§ Richard OttawayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his policy is towards the requirement for preparation of pre-sentence reports by the London Probation Service; and if he will make a statement. [68878]
§ Hilary BennThe courts have a statutory duty and right to commission pre-sentence reports where they think it appropriate to do so and the area Probation Service has a statutory duty to provide them. A pre-sentence report may take the shorter form of a Specific Sentence Report where there is reason to believe that the offender presents a lower risk or the court has a specific sentence in mind. National Standards for the supervision of offenders in the community 2000 require pre-sentence reports to be prepared within a maximum of 15 working days of the court's request. This applies in London as elsewhere in England and Wales.
§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the(a) budget and (b) spending has been of the London Probation Service since 1994; and if he will make a statement. [69427]
§ Hilary BennThe budget for the London Probation Service from 1994–95 is set out in the table. This is based on the original main service grant allocation issued by the Home Office. The actual spending is not available as the former Inner-London Probation Service was part of the Metropolitan Police District and has not submitted grant claim forms to the Home Office.
£ million Financial year Budget 1994–95 72.0 1995–96 72.1 1996–97 78.9 1997–98 77.8 1998–99 77.1 1999–2000 80.4 2000–01 84.7 2001–02 88.0 2002–03 92.8 Notes:
1. The sum of £2.7 million in 2001–02 and £3.7 million in 2002–03 were subsequently transferred to the Department of Health for expenditure relating to Drug Treatment and Testing Orders.
2. The budgets for 2001–02 and 2002–03 exclude any provision for the Family Court Welfare Service which was transferred to the Lord Chancellor's Department from April 2001. It is estimated that such expenditure was about 7 per cent. of the budget in 2000–01.
3. The budgets for 2001–02 and 2002–03 include small amounts for small capital works and the capital charges on freehold buildings. The 2002–03 budget also includes small amounts for depreciation of fixed assets and non-reclaimable VAT.
§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the ratio is of staff to clients operated by the London Probation Service. [69432]
§ Hilary BennThe number of clients (offenders) assigned to the staff in the London probation area is currently 32,000. Given that part time staff are on average 0.5 of the overall staffing structure, this gives full time equivalent staffing of 2,402 (including administrative and headquarters staff) giving a client/staff ratio of 13.3:1.
845W
§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many(a) sex offenders, (b) drug abusers, (c) domestic violence offenders and (d) mentally ill persons are being dealt with by the London Probation Service. [69431]
§ Hilary BennAt the end of December 2000, 1,500 offenders sentenced for indictable sexual offences and 5,400 offenders sentenced for indictable drugs offences were being supervised by the London probation area. Information on domestic violence offenders and mentally ill offenders is not available.