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13 Jan 2011 : Column 409Wcontinued
Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will assess the merits of charging a fee to people likely to bring a case to the employment tribunal service. [33532]
Mr Djanogly:
The Government are aware of proposals that fees for employment tribunal cases and appeals should be introduced. We are considering the matter with colleagues at the Department for Business, Innovation
and Skills as part of their wider work to review employment law and process. We anticipate making an announcement on these issues shortly.
Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to encourage more small business owners to sit on employment tribunal panels. [33531]
Mr Djanogly: In England and Wales, the Lord Chancellor appoints Employment Tribunal members on merit, after fair and open competition from the widest range of eligible candidates. When making appointments, the Lord Chancellor is concerned that candidates must be selected solely on merit and must be people of good character. Further, in making such appointments, the Lord Chancellor has regard to the need to encourage diversity in the range of persons available for selection for appointments.
The last recruitment campaign for Employment Tribunal members took place in 2009-10. In addition to an extensive advertising strategy using key publications to attract a diverse range of applicants, the Tribunals Service engaged a range of representative organisations to promote and encourage as wide a pool of applicants as possible.
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many mobile telephones have been confiscated from prisoners at HM Prison Ford in the last six months. [33045]
Mr Blunt: This issue may form part of the ongoing investigations following the serious disturbance at HMP Ford on 1 January 2011. It would not be appropriate to comment prior to the conclusion of the investigations.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many benefit recipients received a criminal conviction in 2009. [29514]
Chris Grayling: I have been asked to reply.
Information on the number of people convicted of benefit fraud is collated each financial year.
In 2009-10, 7,040 people were convicted for benefit fraud in DWP administered benefits.
Information on the number of people convicted for benefit fraud in local authority administered benefits for 2009-10 is not available.
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many registered disputes there were between the recognised trade unions and probation trusts in England and Wales on the most recent dates for which figures are available. [33530]
Mr Blunt: On the 12 January 2011 there were eight registered disputes reported between the recognised trade unions and the 35 probation trusts in England and Wales.
Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many legal aid clients were assessed under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [32621]
Mr Djanogly: We do not hold information on the number of legal aid clients who were assessed under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Information is available concerning the provision of legal aid for matters relating to the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
Legal representation is available for some Mental Capacity Act 2005 cases brought before the Court of Protection; and Legal Help (initial advice and assistance) is generally available for initial advice and assistance for mental health and mental capacity related issues.
Legal Help | |
Matters closed 2009-10 | |
Number | |
Legal representation (Proceedings before the Court of Protection):
Certificates issued 2009-10 | |
Number | |
Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of council tax debt cases funded through legal aid resulted in (a) liability contested successfully, (b) debt written off and (c) debt reduced in the last 12 months. [32620]
Mr Djanogly: Legal Representation for unpaid council tax cases in the magistrates court is outside the current scope of the civil legal aid scheme.
Legal aid is currently available for Legal Help (initial advice and assistance), but the Legal Services Commission's Information Technology systems do not record the level of detail requested.
Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of credit debt cases funded by legal aid closed with (a) liability contested successfully, (b) debt written off and (c) debt reduced in the last 12 months. [32623]
Mr Djanogly: We define credit debt cases as those relating to bank loans, credit cards, hire purchase and other regulated debts. The relevant proportions of credit debt cases funded by legal aid for legal help (initial advice and assistance) are:
(a) 1.82% of cases where the outcome is reported as liability contested successfully.
(b) 2.61% of cases where outcome is reported as debt written off.
(c) 1.50% of cases where outcome is reported as debt reduced.
For legal representation, data are not held at this level of detail.
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many persons have been released on parole licence in each of the last 10 years. [33528]
Mr Blunt: Figures for the number of offenders released on parole licence in each of the last 10 years were published on 22 July 2010 in Offender Management Caseload Statistics (shown in tables 9.5 and 9.6). This can be found in the House Library and at the following link:
Additionally, the data can be seen in the tables.
In deciding whether or not to recommend release on license, the Parole Board consider primarily the risk to the public of a further offence being committed at a time when the prisoner would otherwise be in prison and whether any such risk is acceptable. This must be balanced against the benefit, both to the public and the offender, of early release back into the community under a degree of supervision which might help rehabilitation and so lessen the risk of re-offending in the future. The Board take into account that safeguarding the public may often outweigh the benefits to the offender of early release.
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.
Number of first releases from prison on life licence and indeterminate sentence for public protection, England and Wales | |||||||||||
Number | |||||||||||
Year of first release | |||||||||||
1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
(1) IPPs were introduced in 2005 and the first release from prison for a prisoner serving an IPP sentence was in 2006. |
Mr Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many individual payments to prisoners have been made in the most recent year for which figures are available; and how much each such prisoner received. [33089]
Mr Blunt: The National Offender Management Service made 3,166 individual compensation payments to prisoners in the financial year 2009-10. The amount and number of payments made are shown in the following table.
Payment band | Number of payments | Total payments for band (£) |
The amounts of individual payments have not been provided in order to prevent the possible identification of prisoners.
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he plans to (a) build new prisons or (b) add accommodation in existing prisons in the period to the end of the financial year 2014-15. [33529]
Mr Blunt: As part of the existing "Capacity Programme", we are continuing to build the new prison places to which we are contractually committed. New prisons are being built at Featherstone in Staffordshire and Belmarsh West in the London borough of Greenwich. We expect both prisons to be complete in 2012. We are also expanding Buckley Hall in Lancashire and Moorland in South Yorkshire; these places will become operational in 2011.
The New Prisons Programme which planned five new 1,500 place prisons remains under consideration with particular examination of how plans should be adapted to meet the Government's objectives of work in prisons and rehabilitation outlined in the Green Paper "Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders". However, any places from this programme are unlikely to become available by 2014-15.
Mr Slaughter:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 13 December 2010, Official Report, column 506W, on remand in custody:
young people, whether he expects information on the number of looked after children who are received into the secure estate to be collected centrally under his Department's new data strategy; and if he will make a statement. [33077]
Mr Blunt: The data strategy is out for consultation, but does not propose central collection of the number of looked after children who are received into the secure estate.
Dr Thérèse Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the reoffending rate is for each (a) prison and (b) young offender institution. [33001]
Mr Blunt: The individual prison reoffending rates for 2007 are shown in the tables as published by the Ministry of Justice in the Compendium of Reoffending Statistics and Analysis in November 2010.
The tables show reoffending rates for each prison in 2007 presented by prison category and prison sentence length (under 12 months and 12 months and over sentences).
The reoffending rates provided have been calculated based on the prison from which an offender was discharged and ignores the time spent at other institutions during that sentence.
The tables also show the average number of previous offences, average number of custodial sentences and the average age of the offenders discharged from each prison in 2007. This illustrates that different prisons can have populations with a substantially different likelihood of reoffending.
Young offender institution reoffending rates are not included, as the work published to date only considered adult prisons.
More information on the individual prison reoffending rates is available from the Ministry of Justice website.
Category B prisons | |||||
Under 12 months sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
12 months and over sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
12 months and over sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
High security prisons | |||||
Under 12 months sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
12 months and over sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
Female prisons | |||||
Under 12 months sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
12 months and over sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
Open prisons | |||||
Under 12 months sentences | |||||
Prison | Number of offenders | Reoffending rate (percentage) | Average number of previous offences | Average number of previous custodial sentences | Average age |
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