Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each of the last three years, what was the estimated cost to the public purse of people being imprisoned for defaulting on payment of their council tax.
Answered by Lord Faulks
This information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The department routinely publishes average costs per prisoner and prison place based on actual net resource expenditure for each private and public sector prison, and in summary form the whole of the prison estate in England and Wales on an annual basis after the end of each financial year. These can be found on Gov.uk.Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what projections they have made of the future age profile of the prison population.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The Ministry of Justice publish annual projections of the prison population broken down by juveniles (15-17 year olds), young adults (18-20 year olds) and adults (21+). These are published as part of the annual prison population projections.
The next release of this publication will be in November 2015, when it is planned to include further tables showing projections for populations aged over 50 years and over 60 years old.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to implement the European Protection Order (EU Directive 2011/99/EU) that requires member states to introduce procedures whereby the victims of domestic violence can get a non-molestation order from the courts in one member state which will then be automatically recognised in other member states.
Answered by Lord Faulks
EU Directive 2011/99/EU on the European Protection Order comes into force on 11 January 2015 and the Government plans to implement it by way of statutory instrument made under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972, on the same day. At the same time, the Government will also implement the related EU Regulation on the mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters, (606/3013) which comes into force on the same day.
Asked by: Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the outcome of the meeting held with the NSPCC on 14 November to discuss the Serious Crime Bill.
Answered by Lord Faulks
The meeting between Government officials, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Police and the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children to discuss the case for criminalising sexual communications with a child was constructive.
As my Rt Hon friend the Home Secretary indicated during Home Office oral questions on 17 November (House of Commons, official report, column 17), we will complete our consideration of the case for a new offence in good time to enable an amendment to be tabled to the Serious Crime Bill in the House of Commons should the Government decide to do so.