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Child Pornography

Ms Shipley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research his Department is funding into the use of (a) peer to peer file-sharing technology, (b) Freenet and (c) other new technologies for the dissemination of child pornography. [173904]

Paul Goggins: The role of peer to peer file-sharing technology and related technology, such as 3G mobile phones, has been identified as a means of disseminating illegal content, including child pornography. This was confirmed in Home Office research which sought to examine current and potential future abuses of otherwise legitimate technology, and is consistent with the findings of similar studies which have been carried out by others in this field.

Regardless of the method used to distribute these images, it is our intention to ensure that law enforcement have the capability to effectively identify and investigate individuals who are producing, distributing, and using them.

Government continue to work in partnership with industry and law enforcement agencies to assess the new technology which is emerging and the potential it offers for the distribution of child abuse images and other illegal material. Our aim is to ensure that the technology does not present law enforcement with any barriers to fulfil their investigative role.

As part of a wide range of on-going work of the Police Science and Technology Strategy Group (future scanning subgroup) seeks to ensure that the police service can exploit new technology at the earliest opportunity and is prepared for new technology based threats.
 
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Child Sex Tourism

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his Department's plans are to tackle child sex tourism. [172797]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 17 May 2004]: The Government are committed to eradicating the sexual exploitation of children, including where British citizens go abroad to abuse children. We have put in place comprehensive legislation to deal with this problem:

Section 72 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 enables courts in England and Wales and Northern Ireland to deal with British citizens or residents who commit sexual offences against children abroad. Similar provisions apply in Scotland.

The Criminal Justice (Terrorism and Conspiracy) Act 1998 makes it an offence for a person to conspire to commit an offence outside the UK, including sexual offences against children.

In addition, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 has introduced a new civil preventive order aimed at protecting children abroad from UK sex offenders. The foreign travel order is targeted specifically against paedophile sex tourists—those who travel overseas to abuse young children because the opportunities to do so are more available in some countries than in the UK. It enables the courts to prevent those with a conviction for a sexual offence against a child aged under 16 from travelling abroad where there is evidence that they may cause serious sexual harm to children aged under 16 overseas.

The Sexual Offences Act 2003 also includes a new order which enables the courts to make offenders who have received convictions or cautions for sexual offences overseas (whether they are British citizens or foreign nationals) subject to the notification requirements ("the sex offenders register") of Part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 if they come to the UK.

The Government have also made regulations which reduce the period that "registered" sex offenders can intend to spend abroad before they have to notify the police form eight days to three days. The police can, and do, pass this information to other jurisdictions where they believe it will prevent the offender from committing an offence overseas.

Finally, a working group has been established to further examine the issue of combating child sex tourism. This group includes representatives for Government Departments, the travel industry, NGOs and the police. The Home Office is also funding a research project, managed by ECPAT UK, aimed at identifying the best channels through which we can raise awareness of child sex tourism.

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter from the right honourable Member for Manchester, Gorton dated 30 March with regard to Mrs. Ahmed and Farooq Ahmed. [172253]

Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 8 June 2004.
 
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Credit Card Purchases

Judy Mallaber: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been convicted in courts in England and Wales of (a) purchasing child pornography images and (b) other offences involving the use of a credit card on line in each of the last five years. [173055]

Paul Goggins: Such offences cannot be separately identified in the statistics of court proceedings collected centrally.

Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role (a) further education and (b) higher education colleges have played in improving professional standards in crime and disorder reduction partnerships; and if he will provide examples of best practice. [174968]

Ms Blears: Further and higher education colleges offer a variety of courses in community safety for Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs). These include short course programmes on single topics, vocational qualifications, and degrees up to masters level. Some colleges have also assisted CDRPs with the development of their crime and disorder audits and strategies and analysis of specific local crime problems.

There are no established examples of best practice. Individual colleges evaluate their own courses and they are also inspected by Ofsted, but no comprehensive assessment of their effectiveness in improving professional standards has been undertaken.

The Home Office publishes details of courses available from a range of further and higher education colleges on the Crime Reduction Website.

Crime Prevention/Detection

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many hours were worked by police officers in the latest year for which figures are available in each police force in England and Wales; [173567]

(2) how many police officer hours were spent by each police force in England and Wales in combating and solving each category of crimes. [173566]

Ms Blears [holding answer 17 May 2004]: The information requested is not available centrally.

The latest published figures on police strength for September 2003, were given in online report 13/04, "Police strength in England and Wales 30 September 2004".

Detainees

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received concerning the workings of the escort system for detainees about to be removed from the UK; and if he will make a statement. [173546]

Mr. Browne: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has not received any representations concerning the workings of the escort system for detainees.
 
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Detention Centres

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what figures he has collated on the use of force at (a) Yarl's Wood detention centre and (b) other detention and removal centres; and if he will make a statement. [173544]

Mr. Browne: During the period from the re-opening of Yarl's Wood in September 2003 to 17 May 2004 the total number of incidents where the use of force has been necessary are listed in the table.

Those figures in brackets represent the number of detainees involved in these incidents.

	Number of incidents	Number of detainees involved
Campsfield House	16	(16)
Dover	28	(24)
Dungavel House	24	(23)
Harmondsworth	61	(56)
Haslar	15	(14)
Lindholme	9	(9)
Oakington	9	(8)
Tinsley House	13	(13)
Yarl's Wood	20	(14)

Figures are closely monitored in order to identify and investigate any trends in the use of force.

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