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Secondments

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many UK police officers are seconded to police (a) forces and (b) agencies overseas; which countries are involved; from which forces the officers have been seconded; and what plans there are to send further offices to overseas countries in addition to Iraq. [128318]

Ms Blears: Each police force keeps its own records on overseas secondments and comprehensive figures are not held centrally. Figures are available on the number of United Kingdom police officers participating in international peacekeeping and crisis management operations overseas. Contributions to peacekeeping missions and crisis management operations account for the overwhelming majority of police officers seconded from English and Welsh forces to police forces and agencies overseas. On 5 September 2003, the United Kingdom had 195 serving police officers working in peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Kosovo, East Timor, Sierra Leone, Serbia and Montenegro and Iraq.

Of these 195 police officers, 92 are from English and Welsh police forces and the National Criminal Intelligence Service. All English and Welsh police forces currently have at least one police officer on secondment to overseas peacekeeping missions with the exception of the City of London Police, Cumbria Constabulary, Gwent Police, Hertfordshire Constabulary, Leicestershire Constabulary, Norfolk Constabulary, Nottinghamshire Police, Staffordshire Police, Thames Valley Police and West Mercia Constabulary. The largest number of secondees from any one force in England and Wales is seven.

Contributions from the Ministry of Defence Police, the Police Service of Northern Ireland and Scottish police forces make up the remaining numbers of UK police officers serving on international peacekeeping missions.

Any plans to send police officers from English and Welsh forces to new peacekeeping missions in addition to Iraq will be initiated through a formal request to the Home Office from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. I have received no such requests.

Stolen Art

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures are in place to provide a national database of stolen art and artefacts; and if he will make a statement. [129512]

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Ms Blears: The Home Office continues to work closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on the issue of developing a national cultural property database. We are currently in the process of re-assessing various options available to us.

Street Crime

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what change there has been in the level of street crime in each of the 10 hot spot areas during the year 2002–03 [128863]

Ms Blears: The table compares recorded robbery in 2002–03 with 2001–02 in the 10 police force areas involved in the Street Grime Initiative (SCI). The figures are not adjusted for National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS). The NCRS effect in 2002–03 on recorded robbery figures in England and Wales was to inflate those by three per cent.

Force	2001–02	2002–03	Percentage change
Metropolitan Police	53,547	42,496	-21
West Midlands	13,322	10,249	-23
Greater Manchester	11,027	10,745	-3
West Yorkshire	5,674	4,947	-13
Avon & Somerset	4,889	3,504	-28
Merseyside	3,155	2,994	-5
Thames Valley	2,894	2,406	-17
Nottinghamshire	2,726	2,799	3
South Yorkshire	1,952	2,112	8
Lancashire	1,608	1,409	-12
Total for 10 SCI forces	100,794	83,661	-17

Underage Drinkers

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what assessment he has made of the impact on effective policing of the removal of the power to confiscate sealed containers of alcohol from underage drinkers in public places; [127129]

(2) in what plans he has to extend the power to confiscate alcohol from young people drinking in public places to sealed containers. [127133]

Ms Blears: Police powers to confiscate alcohol and alcohol containers from under-age drinkers are provided by the Confiscation of Alcohol (Young Persons) Act 1997. That Act was amended by section 29 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 with the effect that the police were able to confiscate alcohol in opened containers from young people in public places, but not alcohol in sealed containers.

Following representations from the police and others to strengthen these powers to include sealed containers, we brought section 155 of the Licensing Act 2003 into force on 10 September 2003. This extends police confiscation powers in respect of under-age drinkers in public places to include alcohol in sealed containers where the officer believes that the young person is, has been or intends to drink the alcohol in any public place.

Video Surveillance

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the use of

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video surveillance in public areas; what effect this has had on crime in those areas; and what plans there are to expand video surveillance. [127990]

Ms Blears: Under the Crime Reduction Programme CCTV Initiative, around £170 million has been spent on 684 CCTV schemes across England and Wales, covering town centres, car parks, residential and rural areas. Of these schemes, 675 are already operational with the remaining schemes due to go live later this year. The Initiative is now closed and there are no plans for a new CCTV-specific funding round in the near future.

Police operational experience and various other research studies show that CCTV has considerable crime reduction and detection potential, particularly when used as part of a wider strategy.

To help ensure maximum impact and sustainability of CCTV, a 1.5 million Home Office funded national evaluation programme is being carried out by the Scarman Centre, University of Leicester, on 15 approved CCTV Initiative schemes.

The final evaluation report will not be published until 2004, but interim reports will be available before then. The first—providing guidance for practitioners on implementation of CCTV schemes—is available on the crime reduction website (www.crimereduction.gov.uk).

Opportunities for funding of further CCTV schemes in England and Wales currently exist through the Building Safer Communities Fund. Under this fund, £72.3 million has been made available to Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships in 2003–04 for tackling local problems of crime and disorder. In addition, a special £50 million Basic Command Unit (BCU) fund has been distributed to local police commanders to help tackle the problems that matter most in their communities. Police will be able to target the extra resources at local level problems, like anti-social behaviour and drugs, deploying CCTV where appropriate.

The Scottish Parliament has responsibility for CCTV funding in Scotland.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

International Student Visas

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how long it takes for an international student visa to be issued. [129425]

Mr. Mullin: Visa sections at our overseas posts aim to resolve student applications for entry clearance within 24 hours,

However, if the applicant requires an interview, this can delay the resolution of the application. We normally aim to offer an interview within 10 days. However, applicants may face longer queues in some individual posts where security or other factors mean that we are unable to offer the level of service that we would like.

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Afghanistan

Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the changes in quantities of opium produced in Afghanistan since the overthrow of the Taliban. [127172]

Mr. Rammell: The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) conducts an annual survey into the level of opium poppy cultivation and production in Afghanistan. These two sets of figures need to be read together to provide full information about trends in poppy production. It has reported levels of cultivation and production over the past 5 years as follows:

Year	Hectares	Tonnes
1998	64,000	2,700
1999	91,000	4,600
2000	82,000	3,300
2001	8,000	185
2002	74,000	3,400

The UNODC figures for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 were all recorded under the Taliban regime. The figures in 1999 are the highest UNODC have recorded in Afghanistan. The low level of cultivation and low production figure in 2001 reflect the Taliban ban on opium cultivation; the ban did not however address the underlying causes of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan and was enforced with mix of threat and bribery.

The UNODC is in the process of preparing the report of the 2003 survey on behalf of the Afghan government. It will be published in the autumn.

Chemical Weapons

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions have taken place with NATO members in the Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society regarding the monitoring of chemical leaks from chemical weapons stocks dumped in the Baltic after the second world war. [129098]

Mr. Ingram: I have been asked to reply.

Following a Norwegian-led NATO Committee on the Challenges of Modern Society (CCMS) Pilot Study on Cross Border Environmental Problems Emanating from Defence Related Installations and Activities, the Russian Government approached NATO in 1997 regarding possible cooperation in the monitoring and prevention of leakage of chemicals from German chemical weapons stocks sunk in the Baltic and Skagerrak after World War Two. A CCMS expert meeting on chemical weapons dumped in the Baltic Sea and Skagerrak took place in Oslo in 1997. A member of the British embassy in Oslo attended the meeting.

At that meeting, the Russian delegation gave preliminary information on recent environmental expeditions to the Baltic and Skagerrak. The Russian delegation proposed that a further CCMS expert meeting should be held before the end of 1997 to consider the full findings from the expeditions; and that a joint NATO- Russia expedition should be organised for 1998.

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It was the Ministry of Defence's understanding that CCMS was continuing to lead on this issue. However, we have now been advised that the Russian proposals were forwarded to the NATO Political Committee in 1997. That Committee rejected the proposals, stating that the results of the Russian expeditions and any plans for future expeditions should be conducted through, or as part of, the Helsinki Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea.

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