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Lord Rooker: If an individual is unhappy with the way in which a complaint was handled by the Police Ombudsman's office they can refer the matter to the ombudsman, who will have their complaint investigated.
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Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many serving or retired police officers have been convicted of criminal offences, excluding motoring offences, arising from investigations conducted by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland since the office was established. [HL1490]
Lord Rooker: As at 31 March 2006, six serving or retired police officers have been convicted of criminal offences as a result of investigations conducted by the Police Ombudsman.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
How much compensation has been paid each year to members of staff employed by, or attached to, the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland since it was established; how many staff received compensation each year; what was the grievance and the amount awarded in each case; and whether this information has previously been published. [HL1491]
Lord Rooker: Compensation was paid to one member of staff dismissed by the Office of the Police Ombudsman following the judgment of an employment tribunal. The judgment of the tribunal was published on 23 December 2005. A confidentiality clause was imposed restraining the applicant and respondent from publishing details of the settlement.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
How much compensation has been paid each year to members of the public and former or serving members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC or the Police Service of Northern Ireland by the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland since it was established; what was the grievance and the amount awarded in each case; and whether this information has previously been published. [HL1492]
Lord Rooker: No compensation has been paid to members of the public, former or serving members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC or the Police Service of Northern Ireland by the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many serving officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, including reservists, currently being treated through the service's occupational
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Lord Rooker: The information requested is not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Rooker on 6 July 2005 (WA 106), what was the per capita cost of maintaining the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in terms of the Police Ombudsman’s budget set against the total number of serving police officers in Northern Ireland, during the year ending March 2006; and what is the comparable budget for the current year. [HL1542]
Lord Rooker: The Police Ombudsman's annual budget is set at a level to allow the Police Ombudsman to fulfil her legal obligations under Part VII of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 and is not based on numbers of serving officers within the Police Service of Northern Ireland. However, the table below sets out the per capita cost of the total number of serving police officers in Northern Ireland against the budget of the Office of the Police Ombudsman. The comparable budget of the Office of the Police Ombudsman for the current year 2006-07 is £7,923,000.
| Year Ending | Total Number of Serving PSNI Officers (including Reserve officers) | Budget of Police Ombudsman Office | Per Capita Cost |
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Rooker on 6 July 2005 (WA 106-07), what is the updated per capita cost of a criminal conviction in Northern Ireland in terms of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland's budget set against the total number of successful convictions arising from a Police Ombudsman recommendation to prosecute, over the period April 2001 to March 2006. [HL1543]
Lord Rooker: The Police Ombudsman’s primary function is to provide a system for handling complaints against the police. The Police Ombudsman advises that the information asked for is not available in the form requested. However, consistent with the previous Answer (WA 107), the ombudsman's annual budget from April 2001 to March 2006 is as follows.
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The Police Ombudsman also advises that during this period 19,000 complaints have been handled by her office. As at end of March 2006, 74 criminal charges have been referred to the PPS and to date 34 have been or are being directed by the director. In those cases concluded, six police officers have been convicted of criminal offences.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many former Royal Ulster Constabulary GC or Police Service of Northern Ireland officers, including reservists, currently being treated through the Police Rehabilitation Trust or elsewhere for stress-related illnesses have been the subject of investigation by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland. [HL1544]
Lord Rooker: The information requested is not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the remarks by Mr Mark Durkan MP on 24 January (HC Deb, col. 1415) about the report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland into the death of Raymond McCord Junior, and related matters, whether the three Royal Ulster Constabulary GC senior ex-officers named were (a) suspected of any offence; (b) formally interviewed about any alleged offence; or (c) reported to the Public Prosecution Service for any alleged offence during the Police Ombudsman's investigation. [HL1706]
Lord Rooker: Inquiries relating to cases conducted under the independent investigatory powers and statutory functions of the Office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland should be pursued directly with the ombudsman.
Prisoners: Electronic Data Capture
Baroness Anelay of St Johns asked Her Majesty's Government:
What measures have been taken to address the problems found by electronic data capture analysis in August 2006 that demonstrated errors in the recording of prisoners' details including their names, prison number and nationality. [HL1151]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The C-NOMIS programme ensures a continuous cycle of data quality reporting on legacy systems that starts at least 20 weeks before site (prison establishment or probation area) implementation. Sites are required to “cleanse” the data and ensure accuracy before migration to the new system. This is monitored by the project and data quality metrics are produced
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Prisons: Chelmsford
Baroness Stern asked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to improve the rate of transfer of prisoners with mental health problems from HM Prison Chelmsford to places better equipped to treat such prisoners. [HL1684]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): Prisoners with severe mental health problems should be transferred and treated in hospital whenever possible. To help facilitate quicker transfers, a protocol has been issued setting out what must be done when a prisoner has been waiting for a hospital place for more than three months following acceptance by the NHS. Tighter monitoring has also been introduced to identify prisoners waiting an unacceptably long period for transfer.
In 2005, 24 per cent more prisoners with mental illness too severe for prison were transferred to hospital than in 2002—up to 896 from 722. In the quarter ending September 2006, 43 prisoners had been waiting over 12 weeks for a transfer, down from 58 in the same quarter in 2005.
We are looking to further reduce the national waiting time standard for transfers between custodial settings and hospitals and pilots of a 14-day maximum wait will take place in 14 mental health trusts this year. A protocol specific to the transfer to hospital of young people in the secure estate with severe mental illness is also being developed.
Baroness Stern asked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to increase the level of counselling and psychological support services available to prisoners with mental health problems in HM Prison Chelmsford. [HL1685]
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: Mental health services for prisoners have been a key part of the Government's recent reforms of health services for prisoners. The Department of Health is now investing nearly £20 million a year in NHS mental health in-reach services for prisoners. These are community mental health teams working within prisons and are now available in 102 prisons, with some 360 extra staff employed. Every prison in England and Wales has access to these services.
A new commissioning framework, developed on behalf of the Department of Health, the Home Office, the Youth Justice Board and the Department for Education and Skills is shortly due to be issued setting out best practice guidelines for commissioning child and adolescent mental health services for children in secure establishments, including young offender institutions.
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Prisons: C-NOMIS
Baroness Anelay of St Johns asked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the cost so far of preparing for the implementation of the custody-national offender management information system (C-NOMIS); what is the current estimate of the total of set-up costs and implementation across the prison and probation management systems; and what was the original estimate of the costs of setting up and implementing C-NOMIS. [HL1148]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The cost of preparing for the implementation of the C-NOMIS system at HMP Albany includes all costs (supplier and internal costs) associated with the application development and implementation incurred to-date. (Please see attached table.)
Currently, the estimate for the total set-up and implementation costs across the prison and probation management systems is being revisited. The estimate will be prepared once development and implementation plans have been finalised and approved by the C-NOMIS programme board and in the light of emerging feedback from implementation at HMP Albany.
The business case estimate of project cost is £99 million (excluding annual charges of £9 million per annum, which includes increased wide area network, hardware and software maintenance, first, second and third line post-implementation support and so on). The costs excluded sunk costs of £16.7 million to the end of June 2005 (used to produce a prototype, technical designs and contracts). The estimated full life cost (over 14 years) is £234 million (including support and technical refreshes), which equates to about £240 per member of staff per annum. The estimated costs include licensing the preferred COTS package, design and development of the system, user trials, data migration, implementation, training and ongoing support and maintenance.
| Figures exclude VAT and Capital charges | 2005-06 | 2006-07 YTD |
Republic of Ireland: National Development Plan
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether detailed talks took place with the Government of the Republic of Ireland prior to the republic's announcement that 8 per cent of the proposed €180 billion national development plan would be spent on projects in Northern Ireland; over what period such talks took place; who took
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Lord Rooker: The development of the Irish national development plan was entirely a matter for the Irish Government, although Northern Ireland Ministers and officials were kept abreast of their thinking as the plan was developed. We are not aware of the amount of funding the chapter entitled “All Island Co-operation” entails for Northern Ireland, but it is highly unlikely to be anything like the €14 billion implied by the noble Lord's Question.
Consultation with local parties would have been a matter for the Irish Government, but I note that Irish officials gave evidence on the matter to the Transitional Assembly’s programme for government sub-group on economic issues on 7 December 2006 and that representatives of all four of the main Northern Ireland political parties were represented.
The relevant part of the plan makes it clear that the Irish Government wish to agree the proposals with the British Government and a restored Northern Ireland Executive so that neither it nor the process by which it was developed will have any bearing on Northern Ireland's constitutional integrity.
Roads: Bus Lanes
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Rooker: The PSNI have confirmed that parking in a bus lane is not a recordable offence and therefore statistics relating to this are not available.
Roads: Dartford Crossing
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
What estimates they have made of the amount that the Dartford Crossing annually costs the economies of (a) Essex; (b) Kent; (c) London; and (d) the south-east of England. [HL1687]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: No estimates are available in the form requested.
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Department for Transport has undertaken or commissioned any work regarding the possibility of abolishing tolls on the Dartford Crossing; and, if so, what were the findings of this work. [HL1688]
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