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4 Apr 2003 : Column 917W—continued
Domestic Violence (Police)
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many policemen found to have committed acts of domestic violence have been (a) suspended and (b) dismissed in England and Wales in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [105045]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 28 March 2003]: When an accusation is made against a police officer an investigation is conducted by a police force's Criminal and Professional Standards Unit. If the police officer is convicted there is a presumption that he or she would be dismissed from the police force, but this is a matter for consideration by the police force.
There is currently no national policy regarding police perpetrators of domestic violence. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) is actively consulting with all police forces regarding this subject and are endeavouring to develop nationwide guidance which it hopes to deliver in September 2003.
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Emigration
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimates he has made of the number of UK citizens who departed the UK unidentified by the international passenger survey, in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) race and (b) gender. [104897]
Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Andrew Turner, dated 4 April 2003:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the number of UK citizens who departed from the UK but were not identified by the International Passenger Survey (IPS). (104897)
- The International Passenger Survey (IPS) is a continuous voluntary sample survey conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It covers the principal air, sea and Channel Tunnel routes between the UK and countries outside the British Isles and currently samples approximately 0.2 per cent of all travellers. The IPS excludes all movements of diplomats and armed forces personnel.
- The IPS is used as the basis for estimating migration between the UK and the rest of the world. A migrant is defined as someone whose length of stay in the destination country will be for a year or more, but this is based upon the intentions of the traveller and it is possible that these might change.
- For the purposes of estimating Total International Migration, estimates of emigrants from the IPS have previously been supplemented with (i) information on people migrating to the Republic of Ireland from the Quarterly Household Survey conducted by the Irish Central Statistics Office, and (ii) an estimate of the number of people who initially leave the UK for less than 12 months but subsequently decide to stay away longer. I cannot currently supply the figures you have requested because the ONS is in the process of revising estimates of Total International Migration for the past decade in the light of the results of the 2001 Census. This work includes investigation of groups of migrants not identified by the IPS and will result in revisions to the previously published series. The revisions are due for publication in late Spring 2003.
Fixed Penalties
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the offenders who defaulted on paying their fixed penalty notices for disorder offences during the recent pilot scheme have since made the payment in full. [103950]
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Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Recipients of penalty notices for disorder offences have 21 days in which to pay the penalty or request a court hearing. If neither action has been taken the penalty will be recorded as not paid and registered as a fine of one and a half times the amount of the penalty. Responsibility for collection of the fine and any enforcement action will fall to the magistrates courts as for any other fine. The evaluation of the pilots will include an assessment of the payment rate of fines registered as a result of non-payment of penalties.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of fixed penalty notices for disorder offences were paid 21 days after their issue during the recent pilot scheme. [103951]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: For penalty notices which had been issued up to 5 January 2003, a total of 53 per cent. were paid within the 21 day period allowed for payment.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many fixed penalty notices for disorder offences in the pilot scheme were withdrawn; and for what reasons; [103952]
- (2) under what circumstances, when payment is not forthcoming after 21 days, a fixed penalty notice for disorder offences may be withdrawn. [103949]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: As at 5 January 2003, 18 penalty notices for disorder had been withdrawn from a total of 1,835 issued. Penalty notices are withdrawn usually at the request of the issuing officer as a result of an error arising from their issue. It is also possible, under the legislation contained in the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, for the police to withdraw the penalty notice and seek a prosecution if the recipient fails, within the 21 day suspended enforcement period, to pay the penalty or request a court hearing.
Home Security
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money has been awarded to provide home security improvements for low income pensioners in each year since 1997. [106384]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The total cost of measures funded by the Home Office under the scheme to provide home security improvements for low income pensioners living in high crime areas in England, was £5.79 million, including the budgeted provision for 2002–03—final outturn figures for 2002–03 are not yet available. This is split as follows:
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 0.927 |
| 2001–02 | 3.286 |
| 2002–03(19) | 1.575 |
(19) Budgeted provision
The scheme ran from July 2000 to June 2002. These figures cover only the purchase and installation of the security hardware; they do not include administrative or other overhead costs.
The scheme in Wales has been run under separate arrangements. £44,000 was spent on security measures in 2000–01 and £106,000 in 2001–02. On cessation of the scheme in June 2002, the Welsh Assembly decided to
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maintain the provision of security equipment as an eligible measure under its Home Energy Efficiency Scheme, but chose not to set any targets, nor earmark dedicated funding in relation to this work.
Other projects funded under the Crime Reduction Programme have provided home security improvements, including for the elderly, but a breakdown of the age profile of recipients is not available centrally.
Police Numbers
Mr. Ivan Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what changes there have been in police officers numbers in the Tendring Division in Essex since 1997. [107690]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Information has not been collected on a regular basis about the number of officers deployed to Basic Command Units within force areas. I would, however, refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham) on 2 December 2002 to the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes), Official Report, column 589W, setting out police strength for each Basic Command Unit for each force in England and Wales as at 31 March 2002.
For Essex Police as a whole, between March 1997 and September 2002 police strength increased from 2,961 to 2,988, a record strength for the force. Between March 1997 and March 2002 (the latest available figures), the force's civilian support staff strength rose from 1,199 to 1,571.
The deployment of resources between the 10 territorial divisions and other specialist operational and support units of the Essex Police is an operational matter for the Chief Constable (Mr. David Stevens QPM).
Prisons
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many assaults have taken place against prison officer staff at prisons in England and Wales during the last 12 months. [105266]
Hilary Benn: During the last 12 months there have been 3,365 proven prisoner adjudications for assaults against staff and others. This includes adjudications for assaults on visitors, private contractor employees and non Prison Service staff. The Prison Service does not collect separately, specific data on assault on prison officers. From April 2003, serious assaults on staff and prisoners will be calculated and reported separately.
The Prison Service is committed to reducing all forms of violence in prison whether affecting prisoners or staff. Future plans will include the development and implementation of a violence reduction strategy, which will bring together existing approaches and seek to develop a safer environment for prisoners and staff.
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of prisoners are sharing (a) two to a cell designed for one and (b) three to a cell designed for two. [105401]
Hilary Benn: At the end of February 2003, 20.2 per cent. of the prisoner population were sharing two to a cell designed for one (doubled).
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The Prison Service does not collect specific data on the number of prisoners sharing three to a cell designed for two. However, at the same date, 23.8 per cent. of the total population were held in overcrowded conditions. This includes prisoners doubled, those held three to a cell designed for two and any prisoners overcrowded in dormitories and larger cells.
All data are provisional and subject to validation by prisons.
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 11 March 2003, Official Report, column 211–12W, on prisons, what assessment he has made of the effect of reform to the criminal justice system on the reduction of (a) crime and (b) the prison population; and what estimate he has made of the number of prison service prisoners who will be held in police cells in 2004. [105236]
Hilary Benn: The Government is undertaking a programme of reform and modernisation in the Criminal Justice System in pursuit of its Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets to reduce crime, narrow the justice gap and increase public confidence in criminal justice. Central to this programme is the Criminal Justice Bill currently going through the House. The Bill provides for a range of significant reforms to the criminal justice system, including criminal procedures and evidence. In particular, it creates a new range of sentences designed to improve public protection and rehabilitate offenders so as to reduce re-offending. The reforms draw upon the review of sentencing policy conducted by John Halliday (Making Punishments Work, published in July 2001). The review made clear that sentencing can reduce crime in a number of ways—through deterrence, incapacitation, reform, rehabilitation, and reparation. It concluded that changes to the present sentencing framework should be capable of reducing crime through reductions in re-offending. The cost-benefit model underpinning the review attempted to quantify these benefits. It is summarised in Appendix 7 of the report.
Current projections indicate that the sentencing provisions in the Bill will result in a small increase of about 1,000 in the prison population in the long term.
It is not possible to predict how many prisoners will be held in police cells in 2004. The use of police cells is dependent on the population pressures at the time and the number used can vary on a daily basis. Their use is carefully monitored by the Prison Service and every effort is made to locate Prison Service prisoners held in police cells to a prison as soon as possible. There are currently no prisoners held in Police Cells.
Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether (a) future annual cost of living pay increases and (b) cost of living increases covering the last two years are to be withheld from instructional officers in Her Majesty's prisons and youth offender institutions who have not signed the new contract; and if he will make a statement. [105379]
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Hilary Benn [holding answer 2 April 2003]: To enable more effective use of Prison Service Instructional Officers, it has been necessary to make changes to their terms, conditions and working practices. Prison Service operational managers are firmly of the view that such changes are needed if effective regimes are to be delivered and if instructional officers are to continue to be employed alongside the much more flexible—and no more expensive—prison officer instructors. This is an important step in the modernisation of the Prison Service.
Instructional officers have received the same pay increases as other administrative, secretarial, specialist and support staff in the Prison Service up until the 2002 award. An offer effective from 1 July 2002 was made in December 2002 to their trade union, the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), incorporating the changes to terms and conditions and working practices. This was rejected following a ballot of their members. An offer was then made to instructional officers on an individual basis, also incorporating the changes to terms and conditions and working practices. This offer included a £500 non-consolidated payment by way of compensation and an inducement to accept. No instructional officer has been compelled to opt for the new terms and conditions, but around 90 per cent. of instructional officers have now accepted the offer to change.
It is not sensible to maintain the pay scale under the old terms and conditions by giving cost of living increases, otherwise there would have been little incentive for staff to move to the modernised grade. From 1 July 2002, therefore, the 10 per cent. of instructional officers who have opted out will not receive a cost of living increase. However, those staff below the maximum of the old pay range will continue to receive a fixed amount of pay progression, with the amount dependent on their annual performance appraisal.
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