Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people with a disability work in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Selous
Information on the number of staff who have declared themselves as “disabled” is published within the Ministry of Justice’s diversity report, which can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/378112/moj-diversity-data-report-2013-14_.pdf
The data within this report is compiled from staff who have updated their personal diversity data to indicate that they consider themselves to have a disability.
The Ministry of Justice is committed to ensuring that equality of opportunity and diversity is a normal part of everyday business, and that its policies are fair and accessible to all.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what efforts he has taken to insulate his Departmental estate in order to improve energy efficiency; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Mike Penning
The Ministry of Justice (MOJ) is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
We have a programme of work which includes improving building insulation during roof and major internal refurbishments as well as during any work done on boilers and in plant rooms. Reducing the loss of heat from all sources forms an important part of our strategy to deliver savings within the MOJ Estate.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce water (a) usage and (b) bills in his Department; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is committed to reducing water consumption. In 2013/14 the MoJ reduced its water consumption by 4% against a 2009/10 baseline. We are achieving this by installing efficiency devices on taps, timers in showers, motion sensor flush systems and running behavioural change campaigns.
Reducing both water consumption and the cost of water forms an important part of our strategy to deliver savings within the MoJ estate.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the capacity of his Departmental buildings for the micro-generation of renewable energy; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.
On the MoJ estate there are already a number of renewable micro-generation projects including at Leeds Combined Court and HM Prisons: Haslar; Holloway; Lindholme; Maidstone; Portland; Wayland; Werrington and Wetherby. Micro-generation is often found to be less efficient than other energy reduction projects such as insulation and lighting improvements. The Department continues to prioritise the most cost-effective projects in order to achieve the best value for money.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how often his Department reviews its processes regarding the logging of emails, letters and other correspondence received; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Ministry of Justice uses an in-house data-handling system to log correspondence and assign it to the appropriate team for a response. The team that coordinates responses to the majority of correspondence gather briefly each day to manage their workload. This can involve suggestions from team members for improving processes, including logging. They meet more formally once a month, when improvements can also be proposed. The team meets once a fortnight with Ministers' private offices to review how correspondence is handled and issues monthly management information to members of the senior civil service responsible for correspondence handling in their teams, to focus on performance.
The Department has a 15 working-day target to respond to Members. Guidance on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament, Peers, MEPs and Members of devolved Administrations is available online at the following link - https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/61196/guide-handling-gov-correspondence.pdf
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Ministry of Justice has established a dedicated Digital Services team of digital specialists who are working to bring justice services online. Three of the Ministry of Justice’s four exemplar services are now live and available online, the final exemplar will be completed shortly and many more projects are planned.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the total private finance initiative liabilities of his Department are for the next 20 years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The MoJ (the core Department and its Executive Agencies) had Private Finance Initiative liabilities of £4,420,376,000 as at 31 March 2014. These liabilities related to 22 contracts, the details of which are in the table attached.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to provide children in custody with better education; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Selous
We are putting education at the heart of youth custody. We intend to open a Secure College pathfinder in Leicestershire in 2017, to give young people the skills, qualifications and self-discipline needed to turn their back on crime and become productive members of society.
Secure Colleges will have strong educational leadership, with a head teacher or principal at the centre of the leadership team. They will put learning, vocational training and life skills at the core of a regime which educates and rehabilitates young offenders.
At present young people in Youth Offending Institutions (YOIs) receive only 12 hours of education per week on average, which is insufficient. A competition is underway for new contracts which will more than double the number of hours young people in YOIs spend in education each week. There will be a focus on providing an equivalent quality of education to that offered outside custody. Providers will be challenged to deliver a broad and engaging curriculum reflecting the needs, abilities and ambitions of young people in YOIs, including an emphasis on core skills, vocational training and employment skills. Providers will also deliver a dedicated outreach service for any young people unable to attend classroom education. The Provider teams will be led by a head teacher or principal overseeing delivery of education. This person will also be a member of the senior management team of the establishment. The new service is due to commence in spring 2015 with a requirement that each YOI achieves a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating by Spring 2016.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to prevent the distribution of revenge porn; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Government is creating, in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, a new criminal offence which targets those who disclose private sexual photographs and films without the consent of the person depicted and with intent to cause that person distress.
The provisions to create the new offence were tabled as a Government Amendment at Lords Report stage of the Bill on 20 October and were warmly received and supported across the House.
The offence will cover the disclosure of private and sexual photographs or films of individuals who have not consented to this disclosure, such as those of them engaged in sexual activity, depicted in a sexual way, or with their genitals exposed, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public. It will apply to disclosures taking place online and offline. The offence will attract a two-year maximum prison sentence.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many private finance initiative projects his Department contracted for in each year from 1997 to 2010.
Answered by Simon Hughes
The data requested on PFI projects is publically available via the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-finance-initiative-projects-2013-summary-data.
The data accessed via this link can be filtered by procuring authority and then by date of financial close in order to determine how many PFI projects were contracted by a Department in a specific year.
This information is provided by Departments and published by the Treasury each year. The current data is as at 31 March 2013 but will be updated with data as at 31 March 2014 shortly.