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Arson Control Forum
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the Arson Control Forum new projects bidding exercise. [160690]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: I am very pleased to announce today the award of £1 million of grants by the Arson Control Forum to fire brigades in England and Wales for arson reduction initiatives.
The Arson Control Forum was established last year with the aim of reducing the incidence of deliberate fires by 30 per cent. of the 1998-99 baseline by 31 March 2009; the desired outcome is to cut maliciously set fires from the current figure of 77,900 to 54,500 during this period. To achieve this aim, the Forum has been allocated a budget of £3.5 million over the three year period from April 2001. Some of this money will be used to fund research into the causes and prevention of arson, but most will be used to fund local fire brigade anti-arson initiatives. The size of the budget available to fund local projects this year is £1 million.
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The Chair of the Forum, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Fire Services, Graham Meldrum, wrote to all Chief Fire Officers inviting bids to be submitted to the Home Office by 31 March 2001. By the closing date for the exercise, we had received a total of 44 bids from 40 brigades, totalling £1,609,320.
The bids were evaluated in accordance with Home Office procurement guidelines. All bids were carefully considered and we have agreed to wholly or part fund 25 of the 44 received, amounting to £996,664. Those bids that were successful met the following criteria:
- They had to show they had a good understanding of the scale of the arson problem in their area;
They had to propose a solution which was geared to addressing the problem they had described;
They had to say how the project would be managed;
They had to say how they would measure success; and
They had to show how the project would provide value for money.
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There has also been a wide geographical spread. There are projects from Wales to Kent, and from the South West and the Midlands to the North West and East of England. The projects also range widely in terms of their target areas, from the inner-cities to rural areas, where the arson problem is often greater than people realise.
The following projects have been supported.
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| Brigade | £000 | Description of project |
|---|---|---|
| Avon | 40,000 | Vehicle arson reduction scheme |
| Bucks | 8,000 | Vehicle arson reduction scheme |
| Cheshire | 40,000 | Support to police involvement in arson reduction |
| Cornwall/Devon | 58,000 | Arson Task Force |
| Cumbria | 36,000 | Arson audit scheme |
| Derbyshire | 34,000 | Arson Reduction Co-ordinator |
| Dorset | 62,000 | Vehicle arson reduction scheme |
| East Sussex | 10,000 | Young offenders project |
| Hampshire | 30,000 | Collaborative data sharing project |
| Kent | 80,000 | Vehicle arson reduction scheme |
| Lancashire | 50,000 | Arson Task Force |
| Leicestershire | 38,000 | Arson Task Force |
| Lincolnshire | 20,000 | Provision of IT system to support arson reduction |
| London | 59,000 | Arson Task Force |
| Luton and Beds | 60,000 | Arson Task Force |
| Merseyside | 35,000 | Arson counselling scheme |
| Mid and West Wales | 108,000 | Arson Task Force |
| North Yorks | 30,000 | Arson Task Force |
| Northumberland | 21,000 | Arson Reduction Co-ordinator |
| Shropshire | 50,000 | Arson Task Force |
| Suffolk | 1,000 | Provision of IT system to support arson reduction |
| Tyne and Wear | 60,000 | Arson Task Force |
| West Midlands | 15,000 | Hydrocarbon detector dog |
| West Yorks | 38,000 | Schools arson audit |
| Wilshire | 13,000 | Rural arson awareness scheme |
| Total | 996,000 |
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Coroners (Review)
Mr. Goggins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will appoint the chairman for the fundamental review of the coroner system. [160780]
Mr. Boateng: I will make an announcement as soon as possible.
Asylum Seekers
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers and refugees have been allocated for dispersal to (a) the Grimsby cluster, (b) North Lincolnshire, (c) Lincolnshire and (d) East Riding; and on what basis the numbers going to each was decided. [158916]
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Mrs. Roche: As at the end of April 2001, 20 1 asylum seekers (including dependants) were allocated accommodation in Grimsby by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS). No asylum seekers were allocated NASS accommodation in north Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire or East Riding.
There are a number of factors that decide allocation including availability of accommodation, the individual merits of the case and local circumstances.
- 1 Figure rounded to the nearest 10
Mr. Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum applications (a) are awaiting a decision by his Department and (b) have been appealed against a refusal of asylum on non-compliance
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grounds, which were made by nationals of (a) Somalia, (b) Sierra Leone, (c) Afghanistan, (d) Iraq, (e) Sri Lanka and (f) Congo. [159579]
Mrs. Roche: Information on the total number of applications awaiting an initial decision is published monthly on the web page:
- http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html
Information on the number of appeals against refusals on non-compliance grounds is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of the individual case files.
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers have been dispersed under the voluntary scheme from (a) North East Lincolnshire, (b) North Lincolnshire, (c) Lincolnshire, (d) North Yorkshire and (e) Cumbria. [159734]
Mrs. Roche: The information requested is not available. Statistics are not held centrally on the location of asylum seekers dispersed by local authorities under the voluntary dispersal scheme, as this scheme was the responsibility of local government.
Crime (North-west)
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) robberies and (b) violent crimes in the north-west there were in each of the years from 1997 to date. [160081]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The table shows robbery and violent crime recorded crime statistics in the north-west, (the police force areas of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside) for the calendar year 1997, subsequent fiscal years and the year ending September 2000.
| Robbery | Violent crime | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 9,702 | 46,224 |
| 1997-98 | 10,116 | 50,503 |
| 1998-99 | 11,614 | 87,039 |
| 1999-2000 | 12,911 | 93,029 |
| 1999-2000(17) | 13,795 | 92,804 |
(17) Year ending September
Note:
It should be noted that, owing to the change in the Home Office's rule counting and classifying crime on 1 April 1998, figures for recorded crime before and after that date are not directly comparable.
Haase Case
Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the implications of the Haase case; and if he will review the criteria for the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. [160375]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The use of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy to remit a prison sentence is a very rare occurrence and it is used only in exceptional circumstances. Partially as a result of its use in the case
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of John Haase, I commissioned a review of the exercise of the Royal Prerogative of Mercy. This was completed recently and I am carefully considering the findings and recommendations of the review report.
Detective Sergeant Peter Williams
Mr. Kilfoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will initiate a review of the case of former Detective Sergeant Peter Williams, of the south-east regional crime squad. [160374]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis informs me that former Detective Sergeant Peter Williams, of the south-east regional crime squad, was dismissed from the Metropolitan Police service on 15 September 1999, having been found guilty of a number of disciplinary offences.
The disciplinary action taken against Mr. Williams was under the Police (Discipline) Regulations 1985. Under these regulations, a police officer found guilty of disciplinary offences has a right of appeal to the Secretary of State. Mr. Williams has not chosen to appeal against the offences for which he has been found guilty.
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis informs me that there is no intention to review the case of former Detective Sergeant Peter Williams.
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