Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he has taken to dispel rape myths and stereotypes from juries in line with the commitment in the Sexual Violence against Children and Vulnerable People National Group Progress Report and Action Plan 2015.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We want rape victims to have the confidence to report these crimes, knowing they will get the support they need through the system and that everything will be done to bring offenders to justice.
The CPS have almost doubled the number of specialist prosecutors in their dedicated Rape and Serious Sexual Offence Units, enhanced training and improved the support they offer victims through criminal proceedings. Specialist prosecutors are trained to deal with the challenges involved in prosecuting these offences, including the impact of issues of consent and of rape myths and stereotypes.
The Senior Judiciary recognise that rape myths could have an impact on the trial of sex offences. The 2018 Crown Court Compendium builds on previous guidance which gives judges a model practice direction for the purpose of warning the jury of the risks of stereotyping alleged victims of sexual offences. It gives more examples of possible directions, and lists situations where jury directions may be needed.
Given the potential impact on trial fairness, the judiciary rightly maintain that any course of further action in this area should be well considered and informed by empirical evidence. The President of the Queen’s Bench Division has, therefore, commissioned empirical research with juries which will help inform future support, guidance and training needs on myths and stereotypes.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children placed in children’s homes (a) inside the local authority responsible, (b) outside the local authority responsible and (c) nationally (i) were reported missing by (A) duration of missing incident and (B) age of child at the start of missing incident and (ii) went missing more than once during the year for each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The latest information on children looked-after is published in the statistical release ‘Children looked-after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children placed in children’s homes (a) inside the local authority responsible, (b) outside the local authority responsible and (c) in each local authority area (i) were reported missing by (A) duration of missing incident, (B) age of child at the start of missing incident and (ii) went missing more than once during the year, for each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The latest information on children looked-after is published in the statistical release ‘Children looked-after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children in (a) foster placements and (b) children’s homes were placed (i) inside and (ii) outside of the local authority responsible; and for those children placed outside of the local authority responsible what the average distance the placement was from the placing authority in each local authority area for each year since 2012.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The information is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The latest information on children looked-after is published in the statistical release ‘Children looked-after in England including adoption: 2017 to 2018’ at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoption-2017-to-2018.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant the Answer of 14 October 2017 to Question 106132 on Children in Care, what progress his Department has made on the assessment of data on the use of out of area placements.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
The department continues to collect, review and publish data on local authorities’ use of out-of-area placements. From our latest publication, 19% of all children in care were in a placement more than 20 miles from their home at 31 March 2018.
The department is currently supporting a number of projects aimed at increasing capacity locally. Through our children’s social care Innovation Programme, we are providing £5 million of funding to 3 projects in London and the South East that will increase the capacity of residential and fostering placements in the area. We are providing 3 local authorities with seed-funding to explore the possibility of setting up new secure provision, where our data shows that out of area placements are particularly common. Later this year we will also be offering all local authorities the opportunity to bid for seed funding to develop new approaches to increasing the sufficiency of foster parents.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 March 2018 to Question 130996, what progress has been made in appointing board members to the Residential Care Leadership Board.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
We have delayed recruiting board members to the Residential Care Leadership Board until it is agreed how the remit of the board will fit into the newly created National Stability Forum. The appointed Chair has continued to seek views from experts across the sector to enable the Department for Education to move forward with the agreed programme of work.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the conviction ratio was for rape offences in the 12 months to June 2018.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Conviction ratios for individual offences are currently published up to December 2017. Figures for individual offences such as rape for 2018 are subject to ongoing data processing and validation and will be published in May 2019. The conviction ratio for rape offences in the 6 months to December 2017 can be calculated using the Outcomes by offence data tool at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-justice-system-statistics-quarterly-december-2017.
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Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2018 to Question 198269 on Social Security Benefits: Stockport, for what reason his Department only provided figures for the years (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15; and if his Department will provide figures for the years (i) 2015-16, (ii) 2016-17 and (iii) 2017-18.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As set out in the Answer to Question 198269, the data requested for the years 2015-16 to 2017-18 are published at www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
Within that link is a further link:
www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-and-gender-recognition-certificate-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2018.
The data requested are provided further down that page at Tribunal Statistics CSV (April to June 2018) (zip file).
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many looked-after children placed in children’s homes (a) inside and (b) outside the borough of the authority responsible for their care were reported missing in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Information on the number of missing and away without authorisation incidents of looked after children in children’s homes by the location of the placement is shown in the attached table. The location reflects whether the child’s placement is inside or outside the boundary of the authority responsible for care.
This information was collected for the first time in 2014-15 and so figures for 2013-14 are not held centrally.
These statistics are experimental statistics based on data collected for the first time in 2015 and should be treated with caution. The figures are therefore not comparable between years and any assessment of trends should take this into account. The information provided does not mean that the number of children going missing or away without authorisation is changing in the volumes indicated in the table.
Asked by: Ann Coffey (The Independent Group for Change - Stockport)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2018 to Question 177600 on Patients, how many patient safety incidents were recorded as absconder or missing patient by hospitals in England and Wales in the National Reporting and Learning System involved mental health patients in the latest period for which information is available.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
During the period 1 October 2017 to 31 March 2018, the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) recorded 12,405 cases of ‘missing or absconded patient’ from a National Health Service trust hospital in England and Wales, including incidents involving a mental health patient. This category on the NRLS also includes patients who left without signing a ‘discharge against medical advice’ form and those who failed to return from agreed leave, on time.
The attached tables show a breakdown of these cases by NHS trust for both England and Wales respectively. If a NHS trust does not appear in these tables, this is because the number of incidents is ‘0’.
During the same period, the NRLS recorded 6,186 cases of ‘missing or absconded patient’ involving a mental health patient in England and Wales. This breaks down as 5,946 in England and 240 in Wales. This category on the NRLS also includes patients who left without signing a ‘discharge against medical advice’ form and those who failed to return from agreed leave on time.