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Police Recruitment
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the planned police recruitment intakes in England and Wales for (a) 2001-02, (b) 2002-03 and (c) 2003-04, broken down by force, differentiating recruits under the Crime Fighting Fund initiative and those who would otherwise be recruited. [146291]
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Mr. Charles Clarke: Forces have not been asked to provide a forecast of recruitment for each intake in the years 2001-02 to 2003-04.
In their bids for a share of the recruitment scheme of the Crime Fighting Fund (CFF), made in January 2000, forces provided information on their projected recruitment over the following three years. The Metropolitan police service (MPS) has subsequently provided revised figures for total recruitment, but not for appointments on transfer.
Part (a) of the table shows the estimates forces have given for recruitment in terms of appointments on probation and projected transfers (i.e. transfers into each force from another) for 2000-01 and 2001-02. No projections have been sought for 2003-04.
In addition to the previously planned recruitment, forces have been allocated recruits from the CFF. Part (b) of the table shows current force allocations from the Crime Fighting Fund for 2001-02 and 2002-03.
(60) Allocations may differ from previously published figures, as they include agreed acceleration or deferral of CFF recruits between 2000-01 and 2001-02. In the case of the Metropolitan police agreement has been given to defer up to 155 CFF recruits from 2000-01 into 2001-02, but the force now expects to defer only 115.
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Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many recruits in each police force area under the Crime Fighting Fund initiative had previously made application to join the police service and been rejected. [146295]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Information is not collected centrally on whether recruits to the police service have previously made an application to join the police service and been rejected.
Sentencing
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions (a) the trial judge and (b) the Court of Appeal has exercised the discretion
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not to impose the prescribed custodial sentence under (i) section 110 and (ii) section 111 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000; what the reasons in each case were; what sentence was imposed in each case; and if he will make a statement. [146286]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Currently maintained statistics do not allow the identification of the occasions where the trial judge decided not to impose the prescribed custodial sentences under sections 110 and 111 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (formerly sections 3 and 4 of Crime (Sentences) Act 1997) or where the Court of Appeal either upheld such a decision or allowed an appeal against the imposition of such a sentence.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions (a) the trial judge and (b) the Court of Appeal has exercised the discretion not to impose a life sentence under section 109 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000; what the reasons were in each case; what sentence was imposed in each case; and if he will make a statement. [146285]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Currently maintained statistics do not allow the identification of the occasions where the trial judge decided not to impose an automatic life sentence under section 109 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (formerly section 2 Crime (Sentences) Act 1997) or where the Court of Appeal either upheld such a decision or allowed an appeal against the imposition of such a sentence.
For the hon. Member's information, however, the Court of Appeal gave judgment in the cases of Matthew Offen, Peter McGilliard, Darren McKeown, Christova Okwuegbunam and Stephen Saunders on 9 November 2000. In all the cases challenges were made to the imposition of an automatic life sentence under section 2 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997. The court upheld Offen and McKeown's appeals, substituting determinate terms of three years in place of a life sentence. Section 109 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 provides that if the conditions of the section are fulfilled an offender should receive a life sentence unless there are exceptional circumstances relating to either the offences or to the offender which would justify his not doing so. In the opinion of the Court of Appeal there were exceptional circumstances in both cases that made the imposition of an automatic sentence unjustified.
Internal Communications Advisers
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many internal communications advisers are employed by his Department; how many are to be recruited in the current recruitment process; and what the cost to public funds is. [146294]
Mr. Straw: There are currently eight internal communications advisers in the Home Office. A further three advisers are being sought in the current recruitment process. The cost of this recruitment is £32,732.
Stop and Search
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many stops and searches were conducted
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in each police force area in England and Wales in each month of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by ethnic origin of the person stopped; how many resulted in an arrest; and if he will make a statement. [146287]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Information on stops and searches is not collected centrally on a monthly basis, and information on the ethnicity of those persons stopped and searched has only been collected since 1 April 1997.
Annual figures for each police force are contained in "Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System", 1998, 1999 and 2000, Home Office publications under section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991, copies of which are in the Library. A quarterly breakdown of these figures is not possible without disproportionate cost.
Police Performance
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the performance measures, indicators, targets and milestones that have been established for the police since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [145716]
Mr. Charles Clarke: In April 2000, Best Value was introduced for police authorities. Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) have replaced all previous performance indicators for the police. For 2000-01, there are 37 BVPIs. For 2001-02, there will be 32, although three of these will not be reported on until 2002-03. The BVPIs are specified under section 4 of the Local Government Act 1999 and are published jointly by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), Home Office and Audit Commission. They are available in the Library and on the DETR website (www.detr.gov.uk). There are also two Ministerial Priorities, although there are no separate Performance Indicators attached to these. These are:
- to reduce crime and disorder in partnership with local authorities, other local agencies and the public; and
- to increase trust and confidence in policing among minority ethnic communities.
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