| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
11 Nov 2004 : Column 901W—continued
Probation Service
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long it took the Workload Measurement Tool Working Group for the Probation Service to be established. [197000]
Paul Goggins: A Project Board for the Workload Measurement Tool (WMT) first met on 25 April 2002, it included representatives from probation areas, the National Probation Directorate ( NPD ), Napo and Unison. A WMT user group comprising members of eight pilot areas, Napo, Unison and the Probation Board Association (PBA) was set up on September 2002.
RAF Fairfield
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons Gloucestershire Constabulary was not fully re-funded for the cost of policing RAF Fairfield during the recent Iraqi conflict. [195296]
11 Nov 2004 : Column 902W
Ms Blears: The Home Secretary has agreed a special grant of £7.29 million towards the £7.72 million costs of policing RAF Fairford. This was over 94 per cent. of the total cost.
Police authorities are normally expected to hold sufficient reserves to meet exceptional costs, up to a sum equal to one per cent. of the force budget. Grant is considered on the balance above this amount. In the extraordinary circumstances of this case the Home Secretary reduced the threshold to 0.5 per cent.
Road Safety
Janet Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effects of the development of automatic number plate recognition on the level of enforcement of the ban on the use of hand-held mobile telephones while driving. [196416]
Caroline Flint: Police intercept teams stopped a total of 180,543 vehicles across 23 forces during a year-long pilot of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) technology from 1 June 2003 to 31 June 2004.
44 per cent. (78,768) of all vehicle stops were as a result of officer observations as vehicles passed. Of these, 2.7 per cent. of stops were for the offence of using a hand-held mobile phone while driving.
Sexual Offences
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of sex abuse victims' satisfaction with their contact with the police. [196635]
Ms Blears: Home Office Research Study 237 "Rape and sexual assault of women: the extent and nature of the problem—findings from the British Crime Survey" reports on the findings of self-completion questionnaires included in the 1998 and 2000 British Crime Surveys (BCS).
This report showed that about a third of rape victims (32 per cent.) were "very satisfied" with the way in which the police handled their (most recent) case, and a further quarter (25 per cent.) were "fairly satisfied". However, about a fifth were "very dissatisfied" (22 per cent.), and 16 per cent. were "a bit dissatisfied". The remaining five per cent. said that it was too early to say. Table A7.3 in the report has further detail.
Terrorism Act
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the number of prosecutions resulting from arrests under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000. [191541]
Mr. Blunkett: Statistics on arrests, charges and prosecutions have recently been updated on the Home Office website. I think it would be useful to set out the full picture as follows. We are unable to provide figures for Section 41 in isolation.
Police records show that from 11 September 2001 until 30 September 2004, 664 people were arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000.
11 Nov 2004 : Column 903W
118 of these were charged under the Act. Of these, 44 were also charged with offences under other legislation. 135 were charged under other legislation. This includes charges for terrorist offences that are already covered in general criminal law such as murder, grievous bodily harm and use of firearms or explosives.
17 Individuals have been convicted of offences under the Terrorism Act.
The following table gives the outcome for those not covered previously:
At the time these figures were collated four individuals were not yet dealt with by police.
There can be a number of reasons for the difference between the number of those arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 and the number of charges resulting
11 Nov 2004 : Column 904W
from those arrests. For example, where an intelligence-led search of premises is made as part of an investigation, the police may find more than one person there. In these circumstances it is possible that a number of individuals could be arrested and subsequently released without charge because it is not clear at that stage which is the individual sought. This was envisaged when Parliament approved the legislation.
Alternatively, if the search is for explosives for example, the police may well arrest all the individuals found on the premises and hold them for questioning to establish what connection they have with any materials found. Again, those subsequently found not to be involved would be released without charge.
It will continue to be the case that some persons arrested under the Terrorism Act will not subsequently be charged under the Act but will be charged with offences such as murder, grievous bodily harm, use of firearms or explosives which are contained within other Acts.
Home Office Research Development and Statistics publish a Command Paper and supplementary volumes of criminal statistics annually. A breakdown of prosecutions and convictions under the Terrorism Act 2000 for 2001 and 2002 are in the accompanying table. Figures for 2003 will not be available until later in the year.
(31) These data are on the principal offence basis.
11 Nov 2004 : Column 905W
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |