Tag: Andy Slaughter

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many incidents at height have taken place in each prison in each month since March 2014.

Andrew Selous

The vast majority of incidents are minor in nature and resolved quickly and professionally without injury, damage or disruption to the running of the prison. Each incident is investigated fully to ensure lessons are learnt and best practice in managing incidents is shared across NOMS.

Many incidents at height are relatively short in duration, lasting less than 15 minutes, and take place on netting or over railings. Hostage incidents are relatively rare and in many cases of hostage taking collusion between the perpetrator and victim is suspected. We do not tolerate violence or disorder in our prisons. Prisoners who take part in violent incidents can be referred to the police for prosecution or receive additional time on their sentences following internal adjudication.

The tables attached provide numbers of incidents at height and hostage incidents in each month between March 2014 and December 2015 and broken down by establishment.

Note: These figures have been drawn from the NOMS Incident Reporting System. 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. Although the figures are shown to the last case the figures may not be accurate to that level.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2016 to Question 26908, what steps he is taking to improve the recording of knife finds in prisons to ensure that the data is easy to use and analyse.

Andrew Selous

Finds of certain prohibited items in prisons, including knives, are recorded on the NOMS Incident Reporting System (IRS).

Until October 2015, any weapon in prison would be recorded under a miscellaneous incident type, and therefore would not provide consistent and complete information on weapon finds. In October 2015 we introduced a new incident type ‘Find’ on IRS, including a new category for ‘Weapons’, which means that separate data on weapons is now recorded.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many Legionnaires’ disease incidents have been reported in each prison since May 2010.

Ben Gummer

Due to small numbers involved and risk of deductive disclosure, the number of cases of Legionella pneumonia in people in prisons in England cannot be provided.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2016 to Question 21498, on social security benefits: personal injury, whether the estimated effect of the proposed changes on social security recoupment from injuries other than whiplash are likely to be caught by the changes.

Justin Tomlinson

DWP officials are continuing to work with the Ministry of Justice to assess the potential impact of the proposed changes. The government will consult on these measures which will be accompanied by an impact assessment that will cover claims for compensation which are recoverable under the Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports his Department has received on alleged mistreatment and torture of British citizens in detention in the United Arab Emirates since 2011.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Consular Directorate is aware of 37 cases of British nationals who have made allegations of torture or mistreatment in detention in the United Arab Emirates since and including 2011. The FCO takes all allegations or concerns of torture and mistreatment seriously and takes action appropriate to the circumstances of each case, including raising these with the Emirati authorities where we have permission from the individual.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-03-22.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to his Israeli counterpart on settlement activity in the West Bank.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued a statement on 16 March condemning the Government of Israel’s decision to expand settlements in the West Bank.

On 18 February, during my visit to Israel, I discussed the issue of settlements with Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, reiterating the UK’s position. Our Embassy regularly raises this issue with the Israeli authorities, making clear the UK’s firm and consistent opposition to illegal construction of settlements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government is taking to investigate the findings of the report by HM Senior Coroner, Mary Hassell on the death of Mr Sivaraj Tharmalingham, that Serco fabricated the number of checks that its staff made on Mr Tharmalingham at Thames Magistrates’ Court.

Andrew Selous

Following the inquest into the tragic death of Mr Tharmalingham, a prevention of future deaths report has been sent to Serco by HM Senior Coroner for Inner North London under Regulation 28 of the Coroners (Investigations) Regulations 2013. The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has received a copy of the report. Serco are currently considering the report and will respond in accordance with the Regulations. NOMS manages all contracts with third party providers robustly and will work closely with Serco to ensure that the matters of concern identified by the Coroner are examined and appropriately addressed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-04-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many tribunals relating to (a) sexual discrimination and (b) each other matter have been brought against employers in each of the last five years; and how many such claims have been successful.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Information on the number of tribunal claims relating to sexual discrimination and other matters brought against employers and the proportion of successful claims in each of the last five years can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics#employment-tribunal-and-employment-appeal-tribunal-statistics-gb.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-05-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) children under 18 years of age and (b) young people aged 18 to 24 applied for legal aid under the Exceptional Case Funding Scheme in (i) 2013-14, (ii) 2014-15 and (iii) 2015-16.

Mr Shailesh Vara

The purpose of the Exceptional Case Funding (ECF) scheme is to provide funding where it is legally needed. It does not provide a general power to fund cases which fall outside the scope of legal aid. Legal aid is a vital part of our justice system, but we cannot escape the continuing need to reduce the deficit. We still have a very generous system – last year we spent £1.6bn on legal aid, around a quarter of the department’s expenditure. Every ECF application is carefully considered by the Legal Aid Agency on an individual basis.

Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015

FY application received	Under 18	18-24	Unknown
Apr 2013 – Mar 2014	55	86	6982
Apr 2014 – Mar 2015	27	116	67
Apr 2015 – Dec 20151	31	82	78

¹ Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016

² Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.

Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme, which were granted³, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015

FY application received	Under 18	18-24	Unknown
Apr 2013 – Mar 2014	1	4	132
Apr 2014 – Mar 2015	8	20	3
Apr 2015 – Dec 20151	12	40	23

¹ Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016

² Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.

³ Granted by 29 February 2016

Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme for immigration cases, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015

FY application received	Under 18	18-24	Unknown
Apr 2013 – Mar 2014	–	12	1332
Apr 2014 – Mar 2015	14	39	16
Apr 2015 – Dec 20151	11	33	25

¹ Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016

² Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.

Applications to the Exceptional Case Funding scheme for immigration cases, which were granted³, by age of applicant, April 2013 to December 2015

FY application received	Under 18	18-24	Unknown
Apr 2013 – Mar 2014	–	–	12
Apr 2014 – Mar 2015	4	8	1
Apr 2015 – Dec 20151	10	22	12

¹ Statistics for Jan-Mar 2016 are exempt for future publication on 30 June 2016

² Please note: Age data for Exceptional Case Funding were collected from October 2013 onwards, hence the greater proportion of unknowns in 2013-14 compared to the other years.

³ Granted by 29 February 2016

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy Slaughter on 2016-06-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many whales, dolphins and other aquatic mammals have been beached on British shores in each of the last 10 years.

George Eustice

Defra, in conjunction with the Devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales, fund the UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme (CSIP), which investigates the causes of cetacean strandings around the UK.

Between 2006 and 2014 a total of 4838 cetaceans (whales, dolphins, porpoises) were stranded around the UK (English, Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Ireland) coast. 147 of these were successfully refloated. The 2015 data has not yet been published. This will be available in due course on the CSIP website, where the annual reports for preceding years are already available.

The published annual strandings data, shown below, may also be subject to change where additional strandings information is reported after publication.

Although not part of its formal remit, data on stranded seals has been collected by CSIP in recent years. Since 2010 2185 dead stranded seals have been recorded.

Year	No. of UK Cetacean Strandings	No. of UK Cetacean Live Strandings	No. of UK Cetaceans Refloated
2006	718	31	9
2007	536	41	14
2008	566	83	24
2009	422	39	14
2010	277	27	6
2011	600	86	29
2012	562	75	15
2013	595	38	9
2014	562	55	27
Total	4838	475	147