§ Mr. MealeTo ask the Secretary of state for the Home Department if he will take steps to ensure that adequate levels of staffing are maintained in the magistrates court service.
§ Mr. John PattenThe numbers of court staff undergoing training to act as court clerks have been increased. As regards pay and conditions of service, I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to a question from the hon. Member for Wakefield (Mr. Hinchliffe) on 16 June at columns194–95.
§ Mr. MealeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give details of current court clerk vacancies within the magistrates court service.
§ Mr. John PattenI understand that returns received from 95 of the 105 magistrates courts committees in England and Wales, in a survey conducted by the joint negotiating committee for magistrates courts staff, indicated that there were 76 vacancies for court clerks (including senior, principal and trainee court clerks) on 1 April 1988, the latest date for which information is available, as follows:230W
Vacancies Barking 2 Bedfordshire 2 Berkshire 3 Birmingham 1 Buckinghamshire 1 Cleveland 2 Coventry 1 Cumbria 1 Derbyshire 1 Dorset 1 East Sussex 1 Gloucestershire 1 Hampshire 1 Humberside 1 Isle of Wight 1 Kent 7 Kirklees 1 Lancashire 3 Leeds 1 Leicestershire 4 Lincolnshire 1 Liverpool 3 Merton 1 Newham 1 Norfolk 6 North Tyneside 1 North Yorkshire 1 Nottinghamshire 5 St. Helens 2 Sandwell 2 Sheffield 2 South Tyneside 1 Staffordshire 3 Stockport 2 Sunderland 1 West Sussex 4 Wigan 1 Wiltshire 1 In addition, I understand that the inner London magistrates courts service had 15 vacancies in comparable grades.
§ Mr. MealeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list area by area the number of magistrates court days lost through staff shortages in the past 12 months.
§ Mr. John PattenThe information is not available centrally and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost.