Written Questions: Government Responses
Ms Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to question 177099 tabled on 20 November 2013 for answer on 25 November 2013, when he plans to answer that question. [180698]
Elizabeth Truss: I have answered the hon. Member's question today.
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Justice
Contempt of Court
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were received into custody for contempt of court in each month since January 2012. [180224]
Jeremy Wright: The following tables set out the number of people who were received into custody for contempt of court between January 2012 and June 2013 (the latest available figures). Contempt of court covers a wide variety of conduct which undermines or has the potential to undermine the course of justice. I welcome the Law Commission's report on contempt and look forward to discussing its recommendations.
| Month in 2012 | Number of people received into custody for contempt of court |
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| Month in 2013 | Number of people received into custody for contempt of court |
Driving Offences
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people in each region were convicted of (a) a motoring offence that resulted in a fatality and (b) careless driving in 2012. [171917]
Jeremy Wright: The UK has one of the best road safety records in the world, but more can be done to prevent deaths and serious injuries. By improving the skills and attitudes of drivers and riders, providing better safety education and actively enforcing existing laws we are working to reduce the number of serious road traffic collisions and the appalling impact they can have on victims and their families.
The total number of defendants found guilty of causing death by driving and careless driving, by region, in England and Wales, in 2012, can be viewed in the following table.
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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. 3 An offence under S.1 Road Traffic Act 1988 as amended by Road Traffic Act 1991 and Criminal Justice Act 2003 4 An offence under S.3A Road Traffic Act 1988added by Road Traffic Act 1991 and amended by Criminal Justice Act 2003 5 An offence under S.2B Road Traffic Act 1988added by Road Safety Act 2006 6 An offence under S.3ZB Road Traffic Act 1988added by Road Safety Act 2006 7 An offence under S. 12A(2)(a) [dangerous driving] or 12 A(2)(b) [injury/death] Theft Act 1968 8 An offence under S.3 Road Traffic Act 1988 Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services—Ministry of Justice |
Family Proceedings
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which foreign Governments have complained to the UK (a) before 2013 and (b) in 2013 about the treatment of their citizens in family court proceedings. [179792]
Mr Vara: This information is not collected centrally. I refer the hon. Member to the reply he received from my hon. Friend the Member for Crewe and Nantwich (Mr Timpson) on 30 January 2013, Official Report, column 813W.
Knives: Crime
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) pursuant to the answer of 1 July 2013, Official Report, column 480W, on knife crime, what the length was of each of the eight immediate custodial sentences contained in Table 8 of the Knife Possession Sentencing Quarterly Brief for the first quarter of 2013 which were handed down for the offence of threatening with a knife; [166328]
(2) which of the defendants in each sentencing category referred to in Table 8 of the Knife Possession Sentencing Quarterly Brief for the first quarter of 2013 (a) had a previous knife-related conviction, (b) had a previous violence-related conviction, (c) had any other previous conviction and (d) were sentenced for more than one offence at the same time as the offence of threatening with a knife. [166329]
Jeremy Wright: I understand that you have now received a response to your parliamentary question and I apologise for the delay.
Oakwood Prison
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he took the decision to have HMP Oakwood run by a private sector business. [170958]
Jeremy Wright: The right hon. Member for Blackburn (Mr Straw), who was Secretary of State for Justice in the Labour Government at the time, announced on 27 April 2009 the Government's intention to compete the operation of four existing prisons and one new build (HMP Oakwood). My right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke), my predecessor as Secretary of State for Justice in the coalition Government, announced on 31 March 2011 the outcome of the competition for HMP Oakwood.
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many sex offenders are held at HMP Oakwood; and how many places on sex offender treatment programmes are available at that prison. [179774]
Jeremy Wright: As of 30 September 2013 there were 299 prisoners held at HMP Oakwood with an index offence of a sexual nature. The prison acts as a treatment support site for HMP Stafford. As a consequence Oakwood have recently increased the number of staff trained in completing appropriate sex offender assessments and is planning to have all offender supervisors appropriately trained. Oakwood have run sex offender only Thinking Skills Programmes to meet identified needs.
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what the (a) agreed and (b) actual staffing levels have been at HMP Oakwood in each month since that prison opened; [180654]
(2) how many prison officer equivalent staff work on the wings at HMP Oakwood; and how many such staff are accredited and fully trained; [180660]
(3) how many staff at HMP Oakwood had no previous service in the prisons system when they went to work at HMP Oakwood; [180670]
(4) how many occasions prisoners have been (a) denied access to visits or (b) locked in their cells because of staffing shortages at HMP Oakwood since that prison opened. [180671]
Jeremy Wright: The information requested could not be obtained within the time scale. I will write to the right hon. Member in due course.
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many staff at HMP Oakwood have less than one year's service. [180659]
Jeremy Wright: Staff working at HMP Oakwood are employed by a number of providers, to deliver a range of services. These include, for example, probation services, education and health care, as well as custodial services.
While G4S, the main provider, is not able to provide information covering staff employed by all these providers, within the last 12 months 385 people have been cleared to work at the prison. Most of these are employees of the various providers, but the figure also includes volunteers, such as Independent Monitoring Board members and lay visitors.
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Prisoners: Suicide
Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many incidences of (a) suicide, (b) attempted suicide and (c) self-harm there were in (i) HMP Oakwood and (ii) on average in all adult prisons in each of the last three years. [179775]
Jeremy Wright: We are committed to open and transparent reporting of data relating to self-harm incidents and deaths in custody. It remains a priority to reduce the number of deaths and violence in prisons.
Statistics on the number of (a) self-inflicted deaths and (c) self-harm incidents for each prison establishment are published on an annual basis in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin, published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics
Statistics on self-inflicted deaths by establishment can be found in Table 1.16 in the annual tables which accompany each publication, and the number of self-harm incidents in table 2.13.
Figures for the rate of self-inflicted deaths and self-harm incidents in prison custody are given in tables 1.1 and 2.1 of the same bulletin. An attempted suicide will be recorded as a self- harm incident.
Prisons: Crimes of Violence
Jenny Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many assaults were committed against prisoners in each prison in England and Wales in each year since 2010. [178798]
Jeremy Wright: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and the Prison Officers Association (POA) are jointly committed to a zero tolerance approach to assaults on staff, visitors and prisoners.
NOMS takes the issue of assaults in prisons very seriously. It currently has systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution.
NOMS is committed to exploring options to continue to improve how violence is tackled in prisons to keep both staff and prisoners safe. It is currently looking at the policy and practice of the management of violence.
The number of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, including fights, in each prison in England and Wales in each year is provided in Table 1. Statistics on assaults in prison custody are published at a national level on a quarterly basis and annually for prison establishments and are published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics
| Table 1: Number of prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, England and Wales | |||
| Year | |||
| Prison | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
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Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many assaults on (a) prisoners and (b) prison staff there were (i) in HMP Lewes and (ii) on average in all adult prisons in each of the last three years. [180475]
Jeremy Wright: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and the Prison Officers Association (POA) are jointly committed to a zero tolerance approach to assaults on staff, visitors and prisoners.
NOMS takes the issue of assaults in prisons very seriously. It currently has systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution.
NOMS is committed to exploring options to continue to improve how violence is tackled in prisons to keep both staff and prisoners safe. It is currently looking at the policy and practice of the management of violence.
There are a number of factors that affect the number of assault incidents at any individual establishment. These include, but are not restricted to, the size of the population held at the prison, the type and role of the prison and the gender of the prisoners accommodated.
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For example, younger, male prisoners are more likely to be involved in an assault than other prisoners. Differences in population size of establishments mean it would not necessarily be correct to conclude that a prison with a higher number of incidents than the average is a less safe prison; nor that a prison with a lower number of incidents than the average is a safer prison.
Statistics on the number of assaults on staff for each prison establishment are published on an annual basis in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin, published at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics
They can be found in Table 3.15 of the annual tables accompanying each quarterly release.
Prisons: Drugs
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many and what proportion of jails are free of illegal drug use. [180268]
Jeremy Wright: Prisons have achieved considerable success in reducing the level of drug misuse against a background of a continuing high demand for drugs. Drug misuse as measured by random mandatory drug testing (MDT) has fallen 17.4 percentage points over the past 16 years despite the fact that more drugs are being tested for.
MDT, which runs to standardised procedures across prisons, has three main aims, one of which is to supply detailed information on patterns of drugs-misuse in prisons and is used by the National Offender Management Service to measure the level of drug misuse in prisons.
A single episode of drug misuse over a defined period, strictly interpreted, would deprive a prison of drug free status. Prisons can perform very well in keeping drugs out of prison but technically not be drug free.
Over the 2012-13 financial year, three prisons in England and Wales reported no drug misuse as measured by random MDT. 96 prisons in England and Wales reported no drug misuse, as measured by random MDT, in at least one month of the 2012-13 financial year.
The data in this answer 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. The data are not subject to audit.
Probation
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme by (a) insufficient and (b) delayed guidance from his Department; [180272]
(2) what assessment he has made of the risk posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme
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of a failure of the programme to be delivered either in scope or within the timescale set by Ministers; [180274]
(3) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme of insufficient Ministry of Justice capacity to manage the process due to its scale and a lack of coordination between different Ministry of Justice work streams; [180275]
(4) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme of insufficient attention and support from his Department due to other demands; [180291]
(5) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme by the scale and speed of the programme making it unachievable or achievable only superficially; [180292]
(6) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme of a failure of poorly designed operational processes; [180293]
(7) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme of a failure of poor engagement with trusts and failure to take on board their views; [180294]
(8) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme of insufficient testing of operational design; [180295]
(9) what assessment he has made of the risks posed to the Transforming Rehabilitation Probation programme of a failure due to a lack of resources and preparation. [180296]
Jeremy Wright: We are introducing radical reforms to the way offenders are rehabilitated, to finally tackle our stubbornly high reoffending rates that currently see almost half of all prisoners commit further crime within a year of release. Nevertheless, the Department is overseeing the reforms in a careful way which ensures public safety remains our top priority. We have developed the design of the new system through consultation and engagement, and we have taken on board the experience from the payment by results pilot programmes across government to ensure lessons learned are being applied.
We are delivering reform at pace, nevertheless we are also testing the design of the new system rigorously to ensure the changes are introduced safely and effectively.
Mr Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost per annum to the Probation Service in England and Wales is of supervising a person on licence for (a) 12 months, (b) 24 months and (c) 36 months. [180273]
Jeremy Wright: Probation unit costs are published on an annual basis by the Ministry of Justice at the following page of the Gov.uk website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics-201213