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4 Mar 2004 : Column 1137W—continued
Brain Injuries (Police Training)
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether (a) police training for recruits and (b) in-service training for police officers includes awareness of how to respond to members of the public with acquired brain injuries. [157560]
Ms Blears: The 15 week Probationer Training Programme delivered by Centrex to all new police recruits, incorporates a First Aid course consisting of five modules to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) approved Common Minimum Standards.
The course includes management of a casualty with head and associated injuries, convulsion and stroke. It teaches how to recognise signs and symptoms, examine and treat injury, obtain medical help, adopt the correct position, provide reassurance and monitoring. Training also includes life saving, illness in public places, and dealing with sudden death if required. In addition to testing the knowledge, understanding and skills on all these issues, probationers would also be assessed on attitudes and behaviour.
In police forces, specialist courses are delivered to officers as needed. Members of the public who enter custody at police stations are assessed and medical advice sought where appropriate.
Cockling
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what Immigration Service operations had been carried out regarding cockle picking in (a) Morecambe Bay and (b) elsewhere prior to the operation on Pilling Sands on 19 June 2003. [156857]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 27 February 2004]: The Immigration Service has assisted the police with various incidents involving cockle pickers prior to 19 June 2003. These include:
- the arrest of 12 Chinese nationals in Mostyn on 31 October 2002
- the arrest of 20 Chinese nationals on the Wirral on 31 October 2002
- the apprehension of five Chinese nationals in Bagillt on 13 November 2002.
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were arrested picking cockles in Morecambe Bay on 5 August 2003. [156371]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 26 February 2004]: The police arrested 37 Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Town on 4 August 2003.
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long immigration officials took to reach Morecambe when police arrested 37 people on Chatsworth Road, Morecambe on 4 August 2003; and whether the police were called as a result of complaints from members of the public. [156372]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 26 February 2004]: I understand the police received telephone calls during early August 2003 concerning groups of apparently illegal Chinese immigrants and related either to the occupation of local premises or cockling on local public fisheries. On 4 August the police attended a local
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address following further complaints of suspicious activity. Police records show that they started to arrest Chinese cockle pickers at 4.35 p.m on 4 August 2003.
Police records indicate that they first contacted the Immigration Service about this activity during the evening of 4 August.
The Police made a significant number of arrests and made arrangements for the safe accommodation overnight of the detainees at police custody suites in the area.
During the morning of 5 August Immigration Service's Liverpool office drew together a team and the equipment necessary to interview, fingerprint, photograph and serve illegal entry papers on the Chinese nationals, as appropriate. Having completed checks during the morning against the relevant databases and obtained an interpreter, an Immigration Officer from Liverpool arrived at Lancaster Police Station at 1.24 p.m to assist the police with identifying the immigration status of those who did not appear on Home Office records.
Two Immigration Officers continue to provide their full time support to the police in the area.
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement correcting the information the hon. Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale received from the right hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Beverley Hughes) regarding immigration enforcement action on 6 August 2003, in Morecambe Bay; and if he will initiate an urgent inquiry into the reasons for which this inaccurate information was provided by his Department. [156373]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 26 February 2004]: I wrote to my hon. Friend on 19 February to explain that I had been given the incorrect location for the operation on 6 August by officials, and I expressed regret about this error. This operation had in fact taken place on cockle beds on the Wirral.
Following my hon. Friend's letter of 19 February which highlighted various discrepancies to me in the information I had provided, I initiated an internal enquiry that evening to establish the facts. This has been conducted by a Director in the Immigration Service and the initial results were reported to me this week. There are further investigations still to be completed.
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make a statement on the Police and UK Immigration Service operation in Morecambe Bay at the sandbank close to Morecambe Town on 5 August 2003 as described in a letter to the hon. Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale from the right hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Beverley Hughes) dated 12 February; [156374]
- (2) if he will name the sandbank close to Morecambe Town where a police and UK immigration operation took place on 5 August 2003 as described in a letter to the right hon. Member for Morecambe and Lunesdale from the hon. Member for Stretford and Urmston (Beverley Hughes) of 12 February; and if he will estimate the distance from the sandbank to Morecambe Town; [156370]
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(3) what (a) police and (b) immigration service operations have been carried out at the sandbanks close to Morecambe Town. [156970]
Beverley Hughes: The matter has now been fully investigated and it is clear that some details of the information given to me by officials and reproduced in my letter of 12 February about the Immigration Service's role in the events on the 4 and 5 August were not wholly accurate and I regret that as a result my hon. Friend was not given the full picture. However, the broad outline of that picture was correct—that on those days there was police-led activity in the Morecambe Bay area involving Chinese cockle pickers which the Immigration Service supported.
Crime
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes have been (a) reported and (b) recorded as being solved in the Romford area of the London borough of Havering during (i) 1995, (ii) 1997, (iii) 1999, (iv) 2001 and (v) 2003; [157012]
- (2) how many (a) burglaries, (b) car thefts, (c) acts of vandalism, (d) muggings, (e) rapes, (f) sexual assaults, (g) indecent assaults and (h) violent attacks were reported in the Romford area of the London borough of Havering during (i) 1995, (ii) 1997, (iii) 1999, (iv) 2001 and (v) 2003. [157013]
Ms Blears: For details of recorded crime figures for Havering, I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 14 October 2003, Official Report, column 18W. Details for detections in Havering are given in the table.
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Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to question reference 154635 on 24 February, what guidance on crime pattern analysis his Department issued to police forces prior to 2003. [157696]
Ms Blears: No formal guidance has been issued although research studies have been published relevant to this area. Those studies published prior to 2003 are:
- Read, T. and Oldfield, D. (1995) Local Crime Analysis. Crime Detection and Prevention Series Paper 65, London: Home Office.
- Clarke, R.V. and Eck, J. (2003) Become a Problem-Solving Crime Analyst. Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science.
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