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Competitive Bidding
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the schemes administered
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by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies where funds are allocated by a competitive bidding process; and what was the amount of money allocated to each scheme. [19734]
Angela Eagle [holding answer 3 December 2001]: Grant schemes administered by the Home Office, where a competitive bidding process has taken place, were allocated a total of approximately £340 million during this financial year. This has funded 226 projects under 17 schemes. The main grant schemes are as listed.
| Grant scheme | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Active Community Grants | 17,042,532 |
| ACU Grants funded by Capital Modernisation Fund | 8,226,017 |
| Race Equality Unit—Summer Activities | 7,000,000 |
| Race Equality Unit—Connecting Communities | 5,000,000 |
| Family Support Grants (for voluntary organisations) | 2,000,000 |
| Research Challenge Fund | 260,000 |
| Refugee Integration Challenge Fund | 500,000 |
| Crime Reduction Programme | 51,500,000 |
| Crime Reduction Programme—CCTV Capital Grants | 70,000,000 |
| Partnership Development Fund | 2,100,000 |
| Electronic Chipping Initiative | 2,300,000 |
| Confiscated Assets Fund | 7,000,000 |
| Drug Prevention Advisory Service Grants | 1,907,000 |
| Crime Fighting Fund | 151,000,000 |
The following grants schemes were approved by ministers during 2001, and will run until 2004:
| Grant scheme | Allocation |
|---|---|
| Mentoring Fund Grants | 3,448,691 |
| Infrastructure Grants | 7,719,500 |
Immigration and Nationality Directorate
Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the application from Mrs. Susan Crwys-Williams, a constituent of Cheltenham, sent by recorded delivery (Ref: RB13663205GB) on 15 October, for indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom as a spouse of a UK citizen, will be logged on the system of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate; when he expects a decision to be made on her application; and what compensation is payable by his Department to those applicants who have purchased air tickets in advance to travel abroad at Christmas on the expectation that applications will be dealt with in the time period advertised. [22141]
Angela Eagle: The application has been decided. Mrs. Crwys-Williams' passport and other documents were returned by recorded delivery on 7 December.
Compensation will not normally be offered to applicants who have made travel plans in the expectation that their application would be completed within any particular time scale. Information on the application form and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate website about the likely time scales for processing applications is intended for guidance only and should not be taken to imply that any application will necessarily be completed within that time scale. The website currently advises
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applicants not to make non-urgent travel plans such as holidays until the outcome of the application is known and their documents have been returned. If an applicant wishes to travel their documents will be returned but applications will not normally be considered out of turn.
Conviction Statistics
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what definitions are used for (a) convicted after trial rate in Crown courts in quarterly Business Information and (b) percentage of those pleading not guilty convicted for persons tried at the Crown court in Table 6C of Criminal Statistics. [22281]
Mr. Keith Bradley: The "Convicted after contested trial rate" in the Criminal Justice Business Quarterly Report focuses on those defendants, from Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) records, who pleaded not guilty in the Crown court, no guilty pleas being entered, and a jury was sworn in. The resultant contested hearings include those resulting in a judge directed acquittal as well as those convicted or acquitted on the verdict of the jury.
The "Percentage of those pleading not guilty convicted" given in Table 6C of Criminal Statistics England and Wales is derived from Crown court records and focuses on a larger group of defendants. Non-CPS prosecutions are included as well as some defendants who pleaded not guilty to the principal offence and guilty to other charges. A jury trial may not have occurred and those not convicted include judge-ordered acquittals, judge-directed acquittals and jury acquittals.
Corporate Manslaughter
Linda Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to review the criminal justice system as it relates to corporate manslaughter. [22291]
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Mr. Keith Bradley: We have considered responses to our consultation paper "Reforming the Law on Involuntary Manslaughter" which included our proposals in relation to corporate manslaughter. We will legislate on this issue as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Resource Allocation
Mr. Syms: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give (a) the reasons for the projected change in net provision of money for fire and emergency planning in 2001–02, (b) details of those areas of action which have received less funding than was provided for at the commencement of financial year 2001–02 and (c) examples of measures which are funded under Request for Resources 1-H. [22132]
Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 10 December 2001]: As a result of Machinery of Government changes announced by the Prime Minister on 8 June 2001, resources were transferred to the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions for the Fire Service, and to the Lord Chancellor's Department for Remembrance Day in line with the transfer of responsibilities.
No areas have received less funding than was provided for at the start of the financial year. The reduction in resources is wholly attributable to the Machinery of Government transfer.
The remaining resources under Request for Resources 1-H fund the Emergency Planning function. These resources are also subject to the Machinery of Government changes and will be transferred to the Cabinet Office in the spring.
Explosives Offences
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions have been recorded for offences under the Explosives Acts in each of the last five years. [22349]
Beverley Hughes: The information held centrally on the Home Office Court Proceedings Database relating to England and Wales for the years 1996–2000 is given in the table.
| Total number convicted | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Principal statute | Offence description | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000(19) |
| Explosives Act 1875 (except sec. 80) and Orders in Council and rules thereunder(20) | Manufacture and keeping of gunpowder and other explosives | |||||
| Explosives Act 1923 and Orders in Council and rules thereunder(20) | Offences in relation to explosives, firearms etc. | 24 | 28 | 16 | 21 | 17 |
| Fireworks Act 1951(20) | Offences in relation to dangerous fireworks and making of fireworks etc. | |||||
| Explosives Act 1875 sec. 80 | Throwing, casting or firing any fireworks in or into any highway, street, etc. public place | 34 | 49 | 36 | 27 | 40 |
| Total | 58 | 77 | 52 | 48 | 57 | |
(19) Staffordshire police force were only able to submit sample data for convictions at magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust at a detailed level and have been excluded from this table
(20) Data for these offences are not separately identifiable on the Home Office Court Proceedings Database
Note:
All data are given on a principal offence basis
Public Service Agreements
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the Public Service Agreement target to plan and meet electronic Government needs was achieved. [21288]
Mr. Blunkett: The proportion of my Department's services capable of electronic delivery is currently 47 per cent. By the end of 2002, this should have risen to about 70 per cent. This compares with the Government's target of 25 per cent. by 2002.
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My Department's e-Business Strategy is published on the internet. The body of the strategy can be found at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ebusiness/stratmain.pdf. The appendixes are at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ ebusiness/stratapp.pdf.
Appendix A lists Home Office services and progress towards their e-enablement.
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