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1 Mar 2010 : Column 934W—continued
Magistrates' Courts: Fines
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was (a) imposed and (b) enforced in financial penalties by magistrates' courts in England and Wales in each quarter since January 2005. [318915]
Bridget Prentice: The total amount imposed in financial penalties by magistrates courts in England and Wales in each quarter since January 2005 is:
| Quarter ending | Amount imposed (£) |
HMCS systems do not identify how much was collected in respect of financial penalties imposed in just the magistrates courts and can provide only the total collected in respect of all financial penalties i.e. financial penalties imposed in the magistrates courts, crown courts and unpaid fixed penalty notices and penalty notices for disorder which are transferred into HMCS for enforcement. The total amount collected in respect of all financial penalties in England and Wales in each quarter since January 2005 is:
| Quarter ending | Amount collected (£) |
It should be noted that financial penalties can be collected in a different period from which they were imposed in.
National Offender Management Service: Consultants
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much (a) the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) spent on external consultancy fees and (b) his Department spent on external consultancy fees related to NOMS in each of the last three years. [317128]
Mr. Straw: The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) collates data on consultancy expenditure as part of its Consultancy Value Programme which assists departments in driving greater value from Government's use of consultants. The Ministry's expenditure on consultancy for 2007-08 is reported as £56 million and can be found from the link:
http://www.ogc.gov.uk/professional_services_consultancy _value_programme.asp
The 2008-09 data collection and analysis exercise has recently concluded, giving a finalised figure of £49.7 million. This will be posted on the OGC website in due course.
A small element of this finalised figure represents an estimate based on average spend per commission where the data provided by business areas was incomplete.
Both the 2007-08 and 2008-09 figures reflect expenditure by the Ministry of Justice headquarters, HM Courts Service, HM Courts Service Estates, Tribunals Service, and the National Offender Management Service (except for the Probation Service). Refinements in the methodology for classifying expenditure in accordance with OGC taxonomy means that the 2007-08 and 2008-09 figures are not directly comparable at a detailed level.
Within the totals for each year, the National Offender Management Service accounts for £5 million in 2007-08, excluding payments to Treasury Solicitors which were included in the £56 million total, and £1.35 million in 2008-09.
The Ministry was established in May 2007 so data is not available prior to 2007-08 for the Department in its current form.
NOMS receives a delegated budget from the Ministry in order to conduct its business. NOMS have to meet its own consultancy fees from this delegated budget.
Office for Legal Complaints
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the running costs of the Office of Legal Complaints have been in each month since its inception; and what estimate he has made of its likely running costs in its first year of operation. [319076]
Bridget Prentice: The Office for Legal Complaints is currently in the process of setting up the Legal Ombudsman Scheme, which is expected to be in operation in the autumn of 2010, and has spent £1,643,000 of its implementation budget since 1 July 2009, when it was established. This represents an average cost of £235,000 per month.
The running costs of the Legal Ombudsman Scheme in its first year of operation are anticipated to be in line with its forecast budget of £19.9m per annum.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether the Office for Legal Complaints has installed an IT system to be used to manage its complaints process. [319077]
Bridget Prentice: No IT system for managing the complaints system has been installed yet. The Office for Legal Complaints has completed a tendering process for the installation of a case management system and supporting infrastructure. An announcement of the successful outcome of this process is expected to be made shortly.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what progress has been made on the acquisition of the premises of the Office of Legal Complaints. [319078]
Bridget Prentice: The Office for Legal Complaints announced its permanent location on Tuesday 23 February. It will be located in the centre of Birmingham in Baskerville House.
As required under the Legal Services Act 2007 any commitments for premises undertaken by the OLC within its first five years must be approved by the Lord Chancellor. Ministerial approval for the OLC's preferred premises was given on 10 February.
Paedophilia
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent guidance his Department has issued on the publication of images of convicted paedophiles; and if he will make a statement. [318525]
Maria Eagle: The Ministry of Justice has not issued guidance on the publication of images of convicted criminals. However, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre's Most Wanted website was launched in November 2006 in partnership with Crimestoppers. That website contains photographs of convicted child sexual offenders who are wanted because they have breached the notification requirements. The Home Department has indicated that, to date, 15 of the 20 offenders whose photographs have been posted on the website have been located.
The photographs and details of child sexual offenders who have failed to comply with their notification requirements and have gone missing are included on the website only following the exhaustion of all lawful means to identify their whereabouts and a comprehensive risk assessment by the responsible police force in respect of the impact on victims, the individual offenders, their family and the community. CEOP and police forces comply with Standard Operating Procedures drawn up in consultation with the Home Office, ACPO and Crimestoppers.
Prison Accommodation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of (a) prison capacity and (b) the prison population in each of the next 12 months; and on what assumptions such estimates are based. [317693]
Mr. Straw: By the end of 2009 the total useable operational capacity of the prison estate was 85,986.
The Ministry of Justice aims to increase prison capacity to 96,000 places by 2014 through the prison capacity programme. These places are being provided through the building of new prisons as well as expansion of existing ones and more effective use of the estate. Over 3,600 new places will be delivered in 2010 and around 1,400 new places in 2011.
Capacity estimates are subject to change due to the number of existing prison places which may need to be taken out of use in the future for maintenance purposes. The precise numbers and delivery timings of new prison places will also depend on construction schedules and prioritisation within the prison estate.
The Ministry of Justice produces annual projections of the prison population, most recently in August 2009. These project the prison population under three different scenarios, based on different assumptions about future sentencing trends: the medium scenario assumes no increases or decreases in custody rates or determinate sentence lengths. The high/low scenarios reflect a 1 per
cent. annual increase/decrease in custody rates and a 0.5 per cent. increase/decrease in the average (determinate) custodial sentence lengths.
Other impacts included in the projections, such as those of legislation and processes, are applied equally to all scenarios. These cover the anticipated effect of policy and process initiatives that have agreed implementation timetables. These assumptions and anticipated effects have remained unchanged since last year projections.
The requested information is shown in the following table:
| Monthly values of projected prison population for high, medium and low scenarios February 2010-February 2011 | |||
| High | Medium | Low | |
| Notes: 1. All numbers rounded to the nearest hundred and are end of month figures. 2. The prison population is influenced by diverse factors that can mean that the actual future prison population may not be the same as that projected: changes in sentencer behaviour, policy decisions and the criminal justice process, which can respond to a multitude of environmental factors such as high profile criminal cases and public debate; implementation of new policies and processes without a timetable, or for which a quantitative assessment of the impact is currently not possible; unknown future policy, process and political changes. | |||
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