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Departmental Languages

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department received coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months; what expenditure his Department incurred in providing such coaching; and in what languages such coaching was provided. [320543]

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Mr. Wills: The Ministry does not provide coaching in foreign languages centrally, and does not hold any records on this matter. To obtain the information requested would involve identifying and contacting sources of information in many different locations and would therefore incur disproportionate cost.

Departmental Marketing

Mr. Syms: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Ruislip Northwood of 5 January 2010, Official Report, column 103W, on departmental marketing, how much his Department and agencies have spent on advertising, marketing, public relations and publicity in relation to the (a) Real Help Now and (b) Building Britain's Future themed campaign to date. [320462]

Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice has not engaged in advertising, marketing, public relations and publicity in relation to Real Help Now and Building Britain's Future themed campaigns.

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Driving Offences: Mobile Phones

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prosecutions there have been of people of each sex in each age group in (a) England and Wales, (b) Essex and (c) Southend for the offence of driving whilst using a hand-held mobile telephone since the creation of that offence. [320601]

Claire Ward: The number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences of using a hand held mobile telephone while driving, by sex and age group, in England and Wales and the Essex police force area, from 2004 (the offence came into force on 1 December 2003) to 2008 (latest available) is given in the following table.

Court proceedings data are not available at town or parliamentary constituency level.

Court proceedings data for 2009 are planned for publication in the autumn, 2010.

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Number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences of using a hand held mobile phone while driving( 1) , by sex and age, England and Wales and the Essex police force area, from 2004 to 2008( 2, 3)
Area	2004	2005	2006	2007( 4)	2008( 5, 6)
England and Wales
Males
Aged 20 and under	16	31	27	374	849
Aged 21 and over	429	1,008	1,282	9,282	22,800
Sub-total	445	1,039	1,309	9,656	23,649
Females
Aged 20 and under	3	3	5	70	165
Aged 21 and over	34	126	137	1,185	3,179
Sub-total	37	129	142	1,255	3,344
Persons
Aged 20 and under	19	34	32	444	1,018
Aged 21 and over	463	1,134	1,419	10,467	26,074
Total	482	1,168	1,451	10,911	27,092
O f which:
Essex police force area
Males
Aged 20 and under	2	1	-	14	57
Aged 21 and over	16	35	32	453	1,566
Sub-total	18	36	32	467	1,623
Females
Aged 20 and under	1	-	-	9	10
Aged 21 and over	3	5	7	69	274
Sub-total	4	5	7	78	284
Persons
Aged 20 and under	3	1	-	23	67
Aged 21 and over	19	40	39	522	1,847
Total	22	41	39	545	1,914
(1) Statute: Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations 1986-R.110(1), R.110(2) and R.110(3). Introduced 1 December 2003. Offence description: R.110(1) use of a hand held mobile phone while driving; R.110(2) causing or permitting the use of a mobile phone while driving a motor vehicle R.110(3) using a mobile phone while supervising the holder of a provisional driving licence to drive a motor vehicle on the road. (2) The figures given relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one 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. (3) 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. (4) Tough new penalties for using a hand-held mobile phone while driving and for failing to have proper control of a vehicle came into effect on 27 February 2007. (5) Excludes convictions for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. (6) The gender of a defendant proceeded against may not have been reported. These data have been included in the persons only totals. Therefore, the males and females age group totals and sub-totals may not agree with the totals given under persons Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services-Ministry of Justice.

Illegal Immigrants

Mr. Syms: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff his Department, its predecessor Department and its agencies have appointed who were later discovered to be illegal immigrants since 2005. [320498]

Mr. Wills: People employed to work in Government Departments and their agencies, either directly or through a contractor, are required to satisfy requirements on identity, nationality and immigration status prior to the offer of employment.

There has been one occasion within the last five years where compliance checks found an illegal immigrant to be working for the Ministry of Justice in 2007. The individual was subject to a criminal prosecution for using false identification documentation and given a prison sentence.

Industrial Diseases: Compensation

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what discussions he has had with the Office for Legal Complaints on agreements made by the Legal Complaints Service with solicitors in respect of the repayment of fees related to work on compensation for miners. [320989]

Bridget Prentice: We are currently in the process of establishing the Office for Legal Complaints, which is on course to meet the timetable set by Parliament of becoming fully operational by late 2010. As part of this process, the OLC has been ensuring that it understands the landscape of the legal services market, including any possible areas which may generate significant amounts of complaints. The OLC has had discussions with the Law Society, Ministry of Justice and Department of Energy and Climate Change to make sure the lessons learnt from handling complaints such as coal health compensation claims benefit the new system of complaints handling, so that the new service is responsive to any demands that might be made of it.

Under current proposals, the OLC will not be handling any complaints raised in the old system. As such, it will remain the responsibility of the LCS to ensure agreements made with solicitors in respect of miners' compensation fees are met. The LCS has received a total of 6,454 complaints relating to deductions. As a result of action taken by the LCS, including the project to work with firms to contact former clients, a total of £5,078,652.47 has been paid to former miners. This work is ongoing and the figure will therefore increase.

During the period in which the LCS is closing down, the Legal Services Board, as part of its responsibilities as the new oversight regulator of the legal sector, will be seeking to ensure that there is no detriment to consumers and the profession. The Ministry of Justice will seek regular updates from the LCS and LSB. The Government continue to support the work of the Law Society in their work to recover deductions not yet paid.

Judges: Public Appointments

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many judges have been appointed in each year since 1997. [320600]

Mr. Straw: The number of salaried judges appointed in each calendar year since 1997 is as set out in the following table:

Number
	Courts	Tribunals
1997	78	8
1998	120	18
1999	107	68
2000	135	25
2001	125	21
2002	109	61
2003	92	59
2004	147	43
2005	104	17
2006	69	17
2007	112	41
2008	105	13
2009	99	65
2010 to date	24	12

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