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Communications Data (Access)

Sandra Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements he has made for consultation on the regulation of access to communications data. [72295]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 23 July 2002]: We are considering how best to carry out the consultation exercise on the regulation of access to communications data to ensure a wide-ranging and detailed debate of the issues raised and how to balance the individual's right to privacy with legitimate arrangements to safeguard national security and protect the public.

Correspondence

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Woking dated 13 June regarding Dayekh reference D1056360. [69771]

Beverley Hughes: I wrote to the hon. Friend on 24 July 2002.

Retail Crime

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much of the £15 million grant funding to help retailers tackle crime in deprived areas has been allocated; to whom it has been allocated and over what time period. [71221]

Mr. John Denham: The £15 million from the Capital Modernisation Fund for the Small Retailers in Deprived Areas initiative has been made available in annual instalments of £3 million in 2001–02, £6 million in 2002–03 and £6 million in 2003–04. Apart from a small amount set aside for administration and evaluation, all this money has been allocated to regional Crime Reduction Directors, as in the table.

24 Jul 2002 : Column 1466W

Region	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	Total (£)
Eastern	196,620	393,475	393,475	983,570
East Midlands	236,060	471,052	471,052	1,178,164
London	454,720	910,515	910,515	2,275,750
North East	248,530	496,244	496,244	1,241,018
North West	470,670	942,209	942,209	2,355,088
South East	246,500	493,580	493,580	1,233,660
South West	194,300	389,604	389,604	973,508
Wales	190,820	381,257	381,257	953,334
West Midlands	333,210	666,182	666,182	1,665,574
Yorkshire and Humber	327,410	655,882	655,882	1,639,174

For more details about the scheme, and the funding formula used, I would refer the hon. Member to the Written Answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Stockport (Ann Coffey) on 6 February 2002, Official Report, column 984W.

I placed in the Library at the same time a paper showing the allocation of funds to individual projects for 2001–02. I hope to announce shortly the projects we shall be funding in 2002–03.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to make retail crime a best value indicator for police force performance. [54623]

Mr. John Denham: The Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPIs) for 2002–03 came into effect on 1 April 2002, following consultation with the Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief Police Officers. Following the Home Secretary's commitment in September last year to halve the number of indicators, there are currently 18 BVPIs as compared with 32 in 2001–02.

Whilst we have no plans to introduce an additional national performance indicator on retail crime, a police authority would be able to set a local performance indicator relating to retail crime should this be a particular problem locally.

Police (Compensation Claims)

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many members of the public have been prosecuted this year for making fraudulent and malicious compensation claims against the police; and what range of penalties was imposed. [71104]

Mr. John Denham [holding answer 18 July 2002]: The information requested cannot be distinguished in the court statistics collected centrally from other offences of fraud.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many antisocial behaviour orders have been issued in West Sussex, broken down by local authority area. [71099]

Mr. John Denham [holding answer 18 July 2002]: Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) were introduced from 1 April 1999. The data given in the table covers the period up to the end of December 2001 (latest available).

24 Jul 2002 : Column 1467W

We are currently considering whether any further checks are needed to ensure the accuracy of the number of ASBOs reported.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many compensation claims, and at what financial cost, have been made against (a) Sussex Police and (b) the Metropolitan Police in each year since 1999. [71103]

Mr. John Denham [holding answer 18 July 2002]: The Home Office does not collect this information centrally. Information is compiled by forces according to their own management needs and is not therefore directly comparable. Information provided by the forces is as follows:

(a) Sussex Constabulary (i) Civil claims: public liability (wrongful arrest, false imprisonment and damage to property) and employer liability

	Civil Claims in Financial Years
	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Claims closed	258	308	295
Dismissed	36	65	28
Not proceeded with	144	169	191
Settled	77	69	74
Judgement for claimant	1	5	2
Payments (£)	224,776	166,609	155,342

(ii) Employment Tribunals

Claims in Calendar Years
	1999	2000	2001
Claims received	9	6	6
Dismissed	2	2	1
Withdrawn	3	1	3
Settled	4	3	2
Judgement for claimant	0	0	0
Payments (£)	0	29,000	22,000

(b) Metropolitan Police Service(i) Employer liability and damage to property

	Number of Claims	Numbers of Claims	Amount Paid (£million)
1999–2000	2,800	3,600	7.0
2000–01	2,700	3,150	7.0
2001–02	2,450	2,900	10.1
(incl. £5 million provision against future claims)

(ii) Civil actions and damages: the following tables relate to actions against the police by members of the public for wrongful arrest, false imprisonment etc.

Civil Actions received in financial years
	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Actions	164	190	157
Threatened actions	633	503	439

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Damages paid in financial years
	1999–2000		2000–01		2001–02
	No of Cases	Cost (£k)	No of Cases	Cost (£k)	No of Cases	Cost (£k)
Out of court settlements	413	3,703	220	2,318	129	1,261
Court awards	22	203	15	340	6	125

(iii) Employment Tribunals

£	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Claims Settled	386,970	531,764	129,574
Tribunal Awards	14,652	363,085	0
Totals	401,622	894,849	129,574

Number of Cases with financial settlement
Claims Settled	17	18	18
Tribunal Awards	2	2	0
Totals	19	20	18

Parliamentary Questions

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will answer the question from the hon. Member for Maidenhead of 8 March on the number of functioning police stations. [71491]

Mr. John Denham: With apologies for the delay in responding I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave her on 22 July 2002 Official Report, column 829W.

Policing (Bromley)

Mr. Horam: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police served in (a) the London Borough of Bromley and (b) the Orpington sector of Bromley; and what the establishment figure was in each year since 1996. [9997]

Mr. John Denham: The information in the table has been provided by the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. Figures for the Orpington Sector of Bromley are not available.

The budgeted strength is not an establishment figure. Differences between actual and budgeted strength have a variety of causes. They may arise because patterns of recruitment to and wastage from the police service are different or because targets for strength at the end of the financial year reflect planned changes in strength, for example the allocation of officers recruited through the Crime Fighting Fund.

Year	Budgeted Workforce Total in Bromley	Strength
December 1996	479	471
December 1997	Not Available	464
December 1998	Not Available	443
December 1999	440	432
December 2000	440	412
January 2002	458	424

24 Jul 2002 : Column 1469W

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