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22 Jul 2004 : Column 580W—continued

Correspondence

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of 5 July from the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside relating to entry to the UK of Dr. Yusuf Ali Qaradawi; and what investigations were conducted in advance of his entry to the UK. [184544]

Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 16 July 2004]: I wrote to my hon. Friend on 21 July 2004.

My hon. Friend also asks what investigations were conducted in advance of Dr. Qaradawi's entry to the United Kingdom: I am withholding that information under exemption 5 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

It is not our practice to disclose details of individual entry clearance cases in a public forum.

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for the Isle of Wight dated 25 May concerning the National Offender Management Service. [181804]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 1 July 2004]: I replied to the hon. Member on 7 July 2004.

Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the hon. Member for West Worcestershire will receive a response to his letter of 15 April (Ref: M480/4). [182930]

Mr. Browne [holding answer 8 July 2004]: I wrote to the hon. Member on 22 July 2004.

Crime Solving

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes in (a) Merseyside, (b) Lancashire, (c) Cheshire, (d) Cumbria and (e) Greater Manchester have involved (i) the Forensic Science Service and (ii) a private company in their solution in each of the last 12 months. [181674]

Caroline Flint: From the data recorded by these police forces it is not possible to identify how many crimes involved use of forensic science in their solution. The best indicator of the relative use of (i) the Forensic Science Service (FSS) and (ii) private sector forensic science providers is the number of submissions made by the five named forces to each of these within the last 12 months.
 
22 Jul 2004 : Column 581W
 

(a) For Merseyside police forensic submissions during the year 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004 were as follows:

	Forensic provider
	(i) FSS	(ii) Private companies
April	69	344
May	65	418
June	96	377
July	93	367
August	73	376
September	100	391
October	96	311
November	77	318
December	64	252
January	77	311
February	73	268
March	60	289

Differences in the level of detail to which data on submissions for forensic analysis is recorded by police forces prevents similar presentation of figures for the remaining forces. The data recorded by these forces indicate:

(b) For Lancashire Constabulary forensic submissions during the year 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004 were as follows:

	Number
April	419
May	342
June	398
July	389
August	389
September	355
October	355
November	359
December	372
January	421
February	371
March	432

Lancashire Constabulary was unable to report how many of these submissions were made to(i) the Forensic Science Service (FSS) and (ii) private sector forensic science providers.

(c) For Cheshire Constabulary forensic submissions during the year 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004 were as follows:

(i) FSS: 525

(ii) Private companies: 609.

Cheshire Constabulary was unable to provide a monthly breakdown of these figures.

(d) For Cumbria Constabulary the number of submission for DNA analysis reflects is related to the level of volume crime, the predominant category of crime in Cumbria. These submissions were all made to the FSS:
 
22 Jul 2004 : Column 582W
 

	Number
April	26
May	28
June	37
July	20
August	18
September	41
October	30
November	11
December	17
January	18
February	23
March	32

(e) For Greater Manchester Police forensic submissions during the year 1 April 2003 to 31 March 2004 were as follows:

(i) FSS: 8,392

(ii) Private companies: 135.

GMP was unable to provide a monthly breakdown of these figures.

Criminal Cases Review Commission

Mr. Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases have been considered by the Criminal Cases Review Commission since its inception; and how many are awaiting determination. [184798]

Paul Goggins: At 31 May 2004 the Criminal Cases Review Commission had received 6,798 applications of which 638 had yet to be determined. Further detail is available on the Commission's website at www. ccrc.gov.uk.

CS Gas

Mr. Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the use of CS gas spray by police forces in England and Wales. [184797]

Caroline Flint: CS incapacitant spray has been available to police forces in England and Wales since 1996. Currently out of 43 police forces, 40 are using CS incapacitant spray as an item of self-defence equipment.

Departmental Accounting Practice

Mr. Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who the Finance Director of the (a) Department, (b) Probation Service, (c) Charity Commission and (d) Assets Recovery Agency is; what accountancy qualifications each Director holds; and on how many occasions there has been a qualified opinion on (i) the resource accounts and (ii) other accounts of each in the last five years. [183423]

Fiona Mactaggart: The information requested, is shown in the table.
 
22 Jul 2004 : Column 583W
 

	Finance Director	Accountancy qualifications held
(a) Home Office	William Nye	—
(b) Probation Service	Ray McBurney	Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
(c) Charity Commission	Nick Allaway	Member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
(d) Assets Recovery Agency	Ivor Jamison	Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting

In respect of Departmental Accounts, the audit opinion has been given on the accounts for the periods requested. Of the Departments requested the Probation Service is a part of the Home Office while the Asset Recovery Agency and the Charities Commission are
 
22 Jul 2004 : Column 584W
 
non-Ministerial Departments. The Asset Recovery Agency has only recently been created and no accounts are yet available. Audit opinion for the Department and for the Charities Commission are given in the Table:

Financial year	National Audit Office opinion: The Home Office	National Audit Office opinion: The Charities Commission
1999–2000	Disclaimed	Unqualified
2000–01	Qualified	Unqualified
2001–02	Qualified	Qualified
2002–03	Unqualified as true and fair, but qualified arising from an expenditure in excess of amounts authorised for Request for Resource 2	Unqualified
2003–04	Resource Accounts not yet audited—an opinion will not be available until later in the year	Unqualified

Departmental Buildings

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total floor space area of buildings owned or leased by (a) his Department and (b) his agencies has been in each year since 1997. [182220]

Fiona Mactaggart: The non-agency part of the Home Office currently occupies 274,693 sq m of freehold space and 498,664 sq m of rented space. The Department's Executive Agencies occupy 4,188,012 sq m of freehold space and 69,256 sq m of rented space. Together these comprise offices, prisons and other specialised accommodation.

The figures exclude residential properties, premises that are not rented but taken under service agreements and those where costs are shared with other Government Departments who pay the rent.

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