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Fixed Penalty Notices (Lancashire)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what powers Lancashire Police have to serve fixed penalty notices; and how many have been served, and for what offences, in each of the Lancashire constituencies. [180419]

Ms Blears: Police officers have the power to issue fixed penalty notices under section 54 of the Road Traffic Offences Act 1988 for a range of offences listed in Schedule 3 to that Act, including parking and speeding offences. Provisional figures from Lancashire police are that from 1 January 2004 to 22 June 2004, a total of 16,434 fixed penalty notices were issued in Lancashire for road traffic offences. Of these 1,339 were for endorseable offences and 15,095 non-endorseable, most of the latter being for parking offences. Details of fixed penalty notices issued in 2002 are given in Home Office Statistical Bulletin 5/04 titled Motoring Offences and Breath Test Statistics England and Wales 2002. This report can be accessed on the Home Office website at: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/motor1.html

In addition police have the power to issue fixed penalty notices for eleven disorder offences under sections 1 to 11 of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. This scheme was introduced in Lancashire from 5 January 2004. Since this date provisional data provided by Lancashire police show that a total of 1,041 penalty notices for disorder have been issued. The table provides a breakdown of the offences for which these have been issued.

Figures for numbers of fixed penalty notices issued are not available by constituency.

Penalty offence	Penalty notices issued 1
Causing harassment, alarm or distress (s5 Public Order Act 1986)	285
Drinking in a designated public place (s12 Criminal Justice Act 2001)	17
Drunk and disorderly (s91 of the Criminal Justice Act 1967)	712
Drunk in the highway (s12 of the Licensing Act 1872)	17
Knowingly give false alarm to a fire brigade (s31 of the Fire Services Act 1947)	2
Using public electronic communications network to cause annoyance (s127(2) of the Communications Act 2003)	1
Throwing Fireworks (s80 Explosives Act 1875)	1
Throwing stones at a train (s56 British Transport Commission Act 1949)	1
Wasting police time, giving false report (s5 Criminal Law Act 1967)	5
Total	1,041

⁽¹⁴⁾ Provisional figures.





 
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Anti-social Behaviour Act

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what changes have occurred in behaviour since the implementation of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003. [179828]

Ms Blears [holding answer 23 June 2004]: The British Crime Survey (BCS) measures the extent to which people view particular types of behaviour as a problem in their local area—not direct measures of behaviour and subsequent changes.

Latest BCS data show that the proportion of people who perceived a high level of antisocial behaviour in their area had fallen from 21 per cent. in interviews in 2002 to 18 per cent. in 2003 (a statistically significant fall)—Quarterly Update for year ending December 2003.

Criminal Justice Act

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will repeal of section 127 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003. [179544]

Paul Goggins: It is our intention to disapply section 127 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 by utilising the provision available through the Regulatory Reform Act 2001.

We intend to facilitate this, as parliamentary time allows, dependent on a positive vote by the Prison Officers' (POA) to accept the new Joint Industrial Relations Procedural Agreement (JIRPA).
Number of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) issued at all courts within England, Lancashire and the Borough of Burnley, as reported to the Home Office, up to 31 December 2003 1

Area	Total issued
England	1,904
Lancashire	72
Of which:
Burnley BC	17

⁽¹⁵⁾ Latest available

Drug Treatment

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the Government targets are for waiting times for drug rehabilitation treatment; what the waiting times were in Somerset in the latest 12 months for which figures are available; what assessment he has made of the extent to which drug rehabilitation treatment programmes in Somerset meet the clinical needs of drug users; and if he will make a statement; [163884]

(2) what the prescribing budget of the Somerset Drugs Service was in each year from 1995–96 to 2003–04; what the budget will be in 2004–05; and if he will make a statement; [163896]

(3) what action is being taken by the National Treatment Agency to prioritise drug rehabilitation waiting times in Somerset following the letter of 26 February 2004 to the hon. Member for Yeovil from the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State; [163897]
 
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(4) what his latest estimate is of waiting times for drug rehabilitation treatment in South Somerset; and if he will make a statement. [163898]

Caroline Flint: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 1 July 2004, Official Report, column 390.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will encourage joint commissioning for drug services to ensure that individuals' other social care needs are met. [182231]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I have been asked to reply.

As part of any treatment package for a drug misuser, a full clinical assessment has to take place. The document, Models of Care, published by the National Treatment Agency in 2002, makes clear that to achieve best results in tackling a person's drug misuse, a holistic approach must be taken. This includes a drugs misuser's social care needs such as addressing mental health problems and homelessness.

Drug Service Providers

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the length is of the contracts now being tendered for by providers of drugs services to HM prisons in England and Wales. [181825]

Paul Goggins: The length of contracts now being tendered between the Prison Service and drug service providers will be for a maximum of seven years. They will be three-year contracts, with an option to extend by two further periods of two years. These extensions are conditional on good performance.

Heavy Goods Vehicles

Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many heavy goods vehicles were reported stolen in each year since 1998; [181190]

(2) what the detection rate was for stolen heavy goods vehicles in each year since 1998. [181191]

Ms Blears: This information is not collected centrally. The available information relates to the general classification of theft of a vehicle and it is not possible to identify what type of vehicle has been stolen.

Internet Chatrooms

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has for (a) police forces and (b) the National Crime Squad routinely and proactively to monitor paedophile activity in internet chatrooms; whether additional funding has recently been allocated to the monitoring of chatrooms; what recent guidelines he has issued to police forces on this subject; and if he will make a statement. [182096]

Paul Goggins: Child protection and abuse investigation teams within local forces, and specialists Teams such as the Paedophile On Line Investigation Team of the National Crime Squad undertake monitoring of chatrooms to detect paedophile activity as part of their activities to combat child abuse on line. The deployment of officers to this area, primarily covertly, is
 
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undertaken as part of the operational activities of these specialist units, and it is not an issue on which guidelines have been issued to forces by government.

The International Virtual Global Task Force, launched in December 2003, is a partnership of law enforcement agencies from the UK, US, Australia, and Canada, which aims to target those who search for images of child abuse on the internet. In June it announced its intention to actively monitor chatrooms with a visible police presence where they consider paedophiles are likely to target children.

From 2000–01 to 2004–05 the policing provision for England and Wales has increased by over £2.3 billion. There are now record numbers of police officers. It is not government policy to fund the police service for individual activities they undertake, but rather for chief officers to take practical decisions on how they allocate the additional resources and manpower we have made available to them. We fully support effective intelligence led policing and welcome the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) proposals to make better use of intelligence and existing centres of expertise to help forces effectively investigate those who abuse children using the internet.

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