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Young Offenders

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many young offenders received a caution plus in 1998-99 in each police authority area in England. [89922]

Mr. Boateng: Information on caution plus schemes is not collected centrally.

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the average time accused young offenders spend between being charged by the police and first appearing in court in each police authority area in England. [90051]

8 Jul 1999 : Column: 600

Mr. Boateng: The exact information requested is not available. Information on the duration of criminal cases is available from the magistrates courts Time Intervals Survey which is carried out by the Lord Chancellor's Department. The latest available results refer to 1998 when the survey collected information on cases completed in magistrates courts in one week of each of February, June and October. The date of first appearance in court is not collected by the survey but the date of first listing--which is the same as first appearance when the defendant appears at first listing--is collected. The 1998 surveys do not specifically distinguish between adult and youth

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defendants, but do differentiate whether a case was completed in a Youth Court or an Adult Court, and the answer is supplied on that basis.

The table shows the average time from charge to first listing for defendants in indictable cases in the Youth Court by police authority area in England, and for England as a whole, in 1998.

Average number of days from charge to first listing for charged defendants in indictable cases in the Youth Court, 1999 (2), (3), , (3)

Police authority area	Average number of days from charge to first listing	Number of defendants (sample size)
Avon and Somerset	23	50
Bedfordshire	23	12
Cambridgeshire	30	44
Cheshire	33	52
City of London(5)	n/a	n/a
Cleveland	25	75
Cumbria	29	34
Derbyshire	33	47
Devon and Cornwall	27	31
Dorset	22	17
Durham	25	86
Essex(6)	33	74
Gloucestershire	29	31
Greater Manchester	26	228
Hampshire	20	100
Hertfordshire(6)	37	49
Humberside	19	75
Kent	27	82
Lancashire	25	165
Leicestershire	28	56
Lincolnshire	28	20
Merseyside	23	109
Metropolitan(5)(6)	29	478
Norfolk	25	49
North Yorkshire	21	32
Northamptonshire	33	19
Northumbria	27	229
Nottinghamshire	28	107
South Yorkshire	27	99
Staffordshire	25	111
Suffolk	33	30
Surrey(6)	37	39
Sussex	35	30
Thames Valley	27	98
Warwickshire	22	78
West Mercia	26	49
West Midlands	27	139
West Yorkshire	28	186
Wiltshire	39	27
England	27	3,237

(2) Excludes defendants summoned to court (i.e. rather than charged).

(3) Defendants for whom the offence to charge time was over 10 years, or where the time from charge to first listing or first listing to completion was over 1 year, are excluded from the analysis.

(4) Small sample sizes mean that figures are subject to greater sampling error. Results based on a sample size of less than 100 should be interpreted with particular caution.

(5) Youths charged by the City of London police are normally dealt with at an Inner London Youth Court and are included in results for the Metropolitan Police Authority area.

(6) The Metropolitan Police Authority covers parts of Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey. Defendants charged by the Metropolitan Police but whose case was completed in a magistrates court in Essex, Hertfordshire or Surrey are included in the results for these police authority areas.

Source:

Lord Chancellor's Department Time Intervals Survey

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Refugees (Balkans)

Mr. Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many refugees from (a) Bosnia and (b) Kosovo have arrived in the United Kingdom in each of the past five years. [90049]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The available information is given in the table. This relates to people who have applied for asylum and is a separate measure from those who arrived in the United Kingdom under the recent humanitarian and medical evacuation programme. Under those programmes, 4,380 Kosovars have arrived in the United Kingdom. A number of these may subsequently apply for asylum and thus be included in the tables. In addition, 2,736 arrived under earlier programmes announced from 1992 and 1995. I regret that, prior to 1996, statistics for the former Yugoslavia were not recorded under the individual states. It is also not possible separately to identify Kosovars within the available statistics for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Asylum applications (7) received in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants, 1996 to 1999 (8) for nationals of Bosnia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

Year	Bosnia	Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
1996	245	400
1997	170	1,865
1998	160	7,395
1999	50	3,455

(7) Figures rounded to the nearest 5

(8) January to May

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letters to him dated 19 March, 22 April and 27 May with regard to Mr. Kochi Ahmed, husband of Mrs. S. Khan, from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton. [89959]

Mr. Straw: I replied to my right hon. Friend's letters on 6 July.

Rohypnol

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of crimes involving Rohypnol in the last year; and what steps have been taken by Her Majesty's Government to raise public awareness on this issue. [89941]

Mr. George Howarth: We understand that in 1998, the Forensic Science Service screened 139 samples in rape cases for flunitrazepam (Rohypnol) with no positive results. Up until 20 May this year, 45 samples had been screened in rape cases also with no positive results.

The Home Office has recently given a police research award to two Metropolitan police officers for a research project which aims to establish the extent of drug assisted sexual offences in the United Kingdom. They are expected to report in April 2000. We will await the results of the study before making a decision on whether and how to further raise public awareness on the issue or take any further action.

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Asylum Seekers

Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what advice he has received on the compatibility of the prosecution for bearing false documents of asylum seekers in transit with Article 31 of the 1951 UN Convention relating to the status of refugees. [89717]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The details of the advice I receive from my officials are confidential, but I am advised that prosecution in these circumstances is not necessarily incompatible with the United Kingdom's obligations under Article 31. However, a decision about whether or not to prosecute in a particular case is entirely a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service.

Palace of Westminster (Demonstrations)

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the arrangements for (a) permitting and (b) policing demonstrations in the neighbourhood of the Palace of Westminster; who is responsible for issuing such permission; and on what authority. [89830]

Kate Hoey: Police permission is not required for people to assemble and protest peacefully. Marches or processions must be notified to the police. Under the Public Order Act 1986, the police have powers to impose conditions if it is necessary to prevent serious public disorder, serious damage to property, or serious disruption to the life of the community or intimidation. The Commissioners of Police, in both the City and Metropolitan police areas may, with the consent of the Secretary of State, make an order prohibiting the holding of processions for a specified period within their police areas.

In most cases, organisers contact the police who will advise on how the protest should be held without causing obstruction, breach of the peace or contravening any other legislation. Inevitably, there are cases where the numbers attending a demonstration will cause some obstruction and arrangements are made which endeavour to strike the correct balance between the rights of the protesters and those people going about their day to day business.

The policing of demonstrations in the neighbourhood of the Palace of Westminster is undertaken by the Charing Cross Division of the Metropolitan police with due regard to various legislation including the Public Order Act 1986, the Highways Act 1835, Common Law and the Sessional Orders.

Under Section 52 of the Metropolitan Police Act 1839 and Sessional Orders, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police instructs all constables of the Metropolitan police to facilitate free passage to and from the Palace of Westminster on any day when Parliament is sitting. In carrying out this duty, no march will be authorised where there is any possibility of interference with Members travelling to or from the Houses of Parliament.

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