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21 Oct 2002 : Column 85W—continued

HOME DEPARTMENT

Mobile Phone Thefts

Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are serving sentences of (a) theft and (b) robbery involving phones. [40009]

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Hilary Benn [holding answer 5 March 2002]: There is no data held centrally on the number of persons in England and Wales who have committed an offence of theft or robbery that involves a phone.

Targeted Policing Initiative

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list (a) those schemes which have received funding under the Targeted Policing Initiative in the Buckingham constituency, (b) the amount received and (c) the targets set to reduce crime under the schemes. [22625]

Mr. Denham: No schemes have been funded in the Buckingham constituency under the Targeted Policing Initiative.

Police Horses

Mr. Meale: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent guidelines he has issued on the tethering of horses by police forces; and if he will make a statement. [55876]

Mr. Denham: There is no Home Office or Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidance on this matter. The equine training standards adopted by police forces are that the horses should not be tethered by the reins.

Criminal Injuries Compensation (Children)

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many applications submitted to the CICA/CICB on behalf of children who have been victims of sexual abuse in each of the last five years have been successful, broken down by nation and region; [72789]

Hilary Benn: The readily available information, which has been provided by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, is summarised in the following table. The awards resolved in any given year do not necessarily relate to the applications received in that year.

Applications Relating To Child Abuse

1997–981998–991999–20002000–012001–02
Number of Applications Received
Total for Great Britain5,1644,8875,0564,6074,606
Scotland Only840728724576583
Resolution of Applications
Money Awards
Total for Great Britain3,1894,1133,8613,5783,678
Scotland Only328481420410417
No Award
Total for Great Britain7951,2871,3821,2541,229
Scotland Only111209236201147


Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if it is the policy of the CICA/CICB to retain records of applications and papers submitted in respect of applications on behalf of children until such time as the child would attain the age of majority; [72787]

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Hilary Benn: The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) advise that, prior to 4 December 2001, it was the general policy of both CICA and Criminal Injuries Compensation Board (CICB) to retain papers relating to applications for compensation for six years from the date of the last action on the case. The retention period was then reduced to five years because the increased throughput of resolved cases under the new tariff scheme was creating additional pressures on the available storage space.

The CICA's policy is to retain case files for applications submitted on behalf of children until the child reaches 21 years of age. In addition, in any case

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where the medical condition is likely to deteriorate, the policy is to retain the file for 25 years after the last action has been taken.

Police Finance

Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the (a) total standard spending, (b) special police grants and central support services and (c) capital investment in (i) Merseyside Police, (ii) Greater Manchester Police and (iii) England and Wales in (A) 1997–98, (B) 1998–99, (C) 1999–2000, (D) 2000–01, (E) 2001–02 and (F) the projected levels for 2002–03. [71275]

Mr. Denham [holding answer 23 July 2002]:

MerseysideGreater Manchester PoliceEngland & Wales
TSSSpecial Grant(22)Capital(23)TotalTSSSpecial Grant(22)Capital(23)TotalTSSSpecial Grant(22)Capital(23)Total
#million#million#million#million#million#million#million#million#million#million#million
1997/98227.406.6234.0351.207.6358.86,824.71.5169.56,995.7
1998/99233.203.5236.7364.704.33697,035.55.8144.47,185.7
1999/00236.30.093.1239.5375.70.14.3380.17,213.68.1144.47,366.1
2000/01242.34.33.9250.5386.06.64.8397.47,415.3113.1144.47,672.8
2001/02252.66.33.9262.8404.529.06.5440.07,778.8330.9157.48,267.1
2002/03(21)253.117.45.6276.1407.424.09.3440.77,831.5460.9209.48,501.8

Notes:

(21) Total Standard Spending figures (TSS) for 2002/03 are not directly comparable with 2001/02 owing to the change in funding arrangement for the National Crime Squad/National Criminal Intelligence Service. On a like-for-like basis the comparable figures for 2001/02 are #247.2million for Merseyside, #395.8million for Greater Manchester Police and #7,613.7million for England & Wales.

(22) Special grant includes Home office Crime Fighting Fund, Rural policing grant, Airwave grant, payments from the DNA programme, National Intelligence Model payments, grant to tackle robbery, Fuel distribution emergency payments, grant to tackle robbery, execution of warrants grant, Beacon scheme payments, grant to tackle street crime and one-off payments of special grant for specific events.

(23) Capital allocations include capital grant and supplementary credit approvals. General capital allocations from 1997/98 to 2000/01 included an element of grant for major capital schemes allocated under the Priority Planning List scheme that has now concluded. The general capital allocation for 2002/03 includes #10million held as a reserve and #20million set aside for the Premises Improvement Fund. All police authorities have been invited to bid for a share of the Fund.


Central support services cannot be broken down for individual forces.

In addition to the above, forces benefited from additional funding for Targeted Policing Initiatives 1997–98 to 2002–03. Overall spend for Merseyside was #2.32million, Greater Manchester #1.4million and all England and Wales #29.6million.

Police

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers are in post (a) in total and (b) in each police authority area. [52157]

Mr. Denham [holding answer 29 April 2002]: I apologise for delay in responding to this Question. The table shows, for 31 March 2002, the total number of police officers for each police authority area in England and Wales.

On 31 March 2002 total police numbers, including secondments to National Crime Squad, National Criminal Intelligence Service and central services in England and Wales were 129,603 an increase of 3,922 or 3.1 per cent. since March 2001. This is a record number of police officers and the largest annual increase in police numbers since March 1976.

I am also pleased to report that on 31 March 2002, 19 forces in England and Wales had record numbers of police officers.

The substantial investment we are putting into the police service is delivering the improvements that we promised. We have delivered record numbers of officers ahead of our target of April this year and police strength in March 2002 was only 400 short of the target of 130,000 police officers for 31 March 2003.

A detailed breakdown of police personnel data can be found in Home Office Statistical Bulletin No. 10/02 (''Police Service Strength—England and Wales, 31 March 2002'') which was published on 17 September 2002. A copy has been placed in the Library. It can also be found on the internet at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/hosbpubs1.

Police Strength—England and Wales

Government RegionPolice forceStrength as at 31 March 2002
North East7,004
Cleveland1,461
Durham(25)1,614
Northumbria(25)3,929
North West17,804
Cheshire2,059
Cumbria1,100
Greater Manchester(25)7,217
Lancashire(25)3,304
Merseyside4,125
Yorkshire and the Humber11,564
Humberside(25)2,058
North Yorkshire(25)1,417
South Yorkshire3,199
West Yorkshire4,889
East Midlands8,690
Derbyshire1,848
Leicestershire(25)2,100
Lincolnshire1,198
Northamptonshire(25)1,214
Nottinghamshire2,330
West Midlands12,801
Staffordshire2,133
Warwickshire969
West Mercia2,018
West Midlands(25)7,681
Eastern9,872
Bedfordshire1,069
Cambridgeshire(25)1,362
Essex2,946
Hertfordshire1,825
Norfolk(25)1,468
Suffolk1,203
London26,987
City of London764
Metropolitan Police26,223
South East15,482
Hampshire(25)3,480
Kent3,355
Surrey1,992
Sussex2,893
Thames Valley3,762
South West9,870
Avon & Somerset(25)3,096
Devon & Cornwall(25)3,053
Dorset(25)1,381
Gloucestershire(25)1,183
Wiltshire1,157
Wales7,194
Dyfed Powys(25)1,132
Gwent(25)1,333
North Wales(25)1,506
South Wales3,222
England & Wales (exc. Secondments)(24)127,267
Secondments2,336
TOTAL (incl. secondments)(24)129,603

Notes:

(24) Because of rounding, constituent parts may not necessarily sum to the totals.

(25) Forces with record published numbers.


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