Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the job titles are of civil servants in his Department who have been provided with (a) an official car and (b) a driver.
Answered by Robert Buckland
No civil servant in the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Government Legal Department (GLD), Serious Fraud Office (SFO) or Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) has been allocated an official car or a driver.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps he is taking to improve levels of prosecutions for domestic violence against men.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Government is committed to securing justice for all victims, both male and female, and applies policies fairly and equally. In September 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published its first ever public statement recognising the needs and experiences of male victims of offences including rape, domestic abuse, harassment, and stalking and child sexual abuse. In summer 2018, they will hold another forum with groups representing the interests of male victims to further explore the issues they face in relation to these offences. CPS Violence against Women and Girls policies are applied fairly and equitably to all perpetrators and victims of crime irrespective of their gender.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what steps he is taking to improve levels of prosecutions for domestic violence against men.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Government is committed to securing justice for all victims, both male and female, and applies policies fairly and equally. In September 2016, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published its first ever public statement recognising the needs and experiences of male victims of offences including rape, domestic abuse, harassment, and stalking and child sexual abuse. In summer 2018, they will hold another forum with groups representing the interests of male victims to further explore the issues they face in relation to these offences. CPS Violence against Women and Girls policies are applied fairly and equitably to all perpetrators and victims of crime irrespective of their gender.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, which regulations his Department (a) has introduced as a result of EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to date and (b) expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2018 and (ii) 2019; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Attorney General’s Office has not made any regulations pursuant to EU legislation from 23 June 2016 to the present day, and does not expect to make regulations pursuant to EU legislation in either 2018 or 2019.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many women have been charged with assault by penetration since 2012 up to the most recent year for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The total number of section 2 Sexual Offences Act 2003 (assault by penetration) offences charged against male and female defendants which reached a first hearing at the magistrates’ courts in England and Wales across the previous five financial years was as follows:
Financial Year | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 |
Number of Section 2 SOA 2003 offences | 1,107 | 1,266 | 1,446 | 1,571 | 2,004 |
Whilst defendant gender data is not recorded by the CPS in relation to the specific offence of assault by penetration, it does hold data in relation to the broader offence category of ‘sexual offences excluding rape’, which includes those offences.
Of the 13,490 defendants prosecuted for sexual offences excluding rape in 2016-17, 13,022 defendants were male, 432 were female and the gender was not recorded for 36 defendants.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many sentences broken down by offence were referred to him for being unduly lenient fell outside the Unduly Lenient Scheme in the latest year for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Buckland
837 cases were referred to the AG in 2016. 256 of the 837 cases did not fall within the ULS scheme because they were not imposed in the Crown Court following conviction for an offence within the scheme.
A case will be recorded as not falling within the ULS scheme if the offence is outside the ULS scheme, the defendant is not convicted, or they are not sentenced in the Crown Court.
The Attorney General’s Office records the cases which do not fall within the ULS scheme primarily by “offence type”. The 256 cases were recorded in the following offence categories:
Offence type: | Number of cases: |
Arson | 1 |
Burglary | 10 (8 of these sentences were for offences not in the ULS scheme and 2 defendants were acquitted of offences within the ULS scheme) |
Death by careless driving | 13 |
Death by dangerous driving | 2 (both these defendants were acquitted) |
All other driving - total | 21 |
Causing serious injury by dangerous driving | 8 |
Dangerous driving | 6 |
Driving with excess alcohol | 3 |
Driving while disqualified | 2 |
Driving without due care and attention | 1 |
Driving over the speed limit | 1 |
Fraud | 19 |
Hate crime | 3 (these defendants were sentenced in the magistrates’ court) |
Other - total | 67 |
Offences relating to animals | 19 |
Assault offences (other than under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861) | 11 |
Assisting an offender | 2 |
Assisting unlawful immigration | 1 |
Child abduction | 2 |
Breaching a court order | 4 |
Breaching of health and safety law | 1 |
Criminal damage | 1 |
Harassment and stalking | 4 |
Miscellaneous | 9 |
Terrorism offences | 4 |
Sending a threatening communication | 1 |
Weapons offences | 4 |
Witness intimidation | 4 |
Section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 | 1 (this sentence was imposed after the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial) |
Section 20 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 | 34 |
Section 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 | 32 |
Sexual Offences Act 1956 | 1 (this defendant was found unfit to plead and the indictment stayed) |
Sexual Offences Act 2003 | 10 (4 of these sentences concerned abuse of trust offences, 2 of these sentences were imposed in the youth court, and 1 of these sentences was imposed in Scotland) |
Indecent images of children | 30 |
Theft | 11 |
Total: | 255[1] |
[1] There is 1 case for which the Attorney General’s Office has not recorded the offence category.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many of the Law Officers Departments' staff had a pay increase (a) above one per cent, (b) at one per cent and (c) less than one per cent in each of the last three years for which information is available.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The information requested is detailed in the following tables.
Serious Fraud Office: Pay increase1 | |||
| Above 1% | At 1% | Less than 1% |
2014 | 141 | 146 | 48 |
2015 | 291 | 32 | 96 |
2016 | 300 | 36 | 59 |
1 Based on staff in post as at 31 August in each of the past three years.
Attorney General’s Office (AGO) | |||
| Above 1% | At 1% | Less than 1% |
2014 | 2 | 27 | 6 |
2015 | 18 | 2 | 11 |
2016 | 14 | 3 | 14 |
Government Legal Department (GLD) | |||
| Above 1% | At 1% | Less than 1% |
2014 | 65 | 973 | 96 |
2015 | 848 | 46 | 578 |
2016 | 834 | 105 | 1006 |
Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) | |||
| Above 1% | At 1% | Less than 1% |
2014 | 0 | 30 | 1 |
2015 | 18 | 2 | 10 |
2016 | 13 | 0 | 15 |
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) | |||
Year | More than 1% | At 1% | Less than 1% |
2014/15 | 1,038 | 3,743 | 1,881 |
2015/16 | 1,075 | 3,445 | 1,760 |
2016/17 | 675 | 3,058 | 2,182 |
In relation to the CPS:
In each of the three years the average pay awards were limited to up to 1% in line with the government’s framework from which all departments have set their pay arrangements.
In relation to the GLD, AGO and HMCPSI:
The pay award in 2014 provided all staff with a 1% pay award although a number received part of this as a non-consolidated sum because they were on or near their grade maximum and a small number had a retained contractual entitlement to a specific pay award of more than 1% from a previous department.
The 2015 and 2016 pay awards provided staff with a cash sum based on 1% of the average salary for their grade. The outcome provided an award of greater than 1% for those who were at the lower end of their pay range and less than 1% for those at the upper end.
GLD also took the opportunity in 2016 to review and update the pay structure for Legal Trainees and Legal Officers, resulting in a higher than 1% award in that year as individual’s moved to the new structure (30 people benefitted in this way).
In relation to the SFO:
For the 2014 pay award the SFO paid all eligible staff an award of either £350 or 1%. Ineligible staff were those already earning in excess of their pay-band maximum, those staff who were deemed as not effective and those staff who had joined the SFO after 31 January 2014.
In 2015, the SFO sought and obtained Treasury and AGO approval to convert 0.5% of the accrued bonus pot to fund increases to base pay for the more junior digital forensic and investigator roles. This was to help with retention and recruitment of staff in those roles which had been identified as a business need. At the same time the SFO introduced a performance pay matrix which allowed for strong performers near to the bottom of their pay-band to receive a larger increase than those in the middle and top of the band. Eligibility criteria were the same as for 2014 – with the cut-off date for new staff being 31 January 2015.
In April 2016 the SFO introduced a new pay model, also approved by Treasury and the Attorney General, which created separate specialist pay-bands for corporate, operational and digital staff to again further improve the recruitment/retention position with key operational roles. This allowed for a further significant base pay increases for staff in digital and investigative roles at all grades. The annual pay award in August 2016 followed the same approach as for 2015.