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Copies of the consultation paper will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and can also be obtained free on the department's website at: http://www.justice.gov. uk/consultations/consultations.htm. The closing date for consultation is 16 December 2009.
Flooding: Funding
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Davies of Oldham): My honourable friend the Minister for Marine and Natural Environment (Huw Irranca-Davies) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The 2007 Pitt review highlighted the risks of surface water flooding and made a number of recommendations relating to surface water issues which included giving local authorities new roles and responsibilities for local flood risk management.
On 18 August my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Hilary Benn) announced that local communities across England will benefit from £16 million funding to help them tackle surface water flooding.
£9.7 million has been awarded to 77 local authorities for areas where evidence shows that the risk and potential impact of surface water flooding could be highest. Local authorities for all other areas will also be able to bid for a share of £5 million to help them deal with known local flooding problems.
Defra will publish details of how local authorities can bid for the £5 million funding and the criteria on which bids will be assessed. This will be available on the Defra website. Innovative proposals for tackling surface water flooding, especially in rural areas, will be particularly welcomed.
An additional £1 million will be spent on making training, data and other tools available to help all local authorities manage flood risk.
Further details of this announcement can be found on the Defra website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environ/fcd/policy/surfacewaterdrainage.htm.
Home Detention Curfews
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
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The purpose of this Statement is to announce the publication of the results of an audit of Home Detention Custody (HDC) releases from 1 April 2003 to March 2008 who were then subsequently recalled following further charges and convicted. That information is today published and is attached to this Statement.
Home Detention Curfew (HDC) came into effect on 28 January 1999. Eligible prisoners primarily serving between 3 months and less than 4 years may be released on HDC up to 135 days earlier than they would be otherwise, depending on their sentence length.
Registered sex offenders and foreign national prisoners who are liable to removal are statutorily excluded. Offenders serving sentences for certain serious violent offences, including prisoners serving sentences for terrorism legislation offences and prisoners with any history of sexual offending are presumed unsuitable unless there are exceptional circumstances.
Prisoners subject to the release arrangements of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 who are sentenced to 4 years or more are not statutorily ineligible for release on HDC but are presumed unsuitable.
Prisoners released on HDC are subject to an electronically-monitored curfew to their home, usually for 12 hours a day. Eligible prisoners must pass a risk assessment, which includes an assessment of home circumstances carried out by probation service, before release can be granted.
Breach of curfew conditions or breach of licence conditions, including alleged further offences or behavioural issues may result in executive recall to prison.
Previous questions in the House have asked how many offenders released on HDC have been recalled following further offences and what offences have been committed by them. We have recently undertaken a very detailed interrogation of the HDC re-offending data used previously. This has shown that we over-reported the number of offences committed by offenders on the scheme. We have taken the opportunity to revise our procedures for calculating HDC reoffending, correcting the previous errors and introducing an improved method for estimating reoffending by these offenders. Offender Management Statistical Analysis Services has assumed responsibility for collating this data in the future.
The revised annual reoffending figures for those on HDC from April 2003 to March 2008 are shown in Table 1 below. Table 2 shows the types of offences committed whilst on HDC.
| Table 1 Rates of reoffending while on HDC, 2003/04 - 2007/08, England and Wales | |||
| Number of offenders | |||
| Year | Number of offenders on HDC | Number of offenders who reoffended while on HDC | Reoffending rate (%) |
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| Table 2 Reoffences committed while on HDC by offence category, 2003-04-2007-08 England and Wales | |||||
| Number of offences | |||||
| Offence Category | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
The Ministry of Justice will consult on the publication of data in respect of offenders who breach their licence conditions (including those on Home Detention Curfew) and who are recalled. The Statistical Publication arising from this consultation will include data on re-offending by offenders subject to this scheme.
Details of offenders starting on HDC are taken from data recorded by the Prison Service. Data on their reoffending is taken from an extract of the Police National Computer (PNC) held by the Ministry of Justice. Offenders recorded in the prison data who cannot be found on the PNC are excluded from the figures. Like any large scale recording system the PNC is subject to errors with data entry and recording. The PNC is regularly updated so that further analysis at a later date will generate revised figures.
The figures relate to offenders starting on Home Detention Curfew in each quarter. An offender is considered to have reoffended if, during their period on HDC, he or she committed an offence that was recorded on the PNC as resulting in a caution or conviction; for the offence to count the caution or conviction has to be given within 9 months of the end of the quarter in which the offender started on HDC. Offences resulting in a not guilty verdict or no further action or for which no final outcome is recorded on the PNC are not counted. Breach offences and offences from outside England and Wales are excluded.
Data on HDC start and end dates is taken from data recorded by Prison Service. Where no end date has been recorded or where the end date gives an HDC period longer than the maximum of 135 days an estimate of the length of the HDC period has been derived as follows: for offenders recorded as receiving a custodial sentence of 18 months or longer the HDC period has been set to 135 days; for sentences of less than 18 months the HDC period has been calculated as 1/4 of the sentence length.
Hong Kong
Statement
The Minister for Europe (Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead): My right honourable Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (David Miliband) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:
The latest report on the implementation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong was published today. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House. A copy of the report is also available on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website (www.fco.gov.uk). The report covers the period from 1 January to 30 June 2009. I commend the report to the House.
Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I wish to update the House on progress on the implementation of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) as provided for in the Parliamentary Standards Act 2009.
On Thursday 10 September Mr Speaker announced he had appointed an interim chief executive for the IPSA, and that the recruitment process for the IPSA chair and members was to begin. I warmly welcome the appointment of Andrew McDonald as IPSA's interim chief executive, and the progress being made in implementing the IPSA.
My department has been working with the House of Commons and other interested parties to ensure that the early establishment of the IPSA remains on track. Any expenditure incurred by the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the IPSA that is properly due to the IPSA will be recovered, subject to Parliament's approval of the necessary new Estimate for the IPSA, ensuring IPSA's independence. A new Estimate for IPSA will be presented shortly as part of the Winter Supplementary Estimates for 2009-10.
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Land Charges
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My honourable friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Bridget Prentice) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am today announcing the outcome of the joint Ministry of Justice and Department for Communities and Local Government consultation on Local Authority Property Search Services-Charges for Property Search Services as it relates to the fee for a personal search of the local land charges register in England. The paper sought views on how and by whom the fee should be set and whether the present fee should be changed. 858 responses were received. They have been carefully considered and the following decisions reached.
First, there should be no change in the present arrangements for the setting of the fee for the time being. Secondly, the present fee will be increased from £11 to £22 for personal searches of the local land charges register conducted on or after 1 January 2010. I have, with the concurrence of HM Treasury, made and laid the Local Land Charges (Amendment) Rules 2009 to give effect to the change.
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