The Ministry of Justice funds the following helpline and telephone contact centres, listed in the table, with staffing figures for the last two years:
Last year (full-time equivalent) This year (full-time equivalent) Community Legal Advice (CLA) 100.5 179.4 National Debtline 62 88 Duty Solicitor Call Centre (DSCC) (headcount) 79 162 Criminal Defence Service Direct (CDS) (headcount) 40 46 National Mediation Helpline 5 5 Prisoners Abroad 4 4 NACRO Resettlement Helpline (National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) 5 5 Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) 3.95 4.25 The National Archives n/a 4.6 Sentence Calculation 2 2 Home Detention and Curfew and Release on Temporary Licence 2.25 2.25 Family Mediation Helpline 2 2 Victims Helpline 0.2 0.2 The Information Commissioners Office Helplines (ICO)1 222 222 n/a - not available at this time. 1 The Ministry of Justice provides a grant in aid for the ICO’s Freedom of Information (FOI) responsibilities. The ICO maintains two helplines (which cover their data protection and FOI responsibilities), of which they are responsible for monitoring the performance and effectiveness. Performance figures are passed on to the Ministry of Justice for information. It was not possible to accurately separate staff figures specifically for the helplines. 2 approx. Note: Information that is not available at this time will be provided in due course.
In addition to these, the Department will be funding the Prisoners’ Families Helpline for 2008-09 and also plans to launch the Mubarak Trust Helpline as a pilot scheme in Feltham next year.
There are a variety of mechanisms in place across the Department with which Ministers monitor the telephone contact centres’ effectiveness. For example, CLA is operated by the Legal Services Commission which is established by the Access to Justice Act 1999. Others are operated by their policy teams under service level agreements.
We are currently surveying high level information on helplines funded by all Government Departments (as a distinct subset of contact centres), for the purpose of exploring the scope for greater co-ordination. We intend to publish aggregate information on the data collated and analysed in spring 2008.
At present, my Department collects a wide variety of information on the telephone contact centres it funds for the purpose of monitoring performance. Further information is given in answer to another question from the hon. Member.
The Ministry of Justice has recently launched an online survey for all publicly funded helplines across Government. This collects high level information such as annual cost, funding, staff numbers and pay, opening hours and co-ordination with other helplines. All helplines funded by the Department have completed the survey.
The Contact Council is also collecting more detailed information from all contact centres, measuring their performance and effectiveness against 26 set indicators.
These initiatives will result in increased standardisation in the information collected to monitor performance of telephone contact centres.
The following table shows the cost of each helpline and telephone contact centre that the Ministry of Justice funds for the latest available years in each case:
2005-06 2006-07 Community Legal Advice (CLA) 5,439,163 9,562,564 National Debtline 3,539,432 3,972,448 Duty Solicitor Call Centre (DSCC) 2,818,000 3,096,136 Criminal Defence Service Direct (CDS) 534,000 1,369,943 National Mediation Helpline 75,998 43,147 Prisoners Abroad 1,009,000 1,009,000 NACRO Resettlement Helpline (National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders') 277,842 284,788 Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority 180,000 188,000 The National Archives Not available at this time. 140,388 (approx based on one quarter) Sentence Calculation 190,100 190,100 Home Detention and Curfew and Release on Temporary Licence 176,375 176,375 Family Mediation Helpline Not available at this time. 57,428 Victims Helpline 13,325 13,325 The Information Commissioners Office Helplines 2No direct information available 2No direct information available 1 These costs relate to in-house telephone helplines and are therefore an estimate of staff costs. 2 The Ministry of Justice provides a grant in aid for the ICO's Freedom of Information (FOI) responsibilities. The ICO maintains two helplines which cover the ICO's data protection and FOI responsibilities. It was not possible to separate cost figures specifically for the helplines.
The National Debtline and NACRO are the only telephone contact centres that have a generated income. The following table shows these figures:
2005-06 2006-07 National Debtline 323,548 592,432 NACRO Resettlement Helpline (National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders) 23,727 5,724