Tag: Andy Slaughter

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-16.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of changes to his Department’s policies on (a) the provision of secure colleges, (b) prohibiting prisoners from receiving books, (c) the sale of HM Courts and Tribunal Service, (d) Saudi prison contracts and (e) the timetable for the tender for criminal defence work.

Andrew Selous

I refer the honourable member to the answer given to PQ 13074 on 7th December 2015. There was never any plan to sell HM Courts and Tribunals Service. There is no cost to the public purse from the delay to implementation of new criminal legal aid contracts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-11-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times he has met (a) insurance companies and (b) personal injury law firms in the last five years.

Harriett Baldwin

Treasury Ministers and officials meet with a wide range of companies and organisations to discuss relevant issues.

As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury’s practice to provide details of all such discussions.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many magistrates there were on 1 April (a) 1989, (b) 1994, (c) 2000, (d) 2005, (e) 2010, (f) 2014 and (g) 2015.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The requested information that is recorded is provided in the table below. Data for 1989 is not recorded. The reduction in the number of magistrates reflects the reduction in the workload in the adult criminal court. The role of a magistrate remains a sought after one and competition for vacancies tends to be strong.

1994	30,054
2000	30,308
2005	28,253
2010	28,607
2014	21,626
2015	19,634

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 10 December 2015 to Question 18873, which companies provided the agency workers to cover operational uniformed staff in each month; and how much was paid to those companies.

Andrew Selous

We only use temporary staff to fill business critical posts and essential frontline services where they can provide a fast, flexible and efficient way to obtain necessary skills that are not currently available in-house. We continue to examine our use of consultants and agency staff to find savings where possible. We have committed to reducing our back office and administrative budget by 50% by 2020.

The company which provided the agency workers to cover operational uniformed costs in each month was Hays. £46,424,119 was paid to thembetween January 2014 and October 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December 2015 to Questions 19129, prisons: locks and keys, which prisons had to be relocked; and what the cost was of each such incident.

Andrew Selous

When a key/lock incident is reported an immediate investigation is undertaken to assess the risk and unless it is clear that security has not been compromised, locking mechanisms and keys will be replaced and/or other necessary remedial action will be taken.

In the five years from May 2005 to May 2010 there were 16 relocks at a cost of £1,280,234 to the taxpayer. Since May 2010 this has fallen to 8 relocks at a total cost of £529,973 to the taxpayer. Further to my answer of 14 December, the table below shows the location of the 8 relocks since May 2010.

The cost of a re-lock will depend the size of the prison establishment and on which keys have been lost or compromised. If a complete set of keys are lost, a full re-lock of the prison will be undertaken, whereas if a single key is lost only a partial re-lock will be needed, incurring a lower cost.

Time Frame	Location/Date	Total Cost (excluding VAT)
1 May 2010 – 1 May 2011	HMP Swaleside; HMYOI Glen Parva; HMP Warren Hill	£79,526; £173,608; £84,419
2 May 2011 – 1 May 2012	HMP Birmingham	£415,277 1
2 May 2012 – 1 May 2013	None	0
2 May 2013 – 1 May 2014	HMP Lindholme	£28,812
2 May 2014 – 1 May 2015	HMP Haverigg; HMP Highpoint	£30,540; £15,856
2 May 2015 – 9 December	HMYOI Portland	£117,212

Notes:

1.The cost of the re-lock at HMP Birmingham was met by the private contractor operating the prison.

2.Prisons are also responsible for re-locks of crown court cells. Figures exclude re-lock of cells in two crown courts during the period.

3.The figures quoted have been drawn from live administrative databases and may subsequently be amended. Due care is taken during processing and analysis, but the detail is subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 December 2015 to Question 19495, what the (a) names, (b) job titles and (c) salary bands were of the staff who worked on Just Solutions International.

Andrew Selous

As was stated in the Answer to questions HL2604 and 19495, 3.5 full time equivalent staff (FTE) worked under the Just Solutions International (JSi) brand. These staff also worked on other, core business within the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). As none of these staff were members of the Senior Civil Service, it would not be appropriate to name them in a Parliamentary answer.

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

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he has (a) had a meeting or (b) had a telephone conversation with Ben Goldsmith in his Ministerial capacity since 1 October 2015; and what was discussed on each such occasion.

Harriett Baldwin

Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-giftsand-overseas-travel

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will launch an independent investigation of the circumstances of the abuse that has been reported at Medway Secure Training Centre.

Andrew Selous

Kent Police and Medway Council’s child protection team have launched a joint independent investigation into the allegations made about Medway Secure Training Centre (STC) and it would be inappropriate to commission another investigation while this is underway. HM Inspectorate of Prisons and Ofsted – both independent inspectorates – also visited the STC last week. Any further action will be announced in the usual way.

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.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to answer Question 15306, tabled on 6 November 2015, on his Department’s public expenditure.

Caroline Dinenage

I refer the honourable member to the answer which I gave in PQ 15306, answered on 17^th February 2016.