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10 Feb 2004 : Column 1424W—continued

Community Support Officers

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the results of the pilot schemes giving community support officers the right to detain people for 30 minutes will be published. [153332]

Ms Blears [holding answer 6 February 2004]: At present six police forces are piloting the power of detention, which was given to community support officers by the Police Reform Act 2002. The forces are the Metropolitan Police Service, West Yorkshire Police, Gwent Police, Lancashire Constabulary, Northamptonshire Police, and Devon and Cornwall Constabulary. The pilot is scheduled to last until December 2004.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) with the assistance of the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate are conducting an evaluation of the use of this power.

HMIC have recently initiated an interim review of the first 12 months and have indicated to me that an interim report will be provided this year with the full report available for March 2005. These reports will be published and laid before the House once they have been completed.

Contingency Planning

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the United Kingdom's preparedness for a chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) incident. [152266]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 3 February 2004]: I refer the hon. Member to my reply I gave him of 30 January 2004, Official Report, column 1039W, and my statement of 3 March 2003, Official Report, columns 72–73WS.

I plan to update the House on the UK's Resilience to major emergencies shortly.

Crime/Police Statistics (Southend)

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many drug-related offences were recorded in Southend in each of the last 10 years; and how many successful prosecutions were brought in each year, broken down by type of drug involved; [152202]

Caroline Flint [holding answer 3 February 2004]: The numbers of drug-related offences recorded in Southend are not collected centrally. In addition, the specific drug offences in the recorded crime statistics, namely drug trafficking, possession and other drug offences, are not collected centrally for Southend. Again, it is not possible to provide prosecution data for drug related offences

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from the Court Proceedings database. Data for those proceeded against and found guilty specifically for drug offences in the last five years in the South East Essex Petty Sessional Area is given in Table A.

Recorded crime figures for six key offences are collected and published at Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP), and Basic Command Unit (BCD) level. The six offences include the violent crimes of Violence against the person, Sexual offences and Robbery. Table B gives the number of violent crimes recorded in the Southend CDRP since 1999–2000 which is the year CDRP data were first collected centrally. The available Court Proceedings data from 1998 are given in Table C.

Table A: Number of defendants proceeded against and found guilty for drug offences at South East Essex Petty Sessional Area (PSA)(48)including those found guilty at the Crown court where South East Essex PSA was the committing court(49), 1998 to 2002

Proceeded againstFound guilty
1998263248
1999336293
2000280252
2001258231
2002235205

(48) Covers Southend and some parts of Rayleigh, Benfleet and Canvey.

(49) These data are on the principal offence basis.


Table B: Violent crime offences recorded in Southend CDRP

Offence1999–20002000–012001–022002–03(50)
Violence against the person1,4631,4141,4443,043
Sexual offences157135139195
Robbery166148217313

(50) Essex Police implemented the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) on 1 April 2002. Broadly, the NCRS had the effect of increasing the number of crimes recorded by the police. Therefore, following the introduction of the Standard, numbers of recorded crimes are not comparable with previous years.


Table C: Number of defendants proceeded against and found guilty for Violence against the Person, Sexual offences and Robbery at South East Essex Petty Sessional Area(51)including those found guilty at the Crown court where South East Essex PSA was the committing court(52), 1998 to 2002

Year/Offence groupProceeded againstFound guilty
1998
Violence against the Person421171
Sexual offences3810
Robbery3819
1999
Violence against the person353162
Sexual offences4115
Robbery2817
2000
Violence against the person290127
Sexual offences2312
Robbery2812
2001
Violence against the person351120
Sexual offences278
Robbery3113
2002
Violence against the person292145
Sexual offences4512
Robbery4915

(51) Covers Southend and some parts of Rayleigh, Benfleet and Canvey.

(52) These data are on the principal offence basis.


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Drug Treatment

Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drug offenders (a) in prison and (b) in the community received treatment for drug problems in 2002–03. [153715]

Paul Goggins: The Prison Service does not collect data in the exact format requested. The numbers of people receiving treatment for drug misuse are not listed by offence type. However, data are available for those in custody and in the community.

In 2002–03 the numbers of people who received treatment for drug problems while in custody in England and Wales are listed in the following table.

Number
CARATs(53)51,970
Detoxification50,701
Rehabilitation4,386

(53) Counselling Assessment, Referral, Advice and Through-care services—a low-level intervention that provides a gateway assessment, referral and support service to prisoners both within custody and upon their initial release.


The number of people who received treatment for drug problems in the community was 140,900.

Firearms

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will retain the Firearms Consultative Committee until the end of the consultation period.[R] [153044]

Caroline Flint: I refer to the statement I made on 30 January 2004, Official Report, column 20. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has decided not to extend further the life of the Firearms Consultative Committee. The Government are considering the establishment of a new consultative structure which will facilitate the submission of views on a broader basis than was allowed for under a statutory framework.

Graffiti

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what programmes his Department funds aimed at diverting those who graffiti to productive activities. [153606]

Ms Blears: The Home Office provides £7 million per year to the Youth Justice Board (YJB). We are providing funding until April 2006. The Youth Justice Board's Youth Inclusion Project includes the Community Merit Award programmes, which reward positive contributions to the community such as cleaning graffiti.

£15 million has been given to the Positive Futures programme, which is aimed at marginalised children from 10 to 19 years old in the most deprived areas. This programme focuses on building links to education, training and employment and diverts young people from anti-social activities such as graffiti.

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with the Mayor of London concerning graffiti in London. [153609]

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Ms Blears: There have been no discussions with the Mayor of London concerning graffiti in London.

However in November 2003 we launched the Name that Tag poster campaign which offers a £500 reward for information about targeted prolific taggers. This campaign is a partnership between the Home Office, Crimestoppers, Network Rail London Underground and British Transport Police and runs in London, Liverpool and Manchester. It sends a clear message to taggers that we have had enough of their nuisance and they will be caught.

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether anti-social behaviour orders can be imposed on those convicted of graffiti-related offences. [153611]

Ms Blears: Yes. Anti-social behaviour orders can be granted where it has been proved beyond reasonable doubt that an individual has acted in a manner that caused or was likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to others, and where the court judges that an order is necessary to protect people from further anti-social acts.

For example, the British Transport Police have obtained a number of orders on those who do graffiti prohibiting them from carrying the implements with which to do so and from trespassing on non-public areas of London Underground or railway property.


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