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20 Jan 2004 : Column 1216W—continued

Fraud

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the progress his Department is making in dealing with (a) passport fraud and (b) duplicate or false national insurance numbers. [147327]

Beverley Hughes: I wrote to the hon. Member on 13 January 2004.

Gun Crime

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were committed in each year since 1996–97 involving (a) handguns, (b) rifles, (c) shotguns, (d) air weapons and (e) imitation firearms; and how many gun crimes for each year were drug-related. [148312]

Caroline Flint [holding answer 19 January 2004]: The relevant information is given in the table.

Number of recorded crimes in which a firearm was used(19)

Year(20)HandgunsRiflesShotgunsAir weaponsImitation firearms
19963,347639337,813498
19972,648515807,506511
1998–99(21)2,687436428,665566
1999–20003,6856769310,103823
2000–014,1093660810,227787
2001–02(22)5,8716471112,3401,201

(19) Fired, used as a blunt instrument or in a threat.

(20) Calendar years up to 1997 and financial years thereafter.

(21) There was a change in counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998, which may have had an inflationary effect on firearm offence statistics.

(22) Some police forces adopted the National Crime Recording Standard in advance of its national implementation on 1 April 2002, and this may have had an inflationary effect on firearm offence statistics.


Statistics of whether firearms offences are drug-related are not collected centrally.

20 Jan 2004 : Column 1217W

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegally owned or carried (a) handguns, (b) rifles, (c) military weapons, (d) automatic weapons and (e) semi-automatic weapons have been recovered by (i) police forces in England and Wales and (ii) Customs and Excise at ports of entry in the UK in each of the last five years. [147384]

Ms Blears [holding answer 12 January 2004]: The information requested on weapons recovered by the police is not currently available.

Customs and Excise have provided the following details to the Home Office of the numbers of firearms they have seized in the last five years. These figures include imports and exports. Any military, automatic and semi-automatic weapons will be included in the totals and are not separately identified.

Number of illegal firearms seized by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise

Year ended 31 MarchHand gunsRiflesShotguns
19998510655
2000420100135
20011684951
2002305113230
200312710241

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been prosecuted for conversion of (a) air and (b) imitation weapons to fire live ammunition in each of the last five years. [147395]

Caroline Flint [holding answer 12 January 2004]: The available information is given in the table. The statistics collected centrally relate only to the illegal conversion into firearms of anything which, though having the appearance of being a firearm, is so constructed as to be incapable of discharging any missile through its barrel. It is not possible to make a distinction between the type of guns converted, but the conversion of air weapons is not covered by the offence under section 4(3) of the Firearms Act 1968 since most are already classified as firearms.

Persons proceeded against for conversion of firearms, England and Wales

Number
19984
19993
2000(23)1
20013
20024

(23) Excludes figures for Staffordshire.

Note:

Statistics for 2003 will be published in the autumn.


Lancashire Police Force

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the full-time equivalent strength of the police force in Lancashire, broken down by rank, for each of the last three years. [148366]

Ms Blears: The information requested is set out in the table. Decisions on the number of officers in each rank below that of Assistant Chief Constable is the responsibility of the Chief Constable.

20 Jan 2004 : Column 1218W

Rank31 March 200131 March 200231 March 2003
ACPO Ranks(24) 444
Chief Superintendent(25) 8
Superintendent333120
Chief Inspector373541
Inspector163166174
Sergeant513513514
Constable2,5052,5552,578

(24) ACPO ranks include Chief Constable, Deputy Chief Constable and Assistant Chief Constable.

(25) Chief Superintendent rank was abolished in April 1995 and was reintroduced from 1 January 2002. Separate collection of Chief Superintendent and Superintendent data was not reintroduced until March 2003.


Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many special constables there were in Lancashire, in each of the last three years, broken down by rank. [148367]

Ms Blears: Home Office figures on police strength moved to an annual cycle from March 2002 and are available in the House Library, as are previous publications. The total number of Special Constables in Lancashire for each of the past three years is as follows:


There are no ranks specified in Regulations for the Special Constabulary and information concerning grades used within forces is not collected centrally.

Leak Inquiries

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what inquiries his Department has conducted into alleged leaks from members of staff since 1997; and on what occasions the names of those persons accused of leaking information from his Department have been made public (a) by the Government and (b) by way of another source. [147008]

Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 12 January 2004]: Since 1997, the Home Office has investigated 65 suspected leaks. In line with Exemptions 1 (a) and 7 (b) set out in Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, it has been the practice of successive governments not to comment on the outcome of such inquiries in order to safeguard security and investigative arrangements.

Migrant Workers

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many migrant workers there are in the UK (a) from the EU and (b) from outside the EU; and what percentage he estimates are legal migrant workers. [142417]

Beverley Hughes: It is not possible to provide the information in the form requested. Such information we can provide is set out in the table.

20 Jan 2004 : Column 1219W

The total number of migrant workers with a UK arrival date April 2001 to March 2002; applying for a national insurance number

Number
Total156,400
EU43,265
Outside the EU113,135

Notes:

1. Totals may not sum due to rounding.

2. Figures are taken from a 100 per cent. sample and are rounded to the nearest five.

Source:

IAD Information Centre


Murders (Lancashire)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders were (a) committed and (b) solved in Lancashire in each of the last five years. [148211]

Ms Blears: The information requested is given in the table.

Numbers of homicide(26) offences recorded by Lancashire Police

Offences recordedOffences detected
1998–992424
1999–20001918
2000–012726
2001–022121
2002–032824

(26) Homicide is comprised of murder, manslaughter and infanticide offences.


Overseas Visitors

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people visited the United Kingdom from (a) Cameroon, (b) Romania and (c) South Africa in the last year for which figures are available. [147781]

Beverley Hughes: The latest available information is given in the following table.

Passengers given leave to enter the United Kingdom as visitors, by nationality, 2002
United Kingdom   Number of journeys

TotalOrdinary visitorBusiness visitor
Romania 30,80011,40019,300
South Africa189,000146,00042,900

Note:

The figures in this table have been rounded to three significant digits;

because of this the sum of the constituent items may not agree with the total as shown.


20 Jan 2004 : Column 1220W

I regret that is not possible to identify Cameroon separately in our visitor statistics.

Data on passengers given leave to enter the United Kingdom are published in the Command Paper 'Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2002' (Cm6053), obtainable from the House Library, The Stationery Office and via the Home Office website http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/hobpubs1.html.

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people entered the UK from the USA in the latest year for which figures are available. [148411]

Beverley Hughes: The latest available information shows that a total of 4,220,000 USA nationals were admitted to the United Kingdom during 2002.

Data on passengers given leave to enter the United Kingdom are published in the Command Paper 'Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2002' (Cm 6053), obtainable from the Library, The Stationery Office and via the Home Office website http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/hobpubs1.html


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