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12 Feb 2003 : Column 774W—continued
Graffiti
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many successful prosecutions there have been in each of the last 10 years against those who target (a) vehicles and (b) buildings with graffiti. [95661]
Mr. Denham: It is not possible to distinguish offences of graffiti from other types of criminal damage in the Home Office figures for court proceedings as the circumstances of individual offences are not collected centrally.
Greater London Assembly
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what financial assistance his Department gave to the Greater London Assembly in 2002; and for what projects. [95851]
12 Feb 2003 : Column 775W
Mr. Denham: The figures provided are for the financial year 2002–03 and relate to the Greater London Authority.
The Home Office has allocated £1,015,895,687 in police grant to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which is part of the Greater London Authority. In addition, we are providing the following specific grants to the MPA:
- £62 million from the Crime Fighting Fund (CFF) to continue funding for CFF officers recruited in 2000–01 and 2001–02 and for CFF officers to be recruited in 2002–03;
£9.9 million from the DNA Expansion Programme;
roughly £20 million towards the cost of police officers' London Allowance;
£2.45 million to meet the cost of free travel for police officers;
an extra £13.1 million from the Street Crime Initiative;
an extra £46.3 million to counter terrorism (comprising £34 million for police officers, £8 million for community support officers and £4.3 million for associated counter-terrorism work).
- £44.5 million in general capital grant and supplementary credit approvals;
£41 million for "Airwave", the new radio communications system;
£25 million for the Metropolitan Police's Command Control and Communications Information (C3i) System;
an extra £1 million for two successful bids from the £20 million Premises Improvement Fund.
Identity Cards
Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the enquiries of the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey to his private office, when the hon. Member will receive a transcript of the speech he made on identity cards on 15 January. [97416]
Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 11 February 2003]: A copy of the transcript was sent to the hon. Member's office on 7 February.
Missing Persons
Mr. Paul Marsden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children (a) ran away from home, (b) were listed as missing and (c) were abducted each year since 1997. [88188]
Mr. Denham: Statistics on the number of children who run away are not collected on a national basis.
Estimates of the scale of the problem have been made in the course of research studies. The most recent, by the Children's Society in 1999 1 , drew on a national sample of nearly 13,000 young people. The study found that each year 77,000 young people under the age of 16 in the UK run away overnight. Because many young people run away more than once, this equates to 129,000 running away incidents each year. Details of this study are available in the recent report by the Social Exclusion Unit (2002) 'Young Runaways'.
- 1 Safe on the Streets Research Team (1999) Still Running. London: The children's Society
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'Children Missing from Care and from Home'—a guide of good practice—was published in tandem with the 'Young Runaways' report. This guidance was issued to every English local authority in November 2002, under Section 7 of the Local Authority Social Services Act 1970. This means that, other than in exceptional circumstances, Councils must follow its advice. This guidance recognises that local authorities, the police, and other agencies (including voluntary sector organisations) need to co-operate at local level to ensure a consistent response to the needs of children who have run away from their homes. The guidance requires that all reported runaways, and those not reported but who self refer, should be offered access to an independent interview upon their return—to identify the reasons for running away and agree an appropriate response.
Statistics are held by the Police National Missing Persons Bureau (PNMPB) on the number of cases where young people remain missing for more than 14 days, or other exceptional cases which are reported before that time. The number of cases recorded since 1997–98 is shown in the table.
| Number of children reported missing | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 938 |
| 1998–99 | 1,184 |
| 1999–2000 | 1,467 |
| 2000–01 | 1,021 |
| 2001–02 | 1,037 |
Note:
Prior to July 1998 missing persons were not reported to the PNMPB until 28 days after their disappearance.
Source:
Police National Missing Persons Bureau.
The Home Office collects statistics from police forces on the number of child abductions committed each year. The offence of 'child abduction' is part of the violence against the person category of recorded crime. It includes both parental and non-parental abductions. The number of offences recorded by the police since 1997–98 is shown in the table.
| Total number of offences of child abduction | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98(16) | 391 |
| 1998–99(17) | 502 |
| 1999–2000 | 577 |
| 2000–01 | 546 |
| 2001–02 | 583 |
(16) The number of crimes recorded in that financial year using the coverage and rules in use until 31 March 1998.
(17) The number of crimes recorded in that financial year using the expanded offence coverage and revised counting rules which came into effect on 1 April 1998.
Source:
Home Office (2002) Crime in England and Wales 2001–02.
Offences of abduction which are sexually motivated will be recorded in the separate abduction category of recorded crime. However, this offence relates both to the abduction of adult and child female victims. It is not possible to dis-aggregate these statistics into child victims only.
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Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to publish the Explanatory Notes for the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. [97184]
Beverley Hughes: They were published on 6 February 2003.
CS Spray
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police forces in England and Wales used CS gas operationally in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [95487]
Mr. Denham: I understand from the Association of Chief Police Officers that 40 police forces in England and Wales have access to CS spray. Information on the extent of its use operationally is not collected centrally.
Police Funding
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what figures in the British Crime Survey Recorded Crime Statistics he used to calculate the formula for the allocation of funds to the 30 Basic Command Units. [95988]
Mr. Denham [holding answer 7 February 2003]: To calculate the formula for the allocation of funds to the 30 Basic Command units (BCU), the data source was Recorded Crime Statistics as published in "Crime in England and Wales
2001/02", a copy of which is in the Library, not British Crime Survey data.
Four crime criteria were used:
- Ranking of total acquisitive type crimes by BCU in 2001–02;
Ranking of total acquisitive type crimes per head of the population in the BCU area;
Ranking for total burglary and robbery crimes only per BCD; and
Ranking of the percentage increase in acquisitive type crimes 2000–01 to 2001–02.
Police Recruits
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost is of recruiting a police officer; and what the change has been in the level of police grant in Essex from 2001–02 to 2002–03. [93402]
Mr. Denham: The recruitment of police officers is the responsibility of the Chief Officer of each force. No central records are kept of the overall cost of recruiting a police officer.
When rates of payment to be made under the Crime Fighting Fund (CFF) in 2000–01 were agreed with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities, £1,000 was included for recruitment. This payment has been up-rated annually to £1,056 per recruit in 2002–03.
12 Feb 2003 : Column 778W
Including CFF, Rural and general grant, Essex received a total allocation of £156.6 million in 2002–03. This was an increase over 2001–02 of 3.9 per cent.
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