Ambulance Services: Warrington

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average ambulance response time for each category of call was in Warrington in each year since 2010. [198047]

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Jane Ellison: The information is not available in the format requested. The hon. Member may wish to contact North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, who may hold data at a more local level.

The following table shows median ambulance response times for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust in each month for which figures are available:

Ambulance Services: Yorkshire and the Humber

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what ambulance response times were in each local authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region in the latest period for which figures are available. [198043]

Jane Ellison: This information is not available in the format requested. The hon. Member may wish to contact Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, who may hold data at a more local level.

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The following table shows median ambulance response times for Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust in the latest three months for which figures are available.

Ankle Replacements

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people had NHS ankle replacements in each of the last five years. [197959]

Dr Poulter: This information is not available in the format requested.

In the following table, we have provided information concerning the number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs)¹ with a main or secondary procedure² of ankle replacement³ for the year 2008-09 to 2012-13⁴. It should be noted that this is not a count of people as the same person may have had more than one FCE within the same time period.

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what discussions he has had with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service about its leaflet, Britain's Abortion Law: what it says and why. [197524]

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Jane Ellison: The Department has made its position on abortion, including the illegality of abortion on the grounds of gender alone, clear to all providers, including the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. The Department will do so again in the forthcoming further guidance.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to improve access to social care assessments for people with ME or chronic fatigue syndrome. [198039]

Norman Lamb: The Care Bill will require local authorities to provide information and advice on how to access care and support in their area including assessments.

The Bill will place local authorities under a duty to assess any adult who appears to have needs for care and support, whatever their level of need. The assessment will look at the person's needs and outcomes they want to achieve, and the person must be involved throughout the process. Authorities will have to ensure that anyone who is undertaking an assessment is appropriately trained to do so, and that where the assessor is not experienced in the condition of the person they are assessing, they must consult someone who is.

These measures will ensure that the person needing care has an effective assessment carried out by an appropriately trained assessor.

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will bring forward proposals for regulations to ensure that ME and chronic fatigue syndrome are included in all pre- and post-registration training of (a) GPs and (b) other health care professionals; [198120]

(2) what steps his Department plans to take to improve information and support for GPs regarding ME or chronic fatigue syndrome; and if he will take steps to improve access to specialist services for people with those conditions. [198121]

Norman Lamb: In 2007, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) produced the clinical guidance, ‘Chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy): Diagnosis and management of CFS/ME in adults and children’. This guidance set out best practice on the diagnosis, treatment care and support of children and adults with CFS/ME. Information on CFS/ME diagnosis and treatment can also be accessed via the NHS Evidence and NICE clinical knowledge summaries websites.

The content and standard of health care professional training is the responsibility of regulators, such as the General Medical Council, which are independent statutory bodies. They have the general function of promoting high standards of education, working with the Royal Colleges, and co-ordinating all stages of education to ensure that students and newly-qualified professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes essential for professional practice.

The Government have mandated Health Education England (HEE) to provide national leadership on education, training and work force development in the national health service. HEE is responsible for ensuring that the

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future work force has the right numbers, skills, values and behaviours to meet patients’ needs today and tomorrow, and will work with stakeholders to influence training curricula as appropriate.

Community Hospitals

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received on the future of community hospitals; and if he will make a statement. [197580]

Jane Ellison: A search of the Department’s ministerial correspondence database has identified no recent representations on the future of community hospitals. This Government believe the national health service should improve discharge from acute hospitals and increase access to care and treatment in the community.

Health Professions: Regulation

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the Law Commission's draft Bill on the regulation of health and social care professionals. [197771]

Dr Poulter: The Department worked closely with the Law Commission on its review of legislation governing regulation of health care professionals, and after almost three years of review, consultation and development the Law Commission published its recommendations, along with a draft Bill on 2 April 2014.

This work will help us make sure the system is fit for the future and continues to protect patients. The Department is considering the Law Commission’s proposals with great interest and is working closely with the regulatory bodies and the Professional Standards Authority to inform our response to the Law Commission, which we will publish in due course.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received on the inclusion of a Bill on modernisation of the regulation of nurses and midwives in the Queen's Speech. [197772]

Dr Poulter: We have not received representations on the inclusion of a Bill on modernisation of the regulation of nurses and midwives. However, the Department has received representations on taking forward the Law Commission’s work from a number of organisations, including:

professional regulatory bodies;

patient safety groups;

the Professional Standards Authority; and

medical professional associations.

Health Services: Arts

Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the savings to the NHS arising from arts-based interventions. [197525]

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Norman Lamb: No current assessment has been made of savings to the NHS arising from arts-based interventions.

Heart Diseases: Young People

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps he has taken to raise awareness of the conditions that can lead to young sudden cardiac death and sudden death syndrome. [197438]

Jane Ellison: The UK National Screening Committee advises Ministers and the national health service in all four countries about all aspects of screening policy and supports implementation. It is currently reviewing the evidence for screening young people between the ages of 12 to 39 years for the major causes of sudden cardiac death. A public consultation will open shortly.

NHS England is working with the Chief Coroner to discuss what the coronial system can do to help reduce sudden cardiac death in the young. As a result, the Chief Coroner has written to local coroners asking them to make families of those who have died of the condition aware that it may be inherited, and encouraging them to contact either the British Heart Foundation, Cardiac Risk in the Young, or their general practitioner for testing and counselling.

Hepatitis

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) overall deaths and (b) age-standardised deaths from viral hepatitis there have been in (i) England and (ii) each parliamentary constituency in each year since 1997. [197869]

Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Glen Watson, dated May 2014:

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) overall deaths and (b) age-standardised deaths from viral hepatitis there have been in (i) England and (ii) each parliamentary constituency, in each year since 1997. [197869]

Table 1 provides the number of deaths and the age-standardised mortality rate where the underlying cause of death was a viral hepatitis in England for the years 1997 to 2012 (the latest year available).

Table 2 provides the number of deaths where the underlying cause of death was viral hepatitis in each parliamentary constituency for four-year periods from 1997 to 2012 (the latest year available). Figures have been presented for four-year periods, rather than for individual years, because of the very small numbers of deaths in each constituency in each year.

Age standardised mortality rates for viral hepatitis by parliamentary constituency have not been provided. This information is not readily available and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

A copy of table 2 has been placed in the Library of the House.

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Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the implementation plan for the elimination of hepatitis C will be published. [197909]

Jane Ellison: On 28 April 2014 the Department of Health published ‘Living Well for Longer: National Support for Local Action to Reduce Premature Avoidable Mortality’, a copy of which has been placed in the Library. This document sets out what Public Health England, NHS England, the Department and others will do at a national level towards meeting the Secretary of State’s ambition to reduce premature mortality in five key areas, including liver disease. Hepatitis C is identified as one of the main contributory factors for the increasing rates of liver disease in England.

Infant Mortality

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment his Department has made of the accuracy of the data on levels of child mortality in the UK published by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation. [197765]

Dr Poulter: We have no reason to question the accuracy of the data from the Global Burden of Disease study. Any limitations of the estimates made and methodology used are clearly set out in the published article.

The findings reflect other studies which show that the United Kingdom child mortality rate continues to fall, but not as much as in comparable European countries.

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Liver Diseases

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) overall deaths and (b) age-standardised deaths from liver disease there have been in (i) England and (ii) each parliamentary constituency in each year since 1997. [197870]

Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Caron Walker, dated May 2014:

On behalf of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) overall deaths and (b) age-standardised deaths from liver disease there have been in (i) England and (ii) each parliamentary constituency, in each year since 1997. [197870]

Table 1 provides the number of deaths and the age-standardised mortality rate where the underlying cause of death was a liver disease in England for the years 1997 to 2012 (the latest year available).

Table 2 provides the number of deaths where the underlying cause of death was liver disease in each parliamentary constituency for the years 1997 to 2012 (the latest year available).

A copy of table 2 has been placed in the Library of the House.

Age standardised mortality rates for liver disease, for each year from 1997 by parliamentary constituency have not been provided. This information is not readily available and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

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Lyme Disease

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many incidents of Lyme disease have been diagnosed in humans in the last three years. [197938]

Jane Ellison: There were 959 laboratory confirmed cases of Lyme disease in England and Wales in 2011. The number of positive tests in 2012 was 998, and in 2013 1,200, although these data have not yet been disaggregated to exclude repeat tests on the same patients. Most cases of Lyme disease are diagnosed clinically by general practitioners and the numbers are not recorded, but there are probably around 3,000 cases of clinically apparent disease each year in the United Kingdom. The disease occurs over the whole of the country, but is more prevalent in some areas including the New Forest, Thetford, the Lake District and Scottish Highlands. Approximately 20% of cases confirmed by laboratory testing were acquired abroad. Lyme disease is considerably more common in parts of the United States of America and Northern and Central Europe than in the UK, and tourists to rural areas are at risk.

Medical Treatments: Lasers

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have received NHS laser treatment to remove scars and marks on their thighs and stomach in the last year. [197940]

Dr Poulter: This information is not available in the format requested as it is not possible to identify laser procedures to remove marks from the stomach or thighs with the current coding definitions.

In the following table, we have provided the number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs)¹ for patients with a primary diagnosis² of a type of scar condition to the skin who have undergone a laser removal procedure³ to the anterior trunk or leg for 2012-13.

It should be noted that these data should not be described as a count of people as the same person may have been admitted on one or more occasion.

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Mental Health Services

Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to ensure that resources for mental health services meet the requirements of both adults and children. [197541]

Norman Lamb: Mental health and well-being, for both adults and children, is a priority for this Government. Our overarching goal is to ensure that mental health has equal priority with physical health, and that everyone who needs it has timely access to the best available treatment. We have enshrined in law the equal status of mental and physical health in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

The Mandate to NHS England makes clear that ‘everyone who needs it should have timely access to evidence based services’. This will involve extending and ensuring more open access to the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme, in particular for children and young people, and for those out of work.

We are also committed to introducing access and/or waiting time standards for mental health. The revised mandate asks NHS England to develop and evaluate a range of costed options to implement access and waiting standards for mental health services starting from April 2015, with a phased introduction depending on affordability.

We will hold the national health service to account for the quality of services and outcomes for mental health patients through the NHS Outcomes Framework. Improvements for people with mental health problems will also be a crucial element of success across the framework as a whole.

Our action plan, ‘Closing the Gap’, which was launched in January 2014, sets our priorities for action and progress in mental health services over the next couple of years, including actions supporting commissioners in allocating resources.

We are setting up a new, national Mental Health Intelligence Network to provide comprehensive, up-to- date information about mental health and well-being, mental health problems and what the most pressing needs are in each area—which will support commissioning of services.

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 27 March 2014, Official Report, column 364W, on mental health services, when the guidance and Choice Framework which he referred to will be published. [197978]

Norman Lamb: The Department published the NHS Choice Framework 2014 on 1 April 2014. A copy has been placed in the Library.

The Department has been working with NHS England and other partners and stakeholders to develop supporting guidance for the national health service. A consultation on this will commence shortly and final guidance will be published in the summer.

The Department and NHS England will continue to work with partners and stakeholders to ensure that the extended rights to choice in mental health are fully embedded by 2015 as set out in the NHS mandate.

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NHS England

Mr Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what steps he is taking to ensure that redundancies and constraints on spending in NHS England do not adversely affect the quality of services provided; [197681]

(2) what the cost is of redundancies made by NHS England since January 2013; and what proportion of total expenditure that figure represents; [197690]

(3) what recent discussions he has had with senior management of NHS England about redundancies. [197686]

Dr Poulter: The Secretary of State for Health meets regularly with NHS England to discuss a wide variety of issues. The Department is clear on the need to ensure that redundancy payments are made only in circumstances where it is appropriate to do so and has been working with NHS England to ensure that payments are tightly controlled, whilst meeting contractual obligations.

Redundancies are subject to rigorous scrutiny and challenge before being approved. Additionally, any individual redundancy compensation payment in excess of £100,000 also requires departmental approval. Where redundancies do occur, NHS England ensures that these are formally subject to national NHS provisions to claw back any redundancy payment received where an individual then goes on to be re-employed within the national health service, further ensuring better value for the taxpayer.

NHS England takes seriously its responsibilities to ensure that redundancy is a last resort and has implemented a system to seek to re-deploy any staff affected by such change to retain knowledge, skills and capability within the organisation, where at all possible.

NHS England has a responsibility for ensuring that maximum value for money for taxpayers is delivered, while seeking to improve health outcomes for patients through effective commissioning arrangements. As a direct employer of 6,000 people, NHS England has a responsibility to continually improve the way it delivers both commissioning and the provision of the services for which it is directly accountable, which includes the regular review of its work force arrangements.

NHS England has advised that its redundancy costs for 2012-13 were £54,000, which represented 0.1% of total expenditure. For 2013-14 the costs were £1,017,000, which represented 0.003% of total expenditure.

Mr Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will provide a breakdown of the transition costs in NHS England's January finance report. [197689]

Dr Poulter: NHS England’s Financial Performance Report, which was included in the papers for its January board meeting, gave a planned reserves/transition costs spend for 2013-14 of £110,600,000 in a table showing running costs at November 2013. NHS England has provided a breakdown shown in the following table.

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The forecast figure of £91,000,000 for reserves/transition costs shown in the report was arrived at due to an anticipated underspend against the primary care services restructuring budget, based on forecast information from business plans for the project.

Prostate Cancer

Paul Uppal: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received on the applicability of the end-of-life criteria to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's appraisal of abiraterone acetate for the treatment of metastatic hormone relapsed prostate cancer not previously treated with chemotherapy. [197676]

Norman Lamb: Since January 2013, the Department has received four questions from hon. Members, including his own, regarding the applicability of end-of-life criteria in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence's appraisal of abiraterone (Zytiga) for the treatment of metastatic hormone relapsed prostate cancer not previously treated with chemotherapy.

In addition, we have received one letter from an hon. Member regarding this particular appraisal more generally.

Paul Uppal: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what figures he holds on the life expectancy of men with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer. [197677]

Jane Ellison: The Government’s mandate to NHS England sets out an ambition to make England one of the most successful countries in Europe at preventing premature deaths from all cancers, including prostate cancer.

Cancer indicators in the NHS outcomes framework and the public health outcomes framework will help NHS England to assess progress in improving cancer survival and mortality for men with prostate cancer.

Data related to men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer are not collected to permit the calculation of a reliable figure for average life expectancy.

However, Cancer Research UK has estimated that men with advanced, incurable prostate cancer treated in trials or under drug access schemes at the Royal Marsden hospital survived on average 41 months, compared to between 13 and 16 months 10 years ago.

Radiotherapy

Tessa Munt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when NHS England began its review into the future of stereotactic radiosurgery; and when it plans to complete the review; [197488]

(2) with reference to section 2 of the guidance issued by Monitor on the Commissioning of Radiosurgery Services on 4 April 2014, if he will request that NHS

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England reinstates the commissioning of stereotactic radiotherapy to the level before 1 April 2013 while it conducts its review into the future use of this treatment; [197559]

(3) if he will publish (a) a list of all stakeholders who have so far been consulted by NHS England as part of its review into stereotactic radiosurgery and (b) the responses from those stakeholders. [197487]

Jane Ellison: All existing contracts for stereotactic radiotherapy services were transferred to NHS England on 1 April 2013 and it continues to commission against these contracts, as previously.

NHS England commenced the review of stereotactic radiosurgery in August 2013 and expects a final report to be considered at its specialised commissioning oversight group, post a public consultation period, in October 2014.

NHS England will consult with the public, patients and professionals and take account of those views when taking a final decision. A summary of the responses received will be included when publishing the final report post the consultation period.

School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has allocated to the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme for the 2014-15 financial year. [198030]

Dr Poulter: The Department has allocated a budget of £40 million to fund the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme for the 2014-15 financial year.

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which local authorities have withdrawn from the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme to date. [198050]

Dr Poulter: The Department is not aware of any local authorities withdrawing from the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme to date.

Self-harm: East Midlands

Gloria De Piero: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of levels of self-harm in (a) Ashfield constituency, (b) Nottinghamshire and (c) the East Midlands in each of the last five years. [197245]

Norman Lamb: The Department has made no estimate of the levels of self-harm in the above named areas.

Information on the numbers of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a cause code of self-harm and numbers of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances (excluding planned attendances) with a patient group of deliberate self-harm for Ashfield constituency for 2009-10 to 2012-13, Nottinghamshire County or Nottingham City Primary Care Trust (PCT) and East Midlands Strategic Health Authority (SHA) for 2008-09 to 2012-13 where available, is shown in the following tables.

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South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will meet the hon. Member for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland to discuss recent developments in South Tees NHS Foundation Trust. [198124]

Dr Poulter: The hon. Member has had these issues debated in the House on more than one occasion, most recently at a Westminster Hall debate on 5 November 2013. He has also had several meetings with Ministers.

The national health service (NHS) regulator, Monitor, is continuing to investigate the South Tees NHS Foundation Trust and the results of its investigation will be published in due course.

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Standardised Packaging for Tobacco Independent Review

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 28 April 2014, Official Report, column 471W, on Standardised Packaging for Tobacco Independent Review, (1) what fees were paid to King's College for hosting the Review team; [197602]

(2) if he will provide a further breakdown of each item of expenditure under each of the budget headings provided; if he will publish receipts for expenditure incurred; what the agreed budget was in advance of the Review; and what locations were travelled to as part of the Review. [197601]

Jane Ellison: A final breakdown of expenditure will be made public when complete on the Review’s webpage:

www.kcl.ac.uk/health/packaging-review.aspx

There was no agreed budget in advance of the Review but an estimate of £177,000 was made for planning purposes. Sir Cyril had control of his own budget, as outlined in the terms of reference, and expenditure was passed to the Department and approved in the normal way.

Sir Cyril travelled to Australia in March 2014, and attended meetings in Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne. Further details of those meetings are available on the Review’s webpage.

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish in full the economic analysis on price and illicit trade analysis conducted as part of the Standardised Packaging for Tobacco Independent Review. [197604]

Jane Ellison: The Department understands that Section 5 and Annex C of Sir Cyril's report constitute the full and final economic analysis on price and illicit trade analysis conducted as part of the Standardised Packaging for Tobacco Independent Review.

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health who the members were of Sir Cyril Chantler's Review team working as part of the Standardised Packaging for Tobacco Independent Review; and what the cost was of commissioning expert advice from (a) Dr Yanzhong Wang and (b) Professor Catherine Pope as part of this review. [197605]

Jane Ellison: The members of Sir Cyril's team are named, and their roles noted in the acknowledgements on page 9 of Sir Cyril's report. The costs of commissioning expert advice from Dr Wang and Professor Pope were £12,000 (plus VAT) and £3,000 (plus VAT) respectively.

Strokes

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to raise public awareness of transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs) and of the need to seek immediate treatment for TIAs; and if he will make a statement. [198145]

Jane Ellison: There are no plans for any specific marketing activity around raising public awareness of transient ischaemic attacks (TIAs). However, Public

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Health England continues to run the highly impactful Act FAST stroke awareness campaign that covers very similar signs with a message to call 999 if these signs are witnessed. Two new television executions ran in March 2014 with plans to run them again later in the current financial year.

NHS England produced a resource for clinical commissioning groups (CCG) to support them in setting and delivering on a level of ambition to reduce premature mortality. The resource included information on high-impact interventions that CCGs could consider commissioning to reduce premature mortality. One of these is to increase the proportion of patients with TIA treated within 24 hours from 71% to 100%.

The resource is available here:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/sop/red-prem-mort/

Tobacco: EU Law

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what cross-departmental Government scrutiny will take place of the forthcoming Implementing and Delegated Acts of the EU Tobacco Products Directive. [197557]

Jane Ellison: During the negotiations on the revised Tobacco Products Directive, the Government sought to ensure that any delegation of powers to the European Commission, to propose further rules, was limited, appropriate and well defined. The Government's proposed negotiating position on any Implementing and Delegated Acts put forward by the Commission will be subject to the normal cross-Government clearance and scrutiny procedures.

Home Department

A47

Stephen Barclay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what date the speed camera at Thorney Toll on the A47 was re-activated; and how many motorists have been detected as travelling in excess of the 60 mph speed limit at Thorney Toll since that date. [198037]

Damian Green: The Home Office does not hold this information. The decision to use speed cameras is an operational matter for the police.

Arrest Warrants: Northern Ireland

Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in England and Wales have been arrested following the issue of a warrant by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in each year since 2010. [198089]

Damian Green: Arrest warrants issued by the Police Service of Northern Ireland are a devolved matter and the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive.

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Asylum: Scotland

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brent Central of 31 March 2014, Official Report, column 411W on asylum, what the (a) gender and (b) age of each applicant represented in the table in Scotland was; and whether each such applicant had (i) family and (ii) dependants in Scotland. [197426]

James Brokenshire: Data specific to part (a) of the hon. Member’s request can be found in the following table.

We are unable to provide data for part (b) of the hon. Member’s request for reasons of data protection.

Asylum: Syria

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) asylum seekers and (b) refugees from Syria have applied for leave to remain since the start of the Syrian conflict; and how many such people have been granted leave to remain. [197467]

James Brokenshire: The published available figures relate only to asylum seekers.

The latest published Home Office data show that between 1 April 2011 and 31 December 2013 there were 3,796 applications for asylum from Syrian nationals (including main applicants and their dependants) in the UK. During the same period, 2,507 Syrian nationals and dependants were granted leave to remain in the UK, including asylum, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave. These grant decisions do not all necessarily relate to applications made in the same period. In addition, given the need to give each asylum claim careful consideration on its merits, not all the asylum applications made during that period will have received a decision during that time.

Eurostat data based on provisional management information show that between 1 April 2011 and 28 February 2014 there were 4,105 applications for asylum from Syrian nationals (including main applicants and their dependants) in the UK. Eurostat data on grants of asylum are only available annually. There are some definitional differences between National Statistics published by the Home Office on a quarterly basis and monthly figures published by Eurostat.

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what average length of time is taken for asylum seekers and refugees from Syria to have an initial interview. [197474]

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James Brokenshire: Between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2013, the average length of time taken for asylum seekers and refugees from Syria to have an initial interview was 28 days from initial claim.

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the total number of refugees and asylum seekers from Syria resident in the UK. [197480]

James Brokenshire: While published statistics provide data on the number of Syrian’s who have applied for asylum in the UK (4,714 between 2001 and 2013), how many have been granted refugee status (2,182) or refused (2,065) and how many have been removed (305 between 2004 and 2013), it is not possible to confirm the total number of refugees and asylum seekers from Syria resident in the UK.

Care Homes: Nutrition

Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will discuss with hospital trusts and care home providers allowing family members to feed relatives who are being cared for in public and private care institutions. [197668]

Dr Poulter: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Department of Health.

The Secretary of State for Health, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), does not have any plans to discuss with hospital trusts and care home providers allowing family members to feed relatives who are being cared for in public and private care institutions.

It is for health and social care providers to develop local nutrition and hydration policies and there are a number of best practice resources and guidelines available to help providers do this.

Nursing staff understand the importance of proper nutrition and will assess patients for their ability to swallow safely. From this they can made judgments about who is best to help a person to eat and drink.

The National Patient Safety Agency and the Royal College of Nursing published a series of factsheets in 2009, setting out the 20 key characteristics of good nutritional care in health care environments. Fact sheet number 2, “An environment conducive to people enjoying their meals and being able to safely consume their food and drinks is maintained”, advised that mealtimes need the right person at the right time available to assist at mealtimes; this could include specialist therapy staff, relatives, carers or volunteers.

Demonstrations: Greater London

Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of policing demonstrations and parades in London. [198088]

Damian Green: The policing of demonstrations and parades in London is an operational matter for the Metropolitan police and the City of London police.

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Local Safeguarding Children Boards

Mr Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what financial contributions police services across England and Wales make to Local Safeguarding Children Boards. [197636]

Damian Green: Local Safeguarding Children Boards (LSCBs) play a crucial role in multi-agency child protection arrangements. Decisions by individual police forces to financially contribute to LSCBs are an operational matter and the Department does not hold this information.

Metropolitan Police

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to increase trust in the Metropolitan police. [195237]

Damian Green: The majority of police officers serving in London and elsewhere do their jobs well, serving their communities with dedication and professionalism. We are building on this by:

Delivering the first-ever Code of Ethics, which is due to be published shortly by the College of Policing. The code sets out clearly the high standards of behaviour expected from all police officers and staff of all ranks;

Establishing, through the College of Policing, a set of national registers of chief officer reward packages, gifts and hospitality and business interests including second jobs. The college is also producing a national register of "struck-off" officers to record those dismissed for misconduct, ensuring that those individuals are not re-employed by the police;

Legislating for a new offence of police corruption, supplementing the existing offence of misconduct in public office and focusing clearly on those who hold police powers, as an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill already before Parliament;

Strengthening the Independent Police Complaints Commission so that it will have responsibility for dealing with all serious and sensitive cases involving the police. HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary has also been commissioned to look specifically at the anti-corruption capability of police forces, including professional standards departments;

Advertising now for Direct Entry to the police this autumn at Superintendent level, which will bring a fresh perspective and approach and will open up policing culture; and

Introducing a comprehensive package of reform to stop and search which will contribute to a significant reduction in the overall use of the powers, better and more intelligence-led stop-and-search, and improved stop-to-arrest ratios.

Police Service of Northern Ireland

Mr Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officers have been seconded to the Police Service of Northern Ireland from police forces in England and Wales in each year since 2010. [198090]

Damian Green: The Home Office does not hold this information centrally.

Police: Information

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) who owns data on police information notices issued by police services in England and Wales; [198127]

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(2) how many police information notices were issued in England and Wales, by constabulary area, in each of the last five years; and how many such notices have been revoked. [198126]

Damian Green: Data on police information notices issued by police services in England and Wales are not collected centrally and are owned by the individual police force that issued the notice.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance is issued by (a) her Department, (b) ACPO and (c) the College of Policing to ensure consistency of practice in the issuing of police information notices by police services. [198128]

Damian Green: Any decision to review or update police guidance on police information notices is an operational matter for the College of Policing. The College of Policing will shortly be undertaking a full review and update of the guidance on investigating stalking to incorporate it into Authorised Professional Practice, which will include making sure that the guidance on the use of police information notices is reviewed.

Prisoners: Crimes of Violence

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of shame/violence intervention for violent prisoners. [191210]

Jeremy Wright: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

An assessment was written in September 2007 by Jasmine Scott, Trainee Forensic Psychologist, et al. in the form of a paper entitled ‘An evaluation of the Shame Violence Intervention at HMP Wandsworth’. On receipt of this assessment, the Deputy Director of Custody for Greater London, Mr Nicholas Pascoe commissioned Ms Toni Mason, Lead Psychologist for Greater London, to consider this research. Following is a short summary of her comments.

The research findings suggested that those Shame Violence Intervention (SVI) group members interviewed for the purposes of the research, reported positive effects of SVI which included fewer incidences of violence, increased problem solving, listening, communication, and perspective taking skills, and the ability to vent frustrations and to practice skills in a ‘realistic’ setting. It was however also noted that the research highlighted a number of less positive issues associated with the intervention.

These included: no structured programme manual or learning aims of each session being provided as part of the intervention; limited selection criteria for group members and no format to deal with diversity issues at selection; lack of clarity regarding the theory underpinning behaviour change; achievement being measured by attendance and not by behaviour change; no paper trail available that would satisfy audit processes; issues of security-there being no clear indication of how incidents/information would be reported to prison staff and concerns that some sessions became ‘heated’; the identification of a likely informal 'rule' in the group that no one should be violent on the wing to ensure that SVI continued and was seen to work, suggesting the possibility that this rule was potentially more powerful than skills learnt, (this could be argued to especially be true of a group likely to use

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violent behaviours instrumentally); and diversity issues not being addressed, with the observation by the researchers that ‘success’ or length of stay on the group often appeared to depend on how well group members ‘fitted in’.

With reference to the research design itself, the positive effects of SVI reported above had not been substantiated rigorously or indeed sufficiently. Results were gained from self report, semi-structured interviews developed by the researchers for the purpose of this research, with no psychometric testing or other corroborative information (such as staff interviews, history sheets or adjudication records) being used in support of claims of the positive effects of SVI. In addition, no control group was used to assess the extent to which factors such as OBP attendance affected outcomes attributed to the positive effects reported. It was also of concern that despite SVI having been running for several years at the time of the report being written, the research cohort consisted of only 9 offenders and of those, only group members who had attended at least 5-10 sessions were included (this is despite the initial claim that ‘de-selection’ of group members was not an issue as any number of sessions of SVI would provide positive outcomes).

Therefore, considering the significant issues with the SVI which are highlighted by the research, that the research concurred with a number of the findings of the PSO4350/Effective Regimes Interventions panel which chose not to support the original SVI application and that the existence of any positive effect(s) of SVI identified by the research cannot be substantiated due to the limitations of the research methodology, it was concluded that the ‘independent’ evidence provided did not provide sufficient cause to re-evaluate the decision made to cease SVI in Greater London prisons.

Riot Control Weapons

Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if she will place in the Library a copy of the advice and business case she has received on the use of water cannon in mainland UK; [196621]

(2) when she plans to make a decision on the request to authorise water cannon for use by the police in England and Wales. [196648]

Damian Green: The Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), is considering the police request for water cannon to be authorised for use in England and Wales. She will announce her decision in due course and lay the relevant information in the House Library.

Justice

CAFCASS

Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what advice he has received from the UK Statistics Authority on the required rate of return of Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service satisfaction surveys for younger children between the ages of five and eight before a reliable satisfaction figure may be arrived at; [196588]

(2) what steps he is taking to improve the rate of return of Children and Families Court Advisory and Support Service satisfaction surveys by children between the ages of five and eight. [196593]

Simon Hughes: CAFCASS does not carry out satisfaction surveys with the children it works with. It has other child-friendly ways of gaining feedback from children, which does include a feedback form. It has different

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versions of the form for children and young people. One encourages young people to write out their feedback to CAFCASS in response to various questions, while the feedback form for younger children asks them to circle the feelings and emotions they have about CAFCASS. These are therefore qualitative rather than quantitative. This feedback is collected and acted on at a local level rather than a national one. Complaints are monitored at a national level but addressed at the local level.

CAFCASS does not provide a return to the UK Statistics Authority; however it has published anonymised comments from feedback forms as part of its annual reports to draw out their direct work with children.

CAFCASS commissioned the Family Justice Young People’s Board to review the means by which CAFCASS encourages feedback from the children and young people it works with. This review resulted in four recommendations which CAFCASS has taken forward including ‘feedback trees’ and changes to the feedback forms.

Courts: Interpreters

Mr Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost to the public purse was of interpretation services provided to the (a) magistrates courts and (b) Crown court in England and Wales in each of the last three years for which information is available. [198150]

Mr Vara: The Department does not hold centrally all of the information that has been requested. In order to provide the information we would be required to obtain a number of large reports from individual locations. This could be achieved only at disproportionate cost.

Courts: Telephone Services

Mr Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 10 April 2014, Official Report, column 396W, on courts, how many calls were made to higher-rate telephone numbers for (a) magistrates' courts, (b) county courts and (c) the county court bulk centre in Northampton in each year since 2009; what the average duration was of calls to the higher-rate telephone numbers in each case in the most recent period for which figures are available; how much revenue was generated from such calls; which individual numbers are used for more than one court; and how many courts are covered by each of these numbers. [196914]

Mr Vara: Information on volumes and durations for calls to higher-rate telephone numbers for magistrates courts, county courts and the county court bulk centre in Northampton in each year since 2009 is not systematically collected by the service providers, and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Between November 2013 to March 2014 the percentage of higher-rate calls dropped significantly from 41% to 30% with the increasing use of 0300 numbers. This figure is set to drop even further as 19 higher-rate numbers to the county court bulk centre are currently being replaced by 0300 numbers.

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During this period 137,763 calls to higher-rate numbers were answered at the county court bulk centre with an average duration of four minutes 14 seconds. This figure represents 35% of all calls with the remainder being 0300 numbers.

The Department has received no revenue from higher- rate telephone numbers for the period under review.

The following individual numbers are used for more than one court:

0844 892 4000 is used by Basildon, Bury St Edmonds, Cambridge, Chelmsford, Colchester, Ipswich, Kings Lyn, Norwich, Peterborough, Southend county courts, and by Basildon, Chelmsford, Colchester, Harlow, Southend magistrates courts.

0844 892 0550 is used by Bedford, Luton, Hertford, St Albans, Watford county courts.

0845 300 4239 is used by Aylesbury, Banbury, Bicester, East Berkshire (Bracknell), East Berkshire (Maidenhead), East Berkshire (Slough), High Wycombe, Milton Keynes, Oxford and South Oxfordshire, Reading, West Berkshire (Newbury) magistrates courts.

0845 200 2078 is used by Chester, South Cheshire (Crewe), Liverpool and Knowsley, Macclesfield, Runcorn (Halton), Sefton, St Helens, Warrington, Wirral magistrates courts.

0845 601 0485 is used by Harrogate, Northallerton, Shipton, York magistrates courts.

0845 310 0575 is used by Cambridge, Peterborough magistrates courts.

The following magistrates courts have higher-rate numbers which are not shared:

Leamington Spa (0845 521 2300)

Nottingham (0845 408 3500)

Pursuant to the answer of 10 April 2014 (191689), 19 higher-rate numbers to the county court bulk centre in Northampton are in the process of being replaced by 0300 numbers. The higher-rate number for Central London Combined Court Centre has been discontinued. Taking into account these further reductions in higher-rate numbers, the percentage fall in higher-rate numbers since 2009 is 79% compared with the 55% previously stated.

Magistrates courts and county courts use a total of 10 higher-rate numbers, sharing them for queries about fines, family matters, etc. Twenty one of the magistrates courts using higher-rate numbers offer alternative 0300 numbers.

As stated in previous answers to parliamentary questions, the Department's approach is not to use higher-rate numbers and instead, wherever possible, to assign 0300 numbers, for which the tariff is similar to calling an 01 or 02 (geographic) number, whether the caller is using a fixed line or a mobile phone—see:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm131120/text/131120w0001.htm#131120113000070

and

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmhansrd/cm130322/text/130322w0001.htm#13032267000050

Crimes of Violence: Sentencing

Nick de Bois: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will invite the Sentencing Council to consult and report on the adequacy of current sentences available for killing with one punch. [198154]

Jeremy Wright: Manslaughter has a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. While sentence lengths for manslaughter have increased by almost 50% since 2008 there remains clear public concern about the sentences imposed in so called “one punch” manslaughter cases.

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Clarification of the sentencing of these difficult cases would assist the courts and be helpful to the public. The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling), therefore wrote to Lord Justice Treacy, the Chair of the Sentencing Council on 8 May 2014, to make a formal request that the Council gives consideration to producing guidance on the sentencing of these cases.

Dangerous Driving: Convictions

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were convicted of causing death by (a) careless and (b) dangerous driving in the last year for which figures are available; and what the average sentence was for each offence. [197684]

Jeremy Wright: Severe maximum penalties, of 14 years’ imprisonment, are available for those who cause death through dangerous driving or under the influence of drink or drugs and statistics show that the overwhelming

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majority of those convicted for these offences receive lengthy custodial sentences. The maximum penalty for causing death by careless driving is 5 years’ imprisonment and for causing death by disqualified, unlicensed or uninsured driving is two years’ imprisonment. We are keeping the law in this area under review. If any further changes are needed, we will bring forward proposals.

The Secretary of State for Justice made an announcement on 6 May about our plans to strengthen the law in relation to disqualified drivers who cause death or serious injury; increasing the maximum sentence for causing death by disqualified driving to 10 years and introducing a new offence of causing serious injury by disqualified driving, with a maximum penalty of 4 years.

The number of offenders found guilty and sentenced to an immediate custody at all courts and the average custodial sentence length (months) for 'careless' and 'dangerous' driving in England and Wales from 2008 to 2012 (latest available data) can be viewed in the table.

Court proceedings data for 2013 are planned for publication in May 2014.

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Electoral Register

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will commission research on the effect of levels of functional illiteracy on electoral registration rates. [197963]

Greg Clark: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

Both the paper forms and the new online registration channel to be used under Individual Electoral Registration have been designed to meet a wide range of accessibility needs. The Government have no current plans to commission such research, but the Electoral Commission is currently aiming to publish its assessment of registration rates under individual electoral registration in July 2016.

Employment Tribunals Service

Mr Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the cost to his Department has been of establishing the new system for the remission of employment tribunal fees to date. [196491]

Mr Vara: The capital investment made by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in respect of IT systems to support the processing of fee receipts and remission applications across the employment tribunals system was £4.4 million.

It is not possible to disaggregate the cost of establishing new (and revising existing) IT systems to handle remission applications in the employment tribunals system from that work in relation to fees handling systems. The figure provided is, therefore, a combined total.

Mr Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how much has been received by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in payment of employment tribunal fees since 29 July 2013; [196493]

(2) how many (a) single and (b) multiple claims were received by employment tribunals between 1 January and 31 March 2014. [196492]

(3) what the total value of all grants of remission of employment tribunal fees has been since 29 July 2013. [196495]

Mr Vara: I am answering these questions together.

The number of claims received by employment tribunals is published by the Ministry of Justice as Official Statistics (quarterly and annually) on the Justice website. Data in respect of the period January to March 2014 are scheduled to be published on 12 June 2014, following the usual quality assurance work that takes place prior to formal release. Under Official Statistics protocols, data will not be released before that point.

The most recent such statistical publication (covering the period up to the end of December 2013) is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2013

and the future release schedule is set out at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/statistics#publication-schedule

Financial information relating to fees and remissions in the employment tribunals system will be published by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) in its Annual

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Report and Accounts. The Annual Report and Accounts is scheduled to be published in July 2014 on the Ministry of Justice website and will include information about the value of granted remissions applications and how much HMCTS has received in payments of the fees.

Mr Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many applications for employment tribunal fee remission have been (a) received, (b) granted and (c) refused since 29 July 2013. [196494]

Mr Vara: It is in everyone's interest to avoid drawn out disputes which emotionally damage workers and financially damage businesses. That is why we are encouraging quicker, simpler and cheaper alternatives like mediation and conciliation.

It is not fair for the taxpayer to foot the entire £74 million bill for people to escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal, and it is not unreasonable to expect people who can afford to do so, to make a contribution.

Fee waivers (remissions) are available for those who genuinely cannot afford to pay the fees. These are permitted based on means tests and are intended to support the most vulnerable people in society.

Employment tribunal fees were introduced on 29 July 2013. HM Court & Tribunals Service is currently developing the management information reporting tools to produce statistical data on remissions applications it processes.

Provisional management information now generated (but which is currently undergoing additional necessary quality assurance testing) indicates that, for the period 29 July to 31 December 2013:

a total of 2,500 paper applications were received from individuals, or groups of individuals, in respect of an employment tribunal fee levied; and

of those, judged against the set criteria, 600 were granted, and 1,800 were rejected.

These provisional data have been rounded to the nearest 100.

Family Courts

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to improve the openness and transparency of the proceedings and accountability of Family Court decisions. [197514]

Simon Hughes: The Government recognise the need for greater openness in the family justice system. The challenge is to open the system up to greater scrutiny while protecting those involved especially the welfare of children. Last year, the President of the Family Division issued practice guidance in relation to committal of individuals found in contempt of court to ensure that these proceedings should be held in open court. In January this year, the President issued guidance aimed at increasing the number of judgments in family proceedings which are published. We are grateful to the President for his work in this area.

The guidance is available at the following link:

http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Guidance/transparency-in-the-family-courts-jan2014.pdf

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Fines

Mr Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to identify the amount of court costs (a) imposed and (b) collected from within the total imposition and collection of all court financial impositions. [196512]

Mr Vara: I understand that the office of the hon. Member asked for information about employment tribunal costs to be included in my answer to this question.

Data on costs awards made by employment tribunals are published annually as Official Statistics. Data for the financial year 2012-13 (the latest data available) can be found as part of the statistical release for tribunals published in September 2013:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2013 (see in particular Table E.12).

Parties awarded costs are responsible for initiating enforcement proceedings in the event of non-payment. Data on any enforcement proceedings initiated in respect of employment tribunal costs awards are not collated centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

In relation to civil courts, no central record exists of the total amount of costs awarded. Nor is there a central record of the level of satisfaction of costs awards made.

Ford Prison

Mr Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many absconders there were from Ford open prison in 2013-14. [197783]

Jeremy Wright: The number of absconds from HMP Ford during 2012-13 were the lowest on record. Abscond figures for 2013-14 are due to be published on 31 July 2014 as part of the Prison Performance Digest.

Figures for the number of absconds, by prison, since 1995 are provided in the Prison Digest contained in the prison and probation trusts performance statistics. This can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225234/prison-performance-digest-12-13.xls

Judges: Housing

Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 30 January 2014, Official Report, columns 649-50W on judges: housing, when he expects the review of the spend on judges' lodging to be completed. [196453]

Simon Hughes: We expect the review of spend on judges' lodgings to conclude before the summer.

Magistrates

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) what the total number of sittings was by magistrates who sat more than 70 half days in the last year; [198011]

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(2) what the (a) mean and (b) median number is of half-day sittings at magistrates courts in the last year; [198018]

(3) what the average number of half-day sittings in the Youth Court by members of the Youth Court Bench was in the last year. [198019]

Mr Vara: The Department does not keep this information centrally and it could be collected only at a disproportionate cost.

Offenders: Foreign Nationals

Mr Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what proportion of defendants being held in custody pending trial are foreign nationals. [198113]

Jeremy Wright: Information on the remand population is published quarterly and the latest available data are as at 31 March 2014 and can be found in Table 1.6 of the Prison Population spreadsheet Q1 2014 via the following weblink:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-october-december-2013-and-annual

Prison Sentences

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many offenders were bailed under an electronic curfew and went on to receive a custodial sentence in the latest period for which figures are available. [197811]

Jeremy Wright: Information on bail and remand collected centrally by the Ministry of Justice and held on the court proceedings database does not record whether conditions (including the use of electronic monitoring) were attached to bail. To answer this question would require a data matching exercise between data held by the electronic monitoring contractors and sentencing data held by the Ministry of Justice, which could be done only at disproportionate cost.

Prisoners

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners were on (a) entry, (b) basic, (c) standard and (d) enhanced status in each prison on 1 May 2014. [197844]

Jeremy Wright: Figures for 2013-14 will be available after the publication of NOMS annual performance results and management information on 31 July 2014 on the Gov.uk website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics

The figures for 2014-15 will be available 12 months later.

Prisoners: Repatriation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners currently serving custodial sentences from EU member states are eligible for repatriation under the EU Prisoner Transfer Agreement [197845]

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Jeremy Wright: We estimate that 473 prisoners are eligible to be considered for transfer under the EUPTA as at 31 March 2014, and we are working with the Home Office to obtain the necessary deportation orders to enable transfer.

This figure is calculated on the basis of the number of prisoners from EU member states who have implemented the EUPTA, meet the criteria to be automatically considered for deportation, and have at least six months left to serve on their sentence (which is required by the EUPTA). We have not included Poland (315 prisoners) in these figures. Poland has implemented the EUPTA but has derogation from accepting compulsory transfers until December 2016. Ten member states have yet to implement the agreement but are expected to do so by December 2014.

The Prisoner Transfer process is just one mechanism for removing Foreign National Offenders (FNOs). When transfers take a considerable time it can become more efficient to remove shorter-sentenced prisoners under the Early Removal Scheme (ERS). The number of FNOs deported under this mechanism has increased under this Government. In 2013, we removed nearly 2,000 FNOs under ERS and under the Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS), which we introduced in May 2012, we have removed over 240 FNOs to date.

Whereas this Government have begun to reduce the foreign national population in prison since 2010, between 1997 and 2010, the number of foreign nationals in our prisons more than doubled.

Prisons: Drugs

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps he is taking to tackle illicit trade in prescription tranquilisers in prisons. [196706]

Jeremy Wright: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) deploys a comprehensive range of measures to reduce the availability of drugs in prisons, including targeted searching, drug education, and other interventions. Prisoners are also subject to random and targeted mandatory drug tests, which include a test for the misuse of benzodiazepines. Prisoners found with prohibited items face swift and robust punishment. This can include having days added to their custody, being transferred to a different prison and losing privileges.

NOMS is not complacent about the potential misuse of prescription medication in prisons, and prison governors work closely with health care providers to ensure that relevant information is shared and that medication is safely and appropriately administered.

The published National Partnership Agreement between NOMS, NHS England and Public Health England:

www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/about/noms/work-with-partners/national-partnership-agreement-commissioning-delivery-healthcare-prisons2013.pdf

has a commitment to review the level and choice of prescription medications within prisons and for the organisations to work together with professional bodies to promote changes in prescribing practice and tackle abuse of medications.

Prisons: Employment

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what cap exists on the level of income a prisoner can earn inside jail. [197087]

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Jeremy Wright: Other than centrally-prescribed minimum pay rates, governors have responsibility for setting rates of pay for their establishment, which should reflect regime priorities. Upper rates are not set centrally. NOMS Prisoners' Pay policy is set out in Prison Service Order 4460, a copy of which is held in the House of Commons Library.

Prisons: Mobile Phones

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what discussions he has had with mobile telephone operators on operators terminating accounts shown to be illegally active within the HM prison estate. [197145]

Jeremy Wright: On 5 March 2014, together with the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire Moorlands (Karen Bradley), I met with representatives from the major mobile phone network operators as part of a new Government-industry working group to discuss ways to tackle illicit mobile phone use in prisons. Since that meeting, the National Offender Management Service is continuing to work with the networks to further explore options for disabling mobile phones proven to be operating in prisons.

Probation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the unit cost per offender supervised by (a) youth offending teams and (b) the Probation Service was in each year since 2010. [197076]

Jeremy Wright: The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales (YJB) does not collect information on the unit cost per offender from Youth Offending Teams (YOTs).

YOTs are primarily funded by the local authority and a number of statutory partner agencies, including the police, probation, health authorities and, where relevant, the Welsh Assembly Government, as well as the Youth Justice Board. Overall funding data are available in the latest published statistics which can be found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/youth-justice-statistics

Probation unit cost input indicators are published on an annual basis by the Ministry of Justice. These were first published on 25 October 2012 in respect of 2011-12. Costs for 2012-13, the latest available, were published on 31 October 2013.

These are published as part of the prison and probation trusts performance statistics through the following page of the Gov.uk website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether any approved bidders for community rehabilitation companies have (a) been convicted of a criminal offence relating to the conduct of business and (b) committed an act of grave misconduct in the last five years; and what process would be followed should such offences occur. [197779]

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Jeremy Wright: Final bids to run the community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) will be rigorously assessed against robust quality, legal, commercial and financial criteria. In the pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ), bidders were required to declare that they had no convictions in relation to criminal offences relating to the conduct of their business or profession and acts of grave misconduct. As set out in the invitation to negotiate, bidders are required to notify the Department of any changes to the position set out in their declarations or anything that may affect their continued participation in the competition. The Department reserves the right to undertake a full reassessment and, if grounds for rejection exist, exclude the bidder from further participation in the competition.

MOJ has also undertaken extensive due diligence of bidders on a range of matters, including legal compliance issues. Consequently, we have a robust and diverse market and are confident that the bidders who passed the first stage of the competition—the PQQ—are credible organisations.