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7 May 2003 : Column 745W—continued

Community Support Officers

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what training in self-defence is given to police community support officers. [110859]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The training given to community support officers (CSO) is a decision for their chief officers and will depend on the role they are to perform and the powers that they are designated to exercise. The three principal training models currently in use contain elements on self-defence. The emphasis of this training is on the verbal resolution of conflict situations. CSOs are advised to call for police assistance if in any doubt about their own safety or the safety of the public.

Crime Statistics (Buckingham)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of (a) violent crime, (b) burglary and (c) vandalism in the Buckingham constituency were reported to the police in 2001–02; and how many investigations resulted in a conviction. [108511]

7 May 2003 : Column 746W

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The requested details are not collected centrally.

Details of some offences recorded by the police have been collected by police Basic Command Unit (BCU) since 1 April 1999. The table gives details of numbers of offences and detections for the Aylesbury Vale BCU. Details of criminal damage offences are not available at BCU level.

Aylesbury Vale BCU

	2001–02
Violent crime(12)
Offences	1,174
Offences detected	754
Burglary in a dwelling
Offences	779
Offences detected	127

⁽¹²⁾ Violent crime is comprised of the violence against the person, sexual offences and robbery offence groups.

Details of convictions specifically relating to offences in the Aylesbury Vale BCU are not available.

CS Gas Sprays

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will authorise community support officers to carry CS gas sprays for use in emergencies. [110853]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth [holding answer 1 May 2003]: The role of community support officers (CSO) is to provide uniformed highly visible patrols in communities, to support police officers, and to tackle low level disorder and anti-social behaviour. None of the 27 forces who have currently deployed CSOs have issued them with handcuffs, batons or incapacitant sprays.

Death Certification

Mr. Paul Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the review of death certification is likely to be concluded; and if he will make a statement. [110825]

Hilary Benn: The Independent Fundamental Review of Death Certification and Coroner Services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland reported to the Home Secretary at the end of April. The Home Secretary has not, therefore, had the opportunity yet to decide what form the Government's response will take.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the review of death certification will recommend giving MRSA a code so that it can be listed as a cause of death on death certificates; and if he will make a statement. [110826]

Hilary Benn: The Independent Fundamental Review of Death Certification and Coroner Services in England, Wales and Northern Ireland reported to the Home Secretary at the end of April. Ministers are currently considering its recommendations. Currently MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) can and does appear on death certificates.

7 May 2003 : Column 747W

Drugs

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the additional funding announced for tackling drug misuse on 21 January will be spent on drug treatment; and if he will make a statement. [109585]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth : My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced on 21 January a package of measures to fight crime and drug abuse, backed by £190 million of new investment. This included £12.6 million in new resources in 2003–04, a 28 per cent. increase over 2002–03, to support the development of drug treatment services in the 30 areas with the highest levels of drug related crime, as part of the £236 million national pooled treatment budget.

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many successful prosecutions there were for the dealing of drugs in the Easington area in (a) 2000, (b) 2001 and (c) 2002. [111202]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The information requested is not available at constituency level. However, data from the Home Office Court Appearances Database show that the number of persons in the Durham police force area who were successfully prosecuted for offences involving 'dealing' in illegal drugs in 2000 was 147. These are the latest figures available at the present time.

Dysfunctional Families

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his Answer of 9 April 2003, Official Report, column 281W, on Command Paper 5778, (1) what definition his Department has provided to local authorities in order to allow for common data collection; and what plans he has to collect this data; [109533]

(2) what plans his Department has to collect figures on dysfunctional families. [110153]

Hilary Benn: Dysfunctional families can be identified through the existence of multiple risk factors and/or through the number of contacts that a family has with local agencies. In the coming months we will be publishing a Crime Reduction Toolkit on dysfunctional families to support Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP's) in the identification and development of ways of intervening with dysfunctional families at a local level.

There are currently no plans to collect data locally or centrally on dysfunctional families in the Home Office.

EU Committees

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list (a) the names, titles and grades of the officials who sit on the EU committee for the implementation of the incentive, exchange, training and co-operation programme for the prevention of crime, (b) the number of times, and the dates, on which it has met since January 2002, (c) the agenda items it has considered since January 2002, (d) the decisions it has made since January 2002 and (e) the means used to communicate the decisions to the House. [110276]

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Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The EU Committee for the implementation of the incentive, exchange, training and co-operation programme for the prevention of crime (Hippokrates) does not have a fixed membership, but consists of delegates drawn from each of the 15 European Union member states. The UK representatives in 2002 were: Mr. Paul Ekblom (Grade 7), Research Development and Statistics, Mr. Darren Grubb (Executive Officer), Policing Organised Crime Unit and Miss Sue Garrod (Executive Officer), European and International Unit. The Committee met once in 2002, on 23 July, to discuss the bids which had been received and to agree the allocation of funds to successful projects. The Committee will not meet in future as the Hippokrates funding programme, along with four other Justice and Home Affairs funding programmes (Grotius II, Stop II, Oisin and Falcone), has been superseded by the framework programme on police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters (AGIS). The decisions made by the Committee were not communicated directly to the House as information about the Hippokrates programme is already publicly available.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list (a) the names, titles and grades of the officials who sit on the EU Committee for the implementation of the Community action programme on preventative measures to fight violence against children, young persons and women, (b) the number of times, and the dates, on which it has met since January 2002, (c) the agenda items it has considered since January 2002, (d) the decisions it has made since January 2002 and (e) the means used to communicate the decisions to the House. [110277]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The EU Committee for the implementation of the Community action programme on preventative measures to fight violence against children, young persons and women (Daphne) does not have a fixed membership, but consists of delegates drawn from each of the 15 European Union member states. The UK representatives in 2002 were: Miss Jenny Gray (Grade 7), Social Services Inspector, Department of Health and Mrs Louise Day (HEO), Public Order and Crime Issues Unit, Home Office. The Committee met three times in 2002: on 30 January to agree the annual work programme and criteria for evaluating and selecting bids for funding; on 11 September to discuss the bids which had been received and to agree the allocation of funds to successful projects; and on 6 November to agree the annual work programme and criteria for evaluating and selecting bids for 2003. The decisions made by the Committee were not communicated directly to the House as information about the Daphne programme is already publicly available.

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