Senior Civil Service Appointments (Correction to Parliamentary Answer)

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Written Statements

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

I regret to inform the House that I have recently discovered that there was an inaccuracy in the answer I gave to a commons parliamentary question (85074) on 15 December 2011, Official Report, column 882W, about off payroll senior civil service appointments to the hon. Member for Harrow West (Mr Thomas).

I am now advised that the correct answer is that at the time of the question in December 2011, the Ministry of Justice had engaged nine senior managers working in senior civil service positions on an interim basis (deployed within the MOJ IT directorate). Within its executive agencies and non-departmental bodies, there were two senior managers engaged in a senior civil service position on an interim basis (one in the National Offender Management Service and the other in the Legal Service Commission).

Furthermore the answer described the process for the procurement of contractors and interims through a single managed service provider, Capita Resourcing Ltd. This was normally the case for the main Department and its executive agencies. However, it should have been made clear that the Ministry’s non-departmental public bodies have their own processes and are not obliged to use the Ministry’s single managed service provider. In addition, where the single managed service provider was unable to source specifically skilled individuals, then other providers are engaged.

Prison Capacity Management

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Written Statements

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

The Government are determined to provide a fit-for-purpose modern custodial estate that can deliver high quality, cost-effective and secure regimes that protect the public and reform prisoners. While the prison population temporarily rose as a result of last summer’s civil disturbances, since April it has resumed falling. New modern prison places in the private estate at HMP Oakwood and HMP Thameside have begun to come on stream so that we now have an opportunity to close some of our more expensive and superfluous prison places.

I am therefore announcing the closure of HMP Wellingborough which will see a reduction of 588 prison places.

On Friday 13 July the gap between the prison population and our useable capacity stood at 3,500 places. The prison estate in England and Wales has not operated with this degree of headroom since early 2011 and there is more unused capacity in the prison estate now than there was before the announcement in July last year to close HMPs Latchmere House and Brockhill, or prior to the serious public disorder in August 2011.

Capacity continues to grow with the number of available prison places planned to reach 91,600 by the end of the year. This will ensure that our operational capacity continues to take account of prison population projections in a way which meets the need both for greater efficiency and ability to support a strengthened focus on protection of the public and rehabilitation.

The closure of these places will provide estimated cost savings of over £10 million in annual running costs and avoid significant capital costs on refurbishment of up to £50 million in the next few years. We would expect to be able to absorb most staff displaced by this process elsewhere in the system and to avoid the use of compulsory redundancies wherever possible.

Judicial Pensions Reform

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Written Statements

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

On 5 July the Chief Secretary to the Treasury confirmed to the House that the Government will be taking forward legislation to introduce changes to pension schemes for the NHS, teachers and civil servants.

I have been considering the necessary reforms of the judicial pension scheme (JPS) in line with these wider public service pension reforms. The JPS is a critical element of the remuneration offered to the judiciary. Nevertheless we must ensure that the pensions provided are fair, sustainable and affordable. Accordingly, I have written to the heads of jurisdiction today setting out my proposals that will ensure that the pension provision for judges compares fairly with that offered to others in the public service. They also meet Government expectations for reform. This will be discussed with the judiciary over the summer and I will come back to the House further on the final detail.

Detainee Inquiry

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Written Statements

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

In my statement on 18 January 2012, Official Report, column 751, announcing the Government’s decision to bring the detainee inquiry to a conclusion, I said that Sir Peter Gibson, the inquiry chair, had agreed to provide the Government with a report on its preparatory work to date, highlighting particular themes or issues which might be the subject of further examination. The inquiry sent its report to the Prime Minister on 27 June 2012. The Government are now looking carefully at its contents and remain committed to publishing as much of this interim report as possible. I will provide a further update when the House returns.

Boundary Commission for England (Reappointment of Deputy Chair)

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Written Statements

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

I should like to inform the House that I have made the following appointment under schedule 1 to the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986:

The Honourable Mr Justice Sales re-appointed as Deputy Chairman of the Boundary Commission for England effective until 30 June 2014.

Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (Public Records Provisions)

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Friday 13th July 2012 Written Statements

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

My noble Friend the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, Lord McNally, has made the following written ministerial statement:

Today, I am announcing further details of how the Government will reduce, from 30 to 20 years, the point at which historical records are made available at the National Archives and other places of deposit. This is in response to a report delivered by a committee chaired by Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, which was commissioned by the previous Government.

The change to a “20-year rule” is a key part of our transparency agenda and will see a wealth of historical material opened to the public much earlier than under current arrangements. The aim is to provide greater openness and accountability, strengthening democracy through more timely public scrutiny of government policy and decision-making.

This is a major change and it is therefore important that it is introduced in a manageable and affordable way. A phased approach will be adopted. The point at which records are transferred to the National Archives (largely central Government records) will be reduced from 2013 over a 10-year transitional period, with two years worth of records being transferred to the National Archives every year until transition is complete. From 2023, when this transition is complete, we will transfer the single year’s worth of records which are caught by the “20-year rule” each year. This first stage of the change will affect an estimated 3.3 million records and cost an estimated £34.7 million to £38.5 million over 10 years.

We then intend to begin from 2015 a similar 10 year transitional period for records transferred to 116 local authority places of deposit, subject to the outcome of further detailed work on costs and the impact to the local authority archive sector. Current estimates of the cost of the second phase are £5.6 million to £15 million over 10 years. This will ensure that the “20-year rule” is implemented in an affordable way that achieves the greatest level of transparency.

The maximum lifespan of a number of exemptions provided by the Freedom of Information Act will be reduced for all public authorities in parallel with the first transitional period. From 1 January 2014 the maximum duration of the following exemptions will reduce by one year per annum over a 10 year period: sections 30 (investigations and proceedings conducted by public authorities); 32 (court records); 33 (audit functions); 35 (formulation and development of government policy); 36 (prejudice to effective conduct of public affairs), except in relation to Northern Ireland and the work of Executive Committee of Northern Ireland Assembly; and 42 (legal professional privilege).

The transition to a “20-year rule” will be a transparent process. The National Archives will report annually to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice on the progress made by ministerial Government Departments. Department-level data will be published on the National Archives’ website, including volumes due for processing each year, numbers transferred, and progress against declared transfer plans.

Community Payback

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Friday 13th July 2012 Written Statements

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

In the range of community sentences, Community Payback is primarily a punishment. It also enables offenders to be reformed and to make reparation for their crimes by doing unpaid work which benefits the community. We want to improve Community Payback provision through innovation, higher standards of quality in delivery and better value for the taxpayer. We also want to increase public confidence in this sentence so that offenders are seen to be punished for their crime, to make amends for the damage caused to individuals and communities and to be prepared for an honest hard-working life after the end of their sentence.

We seek to ensure that, in delivering Community Payback, we open up public services to draw on the skills and innovative capacity of the private, voluntary and social enterprise sectors. In June 2011 we launched a competition for the provision of Community Payback services in the London Probation Area. This opened the way for three private sector bidders to compete for the provision of these services. This is the first time that a major area of probation work has been opened up to the private sector through a competitive bidding exercise. It follows that the contract award that I am announcing today represents a significant step forward in using competition to improve the delivery of probation services, in line with the proposals set out in the Green Paper “Breaking the Cycle: Effective Punishment, Rehabilitation and Sentencing of Offenders”.

The winner of the competition to provide Community Payback services in the London Probation Area is Serco. The winning bid delivers substantial savings to the taxpayer of £25 million (37 %) over the life of the four-year contract. They will work closely with a range of providers to deliver the service, including London Probation Trust. The new contract arrangements will see greater involvement of local communities in how Community Payback services are delivered in their areas. There will also be better coordination of services across London as a result of the establishment of a dedicated control centre to oversee operations on a day to day and real time basis. The new service will begin in October this year. The contract will run for four years initially. We expect to re-compete the service after that.

Serco will have a number of contractual and delivery requirements to meet, which are intended to raise the performance and quality of service provision. These include offenders being allocated to work promptly after sentence, offenders successfully completing their Community Payback requirement and where they do not comply, enforcement action being taken quickly. Work has to be visible and of demonstrable benefit to local communities.

As I have indicated, the result of this competition shows that it is possible to achieve considerable savings on the current cost of Community Payback provision while at the same time developing other non-financial benefits such as innovation in the delivery of the service, higher quality, improved compliance, more rapid commencement and intensive working for unemployed offenders. We are also expecting to see wider engagement with the public which will improve levels of confidence in the Community Payback service. Overall, our intention is to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice system while reducing the cost to the taxpayer.

I turn now to updating the House on our wider programme of offender services competitions.

A key element of the “Open Public Services” White Paper published last year was that the provision of public services would be opened up to a wider variety of organisations as part of the Government’s commitment to improving the quality of public services. Competition not only promotes greater diversity in our provider base, but is also a powerful driver of more efficient and effective offender services. The Ministry of Justice’s “Offender Services Competition Strategy” published a year ago is making this policy a reality.

In the “Competition Strategy” I made a commitment to publish an annual update. The update covers activity on offender services competitions over the past year, gives an overview of current activity, and lists competitions that we plan to run in the following 12 months. It will be clear from the update that this amounts to a large and continuing programme of activity.

As well as the Community Payback competition in London, the update covers Prisons Competitions Phases One and Two, Prisoner Escort and Custody Services, Electronic Monitoring, Payment by Results pilots and the Offender Learning and Skills Services.

In relation to custodial services, for example, we have already completed the competitions for four prisons (HMP Birmingham, HMP Buckley Hall, HMP Doncaster, and HMP Oakwood) and we expect these to generate significant savings of £216 million over the life of the contracts A further nine prisons are currently subject to competition and we expect to award contracts in November this year. At that time we also expect to announce the custodial services that will be subject to competition in the next phase of our reform programme.

For community based offender services, we are engaged in a major competition to improve and enhance electronic monitoring, with contract award planned for early 2013.In the autumn we will publish our response to the consultation on “Punishment and Reform: effective probation services” setting out how we will accelerate a wider programme of competition for non-custodial services.

This Government are committed to public service reform and the success of our programme to date demonstrates how competition can be used effectively to open up the market, stimulate innovation and improvement and reduce cost to the taxpayer.

Copies of the annual update have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The document is also available on the Ministry of Justice website.

Official for Judicial Complaints (Annual Report 2011-12)

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Friday 13th July 2012 Written Statements

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

With the concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice, I will today publish the sixth annual report of the Office for Judicial Complaints (OJC). The OJC provides support to the Lord Chief Justice and myself in our joint responsibility for the system of judicial complaints and discipline.

I welcome the publication of this report which provides details of the important work undertaken by the OJC over the past year.

I am pleased to note that the OJC continues to provide a transparent and effective complaint handling service; dealing with over 1,600 complaints and 500 enquiries in last year, while continuing to deliver improved efficiency and value for money in the services it provides.

I note also the encouraging progress which has been made with the ongoing review of the Judicial Discipline (Prescribed Procedures) Regulations 2006 (as amended) which is seeking to improve and streamline the judicial disciplinary process. The public consultation on the proposed regulatory changes closed on 23 May 2012 and the Lord Chief Justice and I look forward with interest to receiving the recommendations of the working group, which is currently considering the consultation responses.

The next 12 months look set to present a significant challenge to the OJC as, in partnership with key stakeholders, it seeks to define and implement a revised regulatory framework and improved disciplinary processes.

Copies of the report are available in the Libraries of both Houses, the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office. Copies of the Report are also available on the internet at:

http://judicialcomplaints.judiciary.gov.uk/publications.htm.

European Union Act 2011 (Section 8)

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Wednesday 11th July 2012 Written Statements

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

A parliamentary statement has been laid before the House today, 11 July. This has been laid under section 8 of the European Union Act 2011. In the opinion of the Secretary of State, the Council decision establishing a multi-annual framework for 2013-17 for the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, published on 13 June 2012, relates to an exempt purpose within the meaning of section 8(6)(a) of that Act.

Copies of the parliamentary statement are available from the Vote Office and Printed Paper Office. Copies of the draft Council decision have been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.

Secure Training Centres and Young Offender Institutions (Physical Restraint)

Lord Clarke of Nottingham Excerpts

Tuesday 10th July 2012 Written Statements

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

Today I am announcing that I have formally approved a new system of restraint for use in secure training centres (STCs) and under-18 young offender institutions (YOIs) in England and Wales, titled “Minimising and Managing Physical Restraint” (MMPR).

The new system is a major step forward in improving the way young people are safeguarded in the under-18 secure estate. A comprehensive programme of work has resulted in a new system of restraint that has been specifically designed for use on young people in custody. This has been independently assessed by the independent Restraint Advisory Board (RAB) chaired by Professor Susan Bailey.

The “Independent Review of Restraint in Juvenile Secure Settings” in 2008 called for a significant cultural change in the way challenging behaviour is managed and this has been the premise on which MMPR has been designed and developed.

The behaviour of some young people in custody is extremely challenging and can put the safety of themselves, other young people and staff at risk. It is important that custody staff are given the necessary skills to ensure the safety of those in the custodial establishments including when restraint needs to be used.

The Government are clear that restraint should only ever be used as a last resort where it is absolutely necessary to do so and where no other form of intervention is possible or appropriate.

The Restraint Advisory Board’s report sets out the comprehensive assessment process the Restraint Advisory Board followed in order to make recommendations on minimising and managing physical restraint. After careful consideration, the Government have accepted all the recommendations. To support the delivery of MMPR, the Youth Justice Board and the National Offender Management Service will introduce a range of improved data collection and monitoring arrangements.

A programme of work will now begin to roll out MMPR in secure training centres and under-18 young offenders institutions. We will publish the full Restraint Advisory Board report, Government response and a version of the MMPR manual.

I am also announcing a replacement for the Restraint Advisory Board whose primary objective of assessing minimising and managing physical restraint has been completed. The Independent Restraint Advisory Panel (IRAP) will retain a similar breadth of expertise to the Restraint Advisory Board and will be chaired by Professor Susan Bailey. The Independent Restraint Advisory Panel’s objectives will be assessing the systems of restraint commissioned for use in secure children’s homes and supporting the implementation of MMPR. Details of the Independent Restraint Advisory Panel will also be available on the Ministry of Justice website, www.justice.gov.uk.