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HOME DEPARTMENT
Film Subtitles
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if feature films, to which subtitles for deaf and hard of hearing people have been added, are required to be re-submitted to the British Board of Film Classification prior to being screened in cinemas. [154752]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Under the cinema licensing regime provided by the Cinemas Act 1985, local authorities have the power to determine whether particular films may be shown in cinemas in their area. I understand that local authorities generally require cinemas to abide by the classification certificate issued by the British Board of Film Classification.
With regard to the issue of separate classification of films for which subtitles have been added, I understand that the Board are currently working with the Industry Disability Working Group on this matter and they have confirmed that they are happy to waive their normal fee for script reading, if the script for sub-titling is supplied to them at the same time as the film.
Police Numbers
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will indicate, for each constabulary in Britain, the number of (a) police officers and (b) constables per 1,000 of population. [154718]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The information for England and Wales is given in the table. The Scottish Executive have responsibility for the police service in Scotland.
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(18) Figures for City of London and Metropolitan police are combined.
Note:
The figures provided in the table are the police numbers for the 43 forces in England and Wales and do not include secondments. Further information on police numbers at 30 September 2000 can be found in Home Office Statistical Bulletin No 2/01 "Police Service Strength (England and Wales)" which was published on 16 January. A copy is available in the Library.
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Departmental Policies (Lincoln)
Gillian Merron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Lincoln constituency, the effects on Lincoln of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [152977]
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 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. The next report will be published shortly. 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 Lincoln constituency or the immediate locality:
One scheme in St. Giles Estate, Lincoln was awarded £60,000 under the Reducing Burglary Initiative which will include the employment of a Civilian Crime Reduction Officer. A multi-agency approach (Crime Prevention Officer, Police, Housing Department) will be taken to tackle issues including: anti-social tenants; community policing; targeting unemployment; social exclusion; substance misuse and extending Neighbourhood watch. The scheme will also concentrate on target hardening of houses that have been burgled and intelligence-led policing.
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Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
Under round one of the Crime Reduction Programme's CCTV initiative, the Lincoln Crime Reduction Executive was awarded £76,000 for the Shuttleworth House CCTV Initiative. The scheme covers a multi-storey block of flats in the Abbey Ward area of Lincoln. The main aims of the scheme are to combat fear of crime and to directly impact upon the incidence of racist graffiti.
In response to the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, key agencies came together in partnership to initially set up the Youth Offending Service (YOS) in Lincolnshire. This group has now evolved into Lincolnshire in Partnership and oversees the YOS, (Drug Action Team) (DAT), Road Safety Partnership, Domestic Violence Project etc. The group comprises the Chief Officers of Social Services, Health, Education, Police, Probation, Health, Highways and Planning, Director of Community Safety, Chief Crown Prosecutor, Chief Executive of Magistrates Courts Committee and a Chief Executive representing the District Councils. There is a very strong emphasis placed on working in Partnership in Lincolnshire, which is also reflected in the fact that Lincolnshire and Rutland will have one of the first Connexions Services in the country as of April 2000. There are three area YOTs covering the east, south and west of the county. The west YOT covers the City of Lincoln. Each team has representatives from the five key agencies and provides services predominantly to Young People in trouble, their families, the Police and the Courts. Lincoln City Council has a very active Crime Reduction Partnership Group and the YOS are involved in this group and the other six district council groups within the County. A range of new orders are available to the Courts including Reparation Orders, Action Plan Orders, Parenting Orders which the YOS are providing along with other Community sentences. Although it is too early to assess the full impact of the YOTs in Lincolnshire early indications are promising. For example out of a total of 146 young offenders who have received an intervention from the YOS between October and December 2000, 86 per cent. or 130 young people have not been charged or convicted of a further offence.
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More generally, all of the policies of the Home Office will impact on the residents of Lincoln to a greater or lesser extent. For example:
- 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.
Fraud
Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he collects on the proportion of expenditure spent by the police in relation to fraud (a) in total and (b) by each police force. [154585]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Information on expenditure by the police in relation to fraud is not collected centrally.
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