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26 Oct 2004 : Column 1125W—continued

Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he will reply to the letter to him dated 6 September from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Ms J. Lloyd; [192539]

(2) when he will answer the letter to him dated 6 September from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Ms J. Lloyd. [193935]

 
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Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 20 October 2004.

Departmental Press Officers

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many press officers were employed by the Department in (a) 1996–97 and (b) 2003–04; and at what cost. [190982]

Fiona Mactaggart: Press officers within the Home Office are employed at the Information Officer (IO) and Senior Information Officer (SIO) grades. The costs for the years requested are in the table:

Financial Year	Press Officers	Cost (£)
1996–97	16	369,000
2003–04	39	1,900,000

Expansion of the Home Office press office followed an external consultant's review of its staffing and operation in 1999 and recommended the creation of the "Newsdesk" to meet the demands of the media. This improved efficiency from 'losing' in excess of 20 per cent. of the calls pre expansion, to a position where from June 2003 to June 2004 91.8 per cent. of the 67,070 press calls received by the Newsdesk were answered. The Home Office press office and the prison service press office merged in May 2001.

The £1.9 million cost for 2003–04 on press officers is 0.094 per cent. of the overall Home Office salary bill (£2,016,593,000)

Home Office departmental report 2003–04.

Green Ministers

Mr. Horam: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many meetings of the Ministerial Sub-Committee of Green Ministers were attended by the Department's Green Minister in (a) 2002–03 and (b) 2003–04. [190873]

Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 20 October 2004]: I am the Home Office Green Minister and a member of ENV(G). It has been established practice under successive Governments not to disclose information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet Committees. This practice is now formalised by Exemption 2 of Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

Impaired Drivers

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for The Home Department how many convictions for drink-driving resulted in custodial sentences in each year since 1997 (a) in total and (b) broken down by police authority. [192180]

Ms Blears: Information taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database on convictions and custodial sentences for drink-driving offences by police force area 1997 to 2002 is given in the table. Data for 2003 will be available early in 2005.
 
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Findings of guilt and immediate custodial sentences at all courts for offences of driving etc. after consuming alcohol or taking drugs by police force area, 1997–2002 Number of offences

	1997		1998		1999
Police force area	Findings of guilt	Immediate custody(4)	Findings of guilt	Immediate custody(4)	Findings of guilt	Immediate custody(4)
Avon and Somerset	2,812	163	2,566	157	2,728	165
Bedfordshire	1,146	119	1,060	96	869	87
Cambridgeshire	1,092	56	1,060	62	941	43
Cheshire	1,969	97	1,903	119	1,827	133
Cleveland	926	61	870	63	811	57
Cumbria	931	49	856	51	871	37
Derbyshire	1,612	147	1,547	202	1,463	181
Devon and Cornwall	2,342	91	2,265	127	2,277	112
Dorset	1,214	93	1,186	88	1,120	96
Durham	1,044	66	1,035	53	1,137	81
Essex	2,736	228	2,438	233	2,528	261
Gloucestershire	1,067	48	985	36	889	51
Greater Manchester	4,806	440	4,715	453	4,850	464
Hampshire	3,774	243	3,597	231	3,725	213
Hertfordshire	1,670	90	1,672	91	1,679	90
Humberside	1,274	76	1,358	87	1,323	97
Kent	2,321	97	2,627	155	2,633	133
Lancashire	3,389	224	2,945	178	3,010	184
Leicestershire	1,648	183	1,485	140	1,624	188
Lincolnshire	1,088	47	979	36	941	44
London, City of	436	8	301	9	236	5
Merseyside	2,719	304	2,451	326	2,137	296
Met. police	16,165	1,270	13,889	1,050	12,414	838
Norfolk	1,116	49	1,118	43	1,010	64
Northamptonshire	1,107	109	1,062	73	1,058	91
Northumbria	2,625	184	2,457	194	2,463	229
North Yorkshire	1,365	77	1,205	77	1,124	60
Nottinghamshire	2,031	255	1,804	247	1,802	262
South Yorkshire	2,296	204	2,002	178	1,927	149
Staffordshire(5)	2,036	132	1,955	140	1,711	143
Suffolk	1,050	53	1,042	60	1,089	71
Surrey	1,380	64	1,328	58	1,417	47
Sussex	2,373	110	2,113	113	2,224	120
Thames Valley	4,070	215	3,896	195	3,725	216
Warwickshire	837	44	784	53	856	38
West Mercia	1,947	87	1,794	97	1,747	114
West Midlands	6,351	598	5,582	532	4,775	532
West Yorkshire	3,953	394	3,669	329	3,597	358
Wiltshire	1,043	27	1,108	39	1,009	45
England	93,761	6,802	86,709	6,471	83,567	6,395
Dyfed Powys	1,029	44	995	38	944	48
Gwent	1,166	61	1,203	84	1,079	78
North Wales	1,354	96	1,306	95	1,248	94
South Wales	2,892	257	2,903	239	2,526	282
Wales	6,441	458	6,407	456	5,797	502
England and Wales	100,202	7,260	93,116	6,927	89,364	6,897

	2000		2001		2002
Police force area	Findings of guilt	Immediate custody(4)	Findings of guilt	Immediate custody(4)	Findings of guilt	Immediate custody(4)
Avon and Somerset	2,462	152	2,197	129	2,401	124
Bedfordshire	797	89	914	79	955	82
Cambridgeshire	793	41	813	51	852	41
Cheshire	1,652	122	1,529	96	1,993	103
Cleveland	777	56	887	77	921	71
Cumbria	806	50	761	51	768	37
Derbyshire	1,417	126	1,411	140	1,465	164
Devon and Cornwall	2,199	104	2,369	128	2,441	95
Dorset	1,115	84	1,150	91	1,199	83
Durham	1,124	76	1,097	86	1,136	68
Essex	2,462	237	2,456	264	2,522	267
Gloucestershire	804	37	865	39	926	44
Greater Manchester	4,801	428	4,715	454	4,720	474
Hampshire	3,472	244	3,464	235	3,846	243
Hertfordshire	1,552	98	1,666	94	1,894	90
Humberside	1,371	128	1,259	126	1,395	113
Kent	2,592	134	2,575	165	2,745	152
Lancashire	2,584	163	2,304	148	2,599	159
Leicestershire	1,531	152	1,546	140	1,659	140
Lincolnshire	816	48	877	60	847	56
London, City of	162	4	162	10	221	12
Merseyside	2,128	286	2,195	217	2,293	216
Met. Police	11,801	891	11,260	928	12,905	927
Norfolk	935	45	1,143	75	1,220	55
Northamptonshire	782	90	399	65	236	35
Northumbria	2,621	215	2,529	217	2,588	188
North Yorkshire	1,073	67	1,066	55	1,119	63
Nottinghamshire	1,722	210	1,598	187	1,420	129
South Yorkshire	2,122	170	2,020	159	1,945	165
Staffordshire(5)	—	—	1,513	136	1,704	143
Suffolk	902	74	920	43	1,105	79
Surrey	1,539	61	1,592	65	1,614	68
Sussex	2,112	136	2,358	128	2,306	149
Thames Valley	3,496	212	3,275	210	4,317	219
Warwickshire	786	42	880	33	841	40
West Mercia	1,631	101	1,740	91	1,719	93
West Midlands	4,559	451	4,914	471	5,050	438
West Yorkshire	3,375	287	3,220	331	3,564	268
Wiltshire	930	28	1,045	53	1,005	54
England	79,671	6,076	78,684	6,127	84,456	5,947
Dyfed Powys	858	45	867	36	927	47
Gwent	1,211	99	1,152	76	1,074	74
North Wales	1,332	92	1,227	87	1,270	71
South Wales	2,757	255	2,812	295	2,761	236
Wales	6,158	491	6,058	494	6,032	428
England and Wales	85,829	6,567	84,742	6,621	90,488	6,375

'—' Not available
⁽⁴⁾ Immediate custody includes sentences of secure training order, detention and training order, young offender institution and unsuspended sentence of imprisonment.
⁽⁵⁾ Staffordshire police force were only able to submit sample data for persons proceeded against and convicted in the magistrates courts for the year 2000. Although sufficient to estimate higher orders of data, these data are not robust enough at a detailed level and have been excluded from the table.


 
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