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  • David Ward – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    David Ward – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Ward on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of Government policy on the level of car insurance premiums.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Government continues to monitor the publically available sources of data on motor insurance premiums. The Government’s reforms to civil litigation costs and funding will result in unnecessary and excessive costs being removed from the system. However, the level and timing of any reduction in such premiums is a matter for the insurance industry itself.

    We are working with insurers to mitigate fraud, excessive whiplash claims and young drivers risk to reduce premiums further.

  • Jesse Norman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jesse Norman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jesse Norman on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to encourage safer cycling.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    In addition to the £278m of funding directly for cycling in England, we continue to support Bikeability cycle training for children. It provides trainees with skills suited to the road, but also explains the importance of obeying the Highway Code, and sharing the road. Some councils provide free or subsidised training to adults.

  • Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of maintaining court buildings which are not listed as closed and which had fewer than five cases listed each week for (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months.

    Jeremy Wright

    Providing a detailed response to these questions will require officials to manually collate data. This cannot be accomplished in the time available. My honourable friend Shailesh Vara will therefore write with a detailed response as soon as possible, and will place a copy of this letter in the library of the house.

  • Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of maintaining court buildings which are not listed as closed and which have no cases listed for (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months.

    Jeremy Wright

    Providing a detailed response to these questions will require officials to manually collate data. This cannot be accomplished in the time available. My honourable friend Shailesh Vara will therefore write with a detailed response as soon as possible, and will place a copy of this letter in the library of the house.

  • Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court buildings which were not counted as closed had no cases listed in the preceding (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months at 31 March 2014; and what the location was of each such building.

    Jeremy Wright

    Providing a detailed response to these questions will require officials to manually collate data. This cannot be accomplished in the time available. My honourable friend Shailesh Vara will therefore write with a detailed response as soon as possible, and will place a copy of this letter in the library of the house.

  • Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Richard Fuller – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many court buildings which were not counted as closed had fewer than five cases listed for each week in the preceding (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months at 31 March 2014; and what the location was of each such building.

    Jeremy Wright

    Providing a detailed response to these questions will require officials to manually collate data. This cannot be accomplished in the time available. My honourable friend Shailesh Vara will therefore write with a detailed response as soon as possible, and will place a copy of this letter in the library of the house.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Heidi Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his most recent estimate is of the average cost of housing an individual in (a) a probation hostel and (b) approved premises for 12 months.

    Jeremy Wright

    On release from custody, offenders who meet the referral criteria may be accommodated in an Approved Premises (AP). (APs were formerly known as Probation & Bail Hostels.)There are 100 APs in England & Wales, providing supervised accommodation for offenders under probation supervision. They also house a small number of defendants on bail.

    Most APs are managed by probation trusts and funded out of the total grant paid to the trust by the National Offender Management Service. The AP element is not separately identified. Because of this funding arrangement, it is not possible to provide the information requested without incurring disproportionate cost.

  • Heidi Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Heidi Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Heidi Alexander on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions the Prison Service Gold Command has been opened in each of the last 36 months; and what the nature was of each incident that caused it to be opened.

    Jeremy Wright

    A Gold Command Suite (GCS) is located at National Offender Management Service (NOMS) headquarters in London. It provides strategic assistance in the managing of serious prison incidents to the Governor of a prison in England and Wales.

    Reason

    2011-12

    2012-13

    2013-14

    Hostage

    20

    27

    54

    Concerted indiscipline

    4

    6

    13

    Escape

    1

    Industrial Action

    1

    4

    Barricade

    2

    Civil Disturbances

    1

    At Height

    3

    5

    11

    Fire

    1

    Barricade

    2

    Miscellaneous

    1

    Total

    32

    43

    81

    Although there has been an increase in the number of times the GCS was opened, the number of callouts of Tornado staff (a mutual aid arrangement between prisons who respond to the most serious incidents that cannot be managed locally) is half of what it was in 2007. There has been no rise in the number of serious incidents being attended.

    A large part of the increase in the number of times the GCS was opened was for hostage incidents. Many incidents that we manage as “hostage” we believe to be acts of collusion between the alleged perpetrator and victim(s) in attempts to have their demands met. NOMS National Tactical Response Group, which has the specialist skills required to deal with such incidents, is frequently called to attend as a precautionary measure. Many of these incidents are dealt with very quickly with minimal disruption to the prison.

  • Diane Abbott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Diane Abbott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diane Abbott on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to implement the recommendations of the Prison and Probation Ombudsman’s (PPO) report on Learning from PPO Investigations: Risk factors in self-inflicted deaths in prisons.

    Jeremy Wright

    We will carefully consider the Ombudsman’s recommendations made in the Learning Lessons Bulletin on Risk Factors in self-inflicted deaths in prison to identify further learning. I also refer the honourable member to the answer given to the Lord’s Oral Question on 6 February 2014 (Official report Col 36 ), announcing that the Government hasestablished an Independent Review into the self-inflicted deaths of 18-24 year olds in NOMS custody. The review is being led by Lord Harris of Haringey and will report by Spring 2015. NOMS takes the safety of prisoners very seriously and draws learning from individual death in custody reports from the PPO as quickly as possible.

  • Diane Abbott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Diane Abbott – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diane Abbott on 2014-05-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that school lunches in academies and free schools meet the nutritional standards of those in the state sector; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Laws

    The revised school food standards will apply to single mainstream academies and free schools opening from July 2014, other mainstream academies and free schools opening from autumn 2014 and non-mainstream academies opening later in 2014. Academies set up prior to 2010 already have to comply.

    During their review of school food, the authors of the School Food Plan approached several academy chains, including the Harris Federation, the Oasis Community Learning Multi-Academy Trust, and the School Partnership Trust. All agreed in principle to comply with the standards and the Leon Foundation are encouraging as many academies and free schools as possible to sign up formally to the new standards.

    99% of those academies which responded to a survey by the School Food Trust in 2012 said they were committed to following the new food standards.