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30 Mar 2010 : Column 1051W—continued
The amount spent in 2007-08 by agency:
| Agency | Expenditure (£) |
The costs of press and communications officers relate to the Communications Directorate at the Ministry of Justice headquarters and communications functions in its four executive agencies (HM Courts Service, the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), the Tribunals Service and the Office of the Public Guardian).
The growth in expenditure on press officers and communications officers reflects the significantly increased size and remit of MOJ compared to its predecessor, the Department for Constitutional Affairs, and a consequent need to increase the number and capability of staff employed. To meet the challenge, a number of communications-led projects were undertaken which required the employment of specialist contractors by the MOJ HQ Communications Directorate, for a limited period of time which further increased costs in 2008-09 on a one-off basis.
A minor proportion of these costs have been estimated where separate records had not been kept at the time.
Expenditure on communications officers by the National Offender Management Service is not directly comparable between years and includes only the central internal communications unit. Furthermore, 2007-08 figures exclude the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. This is due to reorganisation within the Department between the two financial years.
Antisocial Behaviour: Fixed Penalties
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Peterborough (Mr. Jackson) of 1 March 2010, Official Report, column 947W, on anti-social behaviour: fixed penalties, what powers representatives of parish councils have to issue penalty notices for disorder; and what changes there have been to parish councils' powers to issue fines or fixed penalty notices since 1997. [324840]
Claire Ward: It is possible for a parish warden to be accredited under the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme. In granting accreditation, the chief officer of the local police force may also grant powers that include a power to issue penalty notices for disorder.
Parish council representatives also have powers to issue other fixed penalty notices. The Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005 allows parish councils to prosecute, in the magistrates court, those that are suspected of committing an offence against a dog control order, or who are suspected of having committed a litter, graffiti or fly-posting offence. The Act gives the power to parish councils to authorise staff to issue fixed penalty notices to alleged offenders as an alternative to prosecution.
Approved Premises: Prisons
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) custodial institutions and (b) approved premises there are in each constituency or smallest comparable local area for which figures are available. [324788]
Maria Eagle: Details of custodial institutions (including young offender institutions and immigration removal centres operated by the National Offender Management Service, secure training centres and secure children's homes) and approved premises in each constituency are set out in the following tables:
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