Tag: Andy Slaughter

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-27.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prison officers have taken severance and redundancy packages in each month since May 2015.

Andrew Selous

Information on the number of Band 3 Officers who received severance payments between May and September 2015 is contained in the table below.

Prison Officers Taking Severance Payments – May to September 2015

Year	Month	Severance Leavers
2015	May	20
	Jun	20
	Jul	10
	Aug	20
	Sep1	~
Total		70

¹ Information on severance payments received in September 2015 is incomplete.

Severance payments include payments for voluntary exit, redundancy, and payments as compensation for ill health retirements.

No Band 3 Prison Officers received redundancy payments during this period.

All figures are rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic, and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate, and to present unrounded figures would be to overstate the accuracy of the figures. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures.

~ denotes suppressed values of 5 or fewer or calculations based on a population of 5 or fewer. Low numbers are suppressed, in conjunction with the rounding policy to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in which prisons the 4,568 assaults on staff took place, set out in the Safety in Custody Summary Statistics, England and Wales, deaths to 12 months ending December 2015, assaults and self-harm to 12 months ending September 2015, published in January 2016.

Andrew Selous

Statistics for assaults on staff by prison are published on an annual basis by calendar year in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin annual assaults tables (see table 3.15 at the link below). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/495430/safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-2014.xls. Figures for 2015 are due for publication in April 2016.

Statistics for serious assaults on staff by prison are due for release on in April 2016 as part of the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin annual assaults tables. This publication will include breakdowns of serious assaults on staff by prison in each calendar year.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24706, how many improvised or self-made weapons were confiscated in prisons or young offenders institutes in each year since 2010.

Andrew Selous

The information requested could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much has been paid in compensation to prisoners in the last 12 months.

Andrew Selous

The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. We robustly defend all cases and over the last three years have successfully defended two thirds of claims from prisoners.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Hungarian government on the sale of residency bonds through off-shore companies.

Mr David Lidington

The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) has had no discussions with the Hungarian government on this issue.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the annual cost was of the Youth Justice Board monitoring carried out at each secure training centre in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Andrew Selous

A total annual cost of the Youth Justice Board’s (YJB) monitoring of each Secure Training Centre provided by the YJB is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what total number of years sentencing was handed out to offenders brought back to the UK from Spain under a European Arrest Warrant as part of Operation Captura.

Dominic Raab

This information is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

The National Crime Agency publishes statistics on the operation of the European Arrest Warrant and these can be found here: http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/european-arrest-warrant-statistics/wanted-by-the-uk-european-arrest-warrant-statistics/608-wanted-by-the-uk-european-arrest-warrant-statistics-2009-april-2015-1

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) female HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) staff that work part-time and (b) other HCMTS staff with caring responsibilities will not be negatively affected by planned court and tribunal closures.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Following the closure announcement HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) began a period of staff consultation which includes discussions between all those affected and their management teams. Management teams will support staff in identifying suitable redeployment options taking into account their individual needs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of underwriting a national rent deposit scheme to help more homeless people access the private rented sector.

Mr Marcus Jones

One person without a home is one too many and we are committed to doing all we can to prevent homelessness. That is why we have increased central investment to tackle homelessness over the next four years to £139 million. At Budget, we went one step further and announced £100 million to deliver low cost ‘move on’ accommodation to enable people leaving hostels and refuges to make a sustainable recovery from a homelessness crisis, providing at least 2,000 places for vulnerable people to enable independent living.

We have also protected Homelessness Prevention Grant for local authorities, totalling £315 million by 2019-20. In doing so, we expect them to provide quality advice and assistance to all those that approach them for help. The Homelessness Code of Guidance for local authorities, developed by my Department working with local authorities and the voluntary and community sector, already encourages them to use this grant to provide rent deposits, guarantees or rent in advance. Many local authorities, housing associations or charities in England have put such schemes in place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-04-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents involving the use of drone technology have been recorded at each type of prison facility in each of the last three years.

Andrew Selous

I refer the Hon Member to my answer to PQ 20357.

Incidents involving drones are rare, but we remain constantly vigilant to all new threats to prison security. This Government has made it a criminal offence to throw, or otherwise project, any article of substance into prison without authorisation. Anyone using drones in an attempt to get contraband into prisons can be punished with a sentence of up to two years. We take a zero tolerance approach to illicit material in prisons and work closely with the police and CPS to ensure those responsible for a drone incident are caught and, if appropriate, prosecuted.

There were no reported drone incidents in 2013; 2 reported incidents in 2014; and 33 reported incidents in 2015.

These figures include drone finds and sightings of drones by prison staff in and around all types of public and private prisons in England and Wales.

These figures have been drawn from live administrative data systems. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.