Tag: Andy Slaughter

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners serving sentences for (a) murder, (b) attempted murder, (c) rape and (d) attempted rape are currently unlawfully at large having escaped or absconded from prison.

Andrew Selous

The number of escapes and absconds are published annually, by financial year, in the Prison Digest:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/494121/prison-performance-digest.xlsx

Both escapes and absconds from prison have fallen to record lows since 2010. The specific information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding has been received from the European Social Fund via the National Offender Management Service Co-Financing Organisation to help set up and finance The Employers’ Forum for Reducing Re-offending.

Andrew Selous

Money received from the European Social Fund (ESF) by the NOMS Co-financing Programme is published in the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts. No ESF funding has been used to finance employer roadshows at Sudbury, Drake Hall and Wayland prisons. Neither has any ESF money been awarded direct to HM Young Offender Institutions Werrington, Feltham or Cookham Wood.

It is a condition of any award of core ESF funding to the NOMS Co-financing programme that it has to be spent on front line services for offenders (excluding the administration budget. Because of this, a separate application was made under the Technical Assistance grant to fund, among other things, the setting up and running of the Employers’ Forum for Reducing Re-offending (EFRR). The aim of the Technical Assistance grant is to fund services that will support the objectives of the main programme – employability of offenders. The amount spent from the ESF Technical Assistance fund on the EFRR from 2010 to 2015 was £280,403.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-05-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps he has taken to reduce the number of people serving sentences of imprisonment for public protection after their prison tariff has expired.

Andrew Selous

IPP sentences were introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003 for offences committed after April 2005. They were abolished in 2012 by the Coalition Government. IPP prisoners will be released whe the Parole Board is satisfied that they can be safely managed in the community. It is a priority for us to help remaining IPP prisoners progress towards release, including by ensuring that their parole reviews take place on time, through greater efficiency in the parole process, and by giving them the opportunity to complete relevant interventions and work. In 2015 there were 512 IPP releases – the highest number of annual releases since the sentence became available.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many of his Department’s staff are seconded to work in other countries.

Mike Penning

There are no Ministry of Justice staff seconded to work in other countries.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-07-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what bi-lateral discussions she has had with her counterparts in which EU member states on the long-term status of UK citizens in those member states.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government has repeatedly stated that there will be no immediate changes in the circumstances of UK nationals and their family members entering or currently residing in the European Union.

During the period of the negotiations, the UK remains a full member of the EU, entitled to all the benefits and obligations of membership. We have published guidance on gov.uk which makes this clear.

It is a Government priority to protect the legal rights of British nationals living in EU countries, as well as EU nationals in the UK, and we are confident that we will be able secure those things together during discussions with our EU partners.

As part of this process, the Secretary of State will continue to work closely with EU counterparts and with relevant stakeholders.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how the Government plans to use its position on the UN Security Council to facilitate diplomatic negotiations on protecting civilians in Syria.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

Protection of civilians in Syria, as well as those who have been forced to flee the country, is a priority for the UK. In the UN Security Council the UK has co-sponsored a number of humanitarian resolutions that call for an end to: indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including the use of barrel bombs; starvation as a method of warfare; and obstruction of the flow of humanitarian aid. Specifically, the UK played a key role in negotiating UN Security Council Resolution 2191, which has allowed the UN and its partners to deliver aid across Syria’s borders to people who were previously denied access, including food for 2.1 million people and medical supplies for 2.5 million people. The UK will use its seat on the UN Security Council to push proactively for a renewal of Resolution 2191.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to (a) enforce the European Commission Interpretative Notice, C2015 7834 final, on the indication of origin of goods from territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 and (b) ensure that penalties for mis-labeling of such products are effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

George Eustice

The principal feature of the Interpretative Notice is a recommendation that goods imported into the EU which originate from Israeli settlements in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967 should bear an indication which makes that provenance clear. That recommendation was included in technical advice to UK retailers and importers concerning labelling agricultural produce from the West Bank that was issued by Defra in 2009. We are currently in discussion with other Departments to consider whether revisions need to be made to the 2009 advice in the light of the Interpretative Notice. As regards sanctions and penalties for mis-labelling, these are dealt with in various pieces of legislation depending on the goods concerned.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which contracts worth more than £5 million his Department has signed since 1 September 2014; with which organisations such contracts have been signed; what the purpose was of each contract; what the (a) annual and (b) total cost is of each such contract; and what the length is of each such contract.

Mike Penning

All contracts awarded since 1 September 2014 over the value of £5 million are published on the Contracts Finder website:

Notices from 26 February 2015 onwards can be found at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search

This covers all notices from the 26^th February 2015 onwards.

An archive of notices going back to 11 February 2011 can be found at: https://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive/

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what humanitarian support the Government is offering in refugee camps in (a) Lesbos, (b) Idomeni, (c) Calais, (d) Dunkirk and (e) other locations.

James Brokenshire

Asylum seekers and refugees in other Member States are the responsibility of the authorities of those countries. Member States, furthermore, are bound by EU and international legal obligations to provide adequate care and reception to asylum seekers and refugees within their territory.

The UK, nevertheless, continues to provide practical support to other Member States and both France and the UK are committed to finding a sustainable solution to the situation in Calais. Under the UK-France Joint Declaration of 20 August, the UK committed to providing a £3.6 million (or €5 million) per year for two years to help support a range of work to manage the migrant population in Calais, in particular to provide support and facilities elsewhere in France. Additionally, the UK has provided £530,000 (€750,000) to fund a project to identify those in the camps at risk of trafficking and exploitation, to transfer them to places of safety; and to provide them with appropriate support within the French system.

In addition to our work with France, we are also providing practical support to Greece through the European Asylum Support Office by deploying UK asylum experts to the border control ‘hotspot’ in Lesbos to assist with the swift screening of asylum applicants arriving there. We stand ready to provide further such assistance where necessary.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of delaying the introduction of a fixed recoverable costs regime for medical negligence cases until the planned reductions in costs resulting from the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 have been made.

Ben Gummer

The intention is to introduce fixed recoverable costs (FRC) for clinical negligence claims from 1 October 2016, following the outcome of the public consultation. The Department is aware that there are pre-Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 cases in the system and will be for a number of years. However, FRC for clinical negligence is not a new concept and had been proposed by Lord Woolf and Lord Justice Jackson in 1996 and 2009 respectively in order to better manage clinical negligence claims through the legal process.