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18 Nov 2003 : Column 816W—continued
Sound Insulation
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will include in the decent homes standard the provision of sound insulation in domestic properties (a) constructed and (b) converted into flats and apartments. [139091]
Keith Hill: The issue of noise insulation is already dealt with in the decent home standard. For a property to be considered decent it must meet four criteria one of which is the provision of reasonably modern facilities and services. A property fails to meet this criterion if it lacks three or more of a list of six facilities, one of which is 'adequate noise insulation'.
The guidance on implementing the standard concentrates on insulation from external airborne noise, such as traffic or factory noise. It has this focus because it can be difficult to assess the extent to which domestic noise nuisance is caused by problems with the building itself (either because of its construction or inadequate
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internal insulation) or by unreasonable activity or behaviour of neighbours or by acute noise sensitivity by the occupant of the home affected.
The Decent Homes Standard applies to all social housing, including purpose built and converted apartments.
Voluntary Bodies (Wolverhampton)
Mr. Purchase: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the voluntary bodies in Wolverhampton in receipt of direct government grant, broken down by (a) capital and (b) revenue. [139139]
Mr. Raynsford: My hon. Friend will be aware that there are in excess of 700 voluntary and community sector organisations in Wolverhampton. They will be attracting funding from a very wide range of government and European funding programmes including SRB, Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, Community Empowerment Fund, ERDF and ESF programmes, New Deal for Communities, Learning and Skills Council and Lotteries funding regimes to name some. There is no single database of organisations and their funding sources, so it is impossible to provide the level of detail required by the question.
A list of organisations funded through the Community Empowerment Network can be obtained from Wolverhampton Network Consortium and the City Council's Voluntary Sector Unit can provide details of the voluntary and community organisations they support via a co-ordinated small grants programme which has sought to simplify the funding process for eight specific small grants initiatives for the voluntary and community sector.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Acceptable Behaviour Contracts
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he collates on the use of acceptable behaviour contracts; in what form; how many local authorities do not use acceptable behaviour contracts; and if he will make a statement. [139224]
Ms Blears: Research conducted in April 2002 showed that there were 173 Acceptable Behaviour Contract (ABC) schemes running in England and Wales, with 1,868 contracts signed. A Home Office Research Development and Statistics publication on the evaluation of an ABC scheme in the London borough of Islington is forthcoming.
The Home Office does not routinely collect statistics on the use or otherwise of ABCs. ABC schemes are voluntary and developed by a range of agencies whose role it is to prevent such behaviour.
Airwave
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what dates he estimates that the Airwave communications system will be fully operational in each police force area. [138527]
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Ms Blears: In England and Wales Airwave is already fully operational in the following forces: Cambridgeshire, Humberside, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Greater Manchester, Northumbria, North Yorkshire, Suffolk and West Mercia.
Estimated dates for the other forces in England and Wales to become fully operational are given in the table.
Rollout of Airwave in Scotland will follow after England and Wales.
| Airwave operational date | Force | |
|---|---|---|
| Q4 | 2003 | Bedford |
| Derbyshire | ||
| Q1 | 2004 | Hertfordshire |
| Lincolnshire | ||
| Q2 | 2004 | Avon & Somerset |
| Dorset | ||
| Durham | ||
| Essex | ||
| Gloucestershire | ||
| South Wales | ||
| Wiltshire | ||
| Q3 | 2004 | Cheshire |
| City of London | ||
| Cleveland | ||
| Gwent | ||
| Nottinghamshire | ||
| South Yorkshire | ||
| Surrey | ||
| Sussex | ||
| Thames Valley | ||
| Q4 | 2004 | Merseyside |
| Northamptonshire | ||
| Warwickshire | ||
| West Midlands | ||
| Q1 | 2005 | Norfolk |
| Q2 | 2005 | West Yorkshire |
| Q3 | 2005 | Cumbria |
| Staffordshire | ||
| Q4 | 2005 | Kent |
| Metropolitan | ||
| Devon and Cornwall | ||
| Not yet available | Dyfed Powys | |
| Hampshire | ||
| North Wales | ||
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent to date on the Airwave communications system, broken down by police force area. [138528]
Ms Blears: It is estimated that the Airwave service contract for the provision of the police service's new digital radio communication service will cost £2.3 billion (at 1999 prices) over the 22-year lifetime of the project. In addition, forces have to procure radio terminals and to modernise control rooms. Funding is provided centrally by the Home Office and locally by police authorities.
To date, the Home Office has provided a total of £336.4 million to police forces in England and Wales for Airwave. The break-down by police force area is given in the table.
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| Force | £ million |
|---|---|
| Avon & Somerset | 8.9 |
| Bedfordshire | 3.2 |
| Cambridgeshire | 4,4 |
| Cheshire | 4.2 |
| City of London | 2.2 |
| Cleveland | 3.9 |
| Cumbria | 2.3 |
| Derbyshire | 5.7 |
| Devon & Cornwall | 6.7 |
| Dorset | 3.2 |
| Durham | 3.9 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 1.4 |
| Essex Police | 6.9 |
| Gloucestershire | 3.1 |
| Greater Manchester | 31.6 |
| Gwent | 3.0 |
| Hampshire | 7.6 |
| Hertfordshire | 4.9 |
| Humberside | 6.3 |
| Kent | 7.2 |
| Lancashire | 14.5 |
| Leicestershire | 8.1 |
| Lincolnshire | 3.3 |
| Merseyside | 11.2 |
| Nottinghamshire | 6.8 |
| Norfolk | 3.2 |
| Northamptonshire | 2.5 |
| North Yorkshire | 3.5 |
| North Wales | 2.9 |
| Northumbria | 11.8 |
| South Wales | 7.8 |
| South Yorkshire | 8.3 |
| Staffordshire | 4.4 |
| Suffolk | 5.4 |
| Surrey | 4.7 |
| Sussex | 6.4 |
| Thames Valley | 10.8 |
| Warwickshire | 2.0 |
| West Mercia | 8.6 |
| West Midlands | 14.7 |
| West Yorkshire | 11.1 |
| Wiltshire | 2.9 |
| Metropolitan Police | 60.9 |
| TOTAL | 336.4 |
Alcohol-related Offences
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the proportion of offences related to the misuse of alcohol, broken down by offence category, in each of the last five years. [139227]
Ms Blears: Questions in the British Crime Survey (BCS) ask victims of assault whether they think the perpetrator of the offence was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident or not.
Data are available from the 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001–02 sweeps of the BCS. These are as follows:
| 1996 | 1998 | 2000 | 2001–02 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Domestic | 32 | 33 | 44 | 45 |
| Acquaintance | 45 | 44 | 36 | 51 |
| Stranger | 55 | 57 | 53 | 58 |
| Mugging | 17 | 15 | 17 | 19 |
| All violence | 41 | 41 | 40 | 47 |
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The question of whether the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol or not was not asked of other offences, as this question can only be asked when there is contact with the perpetrator.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost of alcohol-related crime in each of the last five years. [139228]
Ms Blears: As part of their work on developing an Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit published an Interim Analytical Report on 19 September 2003. This report indicated that the annual estimated costs of alcohol-related crime and public disorder were up to £7.3 billion. These estimates were prepared using specially commissioned research by the Strategy Unit. No previous estimates of the costs of alcohol-related crime have been made.
Animal Testing
Mr. Etherington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many laboratory animals were used in the United Kingdom for the potency testing of batches of botulinum toxin for cosmetic purposes in each year since 2000; and if he will make a statement on Government policy on animal tests for cosmetic products. [136516]
Caroline Flint: Botulinum toxin is not a cosmetic for the purposes of the EU Cosmetics Directive, and no animals have been used to test this material for marketing as a cosmetic in the United Kingdom. It is, however, produced, tested on animals and marketed for clinical use as a prescription only medicine.
The Government, the cosmetic manufacturers and the contract research organisations agreed a voluntary ban on the animal testing of all cosmetics (based upon the EU definition) in November 1997. This voluntary ban applied both to cosmetic ingredients and finished products.
We are committed to putting an end to testing cosmetics on animals across Europe and have led the way and worked hard for many years to try to achieve that. The Government have strongly supported the 7th Amendment on the Cosmetics Directive which was approved by the European Parliament in Plenary on 15 January and by the Council on 27 January 2003. The adopted text extends what has been almost solely a UK ban on testing cosmetic products and ingredients to cover animals throughout the EU.
An animal testing ban on finished products will be introduced immediately after the Directive enters force in 2005, followed by an animal testing ban on ingredients in 2006. The Government welcomes the introduction of an EU wide testing ban as an important and positive step to achieving real improvements in animal welfare standards across the European Community.
The 7th Amendment will also, in due course, introduce a marketing ban. This will mean that cosmetics cannot be marketed in the EU if animal tests have been carried out on either the finished product, or an ingredient or
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combination of ingredients, once an alternative to that test has been accepted and published by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM), and not at all after 2009. This ban will apply regardless of whether or not the animal testing took place in the EU. There will be very limited exceptions to the 2009 deadline. The Department of Trade and Industry leads on policy in this area.
Through our contributions to the European Union, we support the work of ECVAM, whose role is to co-ordinate the independent evaluation of the relevance and reliability of tests and validation studies, so that cosmetics products, as well as medicines, vaccines, other biologicals, medical devices, household products and agricultural products, can be manufactured, transported and used more economically and more safety whilst the current reliance on animal test procedures is progressively reduced.
We also support the Test Guidelines Programme of the Organisation of Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) which should enable alternative methods to be accepted internationally and with minimum delay.
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