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Criminal Responsibility
Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement regarding the age of criminal responsibility. [52150]
Beverley Hughes: The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10. We need to nip early offending in the bud and reinforce young people's sense of personal responsibility for their behaviour. Timely intervention can make a difference and most young people of that age are mature enough to know the difference between right and wrong, to take responsibility for their behaviour and to cope with the operation of criminal law.
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The Government's youth justice reforms ensure that young offenders receive appropriate interventions to make them understand and take responsibility for their offending behaviour, and are subject to programmes which directly tackle the causes of their offending.
Hare Coursing
Gillian Merron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will establish a power of arrest for persons found committing an offence under the Game Act 1831; [52287]
- (2) what plans he has to amend the Game Act 1831 to give police more powers in relation to illegal hare coursing; [52286]
(3) if he will increase the penalties for illegal hare coursing to over £5,000; [52289]
(4) if he will establish a power of seizure of vehicles being used by illegal hare coursers. [52288]
Mr. Denham: There is no immediate intention to strengthen legislation relating to illegal hare coursing or to increase relevant fines. The police and the courts already have extensive powers and substantial penalties available to them in dealing with this issue.
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Depending upon the exact circumstances the police may be able to arrest alleged offenders and a court may have the capacity to order forfeiture of vehicles used in committing or facilitating an offence.
Offences relevant to the disorder sometimes associated with illegal hare coursing are contained in the Public Order Act 1986. They include, for example, an offence of intentionally using threatening, abusing or insulting words or behaviour to cause harassment, alarm or distress. There is also the more serious offence of violent disorder which carries a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment.
Recruitment
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many net additional staff his Department has recruited in each month since June 2001 at (a) executive officer level and (b) administrative level. [52428]
Angela Eagle: I am sorry for the delay in replying. For the period June 2001 to March/April 2002 the net additional staff recruited to the Home Office and its agencies in the grades requested are set out in the following tables.
| Entrants to Department | Leavers | Net intake | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EOs | AOs/AAs | EOs | AOs/AAs | EOs | AOs/AAs | |||
| Recruitment | Other | Recruitment | Other | |||||
| June 2001 | 34 | 54 | 139 | 178 | 19 | 56 | 69 | 261 |
| July 2001 | 50 | 9 | 215 | 12 | 14 | 46 | 45 | 181 |
| August 2001 | 44 | 7 | 164 | 3 | 34 | 136 | 17 | 31 |
| September 2001 | 23 | 13 | 197 | 14 | 46 | 172 | -10 | 39 |
| October 2001 | 10 | 11 | 145 | 3 | 16 | 60 | 5 | 88 |
| November 2001 | 6 | 6 | 107 | 5 | 20 | 55 | -8 | 57 |
| December 2001 | 5 | 1 | 93 | 2 | 22 | 53 | -16 | 42 |
| January 2002 | 24 | 11 | 192 | 7 | 40 | 78 | -5 | 121 |
| February 2002 | 51 | 10 | 182 | 11 | 38 | 85 | 23 | 108 |
| March 2002 | 27 | 5 | 185 | 3 | 58 | 142 | -26 | 46 |
| April 2002 | 33 | 7 | 110 | 2 | 12 | 21 | 28 | 91 |
| Total | 307 | 134 | 1,729 | 240 | 319 | 904 | 122 | 1,065 |
Note:
The word recruitment is used in the strict sense and does not include transfers from other Government Departments, transfer of functions, etc., which are in other.
| Entrants to Departments | Leavers | Net intake | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EOs | AOs/AAs | EOs | AOs/AAs | EOs | AOs/AAs | |||
| Recruitment | Other | Recruitment | Other | |||||
| June 2001 | 6 | 0 | 35 | 0 | 6 | 12 | 0 | 23 |
| July 2001 | 1 | 0 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 16 |
| August 2001 | 2 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 3 | 14 | -1 | 9 |
| September 2001 | 8 | 0 | 61 | 1 | 5 | 20 | 3 | 42 |
| October 2001 | 5 | 1 | 28 | 1 | 5 | 11 | 1 | 18 |
| November 2001 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 5 | 12 | -5 | 3 |
| December 2001 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | -2 |
| January 2002 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 7 |
| February 2002 | 19 | 0 | 23 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 15 | 19 |
| March 2002 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 1 | -1 |
| April 2002 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Total | 56 | 1 | 244 | 4 | 34 | 111 | 23 | 137 |
Note:
The word recruitment is used in the strict sense and does not include transfers from other Government Departments, transfer of functions, etc., which are in other.
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| Newly recruited | Leavers | Net intake | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EOs | AOs/AAs | EOs | AOs/AAs | EOs | AOs/AAs | |
| June 2001 | 4 | 100 | 4 | 50 | 0 | 50 |
| July 2001 | 5 | 101 | 4 | 57 | 1 | 44 |
| August 2001 | 1 | 61 | 9 | 70 | -8 | -9 |
| September 2001 | 2 | 92 | 4 | 97 | -2 | -5 |
| October 2001 | 1 | 80 | 4 | 45 | -3 | 35 |
| November 2001 | 2 | 87 | 8 | 39 | -6 | 48 |
| December 2001 | 0 | 53 | 3 | 30 | -3 | 23 |
| January 2002 | 2 | 93 | 8 | 58 | -6 | 35 |
| February 2002 | 0 | 77 | 9 | 43 | -9 | 34 |
| March 2002 | 0 | 73 | 4 | 53 | -4 | 20 |
| Total | 17 | 817 | 57 | 542 | -40 | 275 |
Note:
Recruitment would include transfers from other Government Departments, but not from the main Home Office.
Street Crime
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the level of street crime in each Metropolitan Police division between January and March in each year from 1997 to 2002. [52334]
Mr. Denham [holding answer 25 April 2002]: The Home Office did not collect borough figures prior to April 1999 and does not publish monthly or quarterly statistics. The Home Office will publish national statistics for the year 2001–02 in the summer in its crime bulletin. The Metropolitan police have already published figures for this period, which are available on its website. The table contains figures for total recorded robberies (including robberies of personal property and business property) in London boroughs for 1999–2000 and 2000–01.
The Metropolitan police force area is one of the 10 areas included in the Government's wider street crime initiative, which involves a concerted response to street crime across all the criminal justice and social agencies.
The 10 Force Street Crime initiative began in April 2002 across the 10 force areas with the biggest robbery problem. The police and criminal justice agencies are working together in these areas to target and fast-track all street crime offenders. The initiative also brings together the resources and expertise of non-criminal justice system agencies to help tackle the causes of street crime and take preventative action.
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