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Alcohol (Minors)
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions for selling (a) alcohol and (b) alcopops to under-age children have taken place in England and Wales in each of the last five years; what proportion of prosecutions have involved sales from (i) public houses, (ii) off licences, (iii) supermarkets and (iv) other outlets; and if he will make a statement. [4404]
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Mr. Maclean: The information held centrally does not distinguish between the forms in which alcohol is sold or the types of retail outlet proceeded against.
| Prosecutions | |
|---|---|
| 1991 | 309 |
| 1992 | 195 |
| 1993 | 156 |
| 1994 | 137 |
| 1995 | 198 |
(26) Section 169(1) Licensing Act 1994.
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about his policy on people purchasing alcohol on behalf of minors. [4414]
Mr. Maclean: I fully support the proposals of my hon. Friend the Member for Castle Point (Dr. Spink) to enable the police to confiscate alcohol from people under 18 drinking alcohol in a public place, and to seize alcohol from people who are 18 if it is intended for consumption by under-age drinkers in public.
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) people and (b) children under the age of 18 have been prosecuted for alcohol-related crime in England and Wales in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [4406]
Mr. Maclean: It is possible to distinguish centrally only defendants prosecuted for offences under the intoxicating liquor laws as opposed to alcohol-related crimes.
Information is given in the table:
| Offence description/age | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drunkenness, simple | |||||
| Under 18 | 69 | 37 | 19 | 35 | 39 |
| All ages | 4,503 | 3,663 | 2,795 | 3,349 | 3,061 |
| Drunkenness, with aggravation | |||||
| Under 18 | 969 | 798 | 626 | 819 | 1,034 |
| All ages | 30,580 | 25,893 | 21,003 | 22,247 | 22,153 |
| Offences by licensed persons etc. | |||||
| Under 18 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -- |
| All ages | 1,008 | 863 | 686 | 516 | 629 |
| Other offences against intoxicating liquor laws | |||||
| Under 18 | 103 | 30 | 14 | 24 | 17 |
| All ages | 1,106 | 843 | 558 | 446 | 383 |
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Closed Circuit Television Schemes
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost per crime averted of the five most expensive closed circuit television schemes installed since 1992; and if he will list these. [4488]
Mr. Maclean: This information is not available.
Criminal Injuries Compensation Board
Sir Ivan Lawrence: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the increase in (a) staff and (b) costs of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board in each of the past five years. [4094]
Mr. Maclean: The information is summarised in the table:
| 1991-92 | 1992-93 | 1993-94 | 1994-95 | 1995-96 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average number of staff in post | 381 | 386 | 414 | 458 | 466 |
| Total cost of administration (£ million) | 13.1 | 14.2 | 17.3 | 17.8 | 19.3 |
| Compensation paid (£ million) | 143.7 | 152.2 | 165.1 | 175.4 | 179.0 |
Sir Ivan Lawrence: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions, on application to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, victims have been paid before a criminal act has been established in the courts in each of the past five years; and what proportion these payments represent of the overall payments made by the board. [4095]
Mr. Maclean: The data requested are not available. The compensation arrangements for victims of crimes of violence, whether under the common law damages scheme or the tariff-based one which superseded it on 1 April 1996, do not require the act of violence to have been established in a court of law. Many assailants are unidentified or otherwise untraced. Where, however, a trial is pending, it may be necessary for the final assessment of a claim to be delayed until the outcome of the trial is known, since the proceedings may raise issues of eligibility.
Drug Traffickers
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what sums of money have been recovered from drug traffickers since 1 January; and what proportion of this amount is ear-marked for anti-drug abuse projects.[3898]
Mr. Maclean: No figures are yet available for 1996. The latest available figures show that, in the last financial year--1995-96--£5,343,241.63 was recovered from convicted drug traffickers. Under present accounting arrangements, all confiscated money is paid directly into the Consolidated Fund, from which Government expenditure generally, including substantial funding for drug-related work, is financed. In addition, sums realised from the enforcement of overseas confiscation orders, asset shares and gifts received as a result of co-operation with other countries are specifically ear-marked for
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spending on anti-drug projects through the seized assets fund, and £168,000 has been made available in this way for spending in 1996-97.
Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will establish an independent audit of the performance of the Prison Service against its key performance indicators for each six-month period of 1995-96 and 1996-97; and if he will make a statement about the accuracy of the information relating to the indicators. [2941]
Miss Widdecombe: The Prison Service's performance against its key performance indicators--KPIs--for 1996-97 and previous years were published in its corporate plan 1996 to 1999, and I understand that the Director General has written to you with details of performance in the first six months of 1996-97.
I am satisfied that the overall quality of the KPI data is good. As you know, the definition of the KPIs is agreed with Ministers, and the Prison Service has detailed instructions setting out how the data are to be collected. The Prison Service's own standards audit team is currently auditing data collection for KPIs in individual establishments. Preliminary results confirm that overall quality is good, while suggesting ways in which data definitions could be further tightened so as to improve quality further.
It is important that there is independent validation of the Prison Service's data, and the Home Office internal audit unit is about to commence an audit which will be external to the agency.
Sir Irvine Patnick:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to meet local authority representatives to discuss crime prevention; and if he will make a statement. [4826]
Mr. Maclean:
None, but officials of the crime prevention agency are in regular contact with local authority representatives.
Mr. Llew Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how much compensation each police force in England and Wales has paid to members of the public following complaints about the use of police dogs in each year since 1985; [3621]
(3) how many complaints each police force in England and Wales has received concerning the use of police dogs in each year since 1985; [3534]
(4) how many times each police force in England and Wales has paid compensation to members of the public following complaints about the use of police dogs in each year since 1985. [3620]
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Mr. Maclean:
Information on the number of complaints against the police involving police dogs, or cases in which compensation is paid by police forces, is not recorded centrally.
Mr. Alex Carlile:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to halve the maximum sentence for burglary and for the maximum period of detention at a youth custody establishment; and if he will make a statement. [4672]
Mr. Maclean:
We have no plans to reduce the maximum sentence for burglary or the maximum period of detention in a young offender institution.
(2) how many complaints the Police Complaints Authority has received about the use of police dogs in each police force in each year since 1985; [3535]
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