Crimes of Violence: Sentencing
Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what the average custodial sentence handed down for actual bodily harm was in each year between 1994 and 2011; [135746]
(2) what the average custodial sentence handed down for grievous bodily harm was in each year between 1994 and 2011; [135747]
(3) what the average custodial sentence handed down for robbery was in each year between 1994 and 2011; [135748]
(4) what the average custodial sentence handed down for rape was in each year between 1994 and 2011. [135749]
Jeremy Wright: Average length of immediate custodial sentences at all courts for the requested offences, in England and Wales, from 1994 to 2011, can be viewed in the following tables.
| Average length of immediate custodial sentence(1) at all courts, by offence, England and Wales, 1994 to 2011(2,3) | |||||||||
| 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | |
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |
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| (1) Excludes life and indeterminate sentences. (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) Includes offences under: Sexual Offences Act 1956 s1 and Sexual Offences Act 2003, s1 and s5 (5) Includes offences under: Offences against the Person Act 1861, s18 (6) Includes offences under: Offences against the Person Act 1861, S.47 (in part) Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice | |||||||||
Debt Collection
Mr Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to ensure that certified bailiffs undertake their duties in compliance with (a) legislation and (b) appropriate codes of conduct; and if he will make a statement. [134985]
Mrs Grant: The “Transforming Bailiff Action” consultation considered the conduct of and legislation governing bailiffs.
The Ministry of Justice is currently finalising the Government response to this consultation paper and will issue this in due course.
Driving Under Influence
Mrs Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of people convicted of drink-drive offences were found to be over the legal blood alcohol limit when driving (a) 10 hours after taking their last drink, (b) 24 hours after taking their last drink and (c) 48 hours after taking their last drink in the last year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [135787]
Jeremy Wright: Information held centrally by the Ministry of Justice does not contain information about the circumstances behind each case, beyond the description provided in the statute under which proceedings are brought. It is not possible to identify from this centrally held information the time between an offender's last drink and the taking of the test which produced a finding of the offender being over the legal blood alcohol limit.
In 2011, there were 48,883 offenders found guilty at all courts in England and Wales of offences which could be identified exclusively as drink-driving.
Family Justice Review
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the consequences for his Department's policies of the conclusions of the Norgrove Report. [135306]
Mrs Grant: The Government published its response to the Family Justice Review on 6 February 2012. The response included the following priorities:
Putting children at the heart of the process so that their needs are the paramount concern;
Creating a single family court to make the system more effective and easier for users to navigate;
Speeding up care cases, committing to limit the length of care cases to 26 weeks, down from the then current average of 55 weeks;
Establishing a Family Justice Board to drive performance improvements in the system and improve management information.
Implementing the recommendations of the review is a Government priority and we are confident that the programme of family justice reform can be successfully delivered within the context of the Ministry of Justice's broader policies. The Ministry of Justice is working with Her Majesty's Court and Tribunal Service, the Legal Services Commission, the Department for Education and the Judiciary to implement the Review's recommendations.
We are making good progress. The Family Justice Board, independently chaired by David Norgrove, has been established and the legislation which will create a single family court is progressing through Parliament as part of the Crime and Courts Bill. Draft clauses which will take forward some of the other key recommendations of the review, including the introduction of the new time limit for care cases, have recently been subject to Pre-Legislative Scrutiny by the Justice Select Committee.
Prisoners: Rehabilitation
Sir Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what progress he has made on the expansion of the payment by results model to prisoner rehabilitation schemes; and if he will make a statement. [135047]
Jeremy Wright: We are running 14 pilot projects testing payment by results in different parts of the justice system. In each case, providers will only be paid in full if they achieve a specific outcome. In the case of the two pilots involving offenders released from Doncaster and Peterborough prisons, some or all of the provider payments will be dependent on a reduction in reoffending.
We now intend to apply payment by results to the majority of rehabilitation work conducted with offenders in the community, as part of a broader package of reforms. This “rehabilitation revolution” will stimulate innovation and open the delivery of services to a wider range of providers with the skills needed to change an individual's behaviour and reduce future reoffending. We intend that these services should cover offenders released from prison, including those sentenced to less than 12 months in custody.
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Prisoners: Wales
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) prisoners on remand and (b) convicted prisoners currently in custody have addresses in North Wales. [135087]
Jeremy Wright: The following table shows the number of remand and sentenced prisoners as at 28 September 2012 who have a recorded address in a local authority area that constitutes the North Wales geographical area:
| Number of prisoners | |
The figures include remand and sentenced male and female prisoners, adults, young offenders and juveniles that are held in prisons and young offender institutions.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible error with data entry and processing.
Information on offenders' residences is provided by offenders on reception into prison and recorded on a central IT system. Addresses can include a home address, an address to which offenders intend to return on discharge or next of kin address and these figures are provided in the table above.
If no address is given, an offender's committal court address is used as a proxy for the area in which they are resident. These figures are also included in the table above. No address has been recorded and no court information is available for around 3% of all offenders, these figures are excluded from the table above.
Prisons
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisons have been re-designated as joint establishments containing both adult and young offenders' institutions since May 2010. [135248]
Jeremy Wright: Young adults (aged 18 to 21 years old) sentenced to detention in a young offender institution (DYOI) are detained in young offender institutions (YOIs) as required by section 98 of the Powers of the Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000. These are normally self-contained but in some establishments that have a dual designation (designed both as a prison and a YOI) young adults are held alongside adults with which they share the majority of their facilities. Whatever the location, young adults detained in YOIs have separate sleeping accommodation.
Since May 2010 the following prisons have been re-designated as establishments holding both adult and young offenders (aged 18 to 21-years-old):
Cardiff
Forest Bank
Northallerton
Nottingham
Portland
Preston
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Rochester
Stoke Heath
Swansea
Procurement
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the monetary value was of contracts awarded by his Department to (a) management consultancies and (b) IT companies in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement. [135177]
Jeremy Wright: The total values of contracts awarded by the Ministry of Justice by category and financial year are provided in the following table.
| (a) Management consultants (£000) | (b) IT companies (£ million) | |
Redundancy Pay
Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the total amount of redundancy pay paid to civil servants in his Department was in each month from July to December 2012. [135214]
Jeremy Wright: The Ministry of Justice has not made any compulsory redundancy payments in the period July 2012 to November 2012 (the latest period for which figures are available). However, it has funded a number of approved voluntary early departures and voluntary redundancies over this period. The total amount of these payments is given in the following table.
| £000 | |
All compensation payments have been made in line with civil service compensation scheme rules.
Temporary Employment
Mr Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what amount his Department spent on interim staff as defined by the National Audit Office in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; and if he will make a statement. [135178]
Jeremy Wright: In consideration of the National Audit Office definition of interim staff being
“people fulfilling 'business as usual' roles within the current organisational structure that would otherwise be undertaken by a salaried permanent member of staff”;
details of the specific individuals being utilised as temporary replacements for permanent staff are not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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Young Offender Institutions: Christmas
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost has been to the public purse of Christmas parties held for those detained in each institution in the secure youth estate, in each year since 2010. [135254]
Jeremy Wright: The Department does not keep a central record of these data. To collate this information, by contacting all youth secure establishments, would incur disproportionate costs.
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Young Offenders
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people under the age of 18 have been charged with each offence since May 2005. [134913]
Jeremy Wright: The Ministry of Justice does not hold the information required to answer this question as we do not hold statistics centrally on the number of people charged. However the Ministry of justice holds corresponding data on the number of prosecutions and the following table shows the number of defendants under the age of 18 prosecuted at magistrates court May 2005 to 2011.
| Defendants under the age of 18 prosecuted at magistrates court May 2005-11 | ||||||||
| Offence | 2005(1) | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | Total |
| (1) 2005 includes May to December only Source: Ministry of Justice | ||||||||
Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many people of each age between 10 and 17 years who were convicted of a crime (a) went on to reoffend and (b) were subsequently sentenced to a prison term at an adult institution since 1 May 1998; [135303]
(2) how many people of each age between 10 and 17 have been cautioned since 1 May 1998; and how many such people (a) committed a further offence and (b) were later sentenced to a prison term in an adult institution. [135307]
Jeremy Wright: These questions have been answered using the Ministry of Justice's published proven reoffending statistics for England and Wales, broken down further by age. These statistics are published on a quarterly basis and the latest bulletin, for the period January to December 2010, was published on 25 October 2012.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold proven reoffending data for years prior to 2000; 2000 is the earliest year for which proven reoffending data exist on a comparable basis and data are not available for 2001 due to a problem with archived data on court orders. Data for 2011 will be published on 31 October 2013.
Table 1 shows the number of juvenile offenders in England and Wales who were released from custody or received a non-custodial conviction at court in each of the years 2000, 2002 to 2010, by age; the number that committed a proven reoffence within a one year follow-up period; and the number that were given a custodial sentence for a proven reoffence.
Table 2 shows the number of juvenile offenders in England and Wales who were cautioned in each of the years 2000, 2002 to 2010, by age; the number that committed a proven reoffence within a one year follow-up period; and the number that were given a custodial sentence for a proven reoffence.
In both tables, the number of reoffenders who received a custodial sentence for a proven reoffence includes all such offenders irrespective of where they served their sentence. Information on those who were sentenced to custody in an adult prison could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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A proven reoffence is defined as any offence committed in a one year follow-up period and receiving a court conviction, caution, reprimand or warning in the one year follow-up. Following this one year period, a further six month waiting period is allowed for cases to progress through the courts.
Please note that proven reoffending statistics are available from the Ministry of Justice website at:
www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/reoffending/proven-re-offending
| Table 1: Proven reoffending data for juvenile offenders in England and Wales who were released from custody or received a non-custodial conviction at court in each of the years 2000, 2002 to 2010, by age | |||||
| Year(1) | Age | Number of offenders in cohort(2) | Number of reoffenders | Proportion of offenders who reoffend (%) | Number of reoffenders given a custodial sentence(3) |
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| (1) Data are not available for 2001 due to a problem with archived data on court orders. (2) The group of offenders for whom reoffending is measured does not represent all proven offenders. Offenders who were released from custody or commenced a court order are matched to the PNC database and a certain proportion of these offenders cannot matched. These unmatched offenders are, therefore, excluded from the proven reoffending measure. (3) If an offender is given a custodial sentence for more than one proven re-offence, they are counted only once. Notes: 1. Italics means less than 30 offenders—treat data with caution. 2. ‘*’ = Data based on less than 30 offenders are removed as they make data unreliable for interpretation. | |||||
| Table 2: Proven reoffending data for juvenile offenders in England and Wales who were cautioned in each of the years 2000, 2002 to 2010, by age(1) | |||||
| Year(2) | Age | Number of offenders in cohort | Number of reoffenders | Proportion of offenders who reoffend (%) | Number of reoffenders given a custodial senence(3) |
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| (1) Cautions include reprimands and warnings for juvenile offenders. (2) Data are not available for 2001 due to a problem with archived data on court orders. (3) If an offender is given a custodial sentence for more than one proven reoffence, they are counted only once. | |||||
Cabinet Office
Buildings
Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what the total spend was on the refurbishment of 70 Whitehall from January 2012 to December 2012; [135197]
(2) what the cost was of the refurbishment of 70 Whitehall in 2012. [135728]
Mr Maude: The Modernisation Project of 70 Whitehall started in 2008. Information on the expenditure of Cabinet Office freehold buildings will be published in the Cabinet Office's accounts in the usual way.
Charitable Donations
John Robertson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what steps he is taking to encourage public donations to charities in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the UK; [135077]
(2) what recent discussions he has had with charities on trends in donations. [135196]
Mr Hurd: Encouraging public donations to charities in Scotland is a devolved matter for the Scottish Government.
The Government are committed to encouraging people to give their time and money. The Giving White Paper announced a series of measures to encourage giving such as the £30 million Social Action Fund and the £10 million Innovation in Giving Fund. The Giving White Paper—One Year On update:
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/sites/default/files/resources/17541-WP-Update-Version-2.pdf
published in May 2012, details of our ongoing implementation of these measures.
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Over the past year, we have supported:
www.localgiving.com
a website that allows people to find and give to local charities and community groups. It also provides charities and community groups with a webpage and access to new supporters, volunteers and online donations. In April 2013 the Treasury will introduce the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme enabling tens of thousands of charities and Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs) to claim a Gift Aid style payment on small cash donations for the first time.
I have regular discussions with charities on a range of topics.
Charities: Closures
John Robertson: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will make an assessment of changes to the workload of Government-provided public services as a consequence of charities closing down in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the UK. [135195]
Mr Hurd: Charity policy in Scotland is devolved, and a matter for the Scottish Government.
In England and Wales, the number of registered charities has remained relatively stable over the last three years. The Charity Commission had 162,848 main charities on its register at September 2012, up slightly from 160,515 in December 2009.
Civil Servants: Freedom of Expression
Mr Burrowes: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on freedom of speech for civil servants who are opposed to same-sex marriage of the case between Mr Adrian Smith and Trafford Housing Trust. [135049]
Mr Maude: Civil servants are required to conduct themselves in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Service Code and the Civil Service Management Code.
Community Development
Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) (a) how many and (b) which host organisers for community organisers have been appointed in each local area; [135323]
(2) what criteria and outcome measures his Department will use to evaluate the delivery of the community organisers programme in April 2015; [135322]
(3) how many senior community organisers have been trained to date. [135324]
Mr Hurd: Since the start of the programme 73 host organisations have been appointed.
Details of the names of the host organisations and where they are located can be found at:
http://www.cocollaborative.org.uk/members-hosts
http://www.cocollaborative.org.uk/resource/become-host
on the community organisers website.
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The Cabinet Office has appointed Ipsos MORI and NEF Consulting to evaluate the Community Organisers programme and the Community First Neighbourhood Match Fund.
As part of the evaluation the evaluators will design relevant process and impact measures.
The evaluation will feed learning back into the programmes until it is published in 2015 at the end of the programmes.
As of the most recent quarterly reporting (October 2012), 195 senior community organisers have been trained.
Andrew Griffiths: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (a) how many and (b) where have Community First panels been established. [135325]
Mr Hurd: Since the start of the programme 587 Community First panels have been established across England.
The names and locations of the panels are listed by our delivery partner's website:
http://www.cdf.org.uk/content/funding-programmes/community-first/neighbourhood-matched-fund
Crime: North East
Mr Hepburn: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) how many cases of drug offences were reported in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK in each of the last five years; [135953]
(2) how many cases of domestic burglary were reported in (a) South Tyneside, (b) the North East and (c) the UK in each of the last five years. [135962]
Mr Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Glen Watson, dated January 2013:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking for the numbers of reported cases of domestic burglary and drug offences in (a) Jarrow constituency; (b) South Tyneside; (c) the North East; and (d) the UK in each of the last five years. (135953 and 135962)
Police recorded crime figures are provided for the last five financial years (April to March) for South Tyneside local authority area; the North East region; and England and Wales. Crime data are not available at parliamentary constituency level.
| 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 | |
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These data have been published by the ONS and have been extracted from the 'Recorded crime data at local authority level from 2002/03', 'Recorded crime data at police force area level from 2002/03' and 'Crime Statistics: Appendix tables - Crime in England and Wales' files, available here:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/re-reference-tables.html?edition=tcm%3A77-274949
The crime statistics data published by the ONS cover England and Wales only. Crime data for Scotland are published at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice
and data for Northern Ireland are published at:
http://www.psni.police.uk/index/updates/updates statistics/update_crime_statistics.htm
Employment
Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many and what proportion of people were employed in the (a) private sector and (b) public sector in each parliamentary constituency in each of the last 15 years. [136344]
Mr Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Glen Watson, dated January 2013:
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many and what proportion of people were employed in the (a) private sector and (b) public sector in each parliamentary constituency in each of the last 15 years. (136344)
Public and private sector employment statistics for local areas can be calculated from the Annual Population Survey (APS). Individuals in the APS are classified to the public or private sector according to their responses to the survey.
The tables show the number and percentage of people who were employed in the public or private sector, according to interviews held during the period October 2011 to September 2012, the latest period available, and the 12 month periods ending in December from 2004 to 2011. Estimates for current parliamentary constituencies are not available for periods prior to 2004. Estimates for parliamentary constituencies in Northern Ireland are not available. As the information requested is quite extensive, a copy has been placed in the House of Commons Library.
As with any sample survey, estimates from the APS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. A guide to the quality of the estimates is given in Tables 1 and 2.
National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:
http://www.nomisweb.co.uk
EU Law
Priti Patel:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) which regulations his Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2011 and (b) 2012 to date; which regulations his Department expects to
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implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2013 and (ii) the next two years; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector; [133690]
(2) which EU directives his Department transposed in (a) 2011 and (b) 2012 to date; which EU directives his Department expects to transpose in (i) 2013 and (ii) the next two years; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such directive to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector. [133689]
Mr Maude: My Department is leading negotiations for the UK in the EU Competitiveness Council on proposals for revising the EU directives relating to procurement by public bodies and utilities. These have not been adopted yet but should simplify the existing procurement regime and, as such, should reduce costs for purchasers and suppliers alike.
The Cabinet Office is also leading negotiations for the UK on proposals for a new EU directive on the procurement of “concessions” contracts. While the total economic costs to public purchasers and suppliers of this new directive are estimated to be up to £17 million including one-off costs of circa £0.5 million, the potential benefits to the UK economy have been estimated as over £27 million.
Meetings
Kevin Brennan: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what meetings (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have attended since 4 September 2012. [136064]
Mr Maude: As part of my Department's transparency programme, details of ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on the Cabinet Office website at:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings-external-organisations
Cabinet Office Ministers also regularly meet with ministerial colleagues and officials. In line with previous Administrations, the Government do not normally disclose details of internal meetings.
Official Hospitality
Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much his Department spent on refreshments from July to December 2012. [135483]
Mr Maude: I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) on 8 November 2012, Official Report, column 719W.
Permanent Secretaries
Keith Vaz:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office who was on the appointment panel which recommended
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the appointment of David Kennedy as Permanent Secretary for the Department for Energy and Climate Change. [135898]
Mr Maude: The appointment panel for Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) competition advertised in July 2012 consisted of Sir David Normington, Chair of the panel and First Civil Service Commissioner; Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service; Paul Walsh, Lead Non-Executive Director for DECC and CEO of Diageo Plc; Professor Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Chair and Director, LSE; and Bronwyn Hill, permanent secretary at DEFRA.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office who is on the panel to decide on the appointment of the new Permanent Secretary to the Home Office. [135899]
Mr Maude: The appointment panel for the Home Office competition consists of Sir David Normington, Chair of the panel and First Civil Service Commissioner; Sir Bob Kerslake, Head of the Civil Service; Val Gooding, Lead Non-Executive Director at the Home Office; and Sir Denis O'Connor, the former HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many current Permanent Secretaries of Government departments are Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. [135900]
Mr Maude: None of the current permanent secretaries have declared that they are of Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic origin.
Redundancy Pay
Jon Trickett: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the total amount of redundancy pay paid out to civil servants in his Department has been in each month since July 2012. [135697]
Mr Maude: In 2010, this Government took decisive action to reform the Civil Service Compensation scheme. As a result significant savings to the taxpayer have been realised. Where compensation payments have been made, Departments estimated that these costs would be recouped within a year.
Audited information on redundancies and other paid departures in the Cabinet Office are published each year in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts. Recent copies of the Annual Report and Accounts are available on the Cabinet Office website at:
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-office-annual-reports-and-accounts
Audited figures for the year 2012-13 will not be available until the next Annual Report and Accounts that will be published later this year.