The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with the devolved administrations on her Department’s priorities.
Sir Desmond Swayne
DFID Ministers have met Scottish Government Ministers on two occasions in the past year. DFID officials have met officials of the devolved administrations to discuss respective priorities on a number of occasions.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nigel Dodds on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what recent discussions she has had with her US counterpart on levels of corruption in states in receipt of international aid.
Sir Desmond Swayne
The Secretary of State met with Gayle Smith on 18 April for the annual DFID-USAID development dialogue in Washington DC.
My senior officials and those of USAID engage frequently and the UK and USA are working closely to follow up on commitments made in our respective country statements at the Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Summit on 12 May.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps she is taking to ensure that UK aid for the conflict in Yemen benefits its intended recipients; and what proportion of the £85 million of aid for Yemen committed in the last year has been used to support children.
Sir Desmond Swayne
The UK is the 4th largest donor to the crisis in Yemen and has more than doubled its humanitarian support over the last year to £85 million for 2015/16. We work with trusted and impartial partners such as UN agencies and NGOs who have good access and a strong track record of delivering and monitoring assistance in difficult and dangerous places. We regularly monitor and review our programmes and have an independent monitoring programme to provide independent assurance on what we are delivering.
In 2015/16 DFID provided the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) with £6 million, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) with over £21 million and Save the Children with over £3 million. Amongst other activities, our funding helped treat over 150,000 children under 5 with severe acute malnutrition and screen 140,000 children for childhood infections. It also helped support and refer displaced children and enabled 3,500 refugee children and Yemeni children from their host communities to resume education. DFID has also supported education in Yemen through the Social Fund for Development (SFD). Since 2010, more than 240,000 children have attended schools supported by SFD.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many fines of what total monetary value were written off by HM Courts Service in Staffordshire in each year since 2011-12.
Caroline Dinenage
Due to the limited management information that can be extracted from the Libra system it is not possible to identify how many financial impositions have been cancelled.
The table below shows the total value of financial impositions cancelled in Staffordshire in each of the year since 2010-11.
|
Year |
Total Value Legally Cancelled regardless of Imposition date |
Total Value Admin Cancelled regardless of Imposition date |
|
2010-11 |
£1,237,941 |
£722,603 |
|
2011-12 |
£1,181,416 |
£692,066 |
|
2012-13 |
£1,256,081 |
£924,630 |
|
2013-14 |
£1,406,722 |
£835,113 |
|
2014-15 |
£1,320,535 |
£656,536 |
|
Apr 2015 – Dec 2015 |
£1,154,484 |
£410,937 |
The data for January 2016 to March 2016 is not included as the data has not been published yet.
A legal cancellation can be applied when an imposition has been cancelled in court by a Judge or Magistrate, for example if an appeal is successful or if some of the original amount imposed is remitted after the offenders financial circumstances have been reconsidered.
Financial impositions are only administratively cancelled after all attempts to collect the amount outstanding have been made, and in accordance with a strict cancellation criteria. Any imposition which has been administratively cancelled still retains legal status and can be written back at any time if more information is found which will enable collection, for example if a new address for the offender is discovered. We periodically review administratively cancelled accounts.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times he has visited Wales in his official capacity since the last UK general election.
Mike Penning
Details of all ministerial meetings are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/moj-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Edwards on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times Ministers in his Department have visited Wales in an official capacity since the last UK general election.
Mike Penning
Details of all ministerial meetings are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/moj-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-meetings.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many men have (a) been charged with and (b) served a prison sentence for non-violent crimes in the last five years.
Dominic Raab
Charging decisions are a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service, and sentencing is a matter for our independent courts. The court may only impose a custodial sentence where it finds that the offence is so serious that neither a community sentence nor a fine alone can be justified.
There is no clear definition of a non-violent crime, as both physical and psychological harm can be caused by many crimes and this will not necessarily be apparent from the description of the offence. However, the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty and sentenced, including to custody, by offence category and specific offence, by gender, in England and Wales, from 2011 to 2015 can be found in the Criminal Justice Statistics outcomes by offence data tool in the most recent annual publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2015.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women have (a) been charged with and (b) served a prison sentence for non-violent crimes in the last five years.
Dominic Raab
Charging decisions are a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service, and sentencing is a matter for our independent courts. The court may only impose a custodial sentence where it finds that the offence is so serious that neither a community sentence nor a fine alone can be justified.
There is no clear definition of a non-violent crime, as both physical and psychological harm can be caused by many crimes and this will not necessarily be apparent from the description of the offence. However, the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty and sentenced, including to custody, by offence category and specific offence, by gender, in England and Wales, from 2011 to 2015 can be found in the Criminal Justice Statistics outcomes by offence data tool in the most recent annual publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2015.
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to undertake a review of the sentencing guidelines for traffic offences.
Dominic Raab
Sentencing guidelines are issued by the independent Sentencing Council for England and Wales. Following the announcement by the previous Justice Secretary of a government review of driving offences and penalties, the Sentencing Council have paused their review of sentencing guidelines for causing death by driving.
The government is aware of concerns about a number of sentencing issues and is committed to making sure sentencing for driving crimes is proportionate within the context of our wider sentencing framework. It is our intention to commence a consultation in due course which will look at driving offences and penalties.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-06-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent estimate he has made of the number of lawyers trained in supporting people with mental health problems.
Caroline Dinenage
The legal profession in England and Wales is independent from government and we have no estimate of these numbers.