Author: admin

Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much has been spent on non-disclosure or compromise agreements for former employees of probation trusts since 1 January 2014.

Jeremy Wright

There have been no non-disclosure or compromise agreements included as part of the departure packages of the Trust Chief Executives who have taken early retirement. The terms of departure for other former Trust staff were agreed through their own local arrangements.

01/11/2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much former employees of probation trusts have received in severance pay since 1 January 2014.

Jeremy Wright

Prior to 1 June, probation staff in England & Wales were employed by the 35 probation trusts. Employment data of the kind requested were held by the individual probations trusts. They were not collected centrally and it would not be possible to obtain the information without incurring disproportionate cost.

01/11/2022
Gavin Williamson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Williamson on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that the perpetrators of assaults against prison staff are appropriately punished.

Jeremy Wright

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes assaults on prison staff very seriously. There are systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution.

Prisoners engaging in violent behaviour will be subject to an immediate review of their Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) level. There is a strong presumption that such incidents will lead to an immediate downgrade to Basic level unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Assaults on staff in prison are a particularly serious matter given the need for staff to be able to maintain control and order in what can be a volatile environment. NOMS is working closely with the police and CPS to develop a new joint protocol for the management, reporting and prosecution of crime in prisons. Part of this work will involve the development of more effective measures to enable successful prosecution of prisoners who assault NOMS staff.

NOMS is committed to exploring options to continue to improve how violence is managed in prisons to keep both staff and prisoners safe. It is currently reviewing the policy and practice of the management of violence.

Prison Service Instructions set-out the range of options available to Governors to investigate serious assaults. The Governor must ensure that an appropriate level of investigation is commissioned. They must also ensure that any lessons are learned from the incident and disseminated appropriately, those harmed are supported and perpetrators of harm are sanctioned.

01/11/2022
Gavin Williamson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Williamson on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what action he is taking to ensure that incidents of assault against prison staff are being effectively investigated.

Jeremy Wright

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) takes assaults on prison staff very seriously. There are systems in place to deal with perpetrators quickly and robustly, with serious incidents referred to the police for prosecution.

Prisoners engaging in violent behaviour will be subject to an immediate review of their Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) level. There is a strong presumption that such incidents will lead to an immediate downgrade to Basic level unless there are exceptional circumstances.

Assaults on staff in prison are a particularly serious matter given the need for staff to be able to maintain control and order in what can be a volatile environment. NOMS is working closely with the police and CPS to develop a new joint protocol for the management, reporting and prosecution of crime in prisons. Part of this work will involve the development of more effective measures to enable successful prosecution of prisoners who assault NOMS staff.

NOMS is committed to exploring options to continue to improve how violence is managed in prisons to keep both staff and prisoners safe. It is currently reviewing the policy and practice of the management of violence.

Prison Service Instructions set-out the range of options available to Governors to investigate serious assaults. The Governor must ensure that an appropriate level of investigation is commissioned. They must also ensure that any lessons are learned from the incident and disseminated appropriately, those harmed are supported and perpetrators of harm are sanctioned.

01/11/2022

Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of staff employed (a) directly and (b) indirectly by his Department were employed on (i) short term and (ii) zero hours contracts in each of the last 10 years.

Mr Shailesh Vara

We are unable to provide the number of staff and proportion of those employed by a third party to work indirectly by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). This information is partially held centrally and to collate all of this information as a whole would incur disproportionate costs.

However figures that are held on the MoJ central systems on staff directly employed by the MoJ and its agencies from 2008 to 2014 on (i) short term and (ii) zero hour contracts can be found in the tables below.

MoJ Staff with Fixed Term Contracts (SFTC) of 12 months or less as per the Office on National Statistics definition can be found below.

	SFTC	% of SFTC Workforce in MoJ
31-Mar-08	2,087	3%
31-Mar-09	1,489	2%
31-Mar-10	1,305	2%
31-Mar-11	1,025	1%
31-Mar-12	409	1%
31-Mar-13	1,372	2%
31-Mar-14	637	1%

MoJ Staff recorded as having no fixed hours of employment i.e. zero hour’s contracts.

	Staff on Zero Hours contract	% of ‘Zero hour’ Workforce
31-Mar-08	158	0.25%
31-Mar-09	208	0.29%
31-Mar-10	188	0.26%
31-Mar-11	204	0.26%
31-Mar-12	158	0.21%
31-Mar-13	133	0.17%
31-Mar-14	123	0.16%

The percentage of MoJ staff on zero hour contracts has been decreasing since 2009.

01/11/2022

Valerie Vaz – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0845, (b) 0844 and (c) 0843 his Department (i) operates and (ii) sponsors; how many calls each such number has received in the last 12 months; and whether alternative numbers charged at BT local rates are available in each such case.

Mr Shailesh Vara

There has been a 79% fall in the Department’s use of higher-rate numbers since 2009.

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

The information held centrally for the public use of (a) 0845, (b) 0844 and (c) 0843 telephone numbers operated (i) and (ii) sponsored by the Ministry of Justice are as follows:

(a) 0845 numbers – 32

(b) 0844 numbers – 2

(c) 0843 numbers – 0

The majority of these numbers are operated by the County Court Business Centre (CCBC).

Information on volumes for calls to higher-rate telephone numbers for the last twelve months is not systematically collected by the service providers, and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

Nineteen higher rate numbers in the CCBC are in the process of being replaced by 0300 numbers. The four 0845 numbers receiving the highest volumes of calls in the CCBC are being discontinued on 1 August 2014, and when enquirers call these numbers they are being advised to contact an alternative 0300 number.

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.

01/11/2022
Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2014, Official Report, column 469W, on Secure Colleges: Leicestershire, what steps have been taken to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the cohort.

Jeremy Wright

The requirements set out within the tender for the design and build of the Secure College pathfinder took into account departmental experience of providing safe custodial environments. The initial design for the Secure College pathfinder was evaluated against these requirements as well as design, operation and security considerations.

The Ministry of Justice will be working with Wates, the preferred design and build bidder, over the coming months to refine the initial design. This will include ensuring that different groups of young people can be accommodated discretely, if needed, within the site.

The safety and wellbeing of young people is central to all plans for the design and operation of the Secure College pathfinder.

01/11/2022
Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what new prison accommodation is planned to come on stream and in which locations before May 2015.

Jeremy Wright

We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer. This Government has a long term strategy for managing the prison estate which will provide more adult male prison capacity than we inherited from the previous Government.

Over 2,000 further places for adult male prisoners will become available before May 2015, including new house-blocks at HM Prisons The Mount, Thameside, Parc and Peterborough. The remainder of the places will come from re-opening refurbished or mothballed capacity

01/11/2022
Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what circumstances offenders can choose not to attend a parole board meeting when a victim reads a victim personal statement.

Jeremy Wright

The victims of serious violent and sexual offences, where the offender has been sentenced to 12 months or more, may opt into the statutory Victim Contact Scheme, operated by the National Probation Service. Where they do so, they will be informed of a Parole Board review and offered the opportunity to make a Victim Personal Statement (VPS). The VPS provides victims with a valuable opportunity to tell the Parole Board how the offence has affected them or their family, both at the time it was committed and since, and how they think the offender’s release would affect them. The VPS can contribute to a better and more informed hearing, as it may enable more robust questioning of the offender about the offence, remorse and victim empathy.

The independent Parole Board is responsible for the conduct of parole hearings. The normal practice is that the offender will not be present when the victim reads his/her VPS, but there may be circumstances where he/she will be. In many cases, the victim does not wish the offender to be present during the reading. Whilst the conduct of an individual hearing is for the Chair of the Panel of the Parole Board, the Chair cannot insist that the prisoner attends to hear the VPS being read if s/he does not wish to do so. No estimate has been made centrally of the proportion of offenders present at the hearing when the VPS is read out.

01/11/2022
Dan Jarvis – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2014-06-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of offenders present at parole board hearings when a victim personal statement is read.

Jeremy Wright

The victims of serious violent and sexual offences, where the offender has been sentenced to 12 months or more, may opt into the statutory Victim Contact Scheme, operated by the National Probation Service. Where they do so, they will be informed of a Parole Board review and offered the opportunity to make a Victim Personal Statement (VPS). The VPS provides victims with a valuable opportunity to tell the Parole Board how the offence has affected them or their family, both at the time it was committed and since, and how they think the offender’s release would affect them. The VPS can contribute to a better and more informed hearing, as it may enable more robust questioning of the offender about the offence, remorse and victim empathy.

The independent Parole Board is responsible for the conduct of parole hearings. The normal practice is that the offender will not be present when the victim reads his/her VPS, but there may be circumstances where he/she will be. In many cases, the victim does not wish the offender to be present during the reading. Whilst the conduct of an individual hearing is for the Chair of the Panel of the Parole Board, the Chair cannot insist that the prisoner attends to hear the VPS being read if s/he does not wish to do so. No estimate has been made centrally of the proportion of offenders present at the hearing when the VPS is read out.

01/11/2022