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29 Apr 2004 : Column 1291W—continued

Bogus Colleges

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action his Department has taken to close down bogus colleges for migration purposes; and how many colleges have been closed down in each year since 1997. [166555]

Mr. Browne: I refer the right hon. Gentleman to a statement made by my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary on 22 April.

Charities Bill

Mr. Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home   Department when he will publish the Charities Bill. [167048]

Fiona Mactaggart: The draft Charities Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech, is expected to be published in mid-May. It will be considered by a joint Committee of both Houses which will be asked to report by 30 September.

Correspondence

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Counter Terrorism expects to reply to the hon. Member for Southend, West's letters of (a) 10 December 2003 and (b) 12 January. [165196]

Mr. Browne: The information is as follows.

(a) I apologise for the delay in replying to the hon. Member. On 5 April the letter was accepted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office who will reply shortly.

(b) My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State (Fiona Mactaggart) wrote to the hon. Member on 23 February.
 
29 Apr 2004 : Column 1292W
 

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter to him from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton dated 8 March with regard to Mohammed Riaz. [168924]

Mr. Blunkett: I responded to my right hon. Friend on 26 April 2004.

Crime

Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home   Department what the percentage change in (a) overall recorded crime, (b) recorded violent crime, (c) burglaries and (d) vehicle thefts in Burnley has been since 1997. [168315]

Ms Blears: The information requested is not available centrally.

Burnley is a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) area. Data at CDRP level have been published only from 1999–2000 onwards. Detailed statistics at CDRP level are available for 2002–03 on the new Home Office website: http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk

Jim Dobbin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the percentage change in (a) overall recorded crime, (b) recorded crime, (c) burglaries and (d) vehicle thefts in Heywood and Middleton has been since 1997. [168535]

Ms Blears: The information requested is not available centrally.

Heywood and Middleton comes within the Rochdale Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) area. Data at CDRP level has only been published from 1999–2000 onwards. Detailed statistics at CDRP level are available for 2002–03 on the new Home Office website: http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk

Crime Statistics

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the percentage change in (a) overall recorded crime, (b) recorded violent crime, (c) burglaries and (d) vehicle thefts in Manchester Gorton has been since 1997. [167467]

Ms Blears: The information requested is not available centrally.

Gorton comes within the Manchester Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) area. Data at CDRP level has only been published from 1999–2000 onwards. Detailed statistics at CDRP level are available for 2002–03 on the new Home Office website http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk.

Mr. Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many homophobic incidents were recorded in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04 by each of the (i) police divisions in west Yorkshire and (ii) police forces in England and Wales. [167049]

Ms Blears: Recorded crime figures submitted to the Home Office by police forces do not separately identify crimes motivated by homophobia. This is because homophobic crime is not a distinct offence in law, and is instead included within the figures for other offences according to the nature of the action.
 
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Mr. Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many racially aggravated incidents were recorded in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04 by each of the (i) police divisions in West Yorkshire and (ii) police forces in England and Wales. [167050]

Ms Blears: The available information relates to racially or religiously aggravated offences by police force area. The latest figures relate to 2002–03 and are given in the table. This information is not published at police force division level.

Information for 2003–04 is not yet available.
Racially or religiously aggravated offences recorded by the police in 2002–03 1

Police force area	Number
Avon and Somerset	900
Bedfordshire	169
Cambridgeshire	410
Cheshire	376
Cleveland	145
Cumbria	69
Derbyshire	560
Devon and Cornwall	496
Dorset	177
Durham	371
Essex	558
Gloucestershire	210
Greater Manchester	2,353
Hampshire	317
Hertfordshire	343
Humberside	302
Kent	547
Lancashire	860
Leicestershire	809
Lincolnshire	136
London, City of	71
Merseyside	734
Metropolitan Police	9,853
Norfolk	203
Northamptonshire	303
Northumbria	934
North Yorkshire	3,457
Nottinghamshire	635
South Yorkshire	242
Staffordshire	466
Suffolk	246
Surrey	407
Sussex	443
Thames Valley	948
Warwickshire	159
West Mercia	527
West Midlands	2,422
West Yorkshire	707
Wiltshire	232
Dyfed-Powys	96
Gwent	193
North Wales	288
South Wales	737
Total	34,411

⁽⁸²⁾ Offences of racially or religiously aggravated other wounding, harassment, common assault and criminal damage

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what changes there have been to the levels of recorded crime, broken down by offence, within Weston-super-Mare in each year since 1997. [167531]

Ms Blears: The information requested is not available centrally.
 
29 Apr 2004 : Column 1294W
 

Weston-super-Mare comes within the North Somerset Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) area. Data at CDRP level has only been published from 1999–2000 onwards. Detailed statistics at CDRP level are available for 2002–03 on the new Home Office website http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk.

Criminal Justice

Peter Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time from arrest to court was for (a) persistent young offenders and (b) all offenders in the Wrekin in each year from 1997. [166721]

Paul Goggins: The information is as follows.
Days

	West Mercia—Persistent Young Offenders arrest to sentence	West Mercia Time Interval Survey—charge to first listing	National figures—Persistent Young Offenders arrest to sentence
1997	155	n/a	141
1998	123	n/a	125
1999	109	30	108
2000	96	32	93
2001	79	28	76
2002	63	25	68
2003	57	24	66

Notes:
1. We cannot provide "arrest to court" data for Persistent Young Offenders—only arrest to sentence.
2. We cannot provide "arrest to court" for all offenders.
3. The figures for "charge to first listing" come from the Time Interval Surveys. Comparable data for 1997 and 1998 are not available.
4. We cannot provide data for the Wrekin, but we can provide data for West Mercia in which this constituency is situated.

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