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Written Answers to Questions
Wednesday 23 November 2011
Justice
Coroners and Justice Act 2009
Mr Doran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to bring the provisions of section 50 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009 into force. [82199]
Mr Blunt: The Ministry of Justice is liaising with the Ministry of Defence, Scottish Government and Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service in order to facilitate the implementation of the Coroners and Justice Act's provisions to allow for fatal accident inquiries (FAIs) in Scotland into the deaths abroad of service personnel.
Subject to the outcome of the Public Bodies Bill, we plan to implement the Coroners and Justice Act's FAI provisions as soon as practicable in 2012 in parallel with the Act's provisions to improve coroner investigations in England and Wales.
Child: Maintenance
Mr Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many non-resident parents living in the London borough of Bexley have received (a) suspended and (b) custodial sentences for the non-payment of child maintenance in the last three years. [80312]
Maria Miller: I have been asked to reply.
The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response.
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-resident parents living in the London Borough of Bexley have received (a) suspended and (b) custodial sentences for the non-payment of child maintenance in the last three years. [80312]
Where a non-resident parent fails to pay maintenance, there are a number of enforcement actions available. Money can be taken directly from a non-resident parent's earnings if the non-resident parent is employed, money can be taken directly from a non-resident parent's bank or building society account, or action can be taken through the courts.
The most serious forms of enforcement are commitment to prison or disqualification from driving. The decision whether to implement, and the length of the order, is at the discretion of a Magistrates' Court (or Sheriff in Scotland) where they are satisfied that a non-resident parent has “wilfully refused or culpably neglected” to pay child maintenance—but this is not a criminal sanction.
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It is not possible to break down these figures specifically for those non-resident parents who have failed to pay maintenance for children residing in the London Borough of Bexley.
The following table shows the number of suspended committal sentences and committal sentences from April 2007 to March 2011 rounded to the nearest 5. These figures can be found on page 23 of the following link:
http://www.childmaintenance.org/en/pdf/qss/QSS_sept_2011.pdf
| April to March each year | Suspended committal sentences | Committal sentences |
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Contempt of Court: Sentencing
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people have been imprisoned for contempt of court in each of the last 10 years by each of the divisions of the courts. [81867]
Mr Blunt: Detailed information collected centrally from court records by the Ministry of Justice on contempt of court beyond 2008 is limited to those occasions where an individual is tried, convicted and sentenced at the Crown Court under sections 8 and 14 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981. Information on contempt of court at the magistrates court under the Contempt of Court Act is contained within a miscellaneous group of offences that cannot be separately analysed.
The following tables provide information on prison receptions for contempt of court from 1998 to 2008 (last available published), and defendants sentenced to immediate custody at the Crown Court under sections 8 and 14 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 from 2009 and 2010 in England and Wales.
| Table 1: Prison receptions for contempt of court from 1998 to 2008 (England and Wales) | |
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Number of persons |
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| 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. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice. |
Crime: Victims
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether he plans to commission research into victims' satisfaction levels with sentences handed down by courts. [82116]
Mr Blunt: The Ministry of Justice previously commissioned the Witness and Victim Experience Survey, which asked a subset of victims and witnesses about their experiences, perceptions and satisfaction with different aspects of the criminal justice system, including (for those whose cases resulted in convictions) whether they thought the sentence was fair. A Ministry of Justice research report summarising the main findings from the Witness and Victim Experience Survey 2009-10, and examining the factors associated with satisfaction, will be published in 2012.
In addition, the Ministry of Justice partially funds the British Crime Survey (BCS), which gathers information on the public's perceptions of and victims' satisfaction with various aspects of the criminal justice system, including confidence in and attitudes to sentencing. The BCS 2010-11 findings show that 39% of victims were confident that the criminal justice system is effective (compared with 44% of non-victims) and 56% of victims were confident that the criminal justice system is fair (compared with 63% of non-victims).
The Ministry of Justice has previously published BCS analysis which covered public attitudes to sentencing and the victim satisfaction with the police and CJS agencies. The report ‘Public confidence in the Criminal Justice System: findings from the British Crime Survey 2002/03 to 2007/08’ can be found at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/research-and-analysis/moj/public-confidence-cjs.htm
The Ministry of Justice reviews its research priorities regularly. We are currently considering whether to commission further examination of the BCS data on perceptions of sentencing. A final decision whether to proceed with this will be made in the context of wider research needs, relative priorities and the available budget.
Cybercrime: Prosecutions
Steve Rotheram: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what assessment his Department has made of the conviction rate for those charged for improper use of (a) public electronic communications networks and (b) social networking sites; [82030]
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(2) what assessment his Department has made of the effects of section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 on the conviction rate for people charged with improper use of (a) public electronic communications networks and (b) social networking sites; [82031]
(3) what assessment he has made of the operation of section 127(3) of the Communications Act 2003; and how many proceedings have been brought under this section of the Act since its implementation. [82033]
Mr Blunt: Defendants proceeded against at the magistrates court and found guilty at all courts, and the conviction ratio for offences under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 in England and Wales from 2006 to 2010, can be viewed in the table.
Data held centrally on the Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database do not include information about the circumstances behind each case, other than that which may be identified from a statute. It is not possible to separately identify those specific cases where the defendant was proceeded against for using a social networking site.
The Ministry of Justice has not made an assessment on the conviction ratio under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003, as the effective working of the Communications Act 2003 comes within the remit of the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
| Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts and the conviction ratio(%) (1) , under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 (2) , England and Wales, 2006-10 (3, 4) | |||||
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2006 | 2007 | 20085 | 2009 | 2010 |
| (1) The proportion of defendants proceeded against who were found guilty. (2) Includes offence: Communications Act 2003 under section 127 Sending or causing sending of grossly offensive/indecent/obscene/menacing or false message/matter by electronic communications network. (3) 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. (4) 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. (5) Excludes data for Cardiff magistrates court for April, July and August 2008. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice. | |||||
Offenders: Deportation
Mr Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many foreign prisoners held at HMP Peterborough are due for removal from the UK at the conclusion of their sentence in the next 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [80987]
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Mr Blunt: As at 30 September 2011 there were 92 male and 45 female foreign national prisoners detained in HMP Peterborough. Information on how many are due for removal from the UK at the conclusion of their sentence is not held centrally by the Ministry of Justice. However, UKBA report that they are currently considering for deportation 33 foreign nationals in HMP Peterborough
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.
Prisoners: Death
Mr Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners have died from each cause in prison in each of the last five years. [82252]
Mr Blunt: The National Offender Management Service uses a classification system based on the apparent cause of death. The actual cause of death is not confirmed until the conclusion of the coroner's inquest which is held into all deaths in custody. The classification of death may change following an inquest or as new information emerges. The information is contained in the following table:
| Males and females | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
| (1) Provisional. The figures are derived from the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) Deaths in Prison Custody database. (2) In 2010, a new category of unclassified was introduced. Note: The apparent cause of death is based on the NOMS classification of deaths in prison custody; the self-inflicted deaths category includes a wider range of deaths than suicides and the homicide category includes a wider range of deaths than murder. When comparing these figures with other published data it is important to determine what definitions are used. | |||||
Since the beginning of 2010, there has been an apparent increase in the number of deaths in custody where initially the cause of death is unknown and may be subject to further investigation by the coroner such as post mortem or toxicology tests and inquest and also the Prison and Probation Ombudsman's investigation.
This resulted in a new category of “unclassified deaths” being introduced to reflect cases where the cause of death cannot be immediately established and are subject to longer investigation. Upon receipt of the cause of death the classification is then updated.
Prisoners: Food
Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent annually on food and subsistence for prisoners in each prison in each of the last 10 years. [81916]
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Mr Blunt: The information is as follows.
| Total food costs—for each public sector prison establishment in England and Wales | |||||
| £ | |||||
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2000-01 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 |
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| £ | |||||
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2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 |
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| (1) Merged with Hewell and Brockhill. (2 )Merged with Hewell Grange to form Hewell Prison. (3 )New Establishment. (4) Elmley, Standford Hill and Swaleside merged to form Sheppey Cluster. (5 )HMP Edmunds Hill split from Highpoint in 2007. (6) Moorland Open merged with Moorland Closed. (7) Parkhurst—Renamed Isle of Wight 2008. (8 )Prison closed. (9) Indicates brace. | |||||