Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he expects Section 28 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 to come into force.
Answered by Mike Penning
Knives on our streets are a social scourge, and under this Government, criminals carrying knives are more likely to go to prison and to get longer sentences. Unlawful possession of a knife or offensive weapon is already a serious criminal offence (which carries a maximum 4 year custodial sentence). We have built on that in the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, to make it absolutely clear that cautions should no longer be used for these offences.
Parliament has also decided that those caught for a second time in possession of a knife should face a minimum custodial sentence. The Ministry of Justice is currently considering how best to implement this provision, alongside the other legislative changes contained in the Act.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, who the members are of the appointment panel for the new Chief Inspector of Prisons.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The Selection Panel for the competition to recruit a new Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons were:
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people leaving prison since 1 February 2015 after sentences of under 12 months have been supervised by a community rehabilitation company.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
On 1 February 2015, provisions of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 came into force, which extend post release supervision to offenders released from sentences of more than one day but less than 12 months. These provisions apply to any offender whose offence was committed on or after 1 February 2015.
Official figures for the number of short sentenced offenders supervised by Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are not currently published. However, there will be a gradual increase in the number of offenders eligible for post-release supervision as cases flow through the courts. We will closely monitor numbers of all offenders being released into the supervision of both the National Probation Service and CRCs, including those from sentences of less than 12 months.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of local magistrate advisory boards were (a) women, (b) men, (c) of BAME origin and (d) aged over 65 on 1 April (i) 1989, (ii) 1994, (iii) 2000, (iv) 2005, (v) 2010 and (vi) 2014.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
I have interpreted ‘Local magistrate advisory boards’ to mean Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace, the bodies responsible for recruiting and selecting magistrates in England and Wales.
We encourage applications from people from all walks of life who have the necessary skills, and we will continue to work to ensure that our magistrates reflect the make-up of modern Britain.
Diversity data for the Advisory Committees’ members is not recorded for the requested years prior to 2005. The available data is shown below.
Year (1 April) | Female | Male | BAME | Age over 65 |
2005 | 46% | 54% | 7% | 36% |
2010 | 47% | 53% | 9% | 60% |
2014 | 48% | 52% | 10% | 53% |
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, who the members are of each local magistrate advisory board.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
I have interpreted ‘Local magistrate advisory boards’ to mean Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace, the bodies responsible for recruiting and selecting magistrates in England and Wales.
To enable their work to be informed by a range of knowledge and experience, Advisory Committees are composed of both magistrates and non-magistrates. At least one third of each Committee’s members should be non-magistrates.
The attached table contains the names of each Committee’s members and indicates which of those members are magistrates.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of local magistrate advisory boards are (a) sitting magistrates and (b) non-magistrates.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
I have interpreted ‘Local magistrate advisory boards’ to mean Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace, the bodies responsible for recruiting and selecting magistrates in England and Wales.
To enable their work to be informed by a range of knowledge and experience, Advisory Committees are composed of both magistrates and non-magistrates. At least one third of each Committee’s members should be non-magistrates.
The attached table contains the names of each Committee’s members and indicates which of those members are magistrates.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his Department's press release Damian Green: new rehabilitation powers for magistrates, published on 25 March 2014, when he plans to publish a White Paper on magistrates' reform.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Government has no plans to publish a White Paper on magistrates’ reform before the General Election. The role of magistrates will be reviewed again once our rehabilitation and summary justice reforms have bedded down.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of the total work undertaken in magistrates' courts was presided over by (a) lay magistrates and (b) district judges on 1 April (i) 1989, (ii) 1994, (iii) 2000, (iv) 2005, (v) 2010 and (vi) 2014.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
HM Courts and Tribunals Service does not centrally hold the data requested for 1st April 1989, 1994, 2000, and 2005. The records became centralised with a phased roll out of a case management system (Libra) in 2005. Therefore, records prior to that date are retained locally and would require a manual trawl to retrieve and could only be collected at a disproportionate cost. However, for 1st April 2010 and 2014 the data is set out in the following table:
Date | Judiciary | Cases | |
Number | % | ||
01-Apr-10 | Magistrates | 10,512 | 93.0% |
District Judges | 797 | 7.0% | |
01-Apr-14 | Magistrates | 8,972 | 91.1% |
District Judges | 880 | 8.9% | |
The column headed 'Cases', provides a count of cases that have a hearing listed on the specified hearing date, it is possible for a single defendant to have more than one case listed at the same time. The data includes Criminal, Civil and Enforcement cases, but will exclude any family cases heard in the Magistrates' Courts. It is possible to have Magistrates sitting with District Judges in the same session; where this occurs the case will be counted under both.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which contracts worth more than £5 million his Department has signed since 1 September 2014; with whom such contracts have been signed; for what purpose; what the (a) annual and (b) total cost of each such contract is; and what the length of each such contact is.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
When buying products and services we always seek best value for taxpayers' money and find savings were possible.
Please refer to Annex A for the answer.
I can confirm that 24 contracts worth more then 5 million have been signed since 1 September 2014.
The Transforming Rehabilitation Programme successfully signed 21 contracts to run probation services for low and medium risk offenders across the whole of England and Wales in December 2014. These services replace the previous delivery of these services to low and medium risk offenders from probation trusts and will now also provide "through the gate" support and services to offenders serving sentences of less than 1 year. The contracts include a payment by results element to reward providers who are successful at reducing reoffending rates.
The contracts are for 7 years with a further 3 year extension option and an exit period available at the discretion of the Authority. The values stated for the Transforming Rehabilitation contracts are estimates based on a 7 year contract term. A range of values is provided indicating the value of the contract with no Payment by Results payable and with all available Payment by Results payable to the suppliers. Actual values are non-indexed and may vary depending on volumes, indexation and demand for services to the National Probation Service.
The Contract Award date is the signed date.
Asked by: Sadiq Khan (Labour - Tooting)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average age was of a magistrate on 1 April (a) 1989, (b) 1994, (c) 2000, (d) 2005, (e) 2010 and (f) 2014.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
We encourage applications from people from all walks of life who have the necessary skills, and we will continue to work to ensure that our magistrates reflect the make-up of modern Britain.
Average age data for the magistracy is not recorded for 1989, 1994, and 2000. The available data is shown below.
Year | Average Age |
2005 | 56 |
2010 | 58 |
2014 | 59 |