The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how long it took to merge Avon and Somerset Probation Services.
Jeremy Wright
Avon and Somerset Probation Trust, which was established on 1 April 2010, replaced the Avon and Somerset Probation Board, which had been created on 1 April 2001 following the merger of the two separate probation committees for Avon and for Somerset.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions drugs were found in parcels containing books destined for prisoners in each of the last four years.
Jeremy Wright
Prisons employ a range of measures to detect, disrupt and deter the trafficking of drugs into prisons.
Details of how many occasions drugs were found in parcels containing books destined for prisoners in each of the last four years are recorded on a central incident reporting system as a drug-related incident. To establish a figure for the period in question would require the interrogation of over 18,000 individual electronic incident files. This could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when supervision of prisoners on release serving less than 12 months will begin in England and Wales.
Jeremy Wright
The extension of statutory licence conditions and rehabilitation supervision to offenders sentenced to less than 12 months imprisonment is subject to the commencement of the relevant provisions in the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014. This change to the sentencing framework is a core element of the Ministry of Justice’s Transforming Rehabilitation Programme. Ministry of Justice officials are currently managing the transitional and implementation arrangements for the Programme, including the timing for commencement of this part of the Act.
We are on course to award and mobilise the new contracts for delivering rehabilitation services by 2015.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether the payment by results pilot in HMP Doncaster has been terminated.
Jeremy Wright
The HMP Doncaster Payment by Results (PbR) pilot was established to test the introduction of PbR to reduce reoffending, in response to commitments made in the Coalition Agreement. The pilot has been running since October 2011, with offenders released from Doncaster prison given additional rehabilitation support to help turn their lives around.
The pilot predates the Transforming Rehabilitation programme and while it has provided important learning to inform our plans, the delivery model at HMP Doncaster is not fully aligned with these reforms. As a result, we have decided to bring the pilot to a close, to help ensure the effective transition to the new model for rehabilitation services and offender management in the South Yorkshire Contract Package Area. No further participants will enter the pilot beyond the end of 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether sickness rates in probation trusts in England and Wales have risen since January 2013.
Jeremy Wright
Information on the average levels of absence due to staff sickness in the Probation trusts is published annually, at national level, in the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts: Management Information Addendum.
A link to the latest published report for FY 2012/13 is provided below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/225225/mi-addendum.pdf
The NOMS Annual Report and Accounts: Management Information Addendum for FY 2013/14 will be published on 31st July 2014.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which firm had its award of a contract to provide publicly-funded immigration services withdrawn in the 2010 tender round.
Mr Shailesh Vara
These questions relate to ongoing litigation against the Lord Chancellor and in the circumstances it would be inappropriate to respond at the current time.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many items were borrowed from prison libraries in each year from 2010 to 2013.
Jeremy Wright
The requested information is not held centrally and would need to be collated through enquiries at each prison in England and Wales. This would incur disproportionate cost.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diane Abbott on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations he has received from organisations concerned about the inclusion of books in the Incentives and Earned Privileges Scheme; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect the inclusion of books in that scheme will have on prisoner rehabilitation.
Jeremy Wright
There have always been controls on the sending of parcels into prisons, and allowing parcels to be sent in unrestricted would be operationally unmanageable and would lead to a significant risk of drugs and other illicit items being smuggled into prisons.
We have always recognised the importance of reading and literature in the rehabilitative process, and the positive effects this has on prisoners’ welfare. The National Offender Management Service works closely with schemes such as the Shannon Trust reading network, which includes peer mentoring to improve reading levels.
The Howard League for Penal Reform, English PEN and Liberty have made representations concerning prisoner access to books. There have been no changes in the availability of books in prisons. Every prison has a library, to which every prisoner has access. Up to 12 books may be held by prisoners in their cell at any one time and additional volumes may be stored locally at the prison.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women have been convicted of child sex offences in each of the last three years.
Simon Hughes
The proportion of offenders given custody for sexual offences has increased since 2003.
The number of female defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty or not guilty at all courts for sexual offences against children, in England and Wales from 2008 to 2012 (the latest data available), can be viewed in the table.
Court Proceedings data for calendar year 2013 are planned for publication in May 2014
Charging data is not held by the Ministry of Justice.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2014-04-08.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to increase sentences for shoplifting.
Jeremy Wright
The maximum penalty for theft is seven years’ imprisonment. The independent Sentencing Council is responsible for issuing guidelines which all courts must follow when determining the appropriate sentence in each case, within this maximum penalty. On 3 April, the Council opened a consultation on a new draft guideline for theft offences. The consultation period ends on 26 June 2014 and is open to everyone. The responses received will inform the definitive new sentencing guideline for theft offences in due course.