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Part-time Employees

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what proportion of the staff of his Department are part-time employees. [47155]

Mr. McCartney: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office, on 11 April 2002, Official Report, column 553W.

Hospitalisation (Benefit Downrating)

Mr. Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many pensioners have their attendance allowance withdrawn because they have been in hospital for four weeks or longer. [51574]

Maria Eagle: When attendance allowance recipients have been in hospital for 28 days, payments are suspended pending their discharge because the needs arising from their disability are being met free of charge. Information is not available on the annual number of suspensions resulting from these circumstances. The latest available information is that, at 30 November 2001, about 15,600 claims were at that time recorded as suspended as a result of a stay in hospital.

This figure is based on 5 per cent. data and rounded to the nearest hundred.

29 Apr 2002 : Column 601W

HOME DEPARTMENT

European Committee for the Prevention of

Torture

Dr. Vis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the most recent report on the UK by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. [52141]

Mr. Wills: I have been asked to reply.

Under Article 11 of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, it is for the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture to publish reports of its visits together with any comments of the state party concerned. Formally, publication is at the request of the state party.

We have made that request and I understand that the report on the Committee's visit to the United Kingdom in February 2001 is now available on the Committee's website www.cpt.coe.int with the UK's observations.

I am placing a copy of the report in the Library.

Emergency Services

Mr. Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much revenue was generated through the sale of radio frequencies used by emergency services. [50508]

Mr. Denham: There has been no sale of radio frequencies used by the emergency services, and therefore no revenue generated by this means.

Mr. Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the revenue generated by the sale of radio frequencies used by emergency services in the UK has been allocated for reinvestment into the refitting of vehicles and control rooms in the (a) police forces and (b) fire services. [50511]

Mr. Denham: There has been no sale of radio frequencies used by the emergency services in the United Kingdom.

Sex Abuse

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) complaints and (b) items of correspondence have been received by (a) the Home Office, (b) Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary, (c) the Police Complaints Authority and (d) the Criminal Cases Review Commission in relation to historical sex abuse investigations in the UK in (i) 1999, (ii) 2000 and (iii) 2001. [49834]

Mr. Denham: The Home Office does not officially record complaints received in writing or over the telephone—these are incorporated in overall correspondence figures. Complaints and correspondence can be individually addressed to policy units. There is no current way of tracking these accurately. Records for 1999 in relation to this question do not exist. The figures compiled for 2000 and 2001 combine both public and ministerial correspondence on the subject of violent crime/sexual offences.

29 Apr 2002 : Column 602W

Figures for the individual areas in each year are shown in the table.

	1999	2000	2001
Home Office(21)	n/a	83	134
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC)(22)	—	—	—
Police Complaints Authority(23)	61	64	70
Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC)(24)	1	2	6

⁽²¹⁾ Figures are based on correspondence relating to violent crime/sexual offences

⁽²²⁾ The subject nature of HMIC correspondence is not officially recorded, hence no figures exist

⁽²³⁾ Figures are based on correspondence relating to allegations of sexual assault

⁽²⁴⁾ Figures are based on applications for case review that involved sex abuse in care homes

Criminal Records Bureau

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the names of organisations which have registered as umbrella bodies with the Criminal Records Bureau. [48758]

Mr. Denham: A list of those registered bodies that have consented to having their details made available for the purpose of countersigning applications on behalf of non-registered organisations is available from the Criminal Records Bureau on request and information is also available on the website www.disclosure.gov.uk.

Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he is taking to ensure that smaller voluntary and community organisations can access criminal record checks. [50624]

Mr. Denham: We have been determined that employers and organisations wishing to use the new service provided by the new Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) will have a ready means of access. To meet the needs of those employers and organisations which do not wish to register with the bureau in their own right, we have encouraged others to consider acting on their behalf, as umbrella bodies, and we shall continue to do so. Up to 16 April 2002, 707 bodies had registered with the CRB as umbrella bodies, including 419 which have indicated that they are prepared to act on behalf of others outside their own circle or sector.

Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average charge made by umbrella bodies registered with the Criminal Records Bureau for processing applications for disclosure is. [50625]

Mr. Denham: This information is not requested by the Criminal Records Bureau. In guidance for umbrella bodies, the bureau urges that any such charges should be kept to a minimum. Those wishing to use the services of an umbrella body would be well advised to ask whether charges are made and, if so, compare charges.

Offence Statistics

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the number of recorded offences for (a) begging, (b) breaching an antisocial behaviour order, (c) vagrancy, (d) noise, (e) drunkenness, (f) drunkenness with aggravation, (g) aggravated vehicle

29 Apr 2002 : Column 603W

taking, (h) rowdy and disorderly group behaviour in public and (i) driving while having a breath/urine/blood alcohol concentration in excess of the prescribed limit, broken down by police force area, in each year since 1997. [49787]

Mr. Denham [holding answer 15 April 2002]: With the exception of aggravated vehicle taking, the categories mentioned are not collected centrally, or not collected separately, for recorded crime figures. The details for aggravated vehicle taking are given in the table.

Recorded crime—offences of aggravated vehicle taking by police force area since 1997⁽²⁵⁾

Police force	1997(26)	1998–99(27)	1999–2000(27)	2000–01(27)
Avon and Somerset	61	30	40	19
Bedfordshire	31	53	67	59
Cambridgeshire	32	100	170	158
Cheshire	126	149	170	141
Cleveland	205	197	165	163
Cumbria	63	128	139	124
Derbyshire	215	226	225	189
Devon and Cornwall	138	174	262	269
Dorset	124	148	184	206
Durham	118	114	116	94
Essex(28)	167	111	21	54
Gloucestershire	133	77	71	64
Greater Manchester	626	1,122	1,190	1,312
Hampshire	120	188	229	244
Hertfordshire(28)	8	52	104	142
Humberside	270	338	276	276
Kent	157	191	187	158
Lancashire	220	265	301	318
Leicestershire	87	119	85	71
Lincolnshire	71	77	73	44
City of London	2	8	10	10
Merseyside	136	184	251	352
Metropolitan police district(28)	1,016	983	1,100	1,130
Norfolk	38	53	49	80
Northamptonshire	120	161	154	137
Northumbria	158	270	280	316
North Yorkshire	76	109	69	93
Nottinghamshire	76	118	81	91
South Yorkshire	412	394	357	448
Staffordshire	171	241	174	159
Suffolk	65	67	82	104
Surrey(28)	27	60	131	149
Sussex	170	288	318	343
Thames Valley	203	148	175	171
Warwickshire	76	50	58	70
West Mercia	121	242	250	264
West Midlands	299	674	770	850
West Yorkshire	892	1,029	913	798
Wiltshire	73	89	128	114
Dyfed-Powys	90	129	109	110
Gwent	140	144	143	140
North Wales	109	182	135	151
South Wales	589	616	604	574
England and Wales	8,031	10,098	10,416	10,759

⁽²⁵⁾ 1997 is the calendar year, with the other years ending in March.

⁽²⁶⁾ The number of crimes recorded in that financial year using the coverage and rules in use until 31 March 1998.

⁽²⁷⁾ The number of crimes recorded in that financial year using the expanded offence coverage and revised counting rules which came into effect on 1 April 1998.

⁽²⁸⁾ There was a boundary change on 1 April 2000 in which parts of the Metropolitan police area were transferred to Essex, Hertfordshire and Surrey, so that these police force areas followed county boundaries thereafter.

29 Apr 2002 : Column 604W

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