Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will ensure that the Information Commissioner has sufficient powers to enforce his rulings.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The Government is committed to making sure that the Information Commissioner has sufficient resource to carry out its statutory duties.
The Ministry of Justice works closely with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to keep its enforcement powers under review.
Further information about the ICO’s enforcement powers can be found on its website - www.ico.org.uk.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many parliamentary questions tabled to his Department in the last parliamentary Session did not receive a substantive answer by the time of the 2014 prorogation; and when each such question was first tabled.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Ministry of Justice received3,087 questions tabled in the Commons during the 2013-14 session. Of these,26 parliamentary questions did not receive a substantive answer by the end of the last session. In these cases the relevant Minister committed to write providing a substantive answer and the written responses. We have now answered 16 of the outstanding questions and are in the process of responding to the remaining 10. The following table sets out the month in which each of the questions was tabled.
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February 2014 | 4 |
March 2014 | 8 |
April 2014 | 6 |
May 2014 | 8 |
The Justice Secretary and his Ministerial team take their obligations to Parliament seriously and want to ensure that MPs receive answers of a high standard which set out the relevant context. More complex questions can involve compiling and analysing large volumes of material. We respond to such questions as promptly as we can.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many probation officers his Department plans to recruit in the next 12 months; in which countries those posts will be advertised; and what his Department's budget for that advertising is.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
A campaign is in progress to recruit graduates to train as probation officers. It is being advertised on United Kingdom websites only and will be tailored to the overall staffing needs across probation. Funding for the advertising campaign is found from within the overall budget, but does not form a separate budget item.
Asked by: Alison Seabeck (Labour - Plymouth, Moor View)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, on how many occasions probation staff have taken cases to employment tribunals on grounds of discrimination in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
Data on the number of claims made by probation staff on the grounds of discrimination are not collated centrally either by National Offenders Management Service or HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS). This information could only be provided at a disproportionate cost by manually checking hard copy files or judgments.