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Prisons

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the results of the audit to identify foreign nationals sentenced to a term of imprisonment will be available. [164404]

Paul Goggins: An audit by the Prison Service began in January to ensure that all relevant information on foreign national prisoners that it holds in its custody had been passed to the Immigration Service. This is particularly important for those who will be eligible for the Early Removal Scheme (ERS).

As this audit concerns the confirmation of personal data on prisoners between the Prison and Immigration Services there are no plans to make the results publicly available.

Probation Service

Ross Cranston: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the change in gross pension provision for the (a) National Probation Directorate and (b) National Probation Service (Local Area Boards) will be following the publication of the Spring Supplementary Estimates for 2003–04. [168462]

Paul Goggins: The Spring Supplementary Estimates for 2003–04 do not make any change in pension provision for either (a) the National Probation Directorate or (b) the local Probation Boards of the National Probation Service.

Staff in the National Probation Directorate are part of the Civil Service Pension Scheme. Staff in local Probation Boards are part of the Local Government Pension Scheme and the actuarial rate for employers' contributions was set in 2001 for the financial years 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05.
 
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Racial Harassment

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what powers preventing racial harassment have been introduced since 1997; and how many times these powers have been used in Birkenhead. [166486]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 created new and separate offences where the offences of causing fear and violence or of causing harassment, alarm or distress under the Public Order Act 1986, or the offences of harassment or putting in fear of violence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 were racially aggravated.

Figures for the number of prosecutions in Birkenhead for this type of offence are not centrally available. Over the period 1999–2000 to 2001–02, Merseyside Police recorded a total of 434 harassment offences.

Prior to 1997, the Race Relations Act (RRA) 1976 prohibited discrimination on racial grounds. The RRA did not specifically refer to harassment, but it was clear from case law that racial harassment was a type of detriment capable of amounting to the kind of treatment prohibited by the Act.

As part of its fulfilment of its obligations under the EC Race Directive, the UK amended the Race Relations Act 1976 (by virtue of the Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003) so as to make it unlawful to harass a person, on grounds of race or ethnic or national origins, in the areas of activity covered by the 1976 Act.

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what powers preventing racial harassment have been introduced since 1997; and how many times these powers have been used in Manchester Gorton. [167468]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 created new and separate offences where the offences of causing fear and violence or of causing harassment, alarm or distress under the Public Order Act 1986, or the offences of harassment or putting in fear of violence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 were racially aggravated.

Figures for the number of prosecutions in Manchester Gorton for this type of offence are not centrally available. Over the period 1999–2000 to 2001–02, Greater Manchester police recorded a total of 2,075 harassment offences.

Prior to 1997, the Race Relations Act (RRA) 1976 prohibited discrimination on racial grounds. The RRA did not specifically refer to harassment, but it was clear from case law that racial harassment was a type of detriment capable of amounting to the kind of treatment prohibited by the Act.

As part of its fulfilment of its obligations under the EC Race Directive, the UK amended the Race Relations Act 1976 (by virtue of the Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003) so as to make it unlawful to harass a person, on grounds of race or ethnic or national origins, in the areas of activity covered by the 1976 Act.
 
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Racism Action Plan

Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role his Department envisages for the Racial Equality Strategy for Northern Ireland in the creation of a wider UK National Action Plan against Racism; and if he will make a statement. [167335]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Government are committed to implementing the outcomes of the Durban World Conference against Racism in a way that makes sense in the UK, given our long track record in tackling racism, inequality and discrimination. Many of the activities identified in the Durban programme of action are already under way throughout the UK.

The Home Office is currently developing a UK strategy on race equality and community cohesion. The Northern Ireland Administration is developing its own race equality strategy in respect of its areas of devolved responsibility, and both parties are working together to ensure coherence between the two strategies. We will continue to consult widely as this work develops. The Government are looking at our Durban commitments as part of our development of the strategy.

Roger Sylvester

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether public funds will be available to any of the eight police officers for their possible appeal against the inquest verdict that the death of Mr. Roger Sylvester in custody was an unlawful killing. [169891]

Ms Blears: The Court of Administration has now approved the application for a full Judicial Review of the verdict of unlawful killing reached by the inquest into the circumstances surrounding Roger Sylvester's death.

The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) has agreed to pay the officers' legal costs arising from the Judicial Review but only if it can also fund relevant costs to the Sylvester family. This matter is to be considered at an MPA meeting on 7 May 2004.

Serious and Organised Crime Agency

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the annual budget for the Serious and Organised Crime Agency will be; [166461]

(2) what (a) functions and (b) funds are being transferred from the National Criminal Intelligence Service to the Serious Organised Crime Agency. [166596]

Ms Blears: Proposals for the Serious Organised Crime Agency were set out in the white paper 'One Step Ahead: A 21st century strategy to defeat organised crime' (Cm6167), published on 29 March. The new Agency will bring together the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), the National Crime Squad (NCS), the investigative and intelligence work of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise (HMCE) on serious drug trafficking and the recovery of related criminal assets, and the Home Office's responsibilities for organised immigration crime The National Criminal Intelligence Service currently works on behalf of all United Kingdom law enforcement agencies, providing strategic and tactical intelligence on serious and organised crime,
 
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nationally and internationally. These functions will be undertaken by the Serious Organised Crime Agency once it is fully operational.

The Serious Organised Crime Agency will be funded by the Home Office as an executive non-departmental public body; provision will be determined through the Spending Review 2004 process.

Sex Offenders Register

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) added and (b) registered in total on the Sex Offenders Register in each year since its establishment, broken down by gender. [169106]

Paul Goggins: The notification requirements of the Sex Offenders Act 1997 (often known as the sex offenders register) came into force on 1 September 1997. These requirements have been be updated and strengthened through the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Until 2001, data on the number of sex offenders were collated on a national basis from the police national computer. However, this arrangement was overtaken following the introduction of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and the requirement on each police and probation area to produce annual reports detailing the work undertaken to safeguard the public and manage dangerous offenders in the community.

The MAPPA reports also include statistics on the number of offenders who are subject to the notification requirements. The 2001–02 reports state that on 31 March 2002 there were 18,513 registered sex offenders living in the community. The 2002–03 reports state that on 31 March 2003 there were 21,413 registered sex offenders living in the community. It is not possible to state the gender breakdown of these statistics.

The Violent and Sex Offenders Register (ViSOR), currently being developed by the Police and Information Technology Organisation, will have greater capacity to store information on sex offenders and provide statistics on the number of convicted sex offenders.

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