Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department has spent on (a) salaries and (b) pension entitlements for special advisers in the financial year 2010-11 to date. [46573]
Mr Kenneth Clarke:
I refer the hon. Member to the latest data release on the Cabinet Office website. This lists the names and pay bands of the special advisers in post at various times, and their actual salaries where
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these are £58,200 or higher. This is published together with details of the special advisers’ pay ranges for 2010-11, and the total pay bill cost of special advisers in each period.
Please note that the estimated pay bill includes pension costs, and that the details of pension arrangements are set out in the “Model contract for Special Advisers”.
These publications can be found at the following link:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/special-adviser-data-releases
Departmental Public Expenditure
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the Spring Supplementary Estimate 2010/11, HC 790, for what reasons there is proposed a reduction of £770,000 in non-voted expenditure offset by an increase in voted expenditure in relation to an internal movement in funding from the Parole Board. [46822]
Mr Djanogly: It is Ministry of Justice's responsibility to manage the control totals set by HM Treasury and as part of the Department's operational responsibility and financial management, it works closely with its business areas in order to review forecast plans and in year expenditure and uses the estimates process to appropriately align funding to business area forecast expenditure. This is a business as usual practice and includes transfers to and from the Department's arm’s-length bodies.
As a result of an internal review of forecast outturn plans, the transfer of the total £770,000 resource funding from the Parole Board relates to:
(1) an internal switch of £187,000 resource with capital;
(2) an internal transfer of £530,000 to HM Court Service related to Judicial training costs; and
(3) an internal transfer of £53,000 related to litigation costs.
The impact of this transfer in the estimate has resulted in a reduction of non budget funding of an arm’s-length body, with no overall increase in the departmental expenditure limit.
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the Spring Supplementary Estimate 2010/11, HC 790, for what reasons there is proposed a reduction of £175,000 in voted expenditure offset by an increase in non-voted expenditure in relation to an internal movement in funding to the Legal Services Commission. [46824]
Mr Djanogly: It is Ministry of Justice’s responsibility to manage the control totals set by HM Treasury and as part of the Department’s operational responsibility and financial management, it works closely with its business areas in order to review forecast plans and in year expenditure and uses the estimates process to appropriately align funding to business area forecast expenditure. This is a business as usual practice and includes transfers to and from the Department’s arm’s length bodies.
“According to the Spring Supplementary Estimate this transaction relates to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority and not the Legal Services Commission.
As a result of an internal review of forecast outturn plans, the transfer of £175,000 resource funding to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority relates to
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additional capital funding to fund the Electronic Workforce Management Project and the Business Continuity Project.
The impact of this transfer in the estimate has resulted in an increase in non budget funding for an arm’s length body and with no overall increase in the departmental expenditure limit.
Departmental Rail Travel
Mr Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department are entitled to travel first class by rail within the UK. [47066]
Mr Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice suspended first class rail travel for all staff in October 2010, and staff are required to book all rail travel in standard class save in exceptional circumstances, supported by a business case and subject to approval by the Ministry of Justice’s Value for Money Improvement Committee Secretariat or, in the case of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), to a director or CEO.
Regulation
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what regulations his Department introduced between 9 and 28 February 2011; [47053]
(2) what regulations his Department revoked between 9 and 28 February 2011. [47057]
Mr Djanogly: Between 9 and 28 February 2011, the Ministry of Justice has neither laid nor revoked statutory instruments which have regulatory impact.
Departmental Written Questions
Thomas Docherty: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of written questions tabled to him for answer on a named day between 27 May 2010 and 9 March 2011 did not receive a substantive answer on the day named for answer. [46560]
Mr Djanogly: Between 27 May 2010 and 9 March 2001, the Ministry of Justice has answered 430 named day questions, of which 424 (98.6%) were answered on the day named for answer. 31 (7.2%) of the 430 were not answered substantively on the day named for answer of which 14 were answered by giving an undertaking to write and 17 stated the answer would partially or fully breach the disproportionate cost threshold.
Fixed Penalties
Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many of each category of fixed penalty notices were (a) issued and (b) paid in each month since their introduction in each police force area; and how many on-the-spot fines have been issued in each police area since their introduction. [47023]
James Brokenshire: I have been asked to reply.
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Data on fixed penalty notices issued for each recorded category of offence in respect of a vehicle are provided in the tables which have been placed in the House Library. The information provided is annual from 1997 to 2008 as the Home Office do not collect the data monthly.
Detailed data on payment rates of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) reported to the Home Office are not separately identified by individual offence. A table showing payment rates for all FPNs follows.
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Data for earlier years can be found in the archive link on the Home Office website at:
http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/police-powers-archive.html#motoring
A fine can only be imposed by a court after due process and conviction, but from 2009 onwards police officers have been able to take deposits on drivers without a UK address in respect of a fixed penalty or fine they might be given. Data on the number of these imposed are not reported to the Home Office.
| Percentage of fixed penalty notices paid, by force area and type of notice— England and Wales | ||||||||||||
| Percentage | ||||||||||||
| Endorsable (1) | Non-endorsable d river present | Driver absent (2) | All notices | |||||||||
|
|
Met. police (3) | Other forces | All forces | Met. police (3) | Other forces | All forces | Met. police (3) | Other forces | All forces | Met. police (3) | Other forces | All forces |
| (1) Includes offences detected by automatic cameras (up to and including 1998) and all cameras (from 1999) for which a conditional offer of a fixed penalty was made and which can only be counted if made substantive, i.e. if paid. (2) For driver absent offences, a notice to owner is issued in the event of non-payment which can act as a reminder. (3) Metropolitan police. | ||||||||||||
HM Courts Service: Finance
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the budget was for HM Courts Service in each financial year from 2005-06 to date. [46901]
Mr Djanogly: The information is as follows:
The budget for HMCS for each financial year is shown in the following table;
| HMCS budget year on year from 2005-06 | |||||
| £000 | |||||
| RDEL | |||||
|
|
Nr cash | Non cash | Total RDEL | CDEL | AME |
The resource budget (RDEL) comprises of both near cash items, for example staff salaries, judicial costs, rent, rates and magistrates expenses and non cash items for example depreciation and cost of capital.
The capital budget (CDEL) covers the costs of capital build projects.
Annually managed expenditure (AME) is a budget provided for expenditure that is highly volatile for example the impairment on the revaluation of property.
Housing: Prices
Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what requirements the Land Registry places on developers relating to the provision of accurate information on the price of new properties. [46137]
Mr Djanogly: Land Registry is under a statutory obligation to enter the price paid or value declared for the registered estate, where this is practicable (rule 8(2), Land Registration Rules 2003).
The onus is on applicants for registration to complete their transfers, leases and applications correctly and to provide accurate information as to the price paid. If there is no conflicting information as to the accuracy of the information provided, the registrar would not normally query the price or value.
The price paid may not represent the full market value of a property.
If it is obvious from a transfer or lease that a discount has been applied, Land Registry will enter the price paid as the lowest or net amount.
If it appears from a transfer or lease that there may have been a discount or cashback, and the actual amount paid for the property is not clear, Land Registry will requisition for the lowest or net price paid and will enter that as the price paid in the register. Generally, however, Land Registry will not raise a requisition merely to improve the price paid or value stated information in its possession.
Land Registry will not enter a price paid if it is not ascertainable or may be misleading, for example where there are portfolio transfers or transfers of a share in a property. If, for example, the price is not specified but is
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dependent on provisions in documents Land Registry does not see, or it cannot be calculated at the time of registration, then no entry will be made.
Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what powers the Land Registry has to take action in instances where the registered price of a new property is higher than the sale price. [46138]
Mr Djanogly: The registered proprietor or another interested party (such as their mortgagee) may make an application to Land Registry to amend or remove the price paid or value declared entry if they feel there is a mistake or the entry is misleading. The application will need to include the appropriate evidence and will be considered in the same way as any other application for alteration of the register. The price paid or value stated entry will be that supplied by the purchasers or their conveyancer at the time of registration, and the registrar cannot change the entry merely because the value of the property has since fallen.
Justin Tomlinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice under what circumstances a price other than the sale price of a property may be registered with the Land Registry. [46139]
Mr Djanogly: If there is no consideration or premium in a deed, Land Registry enters details of the value of the land as declared by the applicant.
Where a property has not been sold but there is a statement of value for fee purposes, Land Registry may make an entry based on that statement. For example: “The value as at (date of application)was stated to be between £50,001 and £80,000.”
Again, Land Registry will not make an entry if it may be misleading for some reason.
Prison Service: Manpower
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison staff have been appointed on the new prison officer contract in each prison since September 2009. [46915]
Mr Blunt: Information on the number of individuals appointed to prison officer 2 terms and conditions between 30 September 2009 and 31 December 2010 is contained in the table as follows. The figures include officer 2s who have since left the Service.
| Prison officer 2s appointed at each Prison Service establishment—30 September 2009 to 31 December 2010 | |
| Establishment | Prison officer 2s appointed |
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| (1) Includes officer 2s who have since left the service (2 )Where an officer 2 has served at two establishments their latest or last establishment is reported. (3) Includes existing Prison Service staff who converted to prison officer 2. | |
Prisoners' Release
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will take steps to ensure that those referred to the Peterborough prison social impact bond scheme are representative of all short-term prisoners released. [46919]
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Mr Blunt: All adult male prisoners who are discharged from HMP Peterborough having been sentenced to less than 12 months will be included in the pilot.
There will be three cohorts, each containing 1,000 discharged prisoners. To measure the success of the pilot, each cohort will be assigned to a matched control group by the pilot’s Independent Assessor, who will match every prisoner discharged from Peterborough to 10 other prisoners released from similar prisons.
This is to ensure that any success of the pilot, seen as a reduction in the number of times the Peterborough prisoners are reconvicted compared to the control group, can be attributed to the pilot’s interventions and not to the characteristics of prisoners in Peterborough.
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he has plans to implement further social impact bond schemes based on the model used at HM Prison Peterborough. [46920]
Mr Blunt: The Government set out in the Green Paper “Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders” their proposals to establish at least six new payment by results projects for reducing reoffending. These include two payments by results projects for offenders released from prison, focusing on those offenders who are sentenced to less than 12 months in prison, and two large scale projects for offenders managed on community sentences and those released on licence. We will work with providers to refine our proposals and complete the design of the projects by August 2011. However, the design of the projects will not necessarily be based on the social impact bond model used at HM Prison Peterborough but it will be one of the options for consideration.
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will take steps to ensure all offenders sentenced to 12 months or less take part in a social impact bond scheme. [46921]
Mr Blunt: The Government set out in the Green Paper “Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders” their proposals to establish at least six new payment by results projects for reducing reoffending. These include two payments by results projects for offenders released from prison, focusing on those offenders who are sentenced to less than 12 months in prison, and two large scale projects for offenders managed on community sentences and those released on licence. We will work with providers to refine our proposals and complete the design of the projects by August 2011. However, the design of the projects will not necessarily cover all offenders.
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the level of reoffending of prisoners who are not referred to the social impact bond scheme at HM Prison Peterborough. [46922]
Mr Blunt: All prisoners sentenced to under 12 months who are discharged from HMP Peterborough will be referred to the social impact bond scheme.
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Individual prison re-offending rates for 2007 in England and Wales were published for the first time by the Ministry of Justice in the Compendium of Reoffending Statistics and Analysis in November 2010. This can be accessed at:
www.justice.gov.uk/publications/compendium-reoffending.htm
The Compendium includes figures for offenders discharged from HMP Peterborough for sentence lengths of under 12 months or 12 months and more. From October 2011 these figures will be updated on a quarterly basis.
The Compendium includes re-offending rates for each prison in 2007 presented by prison category and prison sentence length of under 12 months. The re-offending 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.
Prisoners: Mass Media
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 8 March 2011, Official Report, columns 1055-6W, on prisoners: mass media, what consideration was given to consulting victims of crime or their representatives on the preparation of Prison Service Instruction (PSI) 37/2010 on prisoner access to the media; which persons and organisations his Department consulted in preparing the instruction; and if he will consult victims of crime and their representatives on the contents of PSI 37/2010 and amend it accordingly. [46843]
Mr Blunt: A number of internal and external stakeholders were consulted on Prison Service Instruction PSI 37/2010 Prisoners’ Access to the Media, prior to publication. This was in line with National Offender Management Service policy on the approval and implementation of such instructions. The consultation process included NOMS policy teams with oversight of the statutory victim contact scheme. There are no plans to review the policy on prisoner access to the media at present or to consult the victims of crime or their representatives on its contents.
Prisoners: Publications
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 8 March 2011, Official Report, columns 1056-7W, on prisoners: publications, with which publishers and newspapers (a) prisons and (b) National Offender Management Service hold subscriptions; and what the title is of each publication for which subscriptions are paid for its use in prisons. [46844]
Mr Blunt: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) does not record this information centrally and to separate and collect it from local sources could be achieved only at disproportionate cost. Judgment on appropriate publications for prisoners is left to senior managers within prisons.
Prisons and Probation Ombudsman: Public Appointments
Priti Patel:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department spent in each category of
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expenditure on
(a)
advertising for and
(b)
recruiting for the position of Prisons and Probation Ombudsman; how many applications his Department has received; and when he expects an appointment to be made. [46834]
Mr Blunt: Advertising costs for the recruitment of the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman were £7,270.00 plus VAT. The value of the contract for executive search and related services is £23,000 plus VAT. Forty-one applications were received. Our expectation is that an appointment will be made by June 2011.
Prisons: Construction
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how much capital funding his Department has allocated for prison building for each year of the comprehensive spending review period; [46906]
(2) how much capital funding his Department and its predecessor allocated to prison building in each financial year between 1994-95 and 2010-11; [46907]
(3) what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of damage caused to each prison affected by disturbances in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [46910]
Mr Blunt: Some £76 million capital funding has allocated to prison building for 2011-12 and £8 million for 2012-13. No capital funding has been allocated for prison building after this date.
Central records of capital funding for prison building before the Ministry of Justice was formed (i.e. April 2007) are not held centrally. Providing these details would require individual offices to be contacted and so incur disproportionate costs. Capital funding has been allocated for prison building since 2007 as follows:
|
|
£million |
Central records are only held of disturbances at prisons where the estimated cost of repair is £250,000 and above. Obtaining details of repairs for less serious disturbances would mean contacting individual prisons and so incur disproportionate costs.
In the last twelve months the estimated cost of repair of damage caused during prison disturbances of above £250,000 is about £4.3 million.
Prisons: Mobile Phones
Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been charged with an offence under section 45 of the Crime and Security Act 2010 since its entry into force. [47042]
Mr Blunt: Section 45 of the Crime and Security Act 2010 is not yet in force. It is due to commence later this year. There have been no instances, therefore, of people been charged with an offence under this section.
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Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what mechanisms he has put in place to prevent the use of mobile communication devices within prison. [47086]
Mr Blunt: We have implemented a strategy to minimise the number of mobile phones entering prisons, to find phones that do get in and to disrupt mobile phones that cannot be found.
The Offender Management Act 2007 made it a criminal offence to convey specific items, including mobile phones and associated equipment into or out of a prison or to transmit sounds or images from within a prison. The Crime and Security Act 2010 will also make it an offence, with a penalty of up to two years' imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine, to possess an unauthorised mobile phone or other electronic equipment or component element that can receive or transmit information electronically within a prison.
Robust local security and searching strategies are key to addressing the risks presented by illicit mobile phones. A range of technology has been made available to prisons to strengthen searching and security, including portable mobile phone signal detectors, body orifice security scanners (BOSS chairs) and high sensitivity metal detecting wands which can detect internally concealed items such as mobile phones.
We are trialling a range of signal denial technology in a number of establishments; however, at this stage we
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cannot provide much detail for security and operational reasons. The trials confirm that denying signals in prisons is not a quick, simple or cheap option. It is highly technically challenging, given the nature of the different fabric and layouts of prisons, the need to identify technology that is effective at denying signals within prisons without adversely affecting signals outside the prison and ensuring compliance with health and safety and regulatory requirements.
Prisons: Violence
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many injuries were sustained by (a) prisoners and (b) prison staff in each prison disturbance for each category of injury in the last 12 months for which figures are available. [46909]
Mr Blunt: The National Offender Management Service records a variety of incidents that are related to disorder or disturbances at various levels of seriousness. These are set out in the footnote to the table.
The table shows details of the number of serious or minor injuries sustained by (a) prisoners and (b) prison staff in each prison disturbance for each category of injury from 1 March 2010 until 28 February 2011. Serious injuries include fractures, black eye, cuts requiring sutures and puncture wounds. The majority of disorder-related incidents are of a minor nature and are resolved quickly and professionally.
| Table 1: Breakdown of injuries sustained by (a) prisoner and (b) staff by incident category and establishment, from 1 March 2010 to 28 February 2011 | |||||
| Establishment | Incident type (1) | Serious injury staff | Serious injury prisoner | Minor injury staff | Minor injury prisoner |
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| (1) Concerted Indiscipline is when two or more prisoners act together in defiance of a lawful instruction or against the requirements of the regime of the establishment. (2) Active Concerted Indiscipline (e.g. prisoners actively attempt to stop staff from regaining control of a situation and may use violence). (3) Passive Concerted Indiscipline (e.g. sit-down protest with no violence involved). (4) An incident at height is defined as any incident taking place over three feet from ground level and includes where prisoners have gained access to safety netting. (5) This has been the only occurrence which has resulted in the loss of life due to an incident of disturbance. | |||||
These figures have been drawn from live 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.
These figures may change should any further incidents relating to this period be identified and reported to NOMS.
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which prisons experienced any kind of disturbance in the last 12 months; and what the nature was of each such disturbance. [46911]
Mr Blunt: The National Offender Management Service records a variety of incidents that are related to disorder or disturbances at various levels of seriousness. Details of these, for the period requested, are shown in the following table. The majority of disorder-related incidents are of a minor nature and are resolved quickly and professionally.
| Breakdown of disorder-related incidents by establishment between 1 March 2010 and 28 February 2011 | ||||
| Establishment | Incident at height (1) | Concerted indiscipline (Active) (2,3) | Concerted indiscipline (Passive) (3,4) | Hostage |
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| (1 )An incident at height is defined as any incident taking place over three feet from ground level and includes where prisoners have gained access to safety netting. (2) Active concerted indiscipline (e.g. prisoners actively attempt to stop staff from regaining control of a situation and may use violence). (3) Concerted indiscipline is when two or more prisoners act together in defiance of a lawful instruction or against the requirements of the regime of the establishment. (4) Passive concerted indiscipline (e.g. sit-down protest with no violence involved). Notes: 1. These figures have been drawn from live 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. 2. These figures may change should any further incidents relating to this period be identified and reported to NOMS. | ||||
Sentencing
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people who have breached a suspended sentence (a) received and (b) did not receive an immediate custodial sentence in the latest period for which figures are available. [44935]
Mr Blunt: Data are not held centrally on outcomes of breaches of suspended sentence orders. However, data are available on the reasons for termination of suspended sentence orders during the supervision period of the order. These reasons include early termination for failure to comply with requirements or for conviction of a further offence.
Out of 43,783 suspended sentence orders (of all lengths) terminated in 2009, there were 5,392 failures to comply with requirements and 6,988 convictions for a further offence.
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.
Speed Limits: Fixed Penalties
Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much revenue was received from fixed penalty notices issued in respect of speeding offences in each police force area in England and Wales in each year since 1997. [46941]
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James Brokenshire: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested on the amount of revenue received from fixed penalty notices for speeding offences is not collected by the Home Office. However, data on the number of fixed penalty notices issued for speeding by police force area are provided in table A for years
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1997 to 2008. The fixed penalty for speeding is £60 but in these data whether the fixed penalties has been paid is not identified.
Data on fixed penalty notices for 2009 are due to be published in April 2011.
| Number of fixed penalty notices issued for speed limit offences by police force area, England and Wales, 1997 to 2008 | ||||||
| Total FPNS for speed limit offences | ||||||
| Police force | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |