Tag: Lord Beecham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what budgets have been set for professional development for (1) qualified, and (2) trainee, probation officers.

Lord Faulks

Under the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, probation staff are now employed either by the National Probation Service (NPS) or one of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs).

Probation Officers in the NPS are supported by the National Offender Management Service’s Human Resources Learning & Development team, which delivers professional skills training for the NPS. Funding for this work is found from within the National Offender Management Service’s overall Human Resources budget.

In addition, all NPS staff have free access to Civil Service Learning which includes a range of generic face to face and e-learning modules covering a wide range of subjects.

The professional development of probation officers employed by the 21 CRCs is the responsibility of those companies.

As regards trainee Probation Officers, their training and development is overseen by the National Offender Management Service, through the Probation Qualification Framework (PQF). Recruits undertake on-the-job training and study, leading to graduation in 15 months as qualified probation officers. The final budget for delivery of the PQF will depend on the total number of trainees recruited. Last autumn, we made over 270 training places available for new probation officers and a similar number in January this year. A further intake is planned for April. This represents the biggest investment in the professionalism of the probation workforce for some considerable time. The NPS will continue to use the PQF and the CRCs are also free to do so should they choose.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements are in place to ensure and to monitor the timely production of court reports.

Lord Faulks

The Performance Framework for the National Probation Service (NPS) includes a target for timely delivery of court reports. Data relating to this measure is collected from operational case management systems. This data is validated and used by NPS Performance and Quality Managers to monitor and enhance performance against the target.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the justification for the Ministry of Justice’s refusal to permit visits to any prisons by a reporter from The Guardian.

Lord Faulks

The External Communications team at the Ministry of Justice receives a significant number of requests by local and national media for access to prisons. For operational reasons and resource implications it is not possible to facilitate all requests.

Each request is considered on its own merit, with careful thought over the subject area, resource and security implications, victim impact, and value to the taxpayer. In a similar way to the police or the NHS, there are operational considerations to be made when filming or reporting in prisons. When facilitating media access we must ensure that the needs of victims are met, which may involve concealing identities, carrying out relevant checks and liaising directly with victims about the access request. We must also ensure that media access does not breach any security restrictions, for example filming keys or locks. Consideration is also given to protecting the identities of prisoners and staff.

We are committed to providing open and transparent access to prison and regularly provide access to journalists for news items, features and documentary programmes. We aim to provide a range of access to different journalists covering both print and broadcast media, local, national and online media.

Since the beginning of January 2015 we have provided access to a range of media outlets, a few examples are listed below:

• The Guardian were given access to HMP New Hall – http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/30/new-hall-womens-prison-inmates-equals
• BBC and the Sun were giving access to HMP Coldingley
• Regional BBC were giving access to HMP Northumberland (Sodexo run prison)
• Telegraph and Heart Radio were giving access to HMP Drake Hall
• Evening Standard and regional BBC were giving access to HMP Thameside (Serco run prison)
• BBC Radio 4 were giving access to HMP Prescoed/HMP Cardiff
• Sky Sports were giving access to HMP Feltham
• National BBC, regional ITV and the Manchester Evening News were giving access to HMP Styal
• Evening Standard and London Live were giving access to HMP Isis
• East Anglia Daily Times and regional BBC radio were giving access to HMP Hollesley Bay
• Sky News were given access to HMP Ranby
• ITV were given access to HMP Norwich

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-02-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government under what circumstances and with what conditions access to any prison by a journalist would be permitted.

Lord Faulks

The External Communications team at the Ministry of Justice receives a significant number of requests by local and national media for access to prisons. For operational reasons and resource implications it is not possible to facilitate all requests.

Each request is considered on its own merit, with careful thought over the subject area, resource and security implications, victim impact, and value to the taxpayer. In a similar way to the police or the NHS, there are operational considerations to be made when filming or reporting in prisons. When facilitating media access we must ensure that the needs of victims are met, which may involve concealing identities, carrying out relevant checks and liaising directly with victims about the access request. We must also ensure that media access does not breach any security restrictions, for example filming keys or locks. Consideration is also given to protecting the identities of prisoners and staff.

We are committed to providing open and transparent access to prison and regularly provide access to journalists for news items, features and documentary programmes. We aim to provide a range of access to different journalists covering both print and broadcast media, local, national and online media.

Since the beginning of January 2015 we have provided access to a range of media outlets, a few examples are listed below:

• The Guardian were given access to HMP New Hall – http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/30/new-hall-womens-prison-inmates-equals
• BBC and the Sun were giving access to HMP Coldingley
• Regional BBC were giving access to HMP Northumberland (Sodexo run prison)
• Telegraph and Heart Radio were giving access to HMP Drake Hall
• Evening Standard and regional BBC were giving access to HMP Thameside (Serco run prison)
• BBC Radio 4 were giving access to HMP Prescoed/HMP Cardiff
• Sky Sports were giving access to HMP Feltham
• National BBC, regional ITV and the Manchester Evening News were giving access to HMP Styal
• Evening Standard and London Live were giving access to HMP Isis
• East Anglia Daily Times and regional BBC radio were giving access to HMP Hollesley Bay
• Sky News were given access to HMP Ranby
• ITV were given access to HMP Norwich

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-10-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many lay magistrates were recruited in the last year for which figures are available, and what was the breakdown by ethnicity and gender.

Lord Faulks

A total of 403 magistrates were appointed in England and Wales between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2015. A breakdown of those appointments can be found in the tables below:

Gender

Male	Female
158 (39%)	245 (61%)

Ethnicity

White	Mixed	Black	Asian	Chinese	Other
333 (83%)	15 (4%)	24 (6%)	22 (5%)	3 (>1%)	6 (2%)

Age

18-29	30-39	40-49	50-59	60-65
24 (6%)	75 (19%)	97 (24%)	154 (38%)	53 (13%)

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to review the arrangements for providing court interpreters in the light of recent criticism by the President of the Family Division.

Lord Faulks

The arrangements for the provision of interpreters are kept under review.

There has been dramatic improvements in performance in the last two years. The Ministry continues to manage contracts to ensure this improvement is maintained.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the data published in court proceeding tables associated with their criminal justice statistics quarterly report of December 2013, whether they plan to institute an inquiry into the higher proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences than non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences.

Lord Faulks

The Government is committed to making sure that the criminal justice system is fair and just.

The Criminal Justice System Strategy & Action Plan, published last summer, set out a number of commitments to promote equality including a series of Minister-led events with stakeholders to explore what more could be done.

The Criminal Justice Board has had several recent discussions about equality and diversity and regularly reviews the statistical data.

We do not plan to hold a specific inquiry into the proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences as compared with non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences but are clear that more analysis is needed to understand the underlying causes reflected in this data.

The Government will shortly publish an update to this plan which will contain further actions designed to promote equality.