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16 Jan 2003 : Column 757W—continued

Integrated Casework Directorate

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the visa application of Mrs. Gale of Ringwood of 21 October 2002, acknowledged on 14 November by the Integrated Casework Directorate, will be decided and the original documents returned. [90719]

Beverley Hughes: Mrs. Gale's application was decided on 10 January 2003. The decision and all supporting documents were returned the same day.

Jamaican Visitors

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of visitors from Jamaica who have overstayed in each year since 1997. [90699]

Beverley Hughes: Information on the number of persons who have overstayed their conditions of entry to the United Kingdom is not available and no estimate

16 Jan 2003 : Column 758W

of this number has been made. However, we are aware that large numbers of Jamaican nationals who have been granted temporary admission subsequently abscond.

More than 1,000 did so in the first six months of 2002.

Metropolitan Police

Mr. Gummer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under which Common law power the Metropolitan Police have closed Blackburne Mews, London W1; and how many times in the last 12 months Blackburne Mews, London W1 has been closed in accordance with (a) section 67 of the Road Traffic Act 1984 and (b) section 116 of the Highways Act 1980. [90555]

Mr. Spellar : I have been asked to reply.

The temporary road closure has been authorised by Westminster City Council following an application by the Metropolitan Police for an order under section 14 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 (as amended by the Road Traffic (Temporary Restrictions) Act 1991). The order was put in place on 24 November 2001 and expires on 12 April 2003. Westminster City Council may ask the Secretary of State to extend the duration of the order for a further period of up to six months.

Ministerial Meetings

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what dates Ministers in his Department have held meetings with members and officials of the United States Administration since 8 June 2001; where each meeting took place; which Ministers were involved in each meeting; which United States Administration Departments attended each meeting; and which members and officials from the United States Administration attended each of these meetings. [89465]

Mr. Blunkett: Ministers have held meetings with representatives of the United States Administration on a variety of issues since June 2001. In particular:

The Home Secretary met John Ashcroft (US Attorney General) on 12 December 2001 at the Home Office. William Parish (US Ambassador), Michael Chertoff (Assistant Attorney General), Bruce Swartz (Deputy Assistant Attorney General), David Israelite (Deputy Chief of Staff) and a number of other key members and officials were also in attendance.

The Home Secretary met Tom Ridge (Director of Homeland Security in the US) on 7 November 2002 at 1 Carlton Gardens. A number of other members and officials were in attendance including Minister Glyn Davies and Ambassador McNamara. An evening dinner was held at which my right hon. Friend (John Denham) was also in attendance; and

John Denham met Tommy Thompson, Minister for Health and Human Services, on 8 May 2002 at the UN Secretariat in New York. Mr. Thompson was accompanied by an official who was an expert on children's services.

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Notifiable Offences (Bromley)

Mr. Horam: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many notifiable offences there were in the London borough of Bromley in each year since 1973. [89802]

Mr. Denham [holding answer 14 January 2003]: Recorded crime figures ('notifiable offences') at Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) level have been collected centrally on a financial year basis for six key offences since April 1999. These statistics are published in Home Office Bulletins Issue 12/01 XRecorded Crime England and Wales, 12 months to March 2001", and Issue 7/02 XCrime in England and Wales 2001–02", which are available in the Library. The figures for Bromley are given in the table. Figures before this date were not collected centrally.

Bromley Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership

Offence	April 1999 to March 2000	April 2000 to March 2001	April 2001 to March 2002
Violence against the person	3,224	3,800	3,843
Sexual offences	166	186	232
Robbery	518	685	917
Burglary in a dwelling	1,989	1,821	1,836
Theft of a motor vehicle	1,895	2,046	2,173
Theft from a vehicle	3,479	2,958	3,552

Parole

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which body is responsible for updating the police national computer when an offender is arrested as a result of an order of recall due to breach of parole. [90731]

Hilary Benn: Responsibility for this would normally rest with the arresting force.

16 Jan 2003 : Column 760W

People Smuggling

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to provide protection for vehicles against illegal immigrants at seaports; and whether civil penalties for unknowingly carrying illegal immigrants will be withdrawn. [90325]

Beverley Hughes: The Immigration Service uses a wide range of technology to detect clandestine entrants, including heartbeat detectors, passive millimetric wave imagers and CO2 detectors. However, responsibility for protecting vehicles in order to prevent the carriage of unauthorised people properly lies with the vehicle operator and not with the Immigration Service. Carriers who comply fully with the Code of Practice for the prevention of clandestine entry, and who have no knowledge or suspicion of the presence of unauthorised people, will not be liable to a penalty. If liability is incurred, the level of penalty set will take into account mitigating factors which will include the extent of any checks, including those using CO2 or other detection equipment, carried out by third parties immediately prior to embarkation for the UK.

Police Authority Funding

Mr. Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Government's recommended projection is for the precept for each police authority in 2003–04. [91103]

Mr. Denham: We have not made any recommendations about precept levels for police authorities in 2003–04. These are local decisions for individual police authorities to determine.

Mr. Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Police Authority precept was for each authority in England and Wales in each financial year since 1996–97. [91105]

Mr. Denham: The information is set out in the table.

Council tax—police element (band D)#

Police authority	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
Avon and Somerset	45.73	52.04	55.09	60.62	67.59	72.66	83.4
Bedfordshire	46.46	52.51	55.84	61.36	66.98	70.26	78.69
Cambridgeshire	45.00	51.03	48.24	52.11	62.46	68.04	94.59
Cheshire	45.10	51.16	53.86	56.28	61.06	64.66	73.54
Cleveland	46.02	54.87	48.43	62.55	65.58	69.51	96.13
Cumbria	51.14	58.20	72.35	78.27	84.23	90.60	100.48
Derbyshire	45.18	51.31	57.30	65.85	71.12	75.38	91.96
Devon and Cornwall	45.66	49.79	48.30	53.52	58.87	61.81	73.8
Dorset	57.49	63.59	70.60	77.12	84.42	92.25	103.5
Durham	45.45	52.20	48.60	50.40	52.65	56.43	64.44
Dyfed Powys	46.57	48.42	59.58	72.99	85.41	90.90	98.10
Essex	48.42	54.09	62.28	65.07	67.95	71.01	77.67
Gloucestershire	44.96	51.17	57.74	68.90	77.98	82.05	94.01
Greater Manchester	45.86	54.10	56.28	60.22	62.72	64.66	68.86
Gwent	46.78	49.10	54.36	59.74	74.97	84.03	95.17
Hampshire	45.81	51.75	50.13	53.91	55.08	59.04	75.15
Hertfordshire	46.02	51.51	58.83	63.54	67.99	72.39	81.01
Humberside	45.78	52.47	52.47	54.81	60.30	85.77	95.4
Kent	45.81	51.57	48.45	52.48	55.73	60.26	73.64
Lancashire	45.71	53.25	53.48	57.69	62.60	67.89	73.86
Leicestershire	45.32	52.26	61.21	63.79	67.80	75.52	95.21
Lincolnshire	66.96	69.03	78.93	81.99	86.49	90.36	94.86
Merseyside	57.87	66.87	71.78	77.44	81.31	85.37	94.76
Metropolitan police	49.84	57.00	70.73	77.44	90.95	118.85	130.59
Norfolk	45.18	50.58	53.64	64.35	72.09	83.61	100.35
Northamptonshire	64.26	70.56	69.29	76.08	79.65	83.00	105.25
Northumbria	45.95	52.73	47.67	49.82	52.06	55.65	58.15
North Wales	46.21	48.52	58.54	66.33	78.49	82.72	96.53
North Yorkshire	45.40	49.72	48.46	52.20	57.04	62.59	88.59
Nottinghamshire	45.94	49.78	54.32	61.55	65.17	70.17	85.17
South Wales	46.36	49.22	56.25	65.36	80.42	85.57	89.85
South Yorkshire	45.80	53.29	54.28	56.72	59.26	62.79	74.09
Staffordshire	48.15	54.74	72.42	78.86	83.43	94.37	100.93
Suffolk	45.09	51.39	52.38	56.16	61.11	67.14	82.08
Surrey	42.93	44.64	66.06	75.24	79.41	83.08	96.44
Sussex	45.99	51.66	50.94	53.19	55.53	59.13	69.84
Thames Valley	46.96	52.79	50.76	56.53	60.34	64.49	73.49
Warwickshire	46.70	52.24	62.09	71.18	77.57	85.17	101.78
West Mercia	45.34	50.87	53.64	59.00	74.06	78.50	104.5
West Midlands	45.65	53.20	48.99	51.19	54.77	57.21	61.88
West Yorkshire	45.28	53.17	52.41	54.76	58.73	60.82	75.92
Wiltshire	49.44	55.48	62.77	68.98	75.84	83.26	91.54

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