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Speed Cameras

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent on speed cameras per police force and in total in each of the last 10 years; and what the planned expenditure is in future years for which figures are available. [128388]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is not available centrally. It is the responsibility of each police force to determine how much to spend on speed cameras and other road safety measures.

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the use of speed cameras with special reference to the European Convention on Human Rights; and if he will make a statement. [128394]

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Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Government do not expect the use of speed cameras to alter after the Human Rights Act 1998 comes into force in England and Wales on 2 October.

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many areas the fines from speed cameras are kept by (a) local authorities and (b) police services; and if he will make a statement. [128391]

Mr. Charles Clarke: In December 1998, Her Majesty's Treasury announced that, subject to certain criteria, some fine income might be reinvested in law enforcement activity. With Her Majesty's Treasury agreement, pilot schemes involving the use of speed cameras were launched on 1 April this year. The pilots are taking place in eight police force areas: Cleveland,

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Essex, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, South Wales, Strathclyde and Thames Valley.

Local partnerships have been formed to run each of the pilots. These consist of the police, local authorities and the courts. Fine revenue from fixed penalties is being invested into the purchase of additional speed cameras and/or the increased use of existing cameras all to an agreed programme. Surplus fine income will be returned to Her Majesty's Treasury. The success of the pilots will be judged on their road safety benefits, particularly their ability to reduce deaths and injuries.

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average cost was of a new speed camera in the last 12 months. [128390]

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Mr. Charles Clarke: Home Office type approved speed cameras vary considerably in their technology and application. An average cost is not available.

Fines

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average level of fine was (a) issued for each category of offence in each of the last five years and (b) where a fine was the only penalty; and if he will make a statement. [128392]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Available information for 1994 to 1998 taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database is given in the table.

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Average level of fines given at all courts by type of offence, England and Wales, 1994-98£

	1994		1995		1996		1997		1998
Type of offence	Average fine	Average fine where fine only penalty	Average fine	Average fine where fine only penalty	Average fine	Average fine where fine only penalty	Average fine	Average fine where fine only penalty	Average fine	Average fine where fine only penalty
Indictable offences
Violence against the person	170	187	176	166	173	163	173	164	170	156
Sexual offences	206	201	216	202	308	238	223	209	310	258
Burglary	145	148	140	142	138	138	142	143	150	150
Robbery	101	90	63	60	127	122	76	110	152	98
Theft and handling stolen goods	114	114	114	114	109	107	106	105	99	97
Fraud and forgery	209	233	183	198	266	277	202	195	212	232
Criminal damage	102	105	103	108	109	110	111	111	105	104
Drug offences	102	104	102	102	104	102	103	102	96	94
Other (non-motoring)	229	223	264	256	375	367	415	414	404	402
Motoring (indictable)	165	165	177	176	175	174	177	175	190	189
Total indictable offences	150	153	158	163	188	197	195	209	186	202
Summary non-motoring offences	99	98	103	103	103	103	104	104	105	105
Summary motoring offences	160	161	166	166	161	161	163	164	162	162
Total all offences	137	138	145	145	141	142	147	148	145	146

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Drug Testing and Treatment Orders

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to extend the range of offenders who could be subject to a drug testing and treatment order; and if he will make a statement. [128397]

Mr. Boateng: None: all offenders aged 16 or over convicted of an offence for which a community sentence is appropriate may be made subject to a Drug Treatment and Testing Order provided that the court is satisfied that the offender is dependent on or has a propensity to misuse drugs, that treatment may be helpful and the offender has expressed his willingness to comply with the requirements of the order.

Neighbourhood Wardens

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total central Government expenditure is on neighbourhood wardens; and if he will make a statement. [128387]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The Government have allocated £13.5 million over the three years for a fund to pump- prime and evaluate new and existing neighbourhood

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warden schemes, starting in 2000-01 and jointly funded by the Home Office and the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). Additionally, the Home Office and DETR are jointly funding a new inter-departmental unit, the Neighbourhood Wardens Unit, to take forward work on neighbourhood wardens including administering the fund.

Casualties

Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total number was of (a) injuries and (b) deaths (i) per police force area and (ii) in total arising from (A) traffic accidents and (B) assaults and other violent crimes; and if he will make a statement. [128395]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The requested details on injuries and deaths resulting from assaults and other violent crimes are not collected centrally. Recorded crime data in relation to certain offences of violence against the person are given in the table. Please note that the offences given as wounding and assault may represent attempts, conspiring, inciting, aiding, abetting, causing or permitting, and not result in an actual injury.

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The British Crime Survey has estimated that, in 1997, there were 714,000 assaults with more than trivial injury ('wounding'), and 2,276,000 common assaults, ie physical assaults or attempted assault with at most slight bruising. These categories do not necessarily coincide with those from the recorded crime figures.

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The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions has recently published the transport statistical bulletin 'Road Casualties in Great Britain: Main Results 1999', which includes the requested details in table 6. This is available in the Library.

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Notifiable offences recorded by the police by police force year ending September 1999

Police force	Homicide	Attempted murder and wounding or other act endangering life	Other wounding (including racially aggravated other wounding)	Assault on a constable and common assault (including racially aggravated common assault)
Avon and Somerset	19	284	3,856	6,139
Bedfordshire	4	223	1,917	2,138
Cambridgeshire	7	238	2,244	1,875
Cheshire	9	262	2,815	1,364
Cleveland	8	108	1,461	1,047
Cumbria	3	95	2,627	991
Derbyshire	12	197	3,306	4,033
Devon and Cornwall	18	376	3,101	5,444
Dorset	4	96	1,005	1,379
Durham	8	123	1,393	1,812
Essex	17	92	3,666	2,832
Gloucestershire	9	151	1,552	1,253
Greater Manchester	60	2,318	18,223	10,247
Hampshire	18	191	5,339	4,837
Hertfordshire	1	135	1,533	920
Humberside	13	296	4,116	2,535
Kent	16	402	5,679	3,778
Lancashire	24	438	3,005	2,965
Leicestershire	16	313	4,633	3,636
Lincolnshire	7	89	1,654	1,306
London City of	--	7	202	118
Merseyside	31	694	7,631	2,384
Metropolitan Police	188	2,162	39,960	72,780
Norfolk	8	193	2,213	1,771
Northamptonshire	7	140	1,116	2,352
Northumbria	15	448	4,538	3,442
North Yorkshire	3	69	1,491	1,996
Nottinghamshire	18	239	6,775	2,955
South Yorkshire	13	421	3,043	1,930
Staffordshire	16	40	6,422	1,697
Suffolk	4	94	1,881	1,255
Surrey	1	101	2,344	1,284
Sussex	19	154	5,955	7,786
Thames Valley	21	195	5,672	3,846
Warwickshire	4	63	893	736
West Mercia	7	187	2,045	3,449
West Midlands	50	1,563	11,114	17,114
West Yorkshire	29	876	7,990	4,000
Wiltshire	5	50	1,744	2,088
Dyfed-Powys	4	104	1,841	1,180
Gwent	1	289	3,113	4,773
North Wales	6	102	1,952	2,118
South Wales	26	783	4,891	2,222
England and Wales	749	15,401	197,951	203,807

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