To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many employees of his Department and its agencies were convicted of a criminal offence of each type in each year since 1997. (302188)

As the Ministry’s disciplinary processes are devolved to a local level, there is no central recording of the total number of criminal convictions incurred by staff. To determine the number of employees convicted of any criminal offences would require contacting all work areas within the Ministry. To do so would incur disproportionate cost.

However, the Ministry’s conduct policy requires all employees to notify their managers about a criminal conviction and, depending on the circumstances of the case, disciplinary proceedings may be instigated at a local level. Where such a procedure is invoked it is possible to identify employees with convictions. The Ministry collates this information centrally but the reasons are not held in every case.

For the period 1997 to 2007 (up to the date of the establishment of the Ministry), the number of disciplinary cases related to convictions can be sourced only at a disproportionate cost. Since 2007, the number of staff in the Ministry’s staff subject to formal disciplinary action following receipt of a criminal conviction/police caution is detailed in the following table:

The total number of people employed by the Ministry of Justice varies from day-to-day. The cases above are from an employment population of circ. 79,840 in 2007-08 and 80,750 in 2008-09. The staff numbers used are published headcount figures on 31 March 2009 held on the Office for National Statistics website at:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk