The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of cases in which two or more babies born to the same mother were put into kinship care.
Mr Edward Timpson
The information requested is not collected.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to encourage police forces to allocate adequate resources towards reducing the incidence of dog fighting.
Mike Penning
Whilst the government takes the issue of dog fighting seriously, the allocation of police resources to tackle this abhorrent practice is a matter for individual police forces, and we have introduced Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure that police force priorities across England and Wales better reflect those of the communities they serve.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was of each (a) prison place and (b) prisoner in each prison in England and Wales in the latest period for which figures are available.
Jeremy Wright
The Department routinely publishes average costs per prisoner and prison place, based on actual net resource expenditure for each private and public sector prison and in summary form for the whole of the prison estate in England and Wales on an annual basis after the end of each financial year. This includes a breakdown of these costs by prison category and individual prison within each category, and separately by prisoner gender.
The most recently published figures are for financial year 2012-13 which give an average annual Overall cost per place of £36,808 and average annual Overall cost per prisoner of £34,766. An average annual cost per male prisoner of £34,306 and £44,746 per female prisoner, based on Overall resource costs, is also published.
The information for financial year 2012-13 is available in the Cost per Place and Prisoner and Supplementary Information files on the Department’s website at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prison-and-probation-trusts-performance-statistics-201213
Figures for 2013-14 will be published alongside the Management Information Addendums to the NOMS Annual Report and Accounts in October 2014.
Continuing to reduce prison unit costs is one of the key targets for the Department. Between 2009/10 and 2012/13 prison unit costs (based on Overall prison costs) have reduced in real terms by 16% per place and 13% per prisoner.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the proportion of incidents marked as domestic violence cases which related to (a) male perpetrators against female partners, (b) female perpetrators against male partners and (c) other cases of domestic violence.
Lynne Featherstone
The Home Office does not hold this information centrally. The Home Office receives domestic abuse incident data from the police in England and Wales but these data do not contain information on the sex of the victim or the
perpetrator.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with the police on (a) dog theft and (b) dog fighting.
George Eustice
Defra officials have regular discussions with the police on the operation of law on dog control and welfare. The police are very supportive of the new provisions on compulsory dog microchipping and are fully aware of the measures in the Animal Welfare Act 2006 to tackle dog fighting.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many officials in his Department are currently employed to work on the sentence calculation helplines.
Jeremy Wright
The Department employs two officials whose principal function is to answer queries on the sentence calculation helpline. The main purpose of the helpline is to provide advice to prison establishments as to the correct way to calculate the key release dates for sentences in complex cases. It also provides advice to courts, probation, the public, solicitors and other government departments on the effect of the legislation governing release on key sentence dates.
In the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, the government made changes to the release and recall provisions in order to simplify the previous, often incomprehensible and complex legislation, making it easier for sentencers and prison staff to administer, and the public to understand the sentence.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the sex was of the complainant and the accused in each case of stalking reported after the implementation of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012; and what proportion of such cases which were investigated resulted in the accused being (i) charged with the offence and (ii) cautioned.
Lynne Featherstone
The Home Office does not hold this information centrally. The Home Office has received data on the number of stalking offences recorded in England and Wales since April 2014 as a separate offence category but these data do not contain
information on the sex of the victim or the perpetrator. Prior to April 2014, stalking offences under Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 were included within the harassment offence classification.
The latest available statistics show that between April and June 2014 there were 695 stalking offences recorded by the police in England and Wales.
The Ministry of Justice hold separate data for the number of cautions that have been issued for stalking. Between the implementation of the Protection of Freedoms Act in January 2013 and 30 June 2014 there were 57 cautions given for
stalking. This comprised of 49 given to males, 7 given to females and 1 where the gender was not stated.
Neither the Home Office nor the Ministry of Justice hold information on the number of individuals charged.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle (a) dog theft and (b) dog fighting.
George Eustice
Any allegations of criminal behaviour should be reported to the police in the first instance, so that they can decide whether to instigate a criminal investigation.
We have also been working with the Pet Advertising Advisory Group who have been lobbying operators of internet sites to adopt minimum standards for the advertising of pet animals. This work includes identifying adverts for dogs used in organised dog fighting by spotting certain key or code words and removing the offending notices.
The introduction of compulsory microchipping for all dogs from April 2016 will help to reduce the chances of dogs being displaced, including through being stolen. It is already best practice for vets, re-homing centres, dog wardens etc. to scan strays and they have a duty of care to do so. Our guidance will emphasise this. But we also recognise that scanning all dogs can have significant costs and practical implications.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2014-06-26.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the marginal cost was of one extra prisoner being accommodated in each prison in England and Wales when each prison is functioning at its operational capacity in the latest period for which figures are available.
Jeremy Wright
The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) does not have information on the marginal cost of a prisoner for each prison. The calculation of a marginal cost would normally apply where a permanent change to a prison’s operational capacity is taking place.
Prisons are not expected to operate above their operational capacity and ensuring that this capacity is set to reflect the provision of safe and decent accommodation and the operation of suitable regimes ensures that levels of crowding in prisons are carefully managed.
Sensible measures have been taken to ensure that we have sufficient capacity to deal with any temporary increases in population. These include creating additional places in prisons in a safe and decent way and ensuring that prisons reflect the needs of the current population. Any short term increases in capacity will only be those sites where additional prisoners can be safely and decently accommodated and where a senior prison manager has certified that the additional prisoners will be held in safe, secure and decent accommodation.
We will end this Parliament with more adult male prison places than we inherited, more hours of work in prisons than we inherited, more education for young detainees than we inherited and a more modern, cost effective prison estate than we inherited.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-01-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) offence and (b) sentencing outcome of each terrorist-related offence dealt with in court was in the last five years.
Mike Penning
This Government takes terrorism offences extremely seriously, which is why there are tough sentences available to the courts. We are further strengthening the law in this area through the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, currently going through Parliament.
We are increasing the maximum sentence from 10 or 14 years to a life sentence for three specific terror offences – weapons training for terrorist purposes, other training for terrorism, and making or possession of explosives. We are also ending automatic early release for those convicted of a range of serious terror offences – including weapons training for terrorist purposes and directing a terrorist organisation – so that they will only be released before the end of their custodial term at the discretion of the independent Parole Board, who must be satisfied that they no longer pose a threat to society. We are also ensuring that terrorists convicted of a second very serious offence will face the ‘two-strikes’ automatic life’ sentence.
Data for terrorist related offences and sentence outcomes can be viewed in Tables C.01-C.04 at the below link:-
Findings of guilt includes crimes which have a terrorist link.
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