PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES - United Kingdom Parliament

1107W
Written Answers
26 MARCH 2013
Written Answers
1108W
guidance documents relating to his Department’s
policy on (a) finance, (b) human resources and (c)
procurement referenced in the annex of his
Department’s Legal Aid Agency Framework
Document. [148520]
Jeremy Wright: The guidance documents relating
to the Department’s policies on finance, human resources
and procurement are not currently placed in the Libraries
of either House. This is because there are a large number
of policies that are internal documents shared on the
Ministry of Justice intranet for staff reference. It would
not be practical to place these in the Libraries because
of the volume of policies and guidance; the fact that
many of them have only been designed for electronic
presentation; and also because they are regularly updated
and would therefore become quickly out of date if they
were placed in the House Libraries. In line with the
Government’s digital by default approach, the Ministry
of Justice does not publish its internal material, including
policies, in hard copy but instead makes them available
via its internal digital channels such as the Intranet,
This reduces costs associated with printing and ensures
that staff always have access to the latest version of any
policy.
Natascha Engel: To ask the Secretary of State for
Justice what assessment his Department has made of
the potential additional cost to the court system of any
change in the duration of trials and tribunals
consequent upon future trends in the number of
participants in legal proceedings representing
themselves following changes to eligibility criteria for
legal aid. [149646]
Mrs Grant: These matters were assessed as part of
the impact assessments which were published alongside
the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders
Act 2012. There is limited available evidence on the
behavioural response of the individuals who will be
impacted by the reforms. However, court statistics do
not show that cases with self-represented litigants take
longer—if anything they suggest the opposite.
Following the introduction of our reforms, we are
providing easier to understand guidance and information
for those who represent themselves and further training
for judges.
Offenders
Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for
Justice what proportion of offenders who breached the
conditions of their caution were subsequently charged
by the Crown Prosecution Service in each quarter since
2008. [149481]
The Solicitor-General: I have been asked to reply.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) data shows
that a total of 3,157 offenders who breached their
conditional caution were subsequently charged by the
Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). A quarterly breakdown
of the actions taken by the CPS, in the event of an
offender not complying with the terms of the conditional
caution, is set out in the following table:
Quarter (financial
years)
Charge and request
full file No prosecution Conditions varied
Total breached
conditional cautions
referred to CPS
Non compliance
rate (percentage)
Compliance rate
(percentage)
2008-09
Q1 125 30 11 166 8.3 91.7
Q2 193 42 20 255 12.7 87.3
Q3 157 30 21 208 9.8 90.2
Q4 193 39 29 261 11.6 88.4
2009-10
Q1 196 43 21 260 11.9 88.1
Q2 229 53 27 309 15.6 84.4
Q3 249 55 27 331 15.6 84.4
Q4 199 41 30 270 13.9 86.1
2010-11
Q1 157 37 32 226 12.3 87.7
Q2 197 48 39 284 15.4 84.6
Q3 152 34 46 232 13.7 86.3
Q4 178 39 38 255 16.2 83.8
2011-12
Q1 161 31 38 230 16.1 83.9
Q2 163 54 29 246 18.7 81.3
Q3 150 32 31 213 18.6 81.4
Q4 156 38 29 223 20.5 79.5
2012-13
Q1 111 28 20 159 16.5 83.5
Q2 108 40 28 176 17.8 82.2
Q3 83 30 13 126 13.8 86.2