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3 Jun 2010 : Column 61W—continued
Pleural Plaques: Compensation
Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward proposals for compensation of people with pleural plaques; and if he will make a statement. [247]
Mr Djanogly: In the light of the medical evidence available on pleural plaques, the Government do not consider it appropriate to overturn the House of Lords 2007 judgment that the condition is not compensatable under the civil law of tort. The Government will proceed with the implementation of the previously announced limited extra-statutory scheme to provide one-off payments to individuals who had begun, but not resolved, a legal claim for compensation for pleural plaques at the time of the House of Lords judgment. We hope that the scheme will be in a position to start accepting claims from the end of June.
Prisoners
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the likely size of the prison population in May 2011; and if he will make a statement. [339]
Mr Blunt: The Ministry of Justice produces annual projections of the prison population in England and Wales, most recently in August 2009. These project the prison population under three different scenarios (high, medium and low), based on different assumptions about future sentencing trends. In May 2011, the projected total populations are: 89,200 under the high scenario, 87,500 under the medium scenario and 85,600 under the low scenario. These figures incorporate the impact of the ending of End of Custody Licence (ECL).
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the prison population was in (a) May 1997, (b) in May 2001, (c) in May 2002 and (d) on the latest date for which figures are available. [403]
Mr Blunt: The prison population in England and Wales on the last day of May for 1997 was 60,335, last day of May 2001 was 66,012, for the last day of May 2005 was 76,141 and for 21 May 2010 (latest available) was 85,201.
These figures 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.
Prisons: Construction
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what plans he has for the future of the prison building programme. [134]
Mr Blunt: As part of the rehabilitation revolution, we will work towards providing a fit for purpose prison estate through building new prisons and closing inefficient and worn out places.
The National Offender Management Service will deliver over 14,000 prison places under the prison capacity programme by 2012. A planning application for a new 1500 place prison at Runwell in Essex has been submitted to Chelmsford borough council. At the same time we are undertaking a review of sentencing and will continue to keep our prison population and capacity projections under review in the light of this.
Residence Orders
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) mothers and (b) fathers have applied for residency orders; and what proportion of these were successful in each of the last three years. [9]
Mr Djanogly: The information requested is as follows.
Tables 1 and 2, show for each of the last three calendar years, the number of applications made for residence orders where the applicant relationship to child was recorded as father or mother.
| Table 1: Applications for section 8 Residence Orders under the Children Act 1989 by mothers or fathers in private law cases in the High Court or County Court in England and Wales, 2007 to 2009 | ||||
| Private Law | ||||
| Mother | Father | Other relationship, or no information recorded | Total residence orders applied for | |
| Table 2: Applications for section 8 Residence Orders under the Children Act 1989 by mothers or fathers in public law cases in the High Court or County Court in England and Wales, 2007 to 2009 | ||||
| Public Law | ||||
| Mother | Father | Other relationship, or no information recorded | Total residence orders applied for | |
The figures reflect the number of applications made, counted by child. This means that an application was made in respect of two children will be counted twice. The figures may not exactly match previously published figures as they were produced using a more recent extract from the family court administrative data system and reflect any updates to information held in the meantime.
The figures exclude applications made in Family Proceedings Courts as information on applicant relationship to child is not held centrally for all Family Proceedings Courts.
It is not possible to determine the proportion of the applications which were successful as no information is held centrally on which person in the relevant case receives a residence order. However, the numbers of
section 8 residence orders made in the County Court or High Court in England and Wales during 2007 and 2008, as published in the annual "Judicial and Court Statistics" report, are given in Table 3. Statistics on residence orders made in 2009 are not yet available and will be published in the next edition of the Ministry of Justice's "Judicial and Court Statistics" report in September 2010. Copies of these reports are available in the Library of the House and on the Ministry of Justice website at
| Table 3: Section 8 Residence Orders made under the Children Act 1989 in the High Court or County Court in England and Wales, 2007 to 2008 | ||
| Private Law | Public Law | |
Attorney-General
Burglary: Self-defence
Mr Buckland: To ask the Attorney-General if he will make it his policy to revise the Code for Crown Prosecutors, with particular reference to the rights of householders to protect their (a) persons and (b) property. [837]
The Solicitor-General: I have been asked to reply.
The Code for Crown Prosecutors is issued by the Director of Public Prosecutions under Section 10 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 and provides guidance to prosecutors on the general principles to be applied in all prosecutorial decisions. It is kept under regular review to ensure that it remains in line with legislative and policy changes. It has recently been revised, following public consultation, and was published on 22 February 2010.
The DPP has additional legal guidance on the application of these broader principles in specific circumstances, including cases involving householders using force on intruders. In the light of the publication of the Coalition commitment to ensuring that people have the protection that they need when they defend themselves against intruders, consideration will be given to reviewing this guidance to prosecutors in due course.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Attorney-General what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of the (a) implementation of penalty clauses and payments in its contracts and (b) potential legal action arising from the deferral and cancellation of contracts and projects under his Department's plans to achieve cost savings; and whether those estimates are included in the total cost savings to be achieved by his Department. [570]
The Attorney-General: The Attorney-General's office has not incurred any additional costs due to the cancellation of contracts or projects.
All current contracts are continuously reviewed to ensure that they represent the best value for money and meet business requirements.
Euthanasia
Mr Knight: To ask the Attorney-General if he will review the appropriateness of the assisted suicide policy published by the Director of Public Prosecutions in February. [525]
The Attorney-General: I do not have any plans to invite the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to review his policy, issued on 25 February 2010, on prosecuting cases of encouraging or assisting suicide.
The DPP published his policy following the judgment of the House of Lords in R (on the application of Purdy) v . DPP on 30 July 2009 which required him to outline the public interest factors, both for and against prosecution, that the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) will take into account in considering such cases. As was outlined at the time of publication, the policy does not change the law, nor does it sanction the taking of life by another person. The policy should be read in conjunction with the Code for Crown Prosecutors which continues to apply in all cases.
The policy replaced the DPP Interim Policy, published in September 2009, and followed a period of extensive public consultation.
Mr Knight: To ask the Attorney-General how many cases of suspected assisted suicide have been sent to the Crown Prosecution Service in each of the last three years for which figures are available; and how many of these cases proceeded to court. [526]
The Attorney-General: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) keeps central records of the numbers of charged offences reaching a first hearing in magistrates courts under section 2(1) Suicide Act 1961, that is, cases of assisted suicide. Table 1 outlines the numbers recorded over the last three years:
| Table 1: Charged offences reaching a first hearing in the magistrates courts | |
| Number of cases | |
Cases of assisted suicide have been required to be referred to CPS headquarters only since December 2008 and more detailed records are only available since then. Based both on that information and other records covering the years 2008-09 and 2009-10, the numbers of cases referred to the CPS in which a decision not to prosecute has been made over the last three years are outlined in Table 2:
| Table 2: Cases of suspected assisted suicide sent to the CPS | |
| Number of cases | |
These cases may include those in which it was decided that the two-stage Full Code Test in the Code for Crown Prosecutors was not met, and those which resulted in a different charged offence, for example, murder or manslaughter. These data may not be exhaustive, and do not include those charged offences that reached a first hearing in the magistrates' courts outlined in Table 1.
In addition, there are currently a number of other cases of suspected assisted suicide in which the investigation and/or charging process is yet to be completed.
Work and Pensions
Departmental Electronic Equipment
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) plasma and (b) LCD televisions there are in Ministerial offices in his Department. [400]
Chris Grayling: The previous Government purchased a total of 9 LCD TVs and no plasma TVs in ministerial offices in the Department.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when and in what form he plans to publish a list of all items of expenditure by his Department over £25,000. [285]
Chris Grayling: The Department for Work and Pensions will follow the Government policy and processes for publishing expenditure over £25,000 which are currently being developed by the Office of Government Commerce.
Future Jobs Fund: Leeds
Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people resident in (a) Leeds Central constituency and (b) the city of Leeds are participating in the Future Jobs Fund. [131]
Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Leeds West constituency have received assistance from the Future Jobs Fund. [767]
Chris Grayling: The information requested is not available.
Future Jobs Fund: North East
Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Hartlepool constituency and (b) the North East region have been placed into employment as a result of funding from the Future Jobs Fund. [249]
Chris Grayling: The information is not available by parliamentary constituency.
Official statistics released by the Department for Work and Pensions shows that 420 people began a Future Jobs Fund placement in the North East region between October 2009 and January 2010.
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