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Fire Cover Review
Sir John Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to receive the final proposals from the London fire and civil defence authority in respect of its fire cover review. [14923]
Mr. Sackville: Presently, these remain matters for the authority. I understand that it intends to consider the reaction to its recent consultation process at its meeting on 22 February.
Sir John Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what reply he has sent to the London borough of Bromley in response to its representations on the proposed reductions in fire cover affecting the borough; and if he will make a statement. [14924]
Mr. Sackville: The reply explained the criteria which my right hon. and learned Friend would apply to an application from a fire authority to reduce fire cover. It confirmed that, should such an application be received from the London fire and civil defence authority, the representations would be taken into account.
Identity Cards
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he plans to respond to the consultation exercise on the Government's Green Paper on identity cards. [14925]
Mr. Sackville: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Elmet (Mr. Batiste) on 26 January, Official Report, column 470.
Docklands Bombing (Fire Appliances)
Ms Ruddock:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many fire appliances attended the site of the docklands bombing on 9 February; at what
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times the first appliance arrived and the last appliance left; how many appliances arrived within (a) five and (b) 10 minutes of being summoned; from which fire stations appliances were sent; and how many fire fighters attended. [15202]
Mr. Sackville:
I have been informed by the London fire and civil defence authority that a total of 113 appliances attended this incident over three days. The first appliance arrived on 9 February at 19:07 and the last appliance left on 12 February at 13:46. One appliance arrived within five minutes of being summoned and two within 10 minutes. In total, 427 fire service personnel attended the incident.
Appliances were sent from the following stations: Addington, Barking, Battersea, Beckenham, Bethnal Green, Bromley, Bow, Chelsea, Croydon, Dagenham, Deptford, Dockhead, East Greenwich, East Ham, Erith, Forest Hill, Greenwich, Hainault, Hornchurch, Ilford, Lambeth fire boat, Lewisham, Leytonstone, Manchester Square, Millwall, New Cross, Norbury, Old Kent Road, Plaistow, Plumstead, Poplar, Romford, Shadwell, Sidcup, Silvertown, Stratford, Sutton, Tooting, Tottenham, Wandsworth, Westminster, Whitechapel, Woodford, Woodside and Woolwich.
Ms Hodge:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will announce his decision on the outcome of the second round of funding for local projects considered by the programme development unit of his Department. [15224]
Mr. Howard:
The matter of second stage bids to the programme development unit for funding local projects is being given careful consideration. I hope to be able to announce a final decision shortly.
Mr. Madden:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to his answer of 12 February, Official Report, column 411, if he will place in the Library a copy of the home country report on Pakistan used by a Home Office presenting officer at an immigration appeal hearing in Leeds in 1995; [15342]
Miss Widdecombe:
As I explained in answer to the question from the hon. Gentleman on 12 February, Official Report, column 411, when the country assessments to be made available to adjudicators have been finalised, I will place them in the Library.
Mr. Madden:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he has taken to remove Nigerian nationals from the short procedure, introduced last May, for deciding asylum cases likely to prove unfounded; and if he will make a statement. [15351]
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Miss Widdecombe:
The short procedure operates within existing legislation and has never been confined to countries which are candidates for designation under clause 1 of the Asylum and Immigration Bill. Individual applications which on examination are unsuitable for the short procedure are removed from it.
Mr. Loyden:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what further steps he is taking to deal with the problem of firearms-related crime. [13872]
Mr. Maclean:
Our aim is to cut the supply of guns used in crime and to ensure that the courts have adequate powers to deal with those who commit firearms offences. The controls on firearms are already stringent and kept under constant review. The penalties for misuse are substantial. The maximum penalty for carrying a firearm in the furtherance of crime is life imprisonment and the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 increased the maximum penalties for a wide range of other firearms offences. If further legislative measures are considered necessary, the Government will not hesitate to take them.
Local initiatives to detect or prevent armed crime are the responsibility of individual chief officers of police. I understand that the chief constable of Merseyside police has recently launched a high profile campaign to combat the particular threat posed by armed criminals in his force area.
Mr. Merchant:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what supplementary review of European parliamentary constituencies in England the parliamentary boundary commission for England plans to conduct. [15824]
Mr. Howard:
The commission has informed me that it intends to consider making a supplementary report on the European parliamentary constituencies in England, and to commence forthwith a general review of the European parliamentary constituencies in England.
Mr. Michael:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list for 1995 and each of the previous five years (a) the longest period and (b) the shortest period between the receipt by his Department of a report of a research project commissioned by his Department and its subsequent publication; and in each case if he will give (i) the title of the publication and (ii) the subject of the project. [14671]
Mr. Maclean
[holding answer 13 February 1996]: Details for reports published in 1994 and 1995 follow. There are no systematic records for previous years.
In 1994, the shortest and longest periods between receipt and publication were for the following reports:
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Mr. Maclean
[holding answer 13 February 1996]: There are no formal targets for the publication of research reports. Once a report is accepted as meeting the terms of the research contract, it is published as soon as practicable.
Mr. Steen:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list for primary and secondary legislation passed since 5 April 1995 which measures were subject to a compliance cost assessment; and what was the compliance cost in each instance. [13659]
Mr. Howard
[holding answer 14 February 1996]: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given to him by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 14 February, Official Report, column 578.
Mr. Straw:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 6 February, Official Report, column 107, on offences carrying a discretionary life sentence, for what offences were the five life sentences imposed; what offences were committed by the 29 offenders who did not receive an immediate custodial sentence for a second offence carrying a discretionary life sentence; and what sentence was imposed in these cases. [15191]
Mr. Maclean
[holding answer 14 February 1996]: I regret that the information given in the answer of 6 February, on offences carrying a discretionary life sentence, has been found to be incorrect due to an error in the way the sample was drawn. The first paragraph and table 1 of this answer show the revised figures.
The information requested is not collected routinely. A sample of those convicted of indictable offences in five weeks of 1993-94 included 1,086 offenders, not 600 as previously stated, convicted of sexual or violent offences carrying a discretionary life sentence, 224, or 21 per cent., not 198, or 33 per cent., of whom had previous convictions for such offences. One hundred and eighty-two not 169--of the offenders with previous convictions for such offences were given a custodial sentence, five, as previously given, of whom were sentenced to life imprisonment. The table shows the average sentence imposed, excluding life sentences, by offence group. Information is not available on sentences actually served by the offenders included in the sample.
15 Feb 1996 : Column: 709
(2) if he will place in the Library home country reports and other related information which he considered in respect of the designation of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ghana, Poland, Romania, Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Pakistan and Tanzania for the purposes of determining countries from which asylum cases are likely to prove unfounded. [15350]
Research and Planning Unit Paper (RPUP) "86 Drug Education Amongst Teenagers", (two months) and Home Office Research Studies (HORS) 134 "Contacts between Police and Public: findings from the 1992 British Crime Survey", (12 months) respectively.
In 1995 the reports concerned were:
Mr. Michael:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what targets he has set for his Department in respect of publishing the reports of research projects regarding crime, police and other issues. [14672]
HORS 147 "Anxiety about crime: findings from the 1994 British Crime Survey", (2.5 months) and RPUP 90 "Improving bail decisions: the bail process project phase 1" (14 months).
| Offence | Number sentenced to immediate custody on second or greater occasion | Average custodial sentence imposed (months) |
|---|---|---|
| Manslaughter | 5 | 45 |
| Rape | 8 | 81 |
| Robbery | 103 | 40 |
| Buggery | 4 | 75 |
| Wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm | 34 | 48 |
| Aggravated burglary | 3 | 74 |
| Firearms offences | 1 | 48 |
| Other offences | 19 | 36 |
| Total | 177 | 44 |
| Disposal | Manslaughter | Robbery | Wounding with intent to do GBH | Other offences |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Absolute discharge | -- | 1 | -- | -- |
| Conditional discharge | -- | -- | -- | 3 |
| Supervision order | -- | 6 | -- | 3 |
| Probation order | -- | 4 | -- | 9 |
| Community service order | -- | 1 | -- | -- |
| Combination order | -- | 2 | -- | 2 |
| Fully suspended sentence | -- | -- | -- | 1 |
| Otherwise dealt with | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Total | 1 | 18 | 1 | 22 |
(15) All offenders convicted of rape, buggery, aggravated burglary or firearms offences were sentenced to immediate custody.
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