Tag: Parliamentary Question

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Sadiq Khan on Justice.

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Jeremy Wright

We will always have enough prison places for those sent to us by the courts and continue to modernise the prison estate so that it delivers best value for the taxpayer. This Government has a long term strategy for managing the prison estate which will provide more adult male prison capacity than we inherited from the previous Government.

Crowding occurs when the number of prisoners in an accommodation unit exceeds the Certified Normal Accommodation in that unit. The average rate of crowding is published annually in the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts.

Figures for the years 2005-06 to 2013-14 are as follows:

In 2013-14, the average number of prisoners held in crowded conditions decreased to 22.9% of the total population compared to 23.3% in 2012-13. This is the lowest level since 2001-02 and has come down from a high of 25.3% in 2007-08.

Whilst we collect the total number of prisoners held in crowded conditions we do not centrally record the overall numbers of prisoners who are accommodated in multiple-occupancy cells, be it crowded (e.g. two prisoners held in a cell designed for one) or not (e.g. two prisoners held in a cell designed for two). To identify the number of prisoners who shared a cell in each prison in England and Wales in each of the last five years would require manually going through prisoners’ individuals records to identify each prisoner’s cell location in each prison in each of the last five years, which could only be undertaken at disproportionate cost

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Catherine McKinnell on Work and Pensions.

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Steve Webb

We announced our plans for the implementation of universal credit on 5 December, and these were set out in a written ministerial statement. The WMS can be found here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm131205/wmstext/131205m0001.htm#13120551000006

Official statistics on universal credit were most recently published on 11 June and can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-credit-statistics-apr-2013-to-31-march-2014

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Dame Cheryl Gillan on Treasury.

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Mr David Gauke

The Government announced in April an extensive compensation and assistance package for property owners close to the route of HS2.

There is no separate treatment of SDLT for individuals purchasing a property after their property has been compulsorily purchased by a public body.

However, owner occupiers within the ‘surface safeguarded area’ and those who are eligible for the Express Purchase scheme will be entitled to reasonable moving costs, including surveyors’ fees, legal fees and stamp duty land tax on a replacement property of similar value.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Biography information for Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town on Justice.

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Lord Faulks

The Financial Services (Banking Reform) Act 2013 provides the necessary enabling powers to put in place the funding arrangements for the Legal Ombudsman to deal with complaints against claims management companies. These provisions were commenced on 21 March 2014. They include a power for the Lord Chancellor to make Regulations to charge fees to recover the costs he has incurred in meeting the expenditure of the Legal Ombudsman in relation to claims management complaints.

The Government consultation on the proposed structure of the Lord Chancellor’s cost recovery fee ended on 6 June and the responses are being analysed. Once the fee structure is finalised, the Fee Regulations will be laid in Parliament for approval and the consultation response will be published at that time.