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  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many press and public relations staff are employed by (a) his Department, (b) HM Courts and Tribunal Service, (c) HM Prison Service, (d) the Legal Aid Agency and (e) the National Offender Management Service; how many of those employees are paid more than (i) £50,000 and (ii) £100,000; and what the total expenditure was on press and public relations by each of those organisations in the most recent year for which figures are available.

    Mike Penning

    I refer the honourable member to the answer which I gave in PQ 21339, answered on 23rd February 2016.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the Answer of 5 January 2016 to Question 20564, how many people were charged with jury (a) intimidation and (b) tampering in each of the last five years.

    Robert Buckland

    Section 51 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 creates two offences:

    S.51(1) creates an offence directed at acts against a person who assists in an investigation of an offence or who is a witness or potential witness or juror or potential juror whilst an investigation or trial is in progress

    S.51(2) creates an offence directed at acts against a person who assisted in an investigation of an offence or who was a witness or juror after an investigation or trial has been concluded.

    The records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) identify the number of offences in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in the magistrates’ courts, rather than the number of defendants prosecuted. A single defendant may be prosecuted for multiple offences.

    The number of offences charged under s.51(1) and s.51(2) are as follows:

    2010-2011

    2011-2012

    2012-2013

    2013-2014

    2014-2015

    Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 51(1)

    Intimidate a witness / juror

    3,275

    2,630

    2,148

    2,066

    2,202

    Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 51(2)

    Do an act which harmed a witness / juror

    102

    166

    99

    72

    109

    Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 51(2)

    Threaten a witness / juror

    240

    172

    118

    122

    129

    The proportion of CPS cases that result in a guilty plea has increased from 67.2% in 10/11 to 74.5% in 14/15 which means that there are fewer cases that are likely to be subject to the sorts of acts covered by s.51(1) during the course of the prosecution.

    Also, s.51(1) covers intimidation of juror or potential jurors. The number of crown court trials have also been reducing over the period in question by 9.5%, again resulting in fewer cases where S.51(1) offences are likely to apply.

  • Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Andy Slaughter – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much his Department has paid to (a) Rentokil and (b) other pest control companies in the last 12 months.

    Mike Penning

    In the last 12 months for which data is available (December 2014 – November 2015), £91,172.45 was paid directly to Rentokil Initial Plc. Rentokill provide a range of services to the department in addition to pest control. £66,961.94 of the total was paid to Rentokill Initial Pest Control, and in the same period £525.88 was also paid to Killgerm Group Ltd for pest control services, a total of £67,487.82.

    This has reduced from £1,503,530.40 spent with Rentokil Initial Plc in 2010, of which £109.923.50 was with Rentokil Initial Pest Control. An additional £3,529.44 was paid to pest control companies in that year, making a total of £113,452.94.

  • Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tristram Hunt on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many jobs in (a) his Department and (b) each of its non-departmental public bodies, executive agencies, non-ministerial departments, advisory bodies and other accountable statutory bodies (i) have been abolished or relocated from Stoke-on-Trent since 2010 and (ii) will be abolished in or relocated from Stoke-on-Trent by 2020.

    Mike Penning

    Within the Ministry of Justice, only the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) have offices within the Stoke-On-Trent postal address. There is one Juvenile Centre with a Stoke-On-Trent postal address, HMYOI Werrington. No posts have been abolished or relocated since 2010. There are currently no plans to abolish or relocate any posts by 2020. There are three National Probation Service (NPS) locations with a Stoke-on-Trent postal address. The NPS has only existed from 1 June 2014. Since that date there are no records of any posts being abolished or any relocation activity in the NPS Midlands Division which includes Stoke-on-Trent. There is an organisational change programme within the National Probation Service, that is ongoing and that will impact all area of NPS activity. It is too early to define the impact on a particular geographical location. HMCTS are unable to disaggregate information collected for the North Staffordshire area, so the following includes staff based within Stoke-on-Trent and Newcastle-under-Lyme. Since 2010, there has been a net reduction of 8 posts. There are currently no plans to further change the staffing in the North Staffordshire area.

  • Liz Kendall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Liz Kendall – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Liz Kendall on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many people of each gender work in her Department.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    DFID provides quarterly reports to the Office of National Statistics (ONS). The information provided at 31 December was as follows:

    Gender

    Headcount

    Male

    914

    Female

    1152

    Total

    2066

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much is allocated in her Department’s operational plan budget for projects in (a) Jordan and (b) Iraq for 2015-16.

    Mr Desmond Swayne

    In the financial year 2015/16 DFID’s latest Operational Plan budgets are £47 million in Jordan and £40 million in Iraq.

  • Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Tristram Hunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tristram Hunt on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many jobs in (a) her Department and (b) its non-departmental public body, non-ministerial departments, advisory bodies and other accountable statutory bodies (i) have been abolished or relocated from Stoke-on-Trent since 2010 and (ii) will be abolished in or relocated from Stoke-on-Trent by 2020.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    Neither DFID nor its non-departmental public bodies have had, nor plan to have, any jobs based in Stoke-on-Trent during the periods in question.

  • Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many terrorism-offence related suspects on police bail are understood by her Department to have broken bail and left the UK since January 2013.

    Mr John Hayes

    Individuals suspected of terrorism-related offences can be arrested under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) or the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT). The decision on which power of arrest to use is an operational judgement for police, and will depend on the circumstances of the case.

    Individuals arrested under TACT cannot be released on police bail. By contrast, those suspected of terrorism-related offences arrested under PACE must be bailed once the grounds for detention no longer apply. Figures for the number of terrorism-related suspects on police bail that have been ordered to relinquish their passports, or have relinquished their passports, are not collected.

    As the Secretary of State for the Home Department said in the House on 05 January 2016, figures for the number of people who have absconded whilst on police bail for terrorism offences are also not collected.

    Figures for those who fail to surrender to bail are collected, but these figures are not separated into categories of offence. These figures are publically available and can be found as follows: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014

  • Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Christian Matheson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many terrorism-related suspects on police bail have (a) been ordered to relinquish and (b) relinquished their UK passports since January 2013.

    Mr John Hayes

    Individuals suspected of terrorism-related offences can be arrested under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) or the Terrorism Act 2000 (TACT). The decision on which power of arrest to use is an operational judgement for police, and will depend on the circumstances of the case.

    Individuals arrested under TACT cannot be released on police bail. By contrast, those suspected of terrorism-related offences arrested under PACE must be bailed once the grounds for detention no longer apply. Figures for the number of terrorism-related suspects on police bail that have been ordered to relinquish their passports, or have relinquished their passports, are not collected.

    As the Secretary of State for the Home Department said in the House on 05 January 2016, figures for the number of people who have absconded whilst on police bail for terrorism offences are also not collected.

    Figures for those who fail to surrender to bail are collected, but these figures are not separated into categories of offence. These figures are publically available and can be found as follows: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2014

  • Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Kate Green – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Green on 2016-01-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance has been issued to police forces on monitoring and recording Gypsy and Traveller status as separate ethnic categories.

    Mike Penning

    The use of Census categories for ethnicity is assessed each year as part of the Home Office’s process of agreeing each year’s Annual Data Requirement (ADR) of mandatory collections of statistical data from the police. This process includes consideration of the need, use, burden and data quality issues for each data collection. The National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) have previously advised against the transition to the new Census categories due to the significant burden that this would place on forces to change IT systems and processes.

    The ADR collections currently use the Census 2001 ethnicity framework, and there are no plans at present to move to the Census 2011 framework, which would add a separate category of ‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’.

    The guidance given to police forces on providing data to the Home Office is based on the Census 2001 ethnicity framework. It is, however, a decision for individual forces as to how they monitor and record ethnicity data for their own purposes.