Tag: Andy Slaughter

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many staff working in (a) young offender institutions, (b) secure training centres and (c) secure children’s homes have been (i) suspended following a child protection allegation (ii) disciplined following a child protection allegation, (iii) dismissed following a child protection allegation and (iv) convicted of sexual or violent offences against children in the last five years.

Andrew Selous

This information is not held centrally.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-01-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many times police cells were used to hold prisoners overnight in each month in 2014 and 2015.

Andrew Selous

There are occasions, for logistical reasons, where prisoners may be temporarily held overnight in police cells. Police cells are used not due to a lack of space across the prison estate but because it is not always possible to transfer prisoners from courts to prisons in the time available at the end of court sittings.

The number of prisoners held overnight in a police cell has been cut from a peak of over 50,000 in financial year 2007-08.

We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and will aim to deal with the prison population in a way that gives taxpayers the best possible value for money. Operation Safeguard, have not been used since 22 September 2008 and no police cells under Operation Safeguard have been on stand-by since the end of October 2008.

The following table shows the total number of prisoners who were temporarily held overnight in police cells in England and Wales in each month in 2014-15. The totals include adults, young adults (18 to 20-year-olds) and young people (15 to 17-year-olds).

	Number of uses of police cells
2014	2015
January	168	89
February	372	112
March	175	74
April	64	107
May	46	47
June	112	113
July	274	180
August	116	63
September	62	137
October	96	174
November	149	195
December	111	151
Total	1745	1442

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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 taking voluntary early departure since May 2010 have had (a) up to six, (b) six to 12, (c) 12 to 18, (d) 18 to 24 and (e) over 24 months’ continuous service.

Andrew Selous

Information on the number of prison officers taking voluntary early departure has been published in PQ 25478. The total and average amount of severance they received and their average length of service in each month since May 2010 is contained in the table below. The severance amounts in the table relate to the payments made to the officers who left during the particular month and may not reflect the actual date that the money was received. For this reason the information will not match with accounting records.

All prison officers who left on voluntary early departure had at least 24 months continuous service.

Voluntary exit was used in the last Parliament as a result of the closure of uneconomic prison places. These prison closures and benchmarking reforms have delivered savings of £300 million a year, with the average cost per prison place falling in real terms by 19% since 2009/10.

Prison Officers Taking VEDS, May 2010 to September 2015

Year	Month	VEDS Leavers	Total Severance Received (£)	Average Severance Received (£)	Average Length of Service of VEDS leavers (Years)
2010	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	70	£2,132,290	£29,209	17.6
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	~	~	~	~
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	~	~	~	~
2011	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	~	~	~	~
	April	30	£1,108,573	£38,227	17.1
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	20	£617,345	£38,584	22.7
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	10	£360,949	£36,095	21.8
2012	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	~	~	~	~
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	30	£1,257,194	£41,906	21.1
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	~	~	~	~
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	40	£1,121,641	£30,315	14.6
2013	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	180	£6,204,024	£33,718	19.5
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	180	£6,353,177	£35,100	20.3
	July	170	£7,010,396	£40,290	19.7
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	720	£25,920,953	£35,802	18.9
	October	130	£4,964,209	£37,608	20.8
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	40	£1,298,680	£29,515	17.2
2014	January	100	£3,152,467	£32,838	20.0
	February	10	£425,167	£38,652	24.5
	March	30	£1,308,937	£39,665	19.8
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	~	~	~	~
	October	~	~	~	~
	November	~	~	~	~
	December	~	~	~	~
2015	January	~	~	~	~
	February	~	~	~	~
	March	~	~	~	~
	April	~	~	~	~
	May	~	~	~	~
	June	~	~	~	~
	July	~	~	~	~
	August	~	~	~	~
	September	~	~	~	~

Notes:

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.

Information in the table relates to cases of voluntary exits where payment information is available. In a small number of cases information on severance payments does not reflect the reason for leaving held on the central reporting system and may vary slightly from leavers figures published from that source in the NOMS Workforce Bulletin.

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 595 serious 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 2016-02-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what his policy is on moving responsibility for the courts, youth justice and probation to police and crime commissioners.

Mr Shailesh Vara

As set out in the 2015 manifesto, the government is committed to further developing the role of locally elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs). We have already brought forward legislation to enable PCCs to take responsibility for fire services in their area where a local case is made.

As the Home Secretary said recently, PCCs have brought real benefits to policing since their introduction in 2011. The Ministry of Justice and the Home Office are exploring whether their role as locally elected individuals could bring further benefits to the wider criminal justice system, local communities and, most importantly, the victims of crime.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners complained about an attack by rats in the last five years.

Andrew Selous

This information is not held centrally.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) disturbances and (b) riots have been recorded (i) on the prison estate and (ii) in private prisons since May 2010.

Andrew Selous

I refer the Hon Member to the answer for PQ 28151, answered on 18 March 2016. This can be found on the following link:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2016-02-23/28151/

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Written Statement by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, 25 February 2016, HCWS549, on offender management, what financial penalties were incurred by his Department as a result of terminating the contract to develop a bespoke tagging product with Steatite Limited; and how much his Department spent on that contract before its termination.

Dominic Raab

The relevant termination costs are subject to ongoing commercial discussions. We have spent approximately £21m on programme mobilisation to date. The majority of this was spent on investment in the telecommunications network, mapping software, monitoring service and other programme costs which the MoJ will be able to reuse for ongoing electronic monitoring work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of Lord Bridges of Headley, of 25 February 2016, Official Report, column 396, on public bodies: Israel, what the Government’s policy is on whether the Occupied Palestinian Territories are a territory of Israel under the definition of the World Trade Organisaiton.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The World Trade Organisation does not define the territory of its members. The UK does not recognise Israeli sovereignty over the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. We therefore do not consider the Occupied Palestinian Territories to be part of Israel.

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 has taken to ensure that victims and witnesses are not subject to increased fear of intimidation from alleged perpetrators when travelling to court.

Mike Penning

We have a range of special measures in place to support vulnerable witnesses and victims when they are giving evidence. These include the option of giving evidence from a remote location away from the court via live link, which significantly limits the risk of a witness coming into contact with a defendant or their supporters. This will mean victims of crime can give evidence from somewhere they feel safe.

The Ministry of Justice also funds the delivery of the court-based Witness Service, delivered by Citizens Advice at all criminal courts in England and Wales. The Service has developed an enhanced package of support to vulnerable and intimidated witnesses (including victims). This enhanced level of support includes both support at court and pre-trial support and an outreach service offering home visits or meetings, in advance of trial, at Citizens Advice offices or another neutral and appropriate location, and meeting the witness outside the court and accompanying them inside. This enhanced service is being rolled out nationally and will be available in all areas by end of April 2016.

The court can impose any bail condition necessary to ensure that a defendant does not interfere with a witness. If a bail condition is broken, this will have consequences for the offender, including the possibility of a remand into custody.