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Asylum Seekers

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what specifications have been drawn up to identify accommodation for asylum seekers under the Government's dispersal policy. [126436]

Mrs. Roche: Contracted providers from both the private and public sector were and are responsible for identifying suitable accommodation for asylum seekers. They work to specifications drawn up by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) in consultation with other organisations, including the Refugee Council.

The requirements for the provision of accommodation are set out in model contracts for the provision of accommodation and related services to asylum seekers--one for private sector providers and one for local authority regional consortia. I am arranging for copies of these to be placed in the Library.

Criminal Injuries (Compensation)

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many victims of crime have been paid compensation by the Criminal Injuries Board (a) in 2000 and (b) in 1999; and how many suffered deductions because they sought to defend themselves when assaulted and were thereby deemed to have contributed to their injuries. [126569]

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Mr. Charles Clarke: The figures relate to awards made by both the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (which administers the tariff-based scheme effective from 1 April 1996) and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (which administered the old scheme effective prior to 1 April 1996).

Awards under the schemes are unlikely to be reduced in the case of a blameless victim who acted entirely in self-defence. A reduction on grounds of conduct is made when it is considered that the applicant's own behaviour contributed to the incident in which he or she was injured.

	1998-99	1999-2000
Total cases settled	74,859	75,917
Total money awards	40,164	39,700
Total cases rejected	34,695	36,217
Total reduced awards	2,453	2,711
Reduced due to conduct	732	792
Rejected due to conduct	4,123	3,838

The reductions and rejections due to conduct are included in the totals. The total number of reduced awards is also included in the money awards total.

Anti-social Behaviour

Mr. Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what response he has received from Gedling Borough Council on improvements to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 following his letter to local authorities on 15 October 1999 and subsequent requests for councils' views on tackling anti-social behaviour. [126789]

Mr. Charles Clarke: None.

Immigration

Mr. Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in the case of Mr. A. S. A (reference A1012793/8(s)). [126962]

Mrs. Roche: Mr. A. S. A.'s application has now been resolved and the Integrated Casework Directorate wrote to him on 20 June.

Written Questions

Mr. Maclennan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many written parliamentary questions tabled to his Department between 19 October 1999 and 20 April 2000 have not received substantive answers on the grounds that the information is (a) not held centrally, (b) not held in the form requested and (c) not available. [127099]

Mr. Straw [holding answer 21 June 2000]: My Department answered a total of 2,751 written parliamentary questions between 19 October 1999-20 April 2000. Sixty

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non-substantive replies were given to hon. and right hon. Members where information was 'not held centrally', one where the information was 'not held in the form requested' and 20 where the information was 'not available'.

It is my practice to provide as full a reply as possible to all parliamentary questions, and to provide all relevant information even where that specifically requested is not available.

Mr. Maclennan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions he has deposited papers in the Library in response to parliamentary questions tabled to his Department between 19 October 1999 and 20 April 2000. [127438]

Mr. Straw: I deposited papers in the Library in response to parliamentary questions on 150 occasions between 19 October 1999 and 20 April 2000.

Humberside Police

Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the 5,000 extra police he has announced will be allocated to Humberside Police Force; and how many are already in post in Humberside. [127393]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Humberside have been allocated 74 additional recruits from the Crime Fighting Fund: 47 in 2000-01 and 27 in 2001-02.

All forces in England and Wales have been asked to profile their planned recruitment over the 12 months of 2000-01. Based on the profile provided by Humberside police, the table shows the number of officers recruited, or planned to be recruited, by Humberside police that will be deemed to be Crime Fighting Fund officers.

Humberside police

Recruitment dates	Officers deemed to be crime fighting fund recruits
6 April 2000	8
15 June 2000	11
20 July 2000	7
25 August 2000	12
28 September 2000	9
Total	47

Crime Clear-up Rate

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the total clear-up rate of recorded crimes in each police force in England and Wales and in total in (a) 1979, (b) 1987 and (c) in each year since 1992. [127210]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The requested details are given in the table.

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Percentage clear-up rate by police force and in total(10)(1)

Police force area	1979	1987	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1997-98	1998-99(12)
Avon and Somerset	43	30	17	17	21	23	24	26	26	24
Bedfordshire	48	29	20	21	22	22	33	35	35	33
Cambridgeshire	47	35	27	25	25	19	24	27	28	29
Cheshire	58	40	29	26	30	31	34	36	34	37
Cleveland	51	34	32	27	19	25	24	25	23	23
Cumbria	56	46	37	38	37	40	36	40	41	44
Derbyshire	50	45	22	21	21	20	21	25	26	31
Devon and Cornwall	46	39	18	25	27	27	30	32	34	36
Dorset	46	36	32	33	30	28	27	29	30	31
Durham	52	42	30	30	32	30	30	31	30	33
Essex	42	35	29	32	36	33	29	27	28	29
Gloucestershire	51	38	24	20	24	27	23	24	26	31
Greater Manchester	45	27	35	34	34	24	17	20	20	25
Hampshire	46	34	26	26	27	28	28	30	30	35
Hertfordshire	54	44	26	21	24	28	30	32	33	34
Humberside	45	32	23	16	17	19	20	20	21	22
Kent	50	33	27	25	29	26	32	31	31	34
Lancashire	56	46	37	35	33	34	33	29	29	34
Leicestershire	54	45	30	28	30	29	31	34	34	34
Lincolnshire	60	37	39	37	32	39	42	48	46	40
London, City of	21	19	20	22	27	23	27	26	28	33
Merseyside	42	43	42	39	33	27	29	31	31	31
Metropolitan Police	21	16	16	17	23	25	23	26	25	22
Norfolk	47	36	34	28	34	31	32	37	36	37
Northamptonshire	48	41	30	27	31	28	34	35	35	33
Northumbria	53	44	17	20	22	23	24	26	26	30
North Yorkshire	51	34	33	30	25	23	25	26	26	33
Nottinghamshire	51	34	26	29	28	23	28	28	26	25
South Yorkshire	51	43	26	20	24	24	23	29	32	32
Staffordshire	51	42	30	29	31	32	34	35	34	32
Suffolk	57	45	39	37	35	34	33	37	39	41
Surrey	47	34	22	20	30	31	29	33	35	40
Sussex	53	32	23	24	24	28	29	26	26	25
Thames Valley	45	31	19	21	22	23	25	24	25	25
Warwickshire	46	34	23	21	24	25	24	27	29	26
West Mercia	49	42	34	29	29	28	26	28	27	34
West Midlands	37	36	27	27	25	24	23	24	25	30
West Yorkshire	37	39	25	18	20	21	24	27	27	27
Wiltshire	42	36	37	35	36	32	29	32	32	38
Dyfed-Powys	62	51	53	50	53	57	58	61	62	69
Gwent	60	53	44	45	47	50	50	51	51	55
North Wales	59	43	33	36	39	32	33	34	36	43
South Wales	46	39	30	28	24	29	32	36	36	39
England and Wales	41	33	26	25	26	26	26	28	28	29

(10) 1979 to 1997 figures are for calendar years, and 1997-98 and 1998-99 are years ending 31 March.

(11) Figures up to 1997-98 are based on the recorded crime counting rules in use up to 31 March 1998. They also exclude offences of criminal damage under £20.

(12) The figures are based on the number of crimes recorded in the financial year using the expanded offence coverage and revised counting rules which came into effect on 1 April 1998, and including all offences of criminal damage. Owing to these changes, these clear-up rates cannot be compared directly with previous years.

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