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Immigration
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many immigration cases heard at tribunals required multiple sittings to determine in 2010. [51713]
Mr Djanogly: For the period 1 January to 31 December 2010, 163,903 appeals were determined by the First-tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, of which 18,095 (11%) required more than one substantive hearing.
Of the 18,095, 7,111 were ‘out of country’ immigration appeals, 6,318 were ‘in-country’ immigration appeals, 4,283 were asylum appeals, 380 were appeals against deportation and three were appeals against human rights, race discrimination or deprivation of citizenship decisions.
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent estimate has been made of the average cost to the public purse of an Immigration Tribunal hearing. [51714]
Mr Djanogly: The length and, therefore, cost of a substantive hearing within the immigration and asylum jurisdiction of Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service depends on the type of case. For this reason, an overall average cost is not used by Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service for planning purposes. However, dividing the full cost of the immigration and asylum jurisdiction by the number of oral hearings held, the average cost per hearing during the financial year 2009-10 was £687.
Judiciary: Pensions
Ms Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) whether he has made an impact assessment of the proposed changes to the judicial pension scheme; and what estimate he has made of the change in the opt-out rate resulting from implementation of the changes; [52270]
(2) what arrangements are in place to ensure that the changes to the judicial pension scheme are sustainable and progressive; [52271]
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(3) what assessment he has made of the effects of the proposed changes to the judicial pension scheme on part-time members of staff who are members of the scheme. [52272]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: At the spending review the Government announced changes to the level of public service pension scheme members' contribution rates which would lead to total savings of £2.8 billion a year by 2014-15, to be phased in from April 2012. Discussions about how this will be implemented are ongoing with the judiciary. The Government will put forward proposals in June, and will then begin formal consultation on the necessary changes to scheme regulations.
The Government are committed to ensuring the changes are fair to pension scheme members and to taxpayers.
An impact assessment covering the judicial pensions schemes has been produced and may be found at:
http://www.dwp.gov.uk/policy/pensions-reform/
The Treasury published an estimate of likely opt-out rates at the spending review:
http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_policycostings.pdf
This estimate has been scrutinised by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, and will be reviewed when the Government put forward final designs.
Knives: Young People
Mr Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people aged (a) under 19 and (b) over 18 were convicted for illegally carrying (i) knives and (ii) other weapons in each police authority area in (A) 2009 and (B) 2010; and if he will make a statement. [52401]
Mr Blunt: We assume that the question refers to under 18 and over 18-year-olds and have answered accordingly.
The number of offenders found guilty at all courts for possession of knives and possession of offensive weapons (excluding knives), by age group and police force area, England and Wales 1997 to 2009, can be viewed in tables 1 to 4 as follows.
Court proceedings data for 2010 are planned for publication on 26 May 2011.
Table 1: Number of defendants aged under 18 years of age convicted at all courts for knife possession offences (1) , by police force area, England and Wales, 1997 to 2009 (2, 3) | |||||||||||||
Police force area | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
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‘—’ = Nil * = Not available (1 )Includes offences of having an article with a blade or point in a public place or on school premises. (2) The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) Staffordshire Police Force were only able to submit sample data for defendants proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. (5) Data have been omitted for West Mercia Police Force Area (for the offence of having an article with a blade or point on school premises) from 1999-2004 due to data quality issues. (6) Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice. |
Table 2: Number of defendants aged 18 years and over convicted at all courts for knife possession offences (1) , by police force area, England and Wales, 1997 to 2009 (2, 3) | |||||||||||||
Police force area | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
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‘—’( )= Nil * = Not available (1) Includes offences of having an article with a blade or point in a public place or on school premises. (2) The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (4) Staffordshire Police Force were only able to submit sample data for defendants proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. (5) Data have been omitted for West Mercia Police Force Area (for the offence of having an article with a blade or point on school premises) from 1999-2004 due to data quality issues. (6) Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice |
Table 3: Number of defendants aged under 18 convicted at all courts for possession of offensive weapons (excluding knives), by police force area, England and Wales, 1997 to 2009 (1, 2, 3) | |||||||||||||
Police force area | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
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‘—’ = Nil * = Not available (1) The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (3) Staffordshire Police Force were only able to submit sample data for defendants proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table. (4) Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice. |