| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
6 Dec 2010 : Column 117W—continued
Justice
Courts: Repossession Orders
Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many landlord possessions claims were dismissed by courts because the claimant had not followed civil procedure rules in the first two quarters of 2010. [28203]
Mr Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice does not hold figures centrally on the number of landlord possession claims dismissed by courts because the claimant had not followed civil procedure rules in the first two quarters of 2010.
While the administrative computer systems used in the county courts contain the incidence of orders made, those specifically relating to the dismissal of claims because the claimant had not followed civil procedure rules cannot be distinguished from other types of orders made. This information could be obtained only through the examination of individual case files at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Contracts
Nicola Blackwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department plans to take to encourage and support small and medium-sized enterprises and third sector organisations to compete for departmental contracts, in line with value-for-money policy, UK regulations and EU procurement directives. [28108]
Mr Djanogly: The Cabinet Office recently announced a package of measures designed to help government meet their aspiration that 25% of government contracts go to small and medium sized enterprises. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is working closely with the Cabinet Office to ensure that these measures are embedded in its procurement practices.
The MoJ also acts proactively to engage and attract the interest of the Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise Sector (VCSE). Opportunities are currently advertised through Supply to Government and will shortly to migrate to the new Contracts Finder portal where all government opportunities over £10,000 will be published. Opportunities are also advertised through Clinks, a charity that assists in communication to the sector.
Procurement activity is tailored to the value and complexity of the requirement but tends to be shorter and involve engagement opportunities with the sector via dialogue sessions to discus the requirement. MoJ has recently implemented an e-procurement tool that is easy for small businesses and the VCSE to use. The MoJ procurement processes comply with the Cabinet Office VCSE Compact compliant.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice on how many occasions in the last three years the Secretary of State has used his power under section 59(2) of the Data Protection Act 1998 to release minutes relating to the business of his Department; and if he will make a statement. [28873]
Mr Djanogly: Section 59(2) of the Data Protection Act 1998 protects information supplied to the Information Commissioner by public authorities and data controllers as part of his investigations into their compliance with the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts. The commissioner and his staff may not disclose this information except with lawful authority. To do otherwise is an offence. The commissioner has lawful authority to disclose information, among other circumstances, when a public authority or data controller gives consent to disclose.
The decision whether the Department would consent to the release of information provided to the commissioner during the course of his investigations would be based on the merits of each request to do so and on the particular circumstances of the case.
The Department does not keep central records of the instances which it has been approached for consent to disclose information by virtue of section 59(2). This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost by examining individual case records.
Departmental Press: Subscriptions
Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department and its predecessors spent on press cuttings services in each year since 1997. [28154]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: The annual expenditure by MoJ-not including the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG)-on press cuttings from 2005-06 onwards was:
| £ | |
| (1) The primary cause of the higher spend in 2009-10 was the increase in high profile issues concerning the department in that Year. Additionally in 2009-10 regional coverage and a digital service were added. | |
The data for 2005-06 and 2006-07 refer to press cutting services provided for the Department of Constitutional Affairs (MoJ's immediate predecessor for the elements not contained within the Home Office). The data for 2007-08 to 2009-10 refer to a joint service provided to MoJ headquarters, the National Offender Management Service, The Tribunals Service and HM Courts Service.
The total spend by the MoJ and its predecessors is held for locally only from 2005-06. Retrieving archived information for before 2005 would exceed the disproportionate cost and time limits.
OPG was formed in 2007 and maintains a separate press cutting service. Its annual expenditure on these services was:
| £ | |
Additionally, the Tribunals Service has also maintained a separate press cutting service for web based news since May 2008. Its annual expenditure these services from May 2008 was:
| £ | |
Before 2006 the tribunals were not part of one single agency. It would incur disproportionate costs to identify tribunals-specific expenditure in the various departments that operated tribunals between 1997-98 and 2005-06.
Departmental Publications
Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of the expenditure of his Department and its predecessor on printing (a) Command Papers, (b) papers laid before Parliament by Act, (c) consultation documents and (d) other papers in each of the last 10 years. [28376]
Mr Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice and its executive agencies produce a wide range of internal and external publications each year, including:
Command Papers
Papers presented to Parliament by Act
Consultation documents
Annual accounts
Annual reports
Public information material
Statistical information
Internal documents, guides and handbooks
Copies of all the external publications the MoJ publishes can be found at:
It is not possible to identify expenditure on specific types of publications without incurring disproportionate cost as this would involve examination of a very large number of transactions across a range of accounting categories.
Offenders
Mark Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of people convicted of criminal offences in the latest period for which figures are available had no previous cautions. [28465]
Mr Blunt: 35% of offenders convicted for indictable offences in England and Wales in 2009 had no previous cautions, reprimands or warnings. These figures have been derived from the dataset used to produce table 6.2 of 'Sentencing Statistics: England and Wales 2009' which was published on 21 October 2010.
The figures have been drawn from the police's administrative IT system, the police national computer, which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the police.
Mark Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of people who received cautions were subsequently convicted of a criminal offence in the latest period in which figures are available. [28466]
Mr Blunt: In 2008, 17% of juveniles who received a reprimand or warning and 16% of adults who received a caution were subsequently convicted of a criminal offence within one year.
Further information on reoffending following a caution can be found in the 'Compendium of reoffending statistics and analysis' which was published on 4 November 2010, available at:
The figures have been drawn from the police's administrative IT system, the police national computer, which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the police.
Mark Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the minimum period is after which a caution is considered spent. [28468]
Mr Blunt: Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, a simple caution is considered to be spent immediately, for both adult and juvenile offenders. A conditional caution is considered to be spent three months from when the caution is administered, again for both adult and juvenile offenders.
We are conducting an assessment of sentencing and rehabilitation policies, and this will include the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. We will publish a Green Paper shortly with our proposals for consultation.
Offenders: Drugs
Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what guidance he has issued on the release on licence of offenders with unresolved drink or drug dependency issues. [28064]
Mr Blunt: Guidance on the release on licence of offenders with unresolved drug dependency issues is contained in Probation Circular (PC36/2007) "Managing Drug Misusers under Probation Supervision: Guidance for Probation, Criminal Justice Integrated Teams and Counselling Assessment Referral Advice and Throughcare Teams". Additionally; "Drug Misusing Offenders: Ensuring the continuity-of-care between prison and community", provides specific guidance on managing the continuity-of-care journey that drug misusing offenders follow on entering prison from the community, whilst in prison, and exiting prison. "National Offender Management Service Alcohol Interventions Guidance", issued in December 2009, includes equivalent guidance for offenders with alcohol problems.
Offenders: Release
Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice under what circumstances offenders serving a custodial sentence following conviction for a violent offence may be released from custody on licence. [28065]
Mr Blunt: Legislation requires that adult offenders serving an immediate determinate custodial sentence must be released from custody at the halfway point of the sentence. Those serving determinate sentences of 12 months or more serve the second half of the sentence on licence in the community under supervision, and subject to recall to custody. Eligible offenders serving a determinate sentence of less than four years may be released under the home detention curfew scheme up to four and a half months earlier than the half-way release point if they pass a risk assessment. Offenders serving an indeterminate sentence, either a life sentence or a sentence of imprisonment for public protection (IPP), must serve in custody the full minimum term imposed by the court. After that point it is for the Parole Board to determine if and when they are safe to be released on licence.
Offenders: Sentencing
Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will consider the merits of setting a minimum custodial sentence for offenders convicted of a second or third violent offence. [28066]
Mr Blunt: We are conducting a full assessment of sentencing and rehabilitation policy to ensure it is effective in deterring crime, protecting the public, punishing offenders and cutting re-offending. We will consult on any proposals shortly.
Office of the Public Guardian: Complaints
Stephen Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many complaints the Office of the Public Guardian received in the last 12 months; and how many such complaints were responded to within its target timescale. [28097]
Mr Djanogly: In the period of November 2009 to October 2010 the Office of the Public Guardian responded to 3,521 complaints. 2,650 (75%) of these responses were provided within the published 10-day target.
Preston Prison: Health Services
Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of HM Prison Preston's certified normal accommodation consists of healthcare beds. [28931]
Mr Blunt: Current records indicate that 30 places in HMP Preston's baseline certified normal accommodation of 453 are in in-patient health care units.
Prisoners: Custodial Treatment
Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to ensure that prisoners with a drink or drug dependency are appropriately treated while in custody. [28067]
Mr Blunt:
Drug treatment is in place to help prisoners with addiction, comprising clinical services, psychosocial interventions, case management and through care services, Alcohol treatment and rehabilitation services for those with an alcohol dependency are in the main also provided within the wider drug treatment framework. The key
interventions available in prison for those dependent on alcohol are clinical detoxification and Alcoholics Anonymous/peer support.
The Government believe more needs to be done to offer offenders the opportunity to get off drugs and alcohol for good and into a position where they can stop offending and make a proper contribution to society. To achieve this we will run pilots to pay contractors by results to rehabilitate offenders with drug problems, launch prison drugs recovery wing pathfinders in a number of prisons. These plans will be outlined in more detail in a Green Paper on the rehabilitation and sentencing of offenders, which will be published shortly.
Prisoners: Drugs
Susan Elan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of people diagnosed with a drink or drug dependency on entering prison had successfully completed treatment for such dependencies on release in the latest period for which figures are available. [28068]
Mr Blunt: The Ministry of Justice does not record data in the form requested. However the number of prison-based accredited drug and alcohol treatment programme commencements and completions for 2009-10 is shown in the following table.
Additionally prison and health records show that in 2009-10 health services delivered 60,067 clinical interventions for drug and alcohol addiction in prisons.
| Starts and completions table 2009-10-Prison-based accredited drug and alcohol treatment programmes( 1) | ||
| Programme | Starts | Completions |
| (1) These data have been drawn from administrative data systems which may be amended at any time. 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. | ||
Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to answer of 25 November 2010, Official Report, column 458W, on reoffenders, whether his Department plans to collect data on the reoffending of offenders treated for drug addiction in prison. [28765]
Mr Blunt: We are exploring what data will be required as part of the plans by Government to develop pilots to pay providers by results, including for the rehabilitation of offenders with drug problems.
The details of this are currently being considered by a cross Government working group led by the Department of Health.
Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 23 November 2010, Official Report, column 287W, on heroin addiction, how many adults were remanded or sentenced in 2009-10. [28766]
Mr Blunt: 1,315,820 adult offenders (aged 18 and over at the point of sentence) were sentenced in England and Wales during the calendar year 2009(1). In 2009 an estimated 71,500 defendants were remanded in custody at magistrates court or the Crown court.
It is not known how many offenders were heroin addicts at the point of sentencing.
Sentencing data for 2010 are planned for publication as a calendar year report in spring 2011.
Prisons
Mr Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he plans to market-test publicly-owned prisons. [27932]
Mr Blunt: The Government are currently developing their programme for competition in offender services. As indicated in the Ministry of Justice business plan, we will publish this programme in June 2011.
Probation: Finance
Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much funding his Department allocated to the (a) Probation Service, (b) Prison Service and (c) Courts Service in the west midlands in 2009-10; and what estimate he has made of the level of equivalent funding in (i) 2010-11, (ii) 2011-12, (iii) 2012-13 and (iv) 2013-14. [27934]
Mr Blunt: Funding for the Probation Boards and trusts in the west midlands in 2009-10 was £97.1 million and is estimated at £94.5 million for 2010-11. Current estimates for 2011-12 anticipate real terms reductions of approximately 4.5%. Estimates have not yet been made for subsequent years but will be impacted by the funding allocated to NOMS from within the MoJ's SR10 financial settlement with HM Treasury. That funding level has yet to be agreed by the executive management board.
Funding for prisons in the west midlands in 2009-10 was £193.7 million and is estimated at £ 197.4 million in 2010-11. Current estimates for 2011-12 anticipate real terms reductions of approximately 3%. Estimates have not yet been made for subsequent years but will be impacted by the funding allocated to NOMS from within the MoJ's SR10 financial settlement with HM Treasury. That funding level has yet to be agreed by the executive management board.
Funding of the Courts Service in the west midlands in 2009-10 was £45.818 million and is estimated at £45.626 million for 2010-11. Estimates have not yet been made for subsequent years but will be impacted by the funding allocated to HMCS from within the MoJ's SR10 financial settlement with HM Treasury. That funding level has yet to be agreed by the executive management board.
Sexual Offences: Community Orders
Mr Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average time taken was between the making of a community order with a condition of a (a) sex offender programme and (b) group general offender behaviour programme and the commencement of that programme in each probation trust in the latest period for which figures are available. [27933]
Mr Blunt: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him on 30 November 2010, Official Report, column 709W.
Squatting: Crime
Mr Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 18 October 2010, Official Report, column 543W, on squatting: crime, which commitments in the coalition agreement could prevent the strengthening of the law in relation to squatting in residential properties. [28170]
Mr Blunt: In reviewing the law in relation to squatting in residential premises the Government will be mindful of two specific commitments in the coalition agreement. They are the need to guard against the proliferation of unnecessary criminal offences and to protect the right to peaceful protest.
| Index | Home Page |