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4 Mar 2004 : Column 1140W—continued
Drug Treatment and Testing Orders
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drugs testing and treatment orders have been issued in (a) Lancashire and (b) Chorley since 2000. [157680]
Caroline Flint: The information requested, for the years 2000 to 2002 is contained in the table.
| In Lancashire | Of which, in Chorley PSA | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000(26) | — | — |
| 2001 | 126 | 6 |
| 2002 | 165 | 10 |
(26) From October.
Statistics for 2003 will be published in the autumn of this year.
Engagements
Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the meeting on 16 September 2003 between the Minister of State for Crime Reduction, Policing and Community Safety and representatives of Naturewatch; and when he expects to hold a follow-up meeting with the Chief Constable of North Wales. [157436]
Ms Blears: I very much welcomed the opportunity to meet representatives of Naturewatch to hear their concerns about the law and other issues in relation to badger-baiting. I made clear once again the Government's utter abhorrence of such practices. Primary responsibility for legislation on the protection of badgers rests with colleagues in Defra. I noted the concern of Naturewatch that there should be clear statistics as to the scale of abuse. Convictions of the main offences under the Protection of Badgers Act 1992, which are imprisonable, are recordable on the Police National Computer. This allows information about
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offences and offenders to be shared among police forces. However, since the offences in the Act are among the great number which are triable only summarily, the proposition that they should be made notifiable for the purpose of crime statistics (which focus on offences triable on indictment) presents great problems. I made it clear that I would wish to take the views of the Chief Constable of North Wales, who leads on wildlife crime matters within the Association of Chief Police Officers, on other possible options. My officials have been in touch with him, and I am anxious that this work should be taken forward as quickly as possible.
Fixed Penalty Fines
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the costs and benefits of equipping (a) Home Office constabularies and (b) Highways Agency traffic management staff with hand-held GPS card readers for on-the-spot payment of fixed penalty fines. [156723]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 3 March 2004]: No such assessment has been made. There is no requirement to pay fixed penalty fines on the spot.
The provisions of the fixed penalty system for road traffic offences are set out in Part III of the Road Traffic Offenders Act 1988, as amended by the Road Traffic Act 1991. The recipient of a fixed penalty notice has the option of paying the penalty within 28 days or requesting a court hearing if the issue of the notice is disputed.
Provision for Highways Agency traffic officers is included in the Traffic Management Bill, currently before Parliament. The Bill does not seek to give the traffic officers a power to issue fixed penalty notices.
Identity Cards
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will commission an independent analysis to evaluate the various hypotheses about the effects of introducing identity cards. [157033]
Beverley Hughes: The Government does not propose to commission such an analysis. It has conducted a lengthy consultation exercise on different options for implementing an identity cards scheme, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary set out the benefits of an identity cards scheme in his statement to the House on 11 November 2003 and his publication 'Identity Cards: The Next Steps' (CMD 6020) and we have announced that there will be a further opportunity for consultation when the draft Bill is published.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the option of introducing an identity card system with no central register. [157035]
Beverley Hughes: An identity card scheme without a central register would have less protection against people establishing multiple identities than one where there was a single, highly verified record of identity.
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Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures will be in place under the current identity card proposals to ensure the trustworthiness of the staff operating (a) the identity database system and (b) other databases that include the ID number. [157037]
Beverley Hughes: The Government will build on the arrangements which are already in place for administering personal databases such as those adopted by the UK Passport Service.
Illegal Immigrants
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many of the illegal Chinese immigrants arrested in King's Lynn have been deported;. [155545]
- (2) how many of the illegal Chinese immigrants arrested in the Wirral in November 2002 have been deported; [155546]
(3) how many of the illegal Chinese immigrants arrested at Morecambe in August 2003 have been deported; [155547]
(4) what prosecutions have taken place in connection with (a) the arrest of Chinese immigrants in King's Lynn, (b) the arrest of Chinese immigrants in the Wirral in November 2002 and (c) the arrest of Chinese immigrants at Morecambe Bay in August 2003. [155548]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 23 February 2004]: The Chinese Government has very strict conditions for re-documenting their citizens and will only accept their return once they have verified their exact identity. This causes problems for many countries that wish to repatriate Chinese illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers, as those who do not wish to return are careful to conceal their true identity. Chinese officials seconded to the Immigration Service have recently provided assistance in identifying Chinese nationals to enable their return. We are now working on an arrangement to make this assistance permanent.
We have made it clear to the Chinese that we urgently need to find a solution to the problem of re-documenting those who continue to conceal their identity in order to frustrate return, and are working together to find a way forward to enable us to significantly increase returns to China.
My understanding is that activity by the Immigration Service on the Wirral in October 2002, in King's Lynn in the summer of 2003, and in the Morecambe Bay area in August 2003 has not led to any prosecutions against any individuals under immigration law. Although 120 Chinese nationals were interviewed by the Immigration Service on those occasions, they were not willing to provide evidence which could be used to support a prosecution against those who may have facilitated their entry into the United Kingdom or employed them illegally.
To date one of these Chinese nationals who had committed an immigration offence has been removed from the United Kingdom and two are in detention awaiting issue of travel documents and removal.
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The Immigration Service is actively considering the status of the Chinese nationals apprehended on these three occasions who have not been removed to date and who are not legally in the United Kingdom.
Lancashire Police
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests were made in the Chorley constituency in each year since 1997. [157677]
Ms Blears: Information on arrests collected centrally is based on persons arrested for 'notifiable' offences at police force area level only, in England and Wales. The information does not identify individual local authority or constituency areas.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers Lancashire Police Force had in each year since 2000; and how many (a) were on the front line and (b) had desk jobs in each year. [157679]
Ms Blears: Police strength information is set out in the table.
| Year as at 31 March | Lancashire police strength |
|---|---|
| 2000 | 3,179 |
| 2001 | 3,255 |
| 2002 | 3,304 |
| 2003 | 3,339 |
| December 2003 | (27)3,549 |
(27) Record level
Further information on the deployment of officers on particular duties is not available. Police officers perform a variety of roles and not all officers occupy posts devoted solely to front line or administrative duties. The Home Office will be making available later in the year an assessment of the proportion of time spent by police officers on front line activities in each force in England and Wales in 2003–04.
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