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Anti-terrorism (Detainees)

Mr. Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been detained under the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001; how many people are detained; and how many of those currently detained are Muslims. [112931]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 13 May 2003]: 15 foreign nationals have so far been detained using powers in part 4 of the Anti-terrorism Crime and Security Act 2001. Eight were detained in December 2001, one in February 2002, two in April 2002, one in October 2002, one in November 2002, and a further two in January 2003.

Of the total detained, two have voluntarily left the United Kingdom. The other 13 remain in detention.

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Under the Special Immigration Appeals Commission's direction under section 11 of the Contempt of Court Act 1987, we are directed that 'there shall be no publication of any matter which may identify them or any of them'. Therefore it would not be appropriate for me to provide personal information on those detained, and this has been our position since the passage of the Act.

Anti-terrorism Website

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) set-up and (b) running costs are of his Department's anti-terrorism website. [109512]

Mr. Blunkett: The anti-terrorism site (www. homeoffice.gov.uk/terrorism) is a part of the core Home Office website and the running costs are met from the existing budget for running the main website. Costs directly associated with setting up these pages are:

1. Copy-writing services: £3,150


2. Template design: £1,410

The site had 275,000 page impressions during March and April. A service guaranteeing resilience of the servers in the event of increased traffic or security breaches was also procured at a cost of £30,000 per annum. Although this has been put in place to protect the site as a whole in accordance with security requirements, its implementation was timed to tie in with the launch of the anti-terrorism site in order to ensure that the site would cope with the large volume of traffic.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many antisocial Behaviour Orders are in force; [111774]

(2) how many breaches there have been of antisocial Behaviour Orders. [111773]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: From 1 April 1999 to 31 May 2000 data on the number of antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) issued was collected by police force area. From 1 June 2000 official statistics on the number of ASBOs issued are based on quarterly returns from Magistrates' Courts Committees (MCCs).

Available information shows the number of notifications received by the Home Office of ASBOs issued from 1 April 1999 up to 31 December 2001 was 532. The number of notifications received from 1 January 2002 up to 30 November 2002 (latest available) was 253. Data are not collected centrally on the number of ASBOs in force at any given time.

We are aware that the number of ASBOs made nationally have been consistently under-reported in returns made by magistrates courts and are considering how reporting can be improved. 66 persons had breaches of their ASBOs proved to the satisfaction of the court and notified to the Home Office in 2000 and a

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further 258 in 2001 (persons breaching an ASBO more than once and dealt with on separate occasions will be counted more than once in these figures).

However, as the number of ASBOs made is known to be under-reported and breaches of ASBOs count persons every time they appear in court, these figures cannot be used to calculate a breach rate. For this reason a special exercise was undertaken, covering the period 1 June 2000 to 31 December 2001, to match persons convicted of breaching their ASBOs on at least one occasion (as notified by the police and the courts) with ASBOs made (as notified by the MCC). This showed that during this period 125 persons had breached their ASBOs out of 428 for whom ASBOs had been made and notified to the Home Office, a breach rate of 20 per cent.

Statistics on breaches of ASBOs in 2002 will be published in the autumn.

Civil Emergencies

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in other EU countries in relation to improving joint contingency planning and co-operation in the event of civil emergencies. [109604]

Mr. Blunkett: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Hereford (Paul Keetch) on 24 March 2003, Official Report, column 24W.

Correspondence

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of 23 April from the hon. Member for Southwark, North and Bermondsey regarding extradition arrangements with the United States. [112864]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 13 May 2003]: I wrote to the hon. Member on 12 May.

Demonstrators

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many demonstrators have been charged with (a) conspiracy to commit a criminal act and (b) a criminal act in each of the last 18 months. [112161]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Extradition (USA)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with his US counterparts on (a) terrorism and (b) extradition since 1 January. [112136]

Mr. Blunkett: I and my officials are in constant contact with our US counterparts on terrorism and extradition issues, where there is excellent co-operation between us.

I visited the US in late March and early April when I met the US Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge. We agreed to build further on US/UK co-operation by

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setting up a Joint Contact Group of senior officials to drive a joint programme of work in the fight against terrorism.

I also discussed extradition with the US Attorney General John Ashcroft in Washington DC, and signed a new UK/US bilateral extradition Treaty on 31 March. I met John Ashcroft, together with other Ministers again in Paris for the G8 meeting on Justice and Home Affairs on 5 May at which common action to improve arrangements for identification was agreed.

Firearms Amnesty

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans there are to increase spending on the advertising and promotion of the firearms amnesty; how much has been allocated for the year April 2003 to March 2004; which the preferred medium is in which to promote the campaign; and on what basis he has reached this decision. [111256]

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Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The firearms amnesty ran from 31 March to 30 April 2003. It was agreed after the success of the first burst of advertising at the beginning of the amnesty to repeat the radio advertising in the last week and an additional £122,000 was spent in April 2003 to achieve this.

There are currently no plans to run another amnesty in the coming year and therefore no additional money has been allocated for advertising and promotion. Over 40,000 guns where handed in during the period.

Gun Crime

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) gun crimes and (b) arrests relating to gun crime there were (i) in England and (ii) in each UK police force area in each of the last five years. [112721]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Information on the number of recorded crimes involving firearms, including air weapons, is given in the table.

Police force area	1997	1998–99(1)	1999–2000(2)	2000–01(2)	2001–02(2)
Avon and Somerset	240	241	429	365	411
Bedfordshire	56	149	177	140	182
Cambridgeshire	134	141	186	146	195
Cheshire	70	97	72	167	177
Cleveland	144	245	199	203	267
Cumbria	54	33	34	29	34
Derbyshire	280	322	451	398	461
Devon and Cornwall	94	144	140	111	138
Dorset	78	42	123	153	174
Durham	65	25	53	116	163
Essex	269	317	344	356	546
Gloucestershire	87	116	158	179	188
Greater Manchester	888	1,143	1,372	1,513	2,175
Hampshire	157	147	215	163	175
Hertfordshire	56	61	164	217	224
Humberside	535	563	543	502	473
Kent	364	277	340	335	269
Lancashire	163	179	227	233	343
Leicestershire	106	185	137	119	146
Lincolnshire	92	80	141	152	153
London, City of	4	15	6	5
Merseyside	576	856	914	1,041	1,211
Metropolitan Police	2,926	3,004	4,118	4,258	5,675
Norfolk	75	59	56	57	68
Northamptonshire	130	191	177	78	98
Northumbria	277	457	531	472	541
North Yorkshire	131	74	59	47	70
Nottinghamshire	532	629	713	693	870
South Yorkshire	328	401	369	448	737
Staffordshire	241	123	184	321	386
Suffolk	17	34	69	136	118
Surrey	59	66	92	129	107
Sussex	218	315	377	326	404
Thames Valley	325	471	555	609	703
Warwickshire	86	56	69	73	102
West Mercia	84	105	114	111	177
West Midlands	840	808	1,008	1,058	1,636
West Yorkshire	974	1,041	1,235	1,544	1,759
Wiltshire	61	85	84	79	98
Dyfed-Powys	61	60	45	68	43
Gwent	129	215	248	197	176
North Wales	109	94	104	74	99
South Wales	295	222	315	275	337
England total	11,816	13,283	16,234	17,083	21,659

⁽¹⁾ There was a change of counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998, which would have the tendency to increase the number of offences counted. Numbers of offences before and after this date are therefore not directly comparable.

⁽²⁾ Figures may have been inflated by some forces implementing the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) before 1 April 2002.

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Numbers of arrests for recorded crimes involving firearms are not collected centrally.

Information relating to Scotland and Northern Ireland are matters for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

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