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Criminal Records Bureau

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to reduce the amount of paperwork for volunteers completing forms required by the Criminal Records Bureau. [61766]

Hilary Benn [holding answer 17 June 2002]: In order to ensure that Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Disclosure Applications are processed accurately and in the interests of public safety 42 questions are asked of applicants. This is the case for all applicants, whether their positions are voluntary or paid.

There are no plans to reduce the amount of information requested for volunteers completing forms required by the CRB to process disclosure applications.

The CRB offers two application channels to request a disclosure, the telephone application line and the paper application form route. A third option is planned to be

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introduced later this year, when applicants will be able to apply via the CRB website. These measures have all been put in place to help keep the amount of paper work to a minimum.

Work Permits

Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who were awarded work permits to recruit them to (a) UK police forces, (b) UK schools and (c) the UK NHS from (i) India, (ii) South Africa, (iii) Bangladesh and (iv) Jamaica have returned to those countries in the last five years. [62634]

Beverley Hughes: Work Permits (UK), who administer the work permit arrangements, do not collect information to determine the number of work permit holders who return overseas.

The full number of work permit approvals issued for the Government, health and medical industry and education and cultural industry, for (i) India, (ii) South Africa, (iii) Bangladesh and (iv) Jamaica for the previous five years is listed in the table. It encompasses all of the sector, including the United Kingdom police forces, United Kingdom schools and the national health services (NHS), but also any other employers within these sectors. The way in which information is collated does not provide a separate breakdown for the requested specific employer groups.

	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
	Government sector
India	0	0	0	3	14	7
South Africa	0	0	5	83	212	73
Bangladesh	0	0	0	0	1	1
Jamaica	0	0	0	0	2	1
Total	0	0	5	86	229	82
	Health and medical sectors
India	189	457	916	1,940	4,134	2,411
South Africa	243	753	2,024	2,882	4,141	2,631
Bangladesh	0	9	16	24	24	9
Jamaica	11	25	199	322	315	134
Total	443	1,244	3,155	5,168	8,614	5,185
	Education and cultural sectors
India	121	159	232	331	559	368
South Africa	28	47	73	360	1,986	920
Bangladesh	10	10	9	19	28	8
Jamaica	1	2	1	8	360	136
Total	160	218	315	718	2,933	1,432

Note:

The figures for 1997–2001 are for the calendar years. Figures for 2002 are for those up until 18 June.

Criminal Injuries Compensation

Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will propose amendments to the criminal injuries compensation legislation in order to entitle victims of child abuse to benefit from the funds in those cases where the victim (a) lived with abuser and (b) the abuser was a close relative. [61922]

Hilary Benn [holding answer 18 June 2002]: We conducted a thorough review of the criminal injuries compensation scheme following a public consultation exercise launched in 1999, and made a number of

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significant changes to the scheme with effect from 1 April 2001. As part of that exercise we considered whether to change the rule which precludes payment of compensation for intra-family sexual abuse which occurred before 1 October 1979. However, we decided for a number of reasons that the rule should not be changed.

Hunting

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost has been of policing (a) demonstrations and other events arguing against legal restrictions on hunting and (b) hunting events (i) in 2001 and (ii) so far this year. [63438]

Mr. Denham: The information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of vandalism, criminal damage and other offences apparently carried out by those supporting hunting were reported to the police (a) in 2001 and (b) so far this year. [63437]

Mr. Denham: Figures for incidents reported to the police are not collected centrally. Details of those that the police then record as crimes are submitted to the Home Office by forces. Overall totals are broken down by type of offence, but information on the motivation of those who carry them out is not included.

Crime Statistics

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent analysis he has made of a link between changes in crime and changes in the number of children (a) born to teenage women, (b) born outside marriage, (c) born into poverty and (d) in one-parent families; and if he will make a statement. [62409]

Mr. Denham [holding answer 19 June 2002]: There is no evidence of a link between changes in the level of crime and changes in the number of children born to teenage women, outside marriage or in one parent families. Research, however, has suggested that the following risk factors are cumulatively important:

poverty and poor housing;


poor parenting (including neglect, abuse, harsh and inconsistent discipline, lack of supervision and marital conflict);


association with delinquent peers, siblings and partners;


low measures of intelligence, poor performance and persistent truancy;


high levels of impulsiveness and hyperactivity; and


being brought up by a criminal parent or parents. ¹

The Home Office has also undertaken research to explore the influence of aggregate demographic and socio-economic factors on the level of crime. This demonstrated a link between changes in certain socio- economic variables, such as changes in GDP, the stock of economy-wide goods, and the number of young males aged 15–20; and property crime. ²

Work is on-going to develop and improve the Home Office models and to examine the impact of a wider range of socio-economic factors on crime trends.

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¹ "Reducing offending: an assessment of research evidence on ways of dealing with offending behaviour"; HORS 187.
² "Modelling and predicting property crime trends in England and Wales"; HORS 198.

Dutch Somalians

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions he has had with his Dutch colleagues about Dutch Somalians who have left the Netherlands to settle in the UK. [63446]

Beverley Hughes: We are aware of increasing numbers of individuals of Somali origin arriving in the United Kingdom and claiming local authority support. It is in response to this issue that we have introduced an amendment to the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill. The purpose of this amendment is to clarify in law the duty that local authorities have to provide social assistance to these individuals, and will limit support available to this category of person when they have support available elsewhere.

The Dutch have recently expressed concern about this issue. My officials are in the process of liaising with other Government Departments and the Dutch Embassy in London about setting up channels of communication with the Dutch in response to this issue.

Ethnic Minorities

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will meet the representatives from the Sikh Secretariat on 4 July to discuss the issues set out in the Sikh Agenda for the UK Government; and if he will make a statement. [63615]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 21 June 2002]: My noble Friend Lord Filkin is meeting a group of representatives from a number of Sikh organisations, likely to include one from the Sikh Secretariat, on 31 July to discuss issues relating to the British Sikh community.

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Sikhs are serving as police officers in England and Wales, broken down by police authority. [63608]

Mr. Denham [holding answer 21 June 2002]: The information is not collected centrally.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders

Mr. Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many antisocial behaviour orders have been issued in each police authority area. [63879]

Mr. Denham [holding answer 24 June 2002]: Official statistics on the number of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) issued are based on quarterly returns received from magistrates' courts committees (MCCs). From 1 April 2001 MCC areas were aligned with all police force areas.

The latest available information up to December 2001 is given in the table.

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Number of antisocial behaviour orders issued as from 1 April 1999 to 31 December 2001 by police force area and MCC

Police force area/MCC	ASBOs issued
Avon and Somerset	27
Bedfordshire	4
Cambridgeshire	8
Cheshire	2
Cleveland	9
Cumbria	2
Derbyshire	12
Devon and Cornwall	11
Dorset	4
Durham	13
Essex	—
Gloucestershire	4
Metropolitan police(62)/GLMCA	41
Great Manchester	26
Hampshire	7
Hertfordshire	9
Humberside	13
Kent	17
Lancashire	17
Leicestershire	5
Lincolnshire	2
Merseyside	17
Norfolk	18
Northamptonshire	8
Northumbria	18
North Yorkshire	11
Nottinghamshire	16
South Yorkshire	11
Staffordshire	10
Suffolk	7
Surrey	4
Sussex	9
Thames Valley	9
Warwickshire	3
West Mercia	51
West Midlands	67
West Yorkshire	19
Wiltshire	—
Dyfed Powys	—
Gwent	2
North Wales	1
South Wales	4
England and Wales	518

⁽⁶²⁾ Including City of London

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