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Police Authorities (Funding)

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the (a) capital funding and (b) supplementary credit approvals awarded to police authorities for 1996-97. [12930]

Mr. Maclean: The information is listed in the table.

Police capital programme 1996-97

Police force	Total funding £ million	Supplementary credit approval
Avon and Somerset(2)	4.610	1.427
Bedfordshire	2.288	0.708
Cambridgeshire	1.233	0.298
Cheshire	1.885	0.584
City of London	0.825	0.255
Cleveland	1.451	0.449
Cumbria	1.147	0.315
Derbyshire	2.200	0.616
Devon and Cornwall	3.739	0.773
Dorset	1.305	0.404
Durham	1.706	0.528
Dyfed Powys	0.936	0.290
Essex	7.310	2.079
Gloucestershire	1.991	0.595
Greater Manchester	8.404	2.602
Gwent	1.334	0.367
Hampshire	5.707	1.530
Hertfordshire	2.697	0.835
Humberside	3.123	0.967
Kent(2)	8.006	2.495
Lancashire	3.331	1.031
Leicestershire	3.886	1.203
Lincolnshire	2.873	0.890
Merseyside(2)	6.812	1.981
Norfolk	2.515	0.773
Northamptonshire	1.718	0.532
Northumbria	8.499	2.620
North Wales	2.115	0.559
North Yorkshire(2)	2.780	0.926
Nottinghamshire	5.965	1.847
South Wales(2)	7.146	2.146
South Yorkshire	5.472	1.694
Staffordshire	3.505	0.815
Suffolk	1.195	0.337
Surrey	5.923	1.834
Sussex	7.345	2.252
Thames Valley	6.883	2.058
Warwickshire	1.022	0.311
West Mercia	3.993	1.070
West Midlands(2)	9.409	2.900
West Yorkshire	7.682	2.290
Wiltshire	1.464	0.417
Metropolitan Police	54.410	16.459
Grand total	217.790	65.060

(2) Includes allocation for Regional Crime Squads.

Prisons (Capital Expenditure)

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what capital expenditure for the financial year 1996-97 for prisons in England and Wales will be dropped or revised as a result of the recent cost reductions; and what proportion this represents of total capital expenditure. [13278]

Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

6 Feb 1996 : Column: 109

Letter from A. J. Pearson to Mr. George Howarth, dated 6 February 1996:

The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about what capital expenditure for the financial year 1996-97 for prisons in England and Wales will be dropped or revised as a result of the recent cost reductions; and what proportion this represents of total capital expenditure.
The provisional capital budget for 1996-97 was £204 million. The final settlement was £117 million, representing a fall of 43% from the provisional budget. The Prison Service is currently deciding which projects to start in 1996-97 within its capital allocation and which capital projects can be started under the Private Finance Initiative.

"Prevention of Illegal Working"

Mr. Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of all the submissions he has received as a result of his consultation exercise on his document "Prevention of Illegal Working". [13346]

Miss Widdecombe: I have made available to the House a list of those who have responded in writing to the consultation document and a summary of the main points made in those responses. It is for those who responded to decide whether to make their submissions public.

Police (Publicity Costs)

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of the communications directorate campaign to publicise successful police operations. [13272]

Mr. Howard: The Department has no specific campaign to publicise successful police operations. Examples of good police work are included in press releases, articles and speeches to demonstrate successes in the fight against crime. The minimal costs involved cannot be identified separately.

Keith Mann

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what considerations led to Keith Mann being given category A status. [13383]

Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from A. J. Pearson to Mr. Gordon Prentice, dated 6 February 1996:

The Home Secretary has asked me, in the absence of the Director General from the office, to reply to your recent Question about what considerations led to Keith Mann being given category A status.
Category A is applied to those prisoners whose escape would be highly dangerous to the public or the police or the security of the state no matter how unlikely that escape might be; and for whom the aim must be to make escape impossible.
Keith Mann was convicted of arson in June 1993. He escaped from prison custody while awaiting sentence and was unlawfully at large until his re-arrest in April 1994. On arrest he was found to be in possession of what was reported by police to be material which could be used for making explosives and incendiary devices. He was

6 Feb 1996 : Column: 110

subsequently charged with a number of offences including attempted arson, incitement to commit arson and having explosive substance under suspicious circumstances.
In accordance with procedures laid down in the Prison Service Manual on Security, Keith Mann was, on his reception into prison custody, reported to Prison Service headquarters as a potential category A prisoner. Having regard to the nature and circumstances of the alleged offence, information received from the police and in the light of an assessment provided by a specialist police adviser, it was decided that Mr. Mann should be provisionally classified category A pending conviction and sentence.
On 19 December 1994 at the Central Criminal Court, Mr. Mann was sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment for damaging property, attempted incitement to commit arson, attempted incitement to commit criminal damage, attempted incitement to steal and having explosive substance under suspicious circumstances. A review of his security category was completed by the Prison Service Category A committee in September 1995. It was decided that Mr. Mann should remain a category A prisoner but this decision was further reviewed following the outcome of his appeal against sentence. It was subsequently decided that Mr. Mann's security category could be downgraded to category B.

Traffic Police (Training)

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of state for the Home Department if he will list the number of staff employed by the police (a) full time and (b) as part of the other duties to train traffic police in (a) tachograph and (b) construction and use regulations relevant to heavy goods vehicles. [13276]

Mr. Maclean: The information requested is not held centrally.

Juvenile Crime (Seaham and Peterlee)

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many juveniles were convicted of (a) theft and (b) burglary in the Seaham and Peterlee courts each year since 1991. [13199]

Mr. Maclean: Information regarding cases heard at individual court buildings within a petty sessional division is not collected centrally. Data from 1991 to 1994--latest available--are given for the Easington petty sessional division in the table.

Number of persons aged 10 to under 18 years convicted in the Easington Petty Sessional Division of indictable offences of theft and handling stolen goods and burglary, 1991-1994

Offence	1991	1992	1993	1994
Theft and handling stolen goods	23	31	43	60
Burglary	36	28	39	58

Firearms (Durham)

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many legally held firearms are held in the Peterlee sub-division of the Durham constabulary; of which type; and if he will list the figures for each of the last five years. [13229]

Mr. Maclean: Information received from the Durham constabulary indicates that a total of 1,495 firearms were covered by certificates in force on 31 January 1996 in the Peterlee sub-division--356 firearms, which includes rifles, pistols, revolvers, large magazine smooth bore guns and specially dangerous air weapons, and 1,139 shot guns.

6 Feb 1996 : Column: 111

Information for earlier years is not available apart from that contained in the answer given to the hon. Member's similar question on 21 January 1993, Official Report, column 332.

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