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Television: Licensing

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people in Northern Ireland per 10,000 of the population were prosecuted for non-payment of the television licence fee in each of the last three years. [193401]

Mr Vara: My Department's Court Proceedings database holds information on criminal justice statistics only in England and Wales. Criminal Justice Statistics in Northern Ireland are a matter for the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland, which the hon. Member will need to contact directly.

The offence of using a TV receiver without a valid licence carries a maximum penalty of a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale (£1,000). Failure to pay such a fine can lead, following enforcement action and as a last resort, to committal to prison for fine default for a maximum of 28 days.

Mr Leech: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many of the people imprisoned in 2012 for non-payment of fines relating to television licence evasion had other unpaid fines for other offences; and how many outstanding fines on average such people had. [194244]

Mr Vara: It is not possible to identify from Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals systems the original offences of people sent to prison for non payment of fines or how many other fines they may have had. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost as identifying this would require a manual search of all closed and live fine accounts.

Terrorism: Northern Ireland

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when he first became aware of the so-called comfort letters issued to on-the-runs; and if he will make a statement. [192838]

Jeremy Wright: The Government have announced an independent inquiry led by Lady Justice Hallett which will set out the facts in relation to the operation and extent of the ‘on the runs' scheme. This issue is a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Young Offenders

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what resources his Department has provided to youth offending teams to support families in order to prevent youth offending since May 2010. [192833]

Jeremy Wright: The YJB distributes an annual grant to the 158 Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) in England and Wales (£92 million in 2014-15). YOTs decide locally how to use this funding, and the YJB is therefore unable to determine the proportion of this funding spent specifically on supporting families to prevent youth offending:

Funding for the purposes of preventing youth offending is also provided to Local Authority Children's Services, via the Department for Education's Early Intervention

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Grant; and to Police and Crime Commissioners via the Home Office's Community Safety Grant. In addition, the Ministry of Justice has provided £25 million over three years towards the Troubled Families Programme, and is helping to shape the next phase of the expanded Programme.

Youth Custody

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which secure children’s homes Ministers of his Department have visited since May 2010; and what the date of each such visit was. [191387]

Jeremy Wright: Ministers from the Department have made two visits to secure children’s homes since May 2010; my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate (Crispin Blunt), to Vinney Green secure children’s home on 3 August 2010, and the Minister without Portfolio, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke), to Clayfields house secure children’s home on 14 October 2011. I am also scheduled to visit Clayfields house on 10 April 2014.

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what was the (a) capacity and (b) population of each (A) secure training centre, (B) young offender institution and (C) secure children's home on 1 March (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013 and (v) 2014. [192197]

Jeremy Wright: Overall crime and proven offending by young people has fallen in recent years. Fewer young people have entered the criminal justice system, and as a result fewer young people have ended up in custody. This has allowed excess capacity in the youth secure estate to be decommissioned.

The following table shows the (a) capacity and (b) population of each secure children's home, secure training centre and under-18 young offender institution at the end of February in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 and at the end of January in 2014 (this is the latest available published data for 2014). This relates to either the last Friday of the month in question, or the first Friday of the following month, depending on which is closest to final day of the month. Data for the end of February therefore offer the closest available published data to 1 March.

The “capacity” figure relates to the number of beds available, allowing for any “out of commission” beds due to, for example, damage to rooms or contractual changes.

This information comes from the Youth Justice Board's Secure Accommodation Clearing House System (SACHS) database and eAsset database. The January 2014 database is provisional. The final 2013-14 figures will be finalised in 2013-14 Youth Justice Statistics to be published in January 2015.

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 and can be subject to change over time.

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Youth Justice Board

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of the Youth Justice Board's budget has been spent on research in each year since 2010. [191980]

Jeremy Wright: The statutory functions of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) include that of identifying and promoting good practice to prevent and reduce youth crime. In undertaking this function, the YJB works closely with local services, research bodies and academic institutions.

The following table shows the YJB's central expenditure on research for each full financial year since 2009-10 alongside the proportion of that expenditure against the YJB's overall expenditure for the year.

No new central research was commissioned in 2012-13 to enable the completion and publication of ongoing research projects. Figures relating to YJB's research programme expenditure for 2013-14 will be published in the YJB's Annual Report and Accounts due for publication in July. This and previous reports can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/corporate-reports/yjb

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Church Commissioners

Clergy: Retirement

Mr Frank Field: To ask the right hon. Member for Banbury, representing the Church Commissioners, whether the Church Commissioners are considering changing the compulsory retirement age for clergy. [194239]

Sir Tony Baldry: The retirement age of 70 for archbishops, bishops, deans, archdeacons, incumbent clergy and some other clerical office holders is provided for in the Ecclesiastical Offices (Age Limits) Measure 1975 and there are no plans for introducing amending legislation though the subject is kept under review.

There is already some flexibility. Extensions for up to two years beyond 70 are possible for incumbents where

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the bishop believes there are sufficient pastoral reasons and for up to a year for archbishops and bishops. In addition parish clergy may under the common tenure arrangements move to a new status on reaching the retirement age and, with the agreement of the bishop, continue to minister for fixed term periods.

It was only in 2011 that capability requirements were introduced for the first time and these do not apply to the large number of clergy who were already in office and chose to retain the freehold rather than switch to common tenure. Reverting to the pre 1975 situation of no retirement ages or significantly increasing the present retirement age are unlikely to be options until the new capability requirements have proved themselves and apply to the great majority of clergy.