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26 Feb 2010 : Column 790W—continued
Family Conciliation Services
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) highest, (b) lowest and (c) average cost was to the public purse of a child contact case heard in the last five years. [318042]
Bridget Prentice: The Ministry of Justice incurs costs in cases involving child contact issues in respect of legal aid and the administration of the courts.
Table 1 shows the highest, lowest and average legal aid cost in cases involving child contact for each of the last five years. These cases may include other issues, such as residence, as well as contact. The figures show the gross legal costs paid, and do not deduct any amounts recovered through contributions by the assisted party or otherwise.
The figures in table 2 show the average court cost for private law Children Act cases heard in the family proceedings courts and county courts for the four years since 2005-06. The costs shown are gross and do not deduct income from court fees.
It is not possible to disaggregate court costs in a way that would allow them to be attributed to individual cases. Therefore, figures for the highest and lowest case cost cannot be provided.
| Table 1 | |||
| £ | |||
| Highest cost | Lowest cost | Average cost | |
| Table 2 | ||
| £ | ||
| Average costs | ||
| Family proceedings court | County court | |
| (1 )A11 private law Children Act cases including, contact, residence, parental responsibility and financial provision. (2 )Contact and residence only. | ||
Firearms: Convictions
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2010, Official Report, column 498W, on firearms convictions, how many (a) males and (b) females aged (i) 10 and under, (ii) between 10 and 16, (iii) between 17 and 18 and (iv) over 18 years were convicted of possessing or distributing prohibited weapons or ammunition in each year since 1998. [317919]
Claire Ward: Pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2010, Official Report, column 498W, the number of persons found guilty at all courts for selected firearms related offences, by age group from 1998 to 2008 (latest available) can be viewed in the following table.
The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years of age.
Court proceedings data for 2009 are planned for publication in the autumn, 2010.
| Table 1: The number of persons found guilty at all courts for selected firearms related offences, by age group, England and Wales, from 1998 to 2008( 1, 2) Possessing or distributing prohibited weapons or ammunition-Firearms Act 1968 | |||||||||||
| 1998 | 1999 | 2000( 3) | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008( 4) | |
| (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 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. (3) Staffordshire Police Force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates' courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. (4) Excludes convictions data for Cardiff magistrates' court for April, July, and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services in the Ministry of Justice | |||||||||||
Hackney
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency, the effects on that constituency of his Department's policies since 1997. [318374]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice's work spans criminal, civil and family justice, democracy, rights and the constitution. Every year around nine million people use our services in 900 locations across the United Kingdom, including 650 courts and tribunals and 139 prisons in England and Wales.
The range of the Department's policies and actions is wide and the statistical information relating to it is not normally collected on a constituency basis. Consequently, some of the information requested in the question cannot be provided in the form requested except at a disproportionate cost.
Although data on sentencing for the period are not available for the constituency of Hackney, North and Stoke Newington, they are available for London. This shows the total number of offenders sentenced annually was 202,478 in 1997 and 242,429 in 2008, the latest period for which such information is available.
The number of offences brought to justice for London increased from 119,531 for the 12 months ending 31 March 2001 (the earliest period since which such data have been compiled) to 230,202 (provisional figures) for the 12 months ending 31 March 2009.
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