | ||||||||||||
|
| Offence description | Statute | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
| (1) The statistics 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 the principal offence 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. (2 )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 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 | ||||||||||||
Debt Collection
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when the results of the Security Industry Authority's consultation on training requirements for enforcement agents will be published. [316575]
Bridget Prentice: The Security Industry Authority intend to publish the results of this consultation in June 2010.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many responses to the Security Industry Authority's consultation on training requirements for enforcement agents have been from individuals and organisations outside the bailiff industry. [316576]
Bridget Prentice: Six written responses to the consultation document have been received and four face to face interviews have been conducted by the Security Industry Authority with individuals or organisations outside of the enforcement industry.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department took to inform the public of the Security Industry Authority's consultation on training requirements for enforcement agents. [316577]
Bridget Prentice: Following a press release, the Security Industry Authority published the consultation document in a prominent position on their website and notified, by email or letter, 251 stakeholders, of which 20 were outside of the Enforcement industry, of its existence. In addition the Ministry of Justice also notified 38 of its stakeholders that had previously expressed an interest in regulation of the consultation exercise. All of the Ministry's stakeholders were outside of the enforcement industry.
Departmental Carbon Emissions
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether (a) his Department and (b) its agencies plan to sign up to the 10:10 campaign for cutting carbon usage in 2010; and if he will publish the (i) criteria and (ii) research upon which such a decision will be taken. [313434]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice welcomes the fact that the 10:10 campaign will increase awareness among the public and business about climate change and sustainability. It will help to develop a higher profile of this issue in those sectors that are yet to set themselves any targets for improvement. Some of these businesses will also be our suppliers and this campaign should therefore serve to secure improvements in our supply chain.
Prior to the 10:10 campaign being established, the MOJ had already committed to working towards the stretching long-term pan Government-mandated Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) targets to reduce carbon emissions from offices by:
12.5 per cent. by 2010-11, relative to 1999-2000 levels, and
30 per cent. by 2020, relative to 1999-2000 levels.
Although we are only required to report on the “office estate”, i.e. buildings where professional, administrative or clerical duties are performed, as a further demonstration of the Ministry's commitment to sustainability, the MOJ has chosen to work towards and report on SOGE targets on the wider estate. To that end the Ministry has initiatives in place to reduce carbon emissions throughout our business operations not only in the office estate but also in courts, tribunals and prisons.
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HM Courts Service carried out a Low Carbon Technology study in 2008-09, looking at possibility of retro fitting low-to-zero carbon technologies into the existing estate. Many of the. recommendations are now being acted on, for instance, a boiler and air conditioning replacement programme is under way to replace old, inefficient equipment and a trial of voltage optimisation equipment is being carried out.
HM Prison Service launched its own Carbon Management Programme in 2008 and attained the Carbon Trust Standard in April 2009. An innovative project involving Custodial Property and the Carbon Trust subsidiary, Partnerships for Renewables (PfR), has led to a generic options agreement being put in place to erect large scale wind turbines on prison land. An options lease with PfR has been signed for the Sheppey prison with more to follow.
We are also working towards the SOGE target to reduce carbon emissions from road vehicles used for Government administrative operations by 15 per cent. by 2010-11, relative to 2005-06 levels. The MOJ fleets are on target to meet Government targets for all new vehicles coming into service by 2010 of 130 g/km, while we already only procure vehicles that conform to the EU emission requirements set for manufacturers.
HM Government's UK Low Carbon Transition Plan, published on 15 July 2009, announced that all Departments would publish a ‘Carbon Reduction Delivery Plan’, the Ministry of Justice will produce its plan this spring 2010.
The Ministry of Justice and its agencies do not consider it appropriate to sign up to a short-term campaign such as the 10:10 campaign target as it already has an ambitious carbon reduction strategy already in place to meet the Government mandated targets. Going forward a key part of the strategy are projects to establish better quality, more frequent data through the use of Automatic Meter Reading (AMR), enabling more timely action to be taken to reduce energy consumption. Other projects include plans to upgrade building services and to optimise energy use both through technological measures and better energy management practice. The MOJ will continue with its carbon reduction work streams already in place and we will continue to promote the long-term and structured work we have been doing to reduce carbon usage. Further detail can be found at:
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/sustainable_development_ in_government_ministry_of_justice.asp
Departmental Sick leave
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff in his Department have had five or more periods of sickness absence of less than five days since its inception. [316467]
Mr. Wills:
Sick absence data for the MOJ (excluding the National Offender Management Service—NOMS)
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cannot be broken down to the level of detail requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
4,461 directly employed civil servants in the National Offender Management Service have taken at least five periods of sickness absence, of less than five days duration between the inception of Ministry of Justice on 9 May 2007 and 31 December 2009. This represents 7.2 per cent. of all staff employed over this period. An absence of less than five days is defined as an absence where the return to work date is less than five calendar days after the first day of absence. No account is taken of rest days.
The general trend in sick absence levels in the MOJ is downwards. In the 12 month period to March 2009 the average working days lost per person was 9.8 (10.7 days per person in NOMS and 8.0 days per person in the wider MOJ). This reduced to 9.5 days per person in the 12 months to September 2009 (10.5 days per person in NOMS and 7.5 days per person in the wider MOJ).
In the 12 months to September 2009 57 per cent. of absence was due to long-term sickness, where absence is greater than 20 working days.
The MOJ takes the management of sickness absences extremely seriously and is committed to an attendance management system that will help reduce the number of sickness absences while supporting the well-being of its employees.
The MOJ continues to focus management attention on reducing sick absence. Working proactively with external occupational health providers, there have been significant improvements in referral turnaround times. New, more streamlined and simplified attendance policies have been introduced during 2009.
Further work is also focused on well-being and to support this work we have undertaken a fundamental review of the occupational health (OH) delivery model. The re-tender of the contract for external OH services has been progressed on the basis of this new delivery model, which at its core has a focus on proactive case management and an on-site occupational health adviser at every NOMS HQ and prison service location.
Driving Offences: Convictions
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many hit and run traffic incidents led to an individual being convicted in (a) England and Wales and (b) each police force area in each year since 1998. [315061]
Maria Eagle: The number of hit and run incidents cannot be directly linked to prosecutions and convictions at court. Therefore, it is not possible to provide the information requested.
The information given in the following table shows the number of offenders convicted at all courts for the offence of “failing to stop after an accident” in England and Wales, by police force area, from 1998 to 2008 (latest available).
| Number of persons convicted at all courts for the offence of failing to stop after an accident(1, 2, 3, 4),in England and Wales and by police force area, from 1998 to 2008(5, 6) | |||||||||||
| Police force area | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
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| (1) Offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988 S.170(4), (2) 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. (3) “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. (4) A person involved in a hit and run incident may be convicted of a more serious offence such as dangerous driving. (5) 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. (6) 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. | |||||||||||