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Consultancy Payments
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total gross running cost to his Department was of fees and disbursements paid to consultants in the 12 months ending 30 April 1997. [157618]
Mr. Straw: The information requested is not available in the format requested. In order to provide the hon. Member with as full an answer as possible the combined total running costs of fees and disbursements to my Department paid to consultants in the 12 months ending 31 March 1997 amounted to £11,804,984 (exclusive of VAT).
Departmental Travel Costs
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his Department's total gross running costs were for travel, including fares, subsistence, accommodation and other expenses met from public funds, but excluding such cost for journeys and stays exclusively within the United Kingdom, in the (a) three years ending 30 April 1997 and (b) 12 months ending 30 April 1997. [157622]
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Mr. Straw: Information regarding expenses met from public funds for periods prior to April 1996 is not readily available. The amount met from public funds for the 12 month period ended 30 April 1997 was £2,602,103.29.
Departmental Policies (Tiverton and Honiton)
Mr. Martyn Jones: 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 Tiverton and Honiton constituency, the effects on Tiverton and Honiton of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [157809]
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 2000-01, 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 Tiverton and Honiton constituency or the immediate locality:
Under round two of the Targeted Policing Initiative Devon and Cornwall Constabulary have been awarded £81,000 for a project in the East Devon area. The project aims to focus on offender targeting for anti-social behaviour. This involves employment of a researcher/ co-ordinator who would utilise existing Information Technology (IT) and resources to identify prolific criminals to be tackled by a "joined up" targeted approach.
Closed Circuit Television (CCTV)
Mid-Devon district council were awarded £18,000 under round two of the CCTV initiative for a six-camera system covering Cullompton Town Centre.
The Youth Justice Board (YJB) are contributing funding towards four intervention Schemes and one Bail Supervision Scheme in Devon that cover Tiverton and Honiton. The Parenting Skills Project is receiving approximately £43,000. The project aims to contribute to the prevention of offending by young people, by providing a range of up to 120 parental support packages annually. The Devon Mentoring Project aims to provide a swift intervention to young offenders so that they confront the consequences of their offence as close as possible to its commission. This project is receiving £52,000 from the YJB. The YJB are providing £52,000 towards the Devon Making Amends Project. The
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objectives of this project are to prevent offending by providing various opportunities for young offenders to confront the consequences of their offending. £151,000 is being funded towards the Devon Intensive Supervision and Support Programme. This aims to develop life-skills and cognitive behavioural programme to help young offenders to survive independently within the community and to develop self awareness of the consequences of their offending on themselves, their victims and the wider community.
Approximately £75,000 is being contributed towards a Bail Support Scheme. This project aims to reduce re-offending among high risk/level offenders who are on bail or remand to courts.
More generally, all of the policies of the Home Office will impact on the residents of Tiverton and Honiton 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 49,690 by the end of February 2001; and
- 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.
Departmental Policies (Ribble Valley)
Mr. Martyn Jones: 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 Ribble Valley constituency, the effects on Ribble Valley of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [157845]
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 2000-2001, 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 some examples relating to the Ribble Valley constituency or the immediate locality:
One Intervention Scheme and one Bail Supervision Scheme are being funded by the Youth Justice Board (YJB) in Lancashire that includes coverage of the Ribble Valley. The Lancashire Restorative Justice Project has
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been awarded a contribution of approximately £37,000. Youth Justice Mediation is a victim/offender mediation service provided by Blackpool borough and Lancashire county council's Youth Offending Teams who are working together to offer this service to children and young persons who offend and their victims and young offenders with the opportunity to communicate with one another in a safe environment in order that the offender may make amends for their inappropriate behaviour and assist the victim to come to terms with the harm they have suffered.
The Bail Support Scheme has been awarded £191,000 and the main objectives are to provide a practical alternative to magistrates' courts for remands to custody, secure accommodation remands to local authority accommodation.
More generally, all of the policies of the Home Office will impact on the residents of Ribble Valley 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 49,690 by the end of February 2001; and
- 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.
Burglary
Sir Peter Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evidence he has assessed on the effect of mandatory prison sentences for burglary on the incidence of burglary. [157761]
Mr. Charles Clarke: It is, as yet, too soon to evaluate the impact of section 111 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (previously section 4 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997), which introduced mandatory minimum sentences for repeat burglars. The effects of the provisions, which were brought into force in December 1999, will take some time to be felt because section 111 applies only when all three offences are committed after implementation and one of the two previous offences is committed after the offender has been convicted of the other.
An evaluation is, however, planned and will take place in two main stages. The first stage will take place in 2003-04 and will be an evaluation of the costs and benefits of the measure across the criminal justice system including changes in the incidence of burglary. By then, there should be enough evidence to form a more soundly based view of its effects.
The final evaluation is planned for 2010 when the full effects should have worked their way through.
Sir Peter Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many mandatory sentences for burglary have been passed each year since such sentences were first introduced; what proportion of all sentences for
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burglary mandatory sentences represent in each of those years; and how many burglaries were reported to the police in each of those years. [157762]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Under the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997 (as re-enacted by the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000) which came into effect on 1 December 1999, a mandatory prison sentence of three years' minimum duration was introduced for third-time domestic burglary offenders.
The Home Office's Court Proceedings Databases for 1999 and for 2000 (which are provisional) show that no such sentences have yet been recorded.
An offender would have to be apprehended, prosecuted and convicted on three separate occasions since 1 December 1999 to be subject to the mandatory sentence. Such action is likely to take some time to get to court.
There were 442,600 offences of domestic burglary recorded by the police in England and Wales in 1999-2000 and 16,800 persons were sentenced for this offence in 1999.
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