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London Crime

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on crime trends within the Metropolitan Police Authority area. [170492]

Ms Blears: The most recent figures published by the Home Office, for the year 2002–03, show that the total number of recorded crimes for the Metropolitan Police Service increased by 2 per cent. compared to the previous year, but that the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) inflated the figures in 2002–03 by 12 per cent.

I understand that the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis recently published recorded crime statistics for the Metropolitan Police Service which showed a decrease in total recorded crime of 2 per cent. for the year ended March 2004, as compared with the previous year.

The national crime statistics for all police forces for 2003–04 are due to be published in July.

Mr. Hade Solemanpour

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what basis he refused a request to extradite to Argentina Mr. Hade Solemanpour, the former Iranian Ambassador to Argentina; and if he will make a statement. [167613]

Caroline Flint: The Argentinean request for Mr. Solemanpour's extradition was not supported by prima facie evidence sufficient to meet the requirements of UK law or of the treaty between our two countries. Accordingly, it was decided on 11 November not to issue an Order to Proceed against Solemanpour and to cancel the warrant for his provisional arrest.

National Identity Register

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in what circumstances the police could use the National Identity Register to establish an individual's identity without their consent. [170259]

Mr. Browne: The draft Identity Cards Bill published on 26 April provides that disclosure from the National Identity Register may be made to the police where it is in the interests of national security or for purposes connected with the prevention or detection of crime or for other purposes specified by order made by the Secretary of State.

Disclosure of an audit trail of when an individual's entry in the National Identity Register has been checked could be authorised for purposes only connected with the prevention or detection of serious crime. Disclosure of information to Scottish police forces is not permitted in connection with crimes which are within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament.
 
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Parliament Square Demonstrations

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to offer alternative locations to demonstrators in Parliament Square. [169254]

Caroline Flint: None. It is open to demonstrators in Parliament Square to move to another location to continue their demonstration, provided they do so within the law.

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with Westminster City Council regarding noise created by demonstrators in Parliament Square. [169255]

Caroline Flint: None. However, the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis tells me that there have been a number of discussions between the Metropolitan Police and Westminster Council on the use of byelaws to control noisy demonstrations in Parliament Square.

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with the Metropolitan Police regarding the policing of the demonstrators in Parliament Square. [170214]

Mr. Blunkett: I have regular bilateral meetings with the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis where current issues about the policing of London are discussed.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many days on average his Department took in Session 2002–03 to give a substantive answer to a parliamentary question for ordinary written answer; and what the greatest number of days taken to answer such a question was. [155924]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Home Office does not maintain records in such a way that provides the information in the format requested without incurring disproportionate cost. The last published performance figures for the Home Office from 2001–02 showed that   39 per cent. of all PQs were answered within parliamentary deadlines.

Every effort is made to reply to parliamentary questions within the parliamentary deadlines wherever possible. Consequently the Home Office is currently in the process of introducing a new PQ system, the electronic parliamentary questions system (ePQS) to better monitor and manage the Department's performance.

The ePQS monitoring system has identified the bottlenecks in the PQ process and remedial action is being taken. As is usual with the introduction of any new IT system, performance has shown an initial decline. The benefits of ePQS are now being realised across the Department and performance is improving.

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) Ordinary Written and (b) Named Day Questions his Department received in (i) the 2002–03 and (ii) this parliamentary session up to the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by month; [170772]
 
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(2) what proportion of (a) Ordinary Written questions to his Department were answered within five sitting days of tabling and (b) Questions for a Named Day received a substantive answer on that day in (i) 2002–03 and (ii) this parliamentary session up to the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by month. [170773]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Home Office does not maintain records in such a way that provides the information in the format requested without incurring disproportionate costs. During the period 2002–03 the Home Office received 7115 Parliamentary Questions. The Department has received 4040 Parliamentary Questions so far this session. The published performance figures for 2002–2003 showed that 37 per cent. of all Parliamentary Questions were answered within Parliamentary deadlines.

Every effort is made to reply to Parliamentary Questions within the Parliamentary deadlines wherever possible. Consequently, the Home Office is currently in the process of introducing a new PQ system, the electronic Parliamentary Questions System (ePQS) to better monitor and manage the Department's performance.

The ePQS monitoring system has identified the bottlenecks in the PQ process and remedial action is being taken. The benefits of ePQS are now being realised across the Department

Prisons (Racial Incidents)

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many racial incidents were reported by prisoners during (a) 2002 and (b) 2003; and what assessment he has made of the thoroughness and effectiveness of the subsequent investigations. [155252]

Paul Goggins: For the period 2002–03, 5,089 racist complaints were recorded across all establishments (excluding the results of 14 women's prisons and Wormwood Scrubs where information was not available within the time scale of this question), of which 1,360 (26 per cent.) were substantiated.

The substantiated complaints are broken down as follows:

Staff on Prisoner complaints (277 substantiated)

Prisoner on Prisoner complaints (666 substantiated)

Prisoner on Staff complaints (384 substantiated)

Staff on Staff complaints (33 substantiated).

These figures are based on the recorded incidents logged by all establishments but further individual breakdown is not available.

The responsibility of ensuring that investigations are carried out effectively rests with the Governing Governor of each establishment, or the Head of Group for Headquarters units. As part of their responsibilities the    Race Relations Management Teams in each establishment, are involved in monitoring the investigations of racist complaints and their outcomes. The training for those carrying out incident investigations has been adapted to include specific details on how to deal with a race related complaint.
 
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The outcomes of these investigations range from extra training, disciplinary action, adjudication punishments for prisoners and, for five members of staff within this period, dismissal.

It has been recognised in the joint Prison Service/CRE Race Equality Action Plan that further improvements need to be made with regard to the quality and thoroughness of the investigations of racial incidents and complaints.

Consideration is currently been given to how independent/external agencies might provide some assessment of thoroughness in the handling of racial incidents. The formalisation of all racial incidents is also being looked at to ensure all issues are dealt with in establishments. There is also work being carried out to overhaul the current Racial Incident Reporting process.

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