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Malicious Communications Act 1988

Mr. Janner : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints there have been under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 ; and what was their outcome.

Mr. John Patten : No information is yet available on the number of offences committed under the Malicious Communications Act 1988 which did not come into force until September 1988.

Litter (Durham)

Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been prosecuted for litter offences in each of the last four years nationally and in Durham City constituency.

Mr. John Patten : The information requested is in the table. Such information for England and Wales only is published annually in volume 1 of the "Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, Supplementary Tables", copies of which can be found in the Library. Information for 1988 is not yet available.


                         England and Wales                               Durham<1>                                                              

                        |Total proceeded against|Total found guilty     |Total proceeded against|Total found guilty                             

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1984                    |1,552                  |1,427                  |3                      |3                                              

1985                    |1,510                  |1,389                  |3                      |3                                              

1986                    |1,600                  |1,425                  |9                      |9                                              

1987                    |1,888                  |1,694                  |5                      |4                                              

<1> Data are not collected centrally for the City of Durham alone but for the whole of the Durham petty sessional division.                     

Racial Hatred

Mr. Janner : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times and in what instances he used his powers to prevent marches likely to stir up racial hatred in (a) 1986, (b) 1987, (c) 1988 and (d) 1989.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : Under the Public Order Act 1986 public processions may be prohibited with the Secretary of State's consent only if the chief officer of police of the areas concerned reasonably believes that the imposition of conditions under section 12 of the Act will not be sufficient to prevent the holding of public processions from resulting in serious public disorder. Consent on these grounds was given to banning orders on one occasion in 1986, four times in 1987, three times in 1988 and has been given three times in 1989.

Dogs

27. Mr. McAllion : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any plans to introduce compulsory muzzling in public for particular breeds of dog.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : As I explained in the debate on the Adjournment on 15 June, I am not persuaded that this is the right course to take.


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Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration his Department has given to introducing schemes to encourage dog owners to have dogs neutered as a move to reducing the dog population.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : I am not persuaded that this is properly a matter for the Government. The care and wellbeing of pets is the responsibility of owners.

On the general matters of local authority powers in relation to stray dogs, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment made a statement in the debate on the Local Government and Housing Bill on 14 June at column 1053.

Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration his Department has given to widening the authority of parking wardens to apprehend and report (a) people allowing their dogs to foul footpaths and (b) people committing litter offences.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : We have no plans to extend the functions of traffic wardens beyond their primary purpose, which is to assist the police in the enforcement of road traffic law.

Drink-Driving

Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions for drinking and driving offences there were in 1987-88 and for 1989 to date nationally and in Durham City constituency.

Mr. John Patten : The available information relates to findings of guilt for driving and so on, after consuming alcohol or taking drugs and is published annually in a Home Office statistical bulletin "Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales". Table 9 of issue 32/88 gives the figures for 1987. In 1987, there were 115,000 findings of guilt for such offences of which 139 were recorded for Durham magistrates' court. Figures for 1988 will be published in the autumn.

Horse Racing

Sir Dudley Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what active support he is giving to the preservation of small racecourses in Great Britain.


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Mr. John Patten : The Horserace Betting Levy Board has a responsibility for supporting and promoting, as cost-effectively as possible, the provision of horseracing as an attractive, country-wide entertainment. To that end, the board devotes a substantial and increasing proportion of its resources to improving and sustaining racecourses of all sizes. Details are given in the board's annual report, a copy of which is in the Library.

Data Protection

Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many local authorities in England and Wales have so far registered for the basis of the poll tax registration with those responsible for the Data Protection Act 1984 ; which councils have been refused registration and for what reasons ; what further guidance in addition to the community charge practice notes the Data Protection Registrar has issued to local authorities ; if he will place a copy of such guidance in the Library ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Renton [holding answer 6 July 1989] : Community charge registration officers have to register under the Data Protection Act for compiling and maintaining community charge registers if those registers are to be kept on computer.

The data protection registrar, who reports directly to Parliament, informs me that by the end of June, he had identified 293 applications from CCROs for new register entries for the purpose of compiling and maintainng a community charge register. In addition, a number of local authorities had applied in their own name to register for this purpose.

I understand that so far, one application by Trafford borough council has been refused on the grounds that some of the information asked for was not necessary for the CCRO's statutory functions and that the form did not explain that there was no duty to provide information about relationships of people in households. In the light of undertakings given by the CCRO about the data to be processed for registration a revised application is being considered.

The registrar has written to all CCROs in England and arrangements have been made for a copy to be placed in the Library.


 

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