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Street Robberies

Mr. Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of street robberies which (a) involved and (b) did not involve the theft of a mobile phone for every quarter since 1999 in Battersea; and if he will make a statement. [151150]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The information in the table has been provided by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, and represents the details for Wandsworth borough of which area Battersea forms a part.

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Street crime in Wandsworth

			Number of offences
Period	Street crime(12) in Wandsworth involving the theft of telephone equipment (including mobile phones)	Other street crime in Wandsworth	Total street crime(12) in Wandsworth
January to March 1999	57	182	239
April to June 1999	70	224	294
July to September 1999	79	255	334
October to December 1999	90	288	378
January to March 2000	151	231	382
April to June 2000	149	236	385
July to September 2000	162	214	376
October to December 2000	165	200	365

⁽¹²⁾ The Metropolitan police define street crime as robberies and thefts from the person.

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Armenian Massacre

Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to provide for a memorial day in recognition of the Armenian massacre in the early 20th century. [151438]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The British Government have always condemned the appalling massacre of Armenians in 1915-16. Armenians already commemorate that tragic episode in their history on 24 April each year. This is not a national memorial day throughout Britain and we have no plans to make it one but this should not be seen as failing to acknowledge and sympathise with the victims and descendants of that atrocity.

Prison Visiting Regulations

Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will re-classify grandchildren as family members for the purposes of the regulations governing visits to prisoners. [151442]

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Mr. Boateng: Prison Service guidance on visits does not define the term "family member", although it lists family members who should be regarded as "close relatives", whose visits to a prisoner should be refused only in exceptional circumstances. The position of grandchildren and grandparents, who do not currently fall within this definition, is being considered as part of the Prison Service's current review of visits policy.

Police Authorities

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the amounts of annual payments for 2000-01 made to police authorities will be published. [150686]

Mr. Charles Clarke [holding answer 26 February 2001]: I understand that the hon. Member's question relates to the payments made to police authorities for the additional policing costs incurred by forces as a result of the fuel distribution emergency last year.

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Where details of actual expenditure incurred by forces were submitted by 31 January, grant covering 90 per cent. of the approved cost will be paid by the end of this financial year. The balance will be paid on receipt of a statement certified by the police authority's external auditor. Grant payments in 2000-01 are likely to be of the order of £5.3 million. I will place details of the payments made to individual police authorities in the Library once they have been finalised following audit.

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, dated 27 December 2000, with regard to Mrs. Vida Obiri (Vida Obiri Yeboah-Burgess). [151278]

Mr. Straw: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 16 February.

Passport Fraud

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 7 February 2001, Official Report, column 606W, on passport fraud, in how many cases of fraudulent issuing of British passports his Department's staff were involved. [151357]

Mrs. Roche: The statistics provided in my answer of 7 February 2001, Official Report, column 606W, on passport fraud related to customer frauds only and did not include cases in which members of staff were complicit.

From 1991 to 2000, eight members of Passport Agency staff were convicted for fraudulently issuing passports. A further five members of staff were subject to internal disciplinary procedures as a result of their involvement in passport fraud. The Passport Agency's records indicate that these cases involved the fraudulent issue of 117 passports in total.

Community Relations Councils

Mr. Nigel Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals he has for the future funding of the community relations councils in Scotland. [151555]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: Race Equality Councils (REC's) are co-funded by the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), local authorities and other bodies. I understand that the CRE is consulting with REC's in Scotland as elsewhere about how to improve delivery of race equality.

Departmental Policies (Norwich, North)

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out, including statistical information relating as directly as possible to the constituency, the effect on the Norwich, North constituency of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [151142]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The Home Office is working to build a safe, just and tolerant society in which the rights and responsibilities of individuals, families and communities are properly balanced, and the protection and security of the public are maintained. Detailed

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information on the impact of Home Office policies across the full range of responsibilities is set out in Home Office annual reports. A copy of the most recent report, Home Office Annual Report 1999-2000, is available in the Library. Information on recorded crime and policing is also published. 'Recorded Crime England and Wales, 12 months to September 2000' and 'Police Service Strength England and Wales, 30 September 2000' can be found in the Library. The recorded crime statistics include information on recorded crime by Basic Command Unit and Crime and Disorder partnerships.

The impact of Home Office policies and actions is not normally examined by constituency and the statistics which the Department collects, such as recorded crime, cannot be matched in the way requested although set out are examples relating to the Norwich, North constituency or the immediate locality:

Targeted Policing

One scheme for £600,000 joining the Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire police forces will cover the Fenlands area. The scheme will address rural crime and burglary.

Close Circuit Television (CCTV)

One scheme, an extension to the existing Norwich city centre system, has been submitted under round two of the CCTV initiative. The bid for £200,000 covering Norwich, North and Norwich, South is currently under consideration.

Reducing Burglary Initiative

One scheme for £38,000 covering Coslany ward, Norwich, has been received under round three of the Reducing Burglary Initiative.

Youth Offending Teams (YOTs)

The Norfolk YOT covers the constituency of Norwich, North. The YOT is making a full contribution to reducing delays within the court process for young offenders by producing 80 per cent. of all courts reports within agreed timescales. The YOT is also working in partnership with Youth Court Panels in order to establish a joint approach to tackling youth crime.

To ensure that the needs of victims of youth crime are met through restorative justice measures, the YOT is working in partnership with the Norfolk Victim Support Charitable Trust. A joint working protocol has been agreed and implemented benefiting victims and 70 per cent. of all intervention work with young offenders includes a focus on victim issues. The YOT is also working in partnership with the National Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children in the delivery of programmes for parents of young offenders to assist them to manage difficult behaviour with confidence, consistency and reliability. Links have also been established by the YOT with the local Drug Action Team in order to commission services for young substance misusers. The YOT is already having a significant impact on youth crime in Norfolk as a whole: 60 per cent. of all young people referred to the YOT have completed court orders without reoffending, while 80 per cent. of all young offenders released from prison have not reoffended.

Norfolk (including the Norwich area) is benefiting from the Youth Justice Board's development fund which has awarded grants of approximately £1.1 million over three years for one bail support scheme and four intervention programmes across the county.

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More generally, all of the policies of the Home Office will impact on the residents of Norwich, North to a greater or lesser extent. For example:

376 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships have been established;

racial harassment and racially motivated crimes have been made criminal offences by the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;

the asylum backlog has been cut from 103,495 at the end of January 2000 to 66,195 by the end of December 2000;

good progress is being made in reducing the incidence of fire deaths in England and Wales. They have dropped from 605 in 1997 to 534 in 1999.

Information on the Home Office and its policies is also published on its website (www.homeoffice.gov.uk).

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