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3 Nov 2004 : Column 295W—continued
CCTV
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money the Government have invested in CCTV systems in local authorities covering the Greater London area. [194142]
Ms Blears: The Home Office provided a total of £33.44 million to local authorities in Greater London for Closed Circuit Television schemes through the Crime Reduction Programme's CCTV initiative.
Since the completion of the Crime Reduction Programme, crime reduction funding has been allocated directly to local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRPs) through the Building Safer Communities fund and to Basic Command Unit (BCD) commanders through the BCU fund. These funding streams fund a variety of interventions, including CCTV, to tackle local crime priorities. Information about the interventions funded is not held centrally.
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much public funding has been spent on CCTV security cameras in West Lancashire since 1997. [171721]
Ms Blears: The Home Office has provided a total of £884,404 to West Lancashire for Close Circuit Television schemes through the Crime Reduction Programme's CCTV initiative.
Under CCTV Round 2, West Lancashire was awarded £696,703 followed by an additional £20,753 to provide a network of cameras in priority rural and urban locations across the borough, incorporating public transport and "hard to reach" areas.
Other crime reduction funding has been allocated directly to the local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and Basic Command Unit in West
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Lancashire to fund a variety of interventions, included CCTV. Information about the allocation of that funding is not held centrally.
Mr. Pike: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much public funding has been spent on CCTV security cameras in Burnley since 1997. [168317]
Ms Blears: As part of the Crime Reduction Programme, Burnley claimed £198,526 to extend the existing CCTV coverage to Padiham, enhance the current town centre scheme and relocate the control room.
Other crime reduction funding has been allocated directly to the local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and Basic Command Unit in Burnley to fund a variety of interventions, included CCTV. Information about the allocation of that funding is not held centrally.
Correspondence
Mr. Arbuthnot: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letters from the right hon. Member for North-East Hampshire of 26 May, 1 July and 12 August, regarding a constituent, Mrs. Babur. [190865]
Mr. Browne [holding answer 14 October 2004]: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 3 November.
Crime (Tamworth)
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful criminal prosecutions were brought for crimes perpetrated in Tamworth constituency in each year since 1997; and how many criminal charges were pressed for crimes perpetrated in the Tamworth constituency in each year since 1997. [188112]
Paul Goggins: Statistics for defendants charged with offences are not collected centrally, nor is it possible to break down the court proceedings data collected centrally to constituency level.
The following table, however, gives the number of defendants (a) convicted and (b) not convicted in the Staffordshire police force area as a whole.
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(23) Includes defendants whose proceedings were discontinued, those discharged under section 6 MCA 1980, and those, whose charges were withdrawn, dismissed or acquitted.
(24) Staffordshire police force were only able to supply a sample of data for magistrates courts proceedings covering one full week in each quarter for 2000. Estimates based on this sample are included in the figures as they are considered sufficiently robust at this high level of analysis.
Statistics for 2003 will be published in November.
DNA Database
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether an assessment has been made of the usefulness of the DNA database. [194872]
Caroline Flint: An assessment of the usefulness of the National DNA Database has been carried out through the on-going evaluation of the Home Office DNA Expansion Programme. The programme was set up in April 2000 to fund police forces to increase the collection of offender DNA samples and facilitate the build up of DNA profiles on the database. It also funds the retrieval of more DNA material left by offenders at crime scenes. It has provided £182.6 million to police forces between April 2000 and March 2004 in addition to £19 million per annum approximately from forces' own budgets. The majority of the £182.6 million is used by forces to cover the costs of processing DNA samples in forensic laboratories and the cost of 650 additional Scenes of Crime and Intelligence Staff and equipment.
The programme's target was to hold a DNA profile for all known active suspect offenders on the database by March 2004 (it held 760,000 DNA profiles from suspect offenders in April 2000). This was achieved. There are currently 2.73 million DNA profiles taken from 2.45 million suspected offenders on the database (as at end September 2004), the great majority of known active suspect offenders. The UK now leads the world in terms of its ability to identify offenders and eliminate suspects by using a DNA database.
Police data returns show that there were over 45,200 DNA "offender-to-scene" matches in 2003–04. The chance of a match with a subject profile when a crime scene profile is first added to the database is now about 45 per cent. The match rate increases to about 70 per cent. when matches obtained later as new subject profiles are loaded and included.
Evaluation of the DNA Expansion Programme has shown that the database can make a significant contribution to crime detection by linking DNA evidence found at crime scenes to offenders and significantly increasing the probability of crime detection. Where crime scene DNA is added to the database the rate of detection can be significantly
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increased. In 2003–04, the overall detection rate was 23 per cent. but where DNA was successfully recovered from a crime scene and loaded on to the National DNA Database the detection rate rose to 43 per cent.
The DNA detection rates for volume crime show striking increases—as shown in the table.
| Crime category | National | DNA rate |
|---|---|---|
| All recorded crime | 23 | 43 |
| Domestic burglary | 15 | 45 |
| Burglary OTD | 10 | 53 |
| Theft of vehicle | 13 | 26 |
| Theft from vehicle | 6 | 54 |
Evaluation of the impact of the programme and of the usefulness of the database is continuing in 2004–05.
Great Gorilla Run
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 15 October 2004, Official Report, column 412W, on the Great Gorilla Run, how many police were provided to redirect traffic during the Great Gorilla Run in London on 19 September; how many roads were closed; and how many diversions were created. [194656]
Caroline Flint: No roads were closed and no diversions were created as a result of the Great Gorilla Run. I understand that five police officers were present during the event in a public safety capacity.
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