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19 May 2003 : Column 636W—continued

Anti-Semitic Crime

Linda Perham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps he has taken to tackle anti-Semitic crime. [112542]

Beverley Hughes: The Government are fully committed to tackling anti-Semitism and racism generally wherever it occurs. Under part III of the Public Order Act 1986 it is an offence to use threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intent or likelihood to stir up racial hatred. It therefore covers inflammatory comments made in public or in the media as well as the distribution of printed material. The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 increased the maximum penalty for incitement to racial hatred from two to seven years' imprisonment.

The investigation of possible breaches of these laws is an operational matter for the police and then the Crown Prosecution Service to pursue.

Police forces continue to be alert to crimes being committed against members of Jewish communities and take appropriate steps to safeguard officials, places of worship, community centres and other premises. The police act in accordance with the publication "Breaking the Power of Fear and Hate" which is a guide to identifying and combating hate crime.

Antisocial Behaviour

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Anti-Social Behaviour Orders have been made in each of the last 12 months in the North Shropshire constituency. [113177]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Official statistics on the number of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) issued within England and Wales are based on quarterly returns from magistrates courts committees (MCCs). From copies of the orders we have been able to identify local authority areas involved. The number of notifications received by the Home Office of ASBOs issued in the West Mercia MCC, in which the North Shropshire constituency is located, from 1 October 2001 to 30 November 2002 (latest available), are given in the following table.

We are aware that the numbers of ASBOs made nationally have been consistently under reported in returns made by magistrates courts and are considering how reporting can be improved.

The number of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, as reported to the Home Office, issued within the West Mercia MCC area, by local authority and quarter, up to 30 November 2002 (latest available)

Local authority(36)	October-December 2001	January-March 2002	April-June 2002	July-September 2002	October-November 2002	Total
North Shropshire District Council	0	0	0	0	2	2
Oswestry Borough Council	0	2	0	0	0	2
Total	0	2	0	0	2	4

⁽³⁶⁾ Local authorities within the constituency of Shropshire North.

19 May 2003 : Column 637W

Badger Baiting

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions for offences relating to badger baiting there have been in each police authority in each of the last five years. [113021]

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

Capita

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what penalties have been incurred by Capita on the Criminal Records Bureau contract; and if he will make a statement. [114845]

Paul Goggins: There is provision for liquidated damages and service credits for delay or poor performance in the contract. The details of such damages and credits are commercial in confidence, and accordingly, would normally come within exemption 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information. However, I have concluded that in this instance, it would be in the public interest not to continue to use the exemption.

The following are details of all liquidated damages and service credits that have been incurred and agreed by Capita up to 31 January 2003:

liquidated damages for the delay of the development programme 2001–02—£555,000;


liquidated damages for functionality relating to National Intelligence Service 2002–03—£47,500;


liquidated damages for the delay of the web-based application channel 2002–03—£87,500; and


service credits up to 31 January 2003 (excluding those for September 2002, which by mutual agreement have been refunded, as they were mainly caused by the CRB Teacher Prioritisation exercise)—£1,123,697. (Service credits are sums deducted for failure to meet service standards e.g. turnaround times).

This gives a total £1,813,697 for liquidated damages and service credits that have been incurred up to 31 January 2003.

Service credits have continued to be deducted since 1 February 2003. However, agreement on the amounts are part of the on-going contractual negotiations relating to the implementation of the recommendations by the Independent Review Team appointed by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary.

To put the above figures in context, Capita has been paid £20.4 million for their work associated with processing Disclosure applications up to 31 January 2003. This figure does not include ancillary charges for processing applications from organisations wishing to become registered bodies and for the accommodation, workstations and postage provided by Capita for use by the CRB's civil service staff; these charges amount to £2.9 million over the same period.

Counterfeit Road Tax Discs

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were convicted of offences involving counterfeit tax discs in each police authority in each of the last five years. [113026]

19 May 2003 : Column 638W

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Home Office Court Proceedings Database for England and Wales does not separately identify the offence of fraud or forgery associated with vehicle excise duty.

Criminal Cases Review Commission

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases have been referred to the Criminal Cases Review Commission since March 1997. [92312]

Paul Goggins: Pursuant to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, Central (Hilary Benn) on 28 January 2003, Official Report, column 754W. Due to an administrative error, the number of applications received that prove to be ineligible for case review, is estimated to be at least "a quarter" and not "three quarters" as originally written.

Deportations

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) children, (b) women and (c) men were deported under Immigration Acts powers in 2002. [113426]

Beverley Hughes : Data on the number of people deported from the UK in 2002 are not available. Data on the age and gender of deportees would only be available by examination of individual case-files at disproportionate cost.

The latest published information on deportations shows that of the 49,135 people removed from the UK in 2001, 450 were removed as a result of deportation action.

Information on all those removed from the UK, including the number of deportations, will be published in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Control of Immigration Statistics UK 2002" which is due to be published at the end of August, and will be available from the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.

Drug Testing

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 28 April 2003, Official Report, column 64W, whether the research study on mandatory drug testing will be assessing the impact of the time that the different types of drug tested for stay in the system on (a) prisoner attitudes to drug taking and (b) the class and type of drug consumed in prisons by prisoners with (i) a history and (ii) no history of Class A drug offences. [111792]

Paul Goggins: The research study considered all of these issues. Patterns, causes and effects of drug taking are, however, complex and analysis of the research findings may not prove straightforward.

19 May 2003 : Column 639W

Drug-related Crime

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of recorded crime in (a) Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East and (b) all English police forces was drug related in each year since 1996. [112723]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Recorded crime figures do not include details of whether drugs are an aggravating factor in offences, for example for burglary or robbery. Information on the number of recorded drug offences are available only at police force level. This information is not published at Basic Command Unit, or Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership level.

Percentages of drug offences recorded for the 39 police force areas in England are given in the following table.

19 May 2003 : Column 640W

There was a change in counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998, which would have the tendency to increase the number of offences counted. Prior to April 1998, the only drug offences recorded were 'Trafficking in controlled drugs', which were recorded within the Other Offences Group. After this date the Home Office Counting Rules were revised and expanded to include the additional drug categories of 'Possession of controlled drugs', and 'Other drug offences'. Numbers of offences for years before and after this date, and figures calculated from them, are therefore not directly comparable.

As a result of some police forces adopting the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) prior to its national introduction across England and Wales on 1 April 2002, percentages given for 2000–01 or 2001–02 may not be comparable with other years.

Recorded crime from 1996 to 2001–02, for police forces in England: Percentage which are drug offences

Police force area	1996	1997(37)	1998–99(38)	1999–2000	2000–01(39)	2001–02(39)
Avon and Somerset	0.4	0.3	1.4	1.4	1.3	1.0
Bedfordshire	0.5	0.5	2.3	2.0	1.8	1.9
Cambridgeshire	0.2	0.3	1.7	1.5	1.3	1.1
Cheshire	1.2	1.1	3.8	2.9	2.6	2.2
Cleveland	0.4	0.4	1.7	1.5	1.5	1.5
Cumbria	0.7	0.6	4.0	3.6	2.9	2.5
Derbyshire	0.3	0.4	2.0	1.9	1.7	1.8
Devon and Cornwall	0.7	0.7	3.5	3.4	3.3	4.0
Dorset	0.5	0.4	2.1	2.6	2.5	2.5
Durham	0.6	0.8	2.8	2.6	2.7	2.5
Essex	0.4	0.4	2.4	2.4	2.1	2.0
Gloucestershire	0.3	0.4	2.4	2.5	2.6	2.4
Greater Manchester	0.3	0.3	1.5	1.3	1.4	1.2
Hampshire	0.6	0.6	3.3	3.1	2.6	2.5
Hertfordshire	0.5	0.4	2.4	2.2	2.2	2.0
Humberside	0.3	0.4	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.2
Kent	0.6	0.6	3.0	2.9	2.3	2.5
Lancashire	0.5	0.5	3.5	2.9	2.7	2.3
Leicestershire	0.2	0.4	1.5	1.6	1.6	1.8
Lincolnshire	0.4	0.5	2.6	2.1	2.0	2.2
City of London	1.1	0.9	7.1	4.6	3.6	4.6
Merseyside	0.4	0.6	4.0	3.3	3.1	2.9
Metropolitan Police District	0.4	0.6	3.4	2.5	2.4	2.5
Norfolk	0.6	0.6	2.7	2.6	2.0	2.1
Northamptonshire	0.5	0.5	2.0	1.9	1.7	1.6
Northumbria	0.2	0.3	2.6	3.0	3.1	3.5
North Yorkshire	0.3	0.3	2.8	2.6	2.4	2.5
Nottinghamshire	0.3	0.3	1.5	1.3	1.4	1.3
South Yorkshire	0.3	0.4	3.0	2.7	2.8	2.5
Staffordshire	0.4	0.4	2.1	1.7	1.6	1.9
Suffolk	0.8	0.9	4.0	3.3	2.7	2.6
Surrey	0.5	0.4	3.7	3.3	2.9	3.1
Sussex	0.6	0.6	1.7	1.7	1.5	1.9
Thames Valley	0.4	0.4	2.2	1.9	1.8	2.1
Warwickshire	0.3	0.4	1.8	2.0	1.7	1.6
West Mercia	0.5	0.6	2.9	2.5	2.6	2.1
West Midlands	0.2	0.3	2.3	1.8	2.1	2.0
West Yorkshire	0.7	0.7	2.5	2.2	1.9	1.4
Wiltshire	0.5	0.6	3.1	3.0	2.8	2.8
England total	0.4	0.5	2.6	2.2	2.1	2.1

⁽³⁷⁾ Crime statistics were collected on a calendar year basis up to 1997, and on a financial year basis thereafter.

⁽³⁸⁾ 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.

⁽³⁹⁾ Due to some police forces adopting the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard earlier than its national introduction across England and Wales on 1 April 2002, figures for 2000–01 or 2001–02 may not be comparable with other years.

Note:

Prior to April 1998, the only drug offences recorded were 'Trafficking in controlled drugs', which were recorded within the Other Offences Group. After this date, the Home Office Counting Rules were revised and expanded to include the further drug offences of 'Possession of controlled drugs and 'Other drug offences'.

19 May 2003 : Column 641W

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