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Bailiffs
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) when he expects to conclude his consultation on proposals to protect people from aggressive bailiffs; [87363]
(2) what plans he has to bring forward legislative proposals to (a) consolidate and (b) reform laws relating to bailiffs. [87365]
Mr Djanogly: We expect to consult on proposals to protect people from aggressive bailiffs shortly. It will be a full public consultation that will run for 12 weeks. We will publish the Government response and our intended next steps following a detailed analysis of the responses received to the consultation.
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many meetings his Department had with bailiff organisations in the last 18 months; and what the (a) date and (b) attendance list was of each meeting. [87367]
Mr Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice holds regular meetings with bailiff organisations to discuss the development of policy proposals and the potential impact of new policy on the enforcement industry. HM Courts and Tribunals Service holds regular meetings with bailiff organisations that are contracted to enforce orders of the court. These meetings are used to monitor performance. Details of the meetings that have taken place in the last 18 months are provided in a table which has been deposited in the Library.
Defamation Bill: Draft
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he plans to publish his response to the report by the Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill, HC 930-I. [87364]
Mr Djanogly: We intend to publish the Government response to the report of the Joint Committee as early as possible in the new year.
Apprentices
Mr Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many apprentices were employed by each public body for which his Department is responsible between (a) April 2010 and March 2011 and (b) April and December 2011; and how many apprenticeships he expects each public body to sponsor between (i) January and March 2012 and (ii) April and March 2013. [88735]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: April 2010 to March 2011 and April 2011 to December 2011 were periods of major restructuring and downsizing in the Ministry of Justice. We were unable to run any external apprentice recruitment campaigns as we did not have any vacancies which were suitable for apprenticeships during this period. The Ministry aims to employ two external apprentices in the period January to March 2012. Officials are currently working with Civil Service HR and Civil Service Learning to agree our commitment for the period April 2012 to March 2013
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The Ministry continues to recognise the importance of apprenticeships and has encouraged the use of modern apprenticeships among our current work force. We now have 1,700 trained apprentices working in the Ministry and its constituent bodies. We intend to return to the provision of good quality apprenticeship opportunities as soon as we have recruitment needs to permit it.
Equality
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what equality impact assessments his Department has carried out since May 2010; and for what purpose in each case. [88587]
Mr Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) considers equality issues in exercising its functions, to comply with equality legislation and to ensure it understands how its activities will affect different people. It provides information about this consideration in various ways. In the specified period, this information was sometimes published in the form of an equality impact assessment, although there has never been a legal requirement to produce such a document.
Information about the number of such documents published by the MOJ is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Manpower
Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were working in his Department on (a) 11 May 2010 and (b) 8 December 2011. [87341]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes the number of staff employed by central Government Departments on a quarterly basis. The Ministry of Justice provides workforce reports for the ONS to meet common publication dates.
The staff figures for the Ministry show that there were 78,620 employed as at 31 March 2010 and 74,560 employed on 30 September 2011 (the latest published information).
The staff numbers provided add together civil servants from the following:
Ministry of Justice (excluding agencies), National Offender Management Services, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, The Office of the Public Guardian, Scotland Office (for 31 March 2010 only) and Wales Office (for 31 March 2010 only).
Recruitment
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much his Department spent on recruitment agencies in each month since September 2011. [87987]
Mr Kenneth Clarke:
The Ministry of Justice only commits to the use of temporary staff through recruitment agencies when there is an operational necessity to do so. Recruitment agencies supply contractors, interims and agency staff for a fee, which includes the cost of the sourced labour and an element for their administration. These external resources are only sourced to meet skills, capacity and capability
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shortages in frontline and business critical roles. They are deployed in temporary positions when it has been established that there are no suitable internal resources available. When doing so the Ministry ensures that it receives value for money and complies with procurement legislation, HM Treasury's rules and Cabinet Office Efficiency and Reform Group requirements.
The amount of monies paid to recruitment agencies to cover their fees and costs for temporary staff, such as agency (clerical and administrative) staff, interim managers, specialist contractors, together with the fees incurred for sourcing staff for the Ministry has significantly reduced since 2009-10. They are over 50% less. For the months of September 2011 to November 2011 the monies spent is given in the following table.
| £ | |
| Note: All figures are inclusive of VAT. The above figures also include the Ministry of Justice's executive agencies. | |
These figures amount to £15.69 million, which is less than 3% of the total employee pay bill for this period.
Redundancy Pay
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much redundancy pay was paid to civil servants in his Department in each month between September and November 2011. [87985]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: The Ministry of Justice (including National Offender Management Service, HM Courts and Tribunal Service and the Office of the Public Guardian) spent £1,924,475 on civil servant redundancies in the period between September and November 2011. The majority of those redundancies were at senior management levels (Grade 7 and above).
The breakdown by month was £1,027,760 in September 2011; £794,195 in October 2011; and £102,520 in November 2011.
This does not include costs associated with the Ministry's Voluntary Early Departure Scheme, which provides the same terms as Voluntary Redundancy under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.
Secondment
Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what secondments there have been to his Department from (a) industry and (b) the third sector since May 2010; what the (i) purpose and (ii) duration is of each secondment; and whether each secondment was to a policy development role. [86131]
Mr Blunt:
The data requested are not held comprehensively, centrally. Secondments can be agreed locally between managers and external organisations, and staff seconded into MOJ may remain on the payroll of their own organisation. To answer the question on the scale requested would require
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contacting each MOJ prison, court and office individually and asking them to check their records for any data on secondments during the relevant period. Each case would need to be investigated to identify the source of the secondees, plus the purpose and the duration of each secondment. This would incur disproportionate cost.
Departmental Temporary Employment
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many temporary staff were recruited to his Department between September and November 2011. [87986]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: Currently, a recruitment freeze is in place, which affects all external recruitment into the civil service, with exemptions allowed for business critical and frontline posts. For the period September to November 2011, the Ministry of Justice and its agencies (National Offender Management Services, HM Courts and Tribunal Service and the Office of the Public Guardian) recruited a total of 297 temporary staff (fixed-term employees) into civil service posts. The majority of these fixed-term employees are junior frontline staff.
The Ministry recruits people in line with the Civil Service Commissioners recruitment principles and is committed to recruitment on merit through fair and open competition.
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many restraining orders under section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 have been made by a court on its own volition since September 2009; [87522]
(2) how many restraining orders under section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 have been breached since September 2009; and in how many cases the breach led to a (a) prison sentence and (b) fine; [87524]
(3) how many people have been jailed for more than 12 months following a breach of a restraining order under section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 since September 2009. [87525]
Mr Blunt: The number of restraining orders imposed at all courts in England and Wales under sections 5 and 5A of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 (as amended and inserted respectively by section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004) can be found in table 1 for the year 2009-10 (latest available). Centrally held data do not identify if a restraining order was imposed solely on the court’s volition.
Table 2 provides information on the number of restraining orders under sections 5 and 5A breached, by number fined and number given immediate custody.
Annual court proceedings data for 2011 are planned for publication in spring 2012.
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| Table 1: Number of restraining orders issued at all courts under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, England and Wales, 2009- 10 (1, 2) | ||
| Description | 2009 | 2010 |
| (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) Came into force 30 September 2009. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services: Ministry of Justice. | ||
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice in how many cases has a defendant appealed the imposition of a restraining order under section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 since September 2009; and how many were upheld. [87523]
Mr Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice holds statistical information in relation to the number of appeals dealt with in the criminal courts (including the Crown court and the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal). However, central administrative databases for courts do not store information on the number of these defendants who have challenged the imposition of a restraining order under section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.
While such appeals will be logged on to the administrative computer systems used in the Crown court and the Court of Appeal, they cannot be distinguished from other types of appeals. As such, the information requested can be obtained through the manual inspection of individual case files held by the courts only at disproportionate cost.
Statistics are published on the number of appeals received and dealt with against sentences in England and Wales, from 2006 to 2010, in the Ministry of Justice's statistical bulletin “Judicial and Court Statistics”, the most recent edition of which was published on 30 June 2011. The number of appeals against sentences dealt with in the Crown court can be found in table 4.10 and those dealt with in the Court of Appeal in table 7.6. The report is available on the ministry's website at:
http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/statistics-and-data/courts-and-sentencing/judicial-annual.htm
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what training (a) police and (b) prosecutors receive in the implementation of section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. [87526]
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Nick Herbert: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Department.
A Home Office circular on the implementation of section 12 was issued to all chief constables of police and chief crown prosecutors in September 2009. It is for the individual police forces to decide whether any specific training is required on section 12. The e-learning programme that is available to prosecutors and associate prosecutors on domestic violence has been updated to include information regarding the implementation of section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 and is available on the Home Office website. In addition to this training, the legal guidance on restraining orders has been updated and circulated to all Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) staff. This is available on the CPS website.
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what guidance his Department provides to Ministers, special advisers and officials on the use of personal email accounts to conduct official business. [88536]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: I refer the hon. Member to my answer given on 17 October 2011, Official Report, column 667W, to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington (Jack Dromey).
The Ministerial Code, the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, and the Civil Service Code set out how Ministers, officials and special advisers should conduct Government business.
European Court of Human Rights
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice with reference to the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Hanif and Khan v. the United Kingdom, what his policy is on police officers serving on juries. [88659]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: Lord Justice Auld carefully considered this issue in his “Review of the Criminal Courts of England and Wales” (2001). He concluded that no-one should be automatically ineligible for jury service simply because of their job. He did not consider it likely that people who worked in the criminal justice system would unduly influence fellow jurors or bring to bear any special degree of prejudice. His recommendations were implemented by the Criminal Justice Act 2003, and additional safeguards were introduced following the House of Lords judgment in R v. Abdroikof and others [2007] UKHL 37.
The Government are currently considering the decision in Hanif and Khan v. United Kingdom.
Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Hanif and Khan v. the United Kingdom; and whether he has any plans to bring forward legislative proposals in this area. [88660]
Mr Kenneth Clarke:
The Government are currently considering the judgment. However the European Court of Human Rights was very clear that it was not deciding whether it is, in general, compatible with
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article 6 ECHR for a police officer to serve on a jury. We therefore do not envisage bringing forward legislative proposals in this area.
Fisheries: North West
Mr Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were prosecuted for illegal cockle fishing in the North Western Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority area from May 2010 to 30 November 2011. [87375]
Mr Blunt: The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database holds information on offences provided by the statutes under which proceedings are brought but not all the circumstances of each case. It is not possible to identify from this centrally held information, of those proceedings under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009, those specifically related to the North Western Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority area.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) advise that the management of the cockle fishery is the responsibility of North Western Inshore Fishery and Conservation Authority (IFCA). The IFCA is responsible for the enforcement of fishery byelaws in its waters. It is our understanding that there have been no prosecutions for illegal cockle fishing between May 2010 and November 2011 in this area.
Harassment
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many police information notices or harassment warnings have been issued by each police force in England and Wales in each of the last five years. [87517]
Lynne Featherstone: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department for Justice.
The information requested is not recorded centrally.
The Home Office launched a consultation in November 2011 which seeks views on how we can protect victims of stalking more effectively, including the use of police information notices.
Homicide: Life Imprisonment
Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the Homicide Review Advisory Group's report on public opinion and the penalty for murder; and what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on mandatory life sentences of the recommendations in the report. [87810]
Mr Blunt: The Government remain of the view that the offence of murder should be marked with the most serious of sentences and they have no plans to abolish the mandatory life sentence for murder.
Human Trafficking
Mr Clappison:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the (a) nationality and (b) gender is of each suspected victim of trafficking referred to in the
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Trafficking Victim Support Scheme of the Salvation Army in the last five years; in which parliamentary constituency each such case was located; and which agency referred each case to the scheme. [87546]
Mr Blunt: The Government-funded support service for adult victims of human trafficking in England and Wales administered by the Salvation Army commenced on 1 July 2011. The information provided in the following table covers the period 1 July to 15 December 2011. In the interests of victim safety, the region in which the victim was encountered is provided, rather than the specific parliamentary constituency.
Prior to the commencement of the current arrangements, support services for adult victims of human trafficking were provided by the charities Eaves Housing for Women and Migrant Helpline. The requested information is not available for this period.
| Nationality | Gender | Region | Referring organisation |
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Information Commissioner
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the savings required to be made by the Information Commissioner to meet the budgets for 2011-12. [87464]
Mr Djanogly: The Information Commissioner's Office is funded by two streams of income. Data protection work is funded by notification fees paid by Data Controllers. Freedom of information work is funded by grant in aid from the Ministry of Justice.
For the financial year 2011-12 there will be a £0.7 million reduction in grant in aid, which forms part of a four-year projected profile to make savings required by the Department over the course of the current spending review.
Japan Tobacco International
Mr Hain: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether any (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers in his Department have received hospitality from Japan Tobacco International since May 2010. [87601]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: Information about hospitality received by Ministers and special advisers is published quarterly by Departments. Information for the period 13 May 2010 to 30 June 2011 can be accessed on departmental websites. Information for 1 July onwards will be published in due course.
Legal Aid Scheme: Social Security Benefits
Mr Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what discussions he has had with (a) the Department for Work and Pensions and (b) other Departments on the effect on welfare reform of removing welfare benefits from the scope of legal aid. [87913]
Mr Djanogly: Extensive discussions were held with other Government Departments as part of both the policy development and clearance processes, and these discussions considered potential effects. Ultimately the effects of the changes will be determined by behavioural responses to them. MOJ is currently considering a number of options that could contribute to monitoring the impact of the reforms on clients.
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Non-Governmental Organisations
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much direct funding of £100,000 or more his Department provided to each partner organisation (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement. [87932]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: The Department has provided funding of £100,000 or more to each of the following arm's length bodies for the periods (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-2012.
| £ million | ||
| Name of the arm's length body | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
The Department has also provided funding of £100,000 or more to each of the following executive agencies for the periods (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-2012.
| £ million | ||
| Name of the executive agency | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
The figures given above are total resource budget. Figures for 2010-11 are based on the final outturn. The 2011-12 figures are based on the resource budget allocation as at 31 October 2011, so may vary depending on actual expenditure and the Ministry's priorities.
The Office of the Public Guardian receives more income than its expenditure. This is reflected in the organisation's budget.
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Offenders: Compensation
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the average compensation paid by offenders was in (a) magistrates courts and (b) Crown courts from 1997 to 2010. [87931]
Mr Djanogly: Her Majesty's Courts Service does not hold centrally the average compensation paid by offenders. These data could be provided only at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual search of all fine accounts.
Offenders: Expenditure
John McDonnell:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what his most recent estimate is of the average cost per year of keeping an offender in (a) an adult
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prison,
(b)
a young offender institution and
(c)
a secure training centre by main budget heading for the (i) public and (ii) contracted sector. [86287]
Mr Blunt: The information is as follows.
Adult prison and Youth Offender Institution
The following table provides average annual cost per prisoner in England and Wales for adult prisons and young offender institutions (YOI), split by ages 15-21 and 15-17, for the financial year 2010-11 at public and private sector prisons.
| Cost per prisoner by adult/YOI and public/private, 2010-11 | ||
| £ | ||
| Prison category | Public | Private |
| Breakdown by main budget headings | |||||
| £ | |||||
| Adult | YO I | ||||
| Public | Private | Public (15-21) | Public (15-17) | Private (15-17) | |
| (1) Includes Shared Services Centre, IT, headquarters, restructure costs, etc. Notes: 1. The overall average costs comprise the direct local establishment costs of public and private prisons, increased by an apportionment of relevant costs borne centrally and in the regions by NOMS (as recorded in the addendum to the National Offender Management Service Agency 2010-11 annual report and accounts). This involves some estimation. Expenditure which is met by other Government Departments or directly by the Youth Justice Board, such as expenditure on health and education, is not included. Expenditure recharged to the Youth Justice Board in respect of young people is included. 2. The costs represent the total cost per prisoner at each prison where the majority use at the end of the year was as adult prison, YOI (aged 15-17) or YOI (aged 15-21). There is no adjustment for prisons holding prisoners of more than one category. 3. A split of the YOI (aged 15-21) category to show unit cost information for under-18 juveniles only within those establishments is not available. Furthermore, there are no private YOI establishments that house prisoners in the aged 15-21 category. 4. The public sector and private sector costs are not directly comparable because of differences in accounting treatment and scope of services. | |||||
The cost of a place in a secure training centre for 2011-12 is £170,000. This is the price as at 1 April 2011 and does not include VAT. The Youth Justice Board calculates these costs based upon full occupancy and does not calculate the costs per prisoner. The cost is not broken down by budget heading as the financial mechanism aggregates the full cost of the provision into the price charged to the Youth Justice Board.
Offenders: Rehabilitation
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he expects to complete his work on co-design of the payment by results model. [87362]
Mr Blunt: The Ministry of Justice is working with other Government Departments to co-design payment by results approaches aimed at achieving shared priorities.
Two pilots testing the addition of a re-offending outcome into the Department for Work and Pensions' Work programme are due to begin in summer 2012.
The Ministry of Justice is also working with the Department of Health and the Home Office to implement a further eight projects, aimed at incentivising drug and alcohol recovery, and including a reducing re-offending outcome. These projects will begin in April 2012.
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Police: Crimes of Violence
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the highest number was of previous convictions for assault on a police constable for an individual convicted of an offence of assault on a police constable without being sent to prison in each of the last three years; and how many offences that individual had committed in total at the point of sentence for this offence. [84545]
Mr Blunt: The table shows the highest number of previous convictions for assault on a police constable, for individuals convicted of this offence in the years 2008 to 2010 who received a sentence other than immediate custody. It also shows their total number of previous cautions and convictions. Although these individuals did not go to prison for their index offence, they have all previously been to prison for the same offence. Assault on a police constable is a summary only offence and the sentencing guidelines indicate that a non-custodial sentence, including a fine, would be appropriate where no injury is caused.
The figure for 2008 is for a male whose first caution or conviction was in 1949. When looking at their previous offences by offence category 45% were for summary offences excluding motoring which includes the offence of assault on a constable.
The figure for 2009 is for a male whose first caution or conviction was in 1979. When looking at their previous offences by offence category 55% of the previous offences were for summary offences excluding motoring which includes the offence of assault on a constable. In addition, 63% of the offences within the summary offences excluding motoring category were for drunk and disorderly offences.
The figure for 2010 is for a female whose first caution or conviction was in 1997. When looking at their previous offences by offence category 83% were for summary offences excluding motoring which includes the offence of assault on a constable.
These 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.
Prisoners Employment
Mr Tom Clarke:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what steps he is taking to ensure the availability of support to offenders, including those
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with a learning disability, both to carry out work and to understand the terms of employment in prison; and if he will make a statement; [88752]
(2) what representations he has received on (a) the availability of support to offenders to carry out work and (b) to understand the terms of employment in prison; and if he will make a statement. [88753]
Mr Blunt: Ministers regularly receive representations from interested parties on matters pertaining to support for work for offenders in prison. For example, several peers and representatives of Mencap met Lord McNally in December and discussed such issues.
Information, advice and guidance are offered to prisoners in England and Wales to support them in making effective choices regarding employment and work-based learning both in prison and upon release. Prisoners receive induction and ongoing training, supervision and support in the work place undertaken by prison officers and/or workshop instructors and in some cases, peer mentors. In many prison work places industry recognised qualifications are delivered. Work place induction will cover the terms and conditions of employment. Any ongoing queries or concerns regarding terms and conditions can be addressed through local complaints and applications procedures.
In addition, as regards prisoners with learning difficulties and disabilities (LDD), NOMS has strong policies based around equal opportunities and treating all prisoners equally and with respect, and works in partnership with other, specialist organisations to continually seek to improve the services provided to prisoners. For example working jointly with the Department of Health, NOMS is looking to introduce a learning disability screening questionnaire (LDSQ) for use by all prison staff to identify those with a learning difficulty or disability and refer them to specialist support and services. Prison education providers will provide additional learning support, as and when it is required, for prisoners with an identified need through personalised programmes, specialist staff, adaptations and resources, where appropriate.
In March 2011, the Department of Health published “Positive Practice, Positive Outcomes: A handbook for professionals in the criminal justice system working with offenders with a learning disability.” This guidance is in the public domain and is available online at:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_124743
In October and November 2011 NOMS worked with MENCAP to prepare and run four workshops for prison staff, using group activities to cover basic awareness of learning disabilities/difficulties (LDD) and how such conditions can affect the day to day management of prisoners. Discussions with MENCAP about future LDD awareness for staff and prisoners are ongoing.
Prisoners’ Transfers: Scotland
Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many requests by prisoners in England to transfer to Scottish prisons are under consideration. [88163]
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Mr Blunt: 13 applications for transfer from prisoners in England and Wales to prisons in Scotland are under consideration.
Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he last met the Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Government to discuss arrangements for the transfer of prisoners between Scotland and England. [88164]
Mr Blunt: The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke), has not met the Cabinet Secretary for Justice in the Scottish Government to discuss arrangements for the transfer of prisoners between Scotland and England.
The process for prisoners transferring between England and Wales and Scotland has been operating successfully since 1997 and there are no plans at this time to review the transfer arrangements. Officials are in regular contact about individual transfer requests.
Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) male and (b) female prisoners serving custodial sentences in England were transferred to Scottish prisons in each of the last five years. [88165]
Mr Blunt: From 1 January 2007 to the 31 December 2011 a total of 113 prisoners transferred from prisons in England and Wales to prisons in Scotland to continue serving sentences of imprisonment or to facilitate a period of temporary visits with close family.
The following table gives the number of prisoners transferred in each of the last five years:
| Male | Female | |
Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) male and (b) female prisoners serving custodial sentences in England made requests to transfer to prisons in Scotland in each of the last five years. [88166]
Mr Blunt: From 1 January 2007 to the 31 December 2011 a total of 149 prisoners submitted requests for transfer from prisons in England and Wales to prisons in Scotland to continue serving sentences of imprisonment or to facilitate a period of temporary visits with close family.
The following table gives the number of applications received in each of the last five years:
| Male | Female | |