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Firearms

Mr. Woodward: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the processes of procuring illegal firearms in England; and what plans he has to tackle these processes. [108892]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: A review of stolen firearms statistics is currently in hand to determine the size of the problem and identify what scope there is to reduce the number of legal weapons becoming available to criminals. A project to research the market for the supply of firearms for criminal use and the sources for procurement is planned for later this year.

Much is being done across the board to reduce gun crime and the availability of firearms. The National Criminal Intelligence Service has expanded its firearms section and has a key role in pulling together, acting on and sharing good quality intelligence, particularly on the supply and movement of firearms. This is also likely to assist in the current research project in terms of tracking stolen weapons.

The setting up of the National Firearms Forensic Intelligence Database, supported by £1.4 million funding from the Home Office, will facilitate the linking of firearms offences through the automatic correlation of ballistics tests. This will contribute to a strategic overview of national firearm trends which will be available to all forces. Data is already being recorded on the information database in respect of cases submitted to the Forensic Science Service after 1 April 2003; the Integrated Ballistic Information System is currently being validated.

Gwent Police

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the report of the inquiry into the conduct of ex-Acting Chief Constable Richard Thomas of Gwent Police will be published. [91543]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth [pursuant to the reply, 27 January 2003, c. 707]: The report referred to is the property of Gwent Police, and not Gwent Police Authority, and it is for the Chief Constable to decide whether it should be disclosed. I am advised by Gwent Police that the report will not be published.

Hemsworth Crime

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders were dealt with for supply offences in respect of Class A drugs in the Hemsworth constituency in (a) 2000, (b) 2001 and (c) 2002. [109901]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The information requested is not available at constituency level.

However, data from the Home Office Court Appearances and Cautions Drugs Database shows that the number of persons in the West Yorkshire police

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force area who were dealt with for supply offences involving Class A drugs in 2000 was 1,159. These are the latest figures available at the present time.

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drug treatment and testing orders have been made in the Hemsworth constituency since they were introduced. [109906]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Between 1 October 2000 when the order was first rolled out to all courts in England and Wales and 31 March 2003 (which is the latest month for which figures are available) 573 Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) were made in West Yorkshire. Separate figures for Hemsworth are not held centrally.

Killings

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many killings have taken place in (a) England and (b) Wales in each of the past five years expressed as (i) a total and (ii) a percentage of their respective populations. [109375]

Hilary Benn: The numbers of homicides currently recorded in England and in Wales for each year from 1997–98 to 2001–02 are given in the following table.

	Population (mid year estimates for previous year)	Currently recorded homicides	Homicides as a percentage of population
England
1997–98	49,089,085	579	0.0012
1998–99	49,284,242	623	0.0013
1999–2000	49,494,582	650	0.0013
2000–01	49,752,864	743	0.0015
2001–02	49,997,089	798	0.0016
Wales
1997–98	2,921,075	32	0.0011
1998–99	2,926,933	29	0.0010
1999–2000	2,933,324	32	0.0011
2000–01	2,937,027	40	0.0014
2001–02	2,946,195	34	0.0012

Paedophiles

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of offenders based in the UK who are involved in the distribution of paedophile images over the internet. [109576]

Hilary Benn: There are no reliable estimates of the number of active paedophiles in the UK, or of the scale of demand for indecent photographs of children via the internet.

In 2001, 289 offenders were convicted of offences under section 1 of the Protection of Children Act 1978 as amended, which deals with taking, making, distribution, possession with intent to distribute, and advertising of indecent images, and 51 under S 160 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 which deals with possession. However, recent high profile operations such as Operation Ore indicate a far higher level of activity. The police estimate that there are thousands of individuals in this country actively involved in the distribution of such

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images in the UK. Distribution can involve behaviour ranging from swapping of a few images between individuals to running a major commercial internet site. Figures from the Internet Watch Foundation indicate that less than 3 per cent. of illegal sites they identify are hosted in the UK.

Police Custody Suites

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what grants are available for (a) renovation and (b) new build for police custody suites; what health and safety reports are made on custody suites; and when health and safety reports on custody suites are made available to the public. [108813]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: In 2003–04, capital grant of £97 million and grant towards the cost of borrowing £73 million has been allocated to support police capital programmes. It is for each police authority and chief constable to decide the content of their programme in the light of local priorities.

In addition, three authorities are developing custody suite facilities using the private finance initiative, supported by grant.

Under a scheme to encourage premises improvements, grant has been provided to support a range of projects including four involving custody facilities.

The management of health and safety within police forces, including custody suites, is the responsibility of the chief officer, employing specialist advice from the Home Office, force health and safety advisers and the Health and Safety Executive as appropriate.

Where custody suite provision has been contracted out to a service provider, the organisation that owns the custody suite premises is responsible for health and safety.

It is at the discretion of the chief officer whether or not the results of any risk assessments, internal audits or external inspections are published.

Police

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) the total cost and (b) the cost per officer was of recruiting and training new police constables for each police service in England and Wales in each of the last three years. [108639]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: No central records are kept of the overall cost of recruiting or training new police constables for each police service in England and Wales.

However, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) as part of the thematic inspection of probationary police training in England and Wales attempted to ascertain the investment involved in providing probationer training on a national basis. The total cost of the Probationer Training Programme for 2000–01 was £162,925,544. A breakdown by force was published in "Training Matters": A HMIC thematic inspection of probationer police training in England and Wales 2002.

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When determining rates of payment for the Crime Fighting Fund, it was agreed with the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Association of Police Authorities that £1,000 should be included for the recruitment of each new officer. This was up-rated to £1,056 in 2002–03.

Prisons

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many inmates serving sentences in prisons in England and Wales were in category (a) A, (b) B, (c) C and (d) D in each month from March 2002. [10303]

Hilary Benn [holding answer 28 April 2003]: The information requested is shown in the following table. The data shown relates to adult male sentenced prisoners, as these are the only prisoners to receive this form of categorisation.

Date (as at the last working dayof each month)	CAT A	CAT B	CAT C	CAT D
28 March 2002	751	8,288	29,527	4,537
30 April 2002	768	8,268	29,585	4,646
31 May 2002	760	8,309	29,702	4,603
28 June 2002	762	8,290	29,688	4,673
31 July 2002	782	8,324	29,371	4,680
30 August 2002	774	8,343	29,577	4,769
30 September 2002	782	8,420	29,801	4,921
31 October 2002	781	8,419	30,174	5,043
29 November 2002	784	8,496	30,535	4,940
31 December 2002	784	8,593	29,756	4,495
31 January 2003	775	8,558	30,093	4,400
28 February 2003	111	8,580	30,756	4,608
31 March 2003	781	8,518	31,215	4,964

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average population was of remand prisoners in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last five years. [109568]

Hilary Benn: The average population of remand prisoners in prisons in England and Wales in each of the last five years is given in the table.

Year	Average population of remand prisoners
1998	12,568
1999	12,521
2000	11,276
2001	11,238
2002	12,734

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