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22 Mar 2010 : Column 20W—continued
Lionel Crabb
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make available for public inspection in the National Archives all papers relating to the disappearance and death in 1956 of Commander Buster Lionel Crabb RN, OBE, GM; and if he will make a statement. [322999]
Mr. Wills: The National Archives hold a number of records relating to the disappearance of Commander Buster Lionel Crabb (PREM 11/2077; CAB21/3887; F0371/122885; and ADM 1/29241), all of which are available for public inspection. Some portions of these records however have been retained by the transferring Departments under section 3.4 of the Public Records Act. Where records are retained, this is the decision of the relevant Department.
Prison Sentences
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many indeterminate sentences for public protection handed down (a) between 14 July and 31 December 2008 and (b) in 2009 were given with tariffs of no more than 23 months. [323013]
Maria Eagle: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 8 March 2010 , Official Report, columns 93-94W.
Prisoners: Death
Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many deaths of prisoners serving a determinate sentence were recorded in each year since 2005; how many such deaths were self-inflicted; and how many determinate sentenced prisoners there were in each of those years; [323011]
(2) how many incidents of self-harm were recorded by prisoners serving a determinate sentence in each year since 2005. [323012]
Maria Eagle: The information requested is combined in the following table:
| Determinate sentenced prisoners( 1) | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009( 2) | 2010( 3) |
| (1) Determinate prisoners in this answer are defined as those recorded as serving the following sentences: less than or equal to six months; more than six months but less than 12 months; more than or equal to 12 months but less than four years and more than or equal to four years but excluding life. (2) Population figures for 2009 are not available at the time of writing. (3) Self-harm figures for 2009 remain subject to verification and are not yet available. 2010 figures are not available for similar reasons. Two deaths are currently awaiting further information before classifying. | ||||||
Any death in prison custody is a tragic event. The Government, Ministry of Justice and the National Offender Management Service, (NOMS) are committed to learning from such events and reducing the number of self-inflicted deaths in prison custody.
NOMS has a broad, integrated and evidence-based prisoner suicide prevention and self-harm management strategy that seeks to reduce the distress of all those in prison. This encompasses a wide spectrum of prison and Department of Health work around such issues as mental health, substance misuse and resettlement. Any prisoner identified as at risk of suicide or self-harm is cared for using the Assessment, Care in Custody and Teamwork procedures.
Prisons: Visits
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will make it his policy to record centrally the number of closed visits made on the prison estate. [322861]
Maria Eagle: The National Offender Management Service records centrally the number of closed visits imposed within the prison estate. In 2008-09 closed visiting conditions were imposed on 1,817 occasions.
These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.
Public Sector: Disclosure of Information
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 25 February 2010, Official Report, column 664W, on public sector: disclosure of information, in respect of which of the 57 requests to the Unlocking Service which have been accepted the data requested have been released. [322874]
Mr. Wills: The Unlocking Service is not primarily concerned with the release of data. Its main purpose is to allow people to resolve issues concerned with re-use and publishing formats of data.
Where requests have been classified as resolved, every issue identified in the original request has been fully addressed. Two of the resolved requests related to the availability of data and in both instances those data have been provided. The remaining resolved requests relate to licensing conditions, copyright notices, publishing formats and charging.
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 25 February 2010, Official Report, column 664W, on public sector: disclosure of information, for what reasons each request was given the status of (a) resolved, (b) unresolved and (c) part resolved. [322916]
Mr. Wills: Requests have been classified as resolved where every issue identified in the original request has been fully addressed and the current state corresponds to the requester's description of "My ideal solution" in the original request. If the request relates to the availability of data in a particular format, those data have been provided. If the request relates to a licensing issue, for example, that issue has been addressed.
Requests have been classified as unresolved where the current state does not correspond to the requester's description of "My ideal solution" and where there has been no substantive change since the request was posted, work will be continuing or the issue is intractable.
Requests have been classified as part resolved if there has been progression towards the requester's "ideal solution" but the current state does not fully meet this. Often in these cases there is continuing work or policy development. For example, a number of the requests relate to Ordnance Survey data, where commitments made in the Smarter Government White Paper address the requester's "ideal solution" but the issues are subject to a public consultation.
Sentencing
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people serving a custodial sentence had their conviction overturned on appeal in each year since 2005. [322695]
Claire Ward: The information requested is not available. Data collected within the central IT systems do not currently hold sufficient detail to allow identification of the type of sentence which is the subject of each appeal against a sentence heard in the Crown Court or Court of Appeal.
Annual statistics on all appeals dealt with in the Crown Court against sentences given in the magistrates' court are published by the Ministry of Justice in table 6.10 of the annual command paper "Judicial and Court Statistics". Annual statistics on all appeals in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) against sentences in the Crown Court are also published in Table 1.6 of this report. The most recent edition, presenting statistics for 2004 to 2008, was published in September 2009.
Copies of "Judicial and Court Statistics" are available in the Library of the House and from the Ministry of Justice website at:
http://www.Justice.gov.uk/publications/judicialandcourt statistics.htm
Trade Unions
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 11 March 2010, Official Report, columns 383-84W, on trade unions, how many of the days staff of his Department and its agencies spent on trade union activity were spent in respect of each individual trade union recognised by his Department and its agencies in the last 12 months. [322746]
Mr. Straw: The number of days that were available to be spent on trade union activity by each of the trade unions in the Ministry in the last 12 months, for which information is available, are as follows:
| MoJ (excluding NOMS) | ||
| Total FTE | Total days | |
The days quoted do not include PCS local representatives in MoJ (excluding NOMS). This figure is not known.
| NOMS | ||
| Total FTE | Total days | |
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) whether any authorisations of trade unions under section 30 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 have been withdrawn; [322741]
(2) how much has been recovered by trade unions under section 30 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 in each year since 1999; [322742]
(3) which trade unions have been authorised under section 30 of the Access to Justice Act 1999. [322747]
Mr. Straw: No authorisations of trade unions under section 30 of the Access to Justice Act 1999 have been withdrawn.
The Ministry of Justice does not collect information on the amounts recovered by trade unions or any other approved membership organisation under section 30.
All trade unions in England and Wales listed by the Certification Officer are covered to provide enhanced legal services to members and their families under the Access to Justice Act 1999. The current list is available at the website at:
Young Offenders
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of young offenders supervised by youth offending teams were in full-time training and employment in (a) England and (b) each youth offending team area in each of the last four years; and how many and what proportion of young offenders were on secure remand in each youth offending team area in each of the last four years. [322241]
Maria Eagle: Data relating to this question have been placed in the House Library.
Education, training and employment: Table A shows the number and the proportion of young people on relevant youth justice disposals in each youth offending team in England who were in full-time education, training and employment (ETE) in each of the last four years. 'Relevant youth justice disposals' are defined as programmes resulting from a Final Warning with intervention, relevant community-based penalty or the community element of a custodial sentence. Relevant community-based penalties include Referral Orders, Reparation Orders, Action Plan Orders, Drug Treatment and Testing Orders, Supervision Orders (with or without conditions), Community Rehabilitation Orders (with or without conditions) and Community Punishment and Rehabilitation Orders.
Full-time ETE is defined here as 25 or more hours for young people of school age and 16 hours for those above school age.
Secure Remands: The number and proportion of young offenders on secure remand in each of the youth offending team areas in the last four years is not held centrally. However the YJB has figures for the average number of young people aged 10-17 on custodial remands in each YOT area in England in each of the last four years, which is shown in Table B. Custodial remand includes young people who are remanded in custody, convicted awaiting sentence or subject to court ordered secure remand. These data take a snapshot of young people who are on remand at a particular point in time which is then averaged out over the year.
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 overtime. Differences in counting rules may mean that figures from other databases are not directly comparable.
Young Offenders: Education
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to increase the level of training and education provided to young offenders under pre-release schemes. [322996]
Maria Eagle: Government recently passed legislation through the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 to bring improvements for education and training for young people detained in the youth secure estate. It makes local authorities responsible for learning for young people detained in youth custody and aligns arrangements in custody with the mainstream learning sector for the first time. This aims to increase consistency and continuity of learning for young people entering and leaving youth custody. The Act also includes a new duty on local authorities to make arrangements for education and training provision for the person on their release from custody, when appropriate for them to do so.
Work and Pensions
Children: Maintenance
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many cases managed by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission relate to absent parents in Banff and Buchan constituency. [321830]
Helen Goodman: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
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