Ministerial Correction

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Wednesday 29th June 2011 Written Statements

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Kenneth Clarke)]

I refer to the debate following my oral statement on sentencing reform and legal aid, 21 June 2011, Official Report, column 165.

In my response to the right hon. Member for Delyn (Mr Hanson), regarding a reduction in foreign national prisoners at column 173, I gave an indicative comparative figure stating that there are now 1,000 fewer FNPs than when the previous Government left office.

I would like to correct the information I gave. As of 31 March 2011, there were 10,745 FNPs—622 fewer than on 31 March 2010, when there were 11,367 FNPs.

As I said in the debate, the Ministry of Justice continues to work with the UK Border Agency to remove FNPs at the earliest possible opportunity.

In my response to the hon. Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris), on the issue of legal aid funding for clinical negligence claims at column 174, I stated that 80% of clinical negligence cases are currently undertaken on a no win, no fee basis.

I would like to correct the information I gave. The precise data I now have, from the NHS Litigation Authority, show that in 2008-09 5,245 claims for clinical negligence were received by the NHSLA. Of the 3,993 clinical negligence cases where the type of funding was known, 1,821 (46% of cases where funding type was known) were funded by no win, no fee conditional fee agreements, 1,145 (29%) were funded by legal aid, 632 (16%) were self-funded, and 395 (10%) were funded by “before the event” legal expenses insurance. I understand from the NHSLA that the cases where funding type was not known are unlikely to be CFA-funded. Although the NHSLA covers clinical negligence cases against NHS bodies in England only, there is no reason to suggest that the breakdown of funding arrangements for all clinical negligence cases in England and Wales is significantly different.