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9 Sep 2009 : Column 2029W—continued
Non-Payment: Council Tax
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people who have (a) appeared in court and (b) been imprisoned for failure to pay council tax were aged (i) 64 years and under and (ii) 65 years and over in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [290936]
Claire Ward: Persons who have appeared in court and been imprisoned for offences under Section 56 of the Council Tax (Administration & Enforcement) Regulations 1992 cannot be separately identified on the Ministry of Justice Court proceedings database as these offences form part of a miscellaneous offence group which cannot be analysed centrally.
Pharmacy
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many pharmacists have been prosecuted for incorrectly dispensing prescription medication under the Medicines Act 1968 in each of the last 10 years. [286586]
Claire Ward: Both the MHRA and the CPS can bring prosecutions under the Medicines Act 1968.
The MHRA has brought two prosecutions for incorrectly dispensing prescription medication under the Medicines Act 1968 since 1999. Neither of these cases involved the prosecution of an individual pharmacist.
The CPS does not collect data on the profession of those prosecuted under the Medicines Act. To identify their profession would involve disproportionate cost. It is possible that some of those prosecuted under the Medicines Act may be individual pharmacists.
Prison Service: Finance
Mr. Gerrard:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the difference was between the capital budget and
capital expenditure outturn for the Prison Service for the financial years (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08 and (c) 2008-09. [288822]
Maria Eagle: The outturn figures for HM Prison Service (HMPS) are as follows:
| £ million | |||
| Capital budget | Capital expenditure | Variance | |
From 2008-09 HMPS became subsumed within the reorganised National Offender Management Service and figures are not separated in the accounts, but the equivalent figure has been obtained from NOMS' internal management accounts.
Prisoner Escapes
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice when the most recent incidence of absconding from HM Prison Sudbury by a prisoner convicted of murder took place; and what steps he is taking to reduce the number of such incidents. [290685]
Maria Eagle: The most recent incident of absconding from Sudbury by a prisoner convicted of murder was on 21 September 2007. The prisoner was recaptured on 25 September 2007.
Sudbury continues to work closely with Derbyshire police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in responding to all instances of individuals absconding from the prison and ensuring that whenever an absconder is arrested, he is brought to court and charged. The National Offender Management Service's (NOMS) Police Advisors and the Association of Chief Police Officers are discussing the implementation of a national agreement for referring absconders for prosecution which would see the approach taken at Sudbury extended throughout the estate.
Absconds levels are monitored closely by NOMS. The Director General and Chief Operating Officer review abscond rates regularly. The risk assessment process for open conditions is stringent-and becoming more sophisticated at assessing risk. As a result, abscond rates are falling.
Individual open prison governors are responsible for implementing local security strategies to combat absconds. Open prisons operate intelligence systems to try and spot those who might be planning to abscond; prisoners are screened and those who are at significant risk of absconding are sent back to closed conditions; in many areas the prison, police and CPS are working together to prosecute absconders to provide a deterrent to others who may be thinking of doing the same.
All absconds are reported immediately to the police who will take steps to apprehend the prisoner. Re-captured absconders will be returned to a more secure closed prison where they face either a criminal prosecution for escaping or an internal adjudication in prison in front of a visiting judge. In both cases they can receive additional time in prison on top of their existing sentence.
Prisoner Release
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prisoners released on temporary licence reoffended in the last five years; and how many such prisoners were returned to custody. [289113]
Maria Eagle: Time spent on release on temporary licence affords prisoners the opportunity to find work, re-establish family ties, reintegrate into the community and ensure housing needs are met. For long-term prisoners these are essential components for successful resettlement. The most recent published statistics(1 )show that in the five year period between January 2004 to December 2008 there were 2,075,506 temporary release licences issued to prisoners. In this same period there were 1,592 failures of licence (0.1 per cent. failure rate), the majority of which were for minor infringements such as returning late to the prison. To provide the information requested on further offences committed whilst on temporary release would involve the manual examination of all 1,592 individual records which could be done only at disproportionate cost.
(1) The attention of the House is drawn to the bulletin, Offender Management Caseload Statistics, 2008, which was published on 31 July 2009. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of this House and another place. I hope that this will provide additional context to the statistics supplied in the answer. Ministry of Justice Caseload Statistics, tables 9.6 and 9.11 available at:
Prisons: Drugs
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many grams of (a) cannabis, (b) heroin and (c) cocaine have been found in prisons on (i) visitors, (ii) staff and (iii) prisoners in each of the last 12 months for which figures are available. [290756]
Maria Eagle: The number of finds of cannabis, heroin and cocaine from April 2008 to March 2009 is shown in the table.
| Drug | Number of finds |
It is important to note that many drugs are similar in appearance and in many cases finds of drugs are not categorically identified by scientific analysis.
Although NOMS records the number of occasions on which all drug types were found on it does not record centrally the weight of seizures or the type of
drug found. To provide those details would require a manual investigation into each find at disproportionate cost.
The number of all drug finds from April 2008 to March 2009 is given in the table. The "other" category includes not only finds on staff but also the very many finds that are not attributable to a person, such as parcels that have been thrown over prison boundaries or found in communal areas. To disaggregate staff from the "other" category would also require a manual investigation into each find at disproportionate cost.
| Found on | Number |
These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. The data are not subject to audit.
Prisons: Manpower
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many employees of (a) his Department and (b) the Prison Service are on the surplus employees list. [290876]
Mr. Wills: As of 4 September 2009 the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) has 254 staff that are actively seeking permanent redeployment. 221 work for the National Offender Management Service (including the Prison Service), 33 work for the rest of the MOJ (including one SCS). The figure comprises both full-time and part-time staff. They are engaged in work contributing to the delivery of public services, including core frontline activities, policy and project work and other operational roles.
Probation
Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of offenders (a) released from prison, (b) under probation supervision without programmes and (c) under probation supervision with programmes were reconvicted within two years in the last five years. [288184]
Claire Ward: The latest statistics on reoffending published in May 2009 report the re-offending rates over a one year follow up period.
The following table shows the one year reoffending rates for adult offenders who were discharged from custody or who commenced a community order or suspended sentence order in the first quarter of 2006 and 2007, and (a) received an accredited programme requirement and (b) did not receive an accredited programme requirement under that order. Data about individual requirements were not available prior to 2006.
Comparisons to assess the effectiveness of different requirements and sentence types cannot be made from these results, as there is no control for known differences in offender characteristics or other factors that affect reoffending and the type of sentence given.
Further information on the one year rates of reoffending can be found in
Probation Officers: Manpower
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the ratio of offenders to probation officers has been in each of the last five years, broken down by probation service area. [280839]
Mr. Straw: The information requested is shown in the following table for the years 2004 to 2007 inclusive. A data validation exercise is currently taking place on the probation officer information for 2008 to be completed during the summer of 2009.
There are a number of factors which could affect average caseloads over time, resulting in regional variations shown in the table. These include:
Fluctuations in caseload according to changing sentencing patterns
Improving accurate workforce planning
Variations in the nature of cases will call for a different workforce. High risk cases will call for resource intensive supervision by more senior practitioners. For lower risk cases (e.g. unpaid work supervision), a high caseload can be managed safely by a small number of practitioners. Comparing these cases under a single "average caseload" calculation is therefore misleading.
| The ratio of offenders supervised by offender managers, by each probation service area in England and Wales at 31 December in each year from 2004-07 | ||||
| Area | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
| Note: Figures provided are Full Time Equivalent and include Senior Probation Officers, Probation Officers, Senior Practitioners and Practice Development Assessors | ||||
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