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Biometrics

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the results from the UK Passport Service trial of biometrics will be published. [196629]

Mr. Browne: The enrolment of volunteers on the UK Passport Service Biometrics Trial is reaching its conclusion. To ensure engagement with a wide cross-section of the public, the trial will continue working with the disabled community into December. This will be followed by evaluation and quality assurance of the results, with the findings being released as soon as possible thereafter.

Charities Bill

Sir Sydney Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the draft Charities Bill; and when the Government plan to introduce the Charities Bill. [196301]

Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 8 November 2004]: The draft Charities Bill was published on 27 May 2004 and has undergone pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee. The Joint Committee reported on 30 September. The Government are considering their response to that report.

The Government plan to introduce the Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows.

Charnwood Cohesion Project

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding has been given to the Charnwood Community Cohesion Pathfinder project in each of the last three years; and what plans he has for future funding. [197430]

Fiona Mactaggart: A total of £285,000 was provided to the Charnwood Community Cohesion Pathfinder between February 2003 and September 2004. Of this, a total of £150,000 was allocated to Charnwood borough council, £90,000 to the Community and Voluntary Sector (CVS) and £45,000 to fund Young Community Champions (YCC), a programme targeting young
 
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people. In the financial year 2002–03 a total of £90,000 was allocated to the programme, in the financial year 2003–04 £135,000 was allocated and the figure in the financial year 2004–05 was £60,000.

The Pathfinder Programme was developed to provide local authorities with an opportunity to explore what works in building community cohesion over an 18 month period. Local authorities are then expected to mainstream the findings of what works into their core service delivery functions. No further funding will be allocated under the provisions of this programme.

Mr. Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the Charnwood Community Cohesion Pathfinder project; and if he will make a statement. [197431]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Charnwood Community Cohesion Pathfinder is currently completing a self assessment process that will inform the Home Office about the impact of the programme in Charnwood and what the key measures in building community cohesion in Charnwood have been. In addition, Charnwood borough council will be conducting their own evaluation of their programme in January 2005 and will be advising the Home Office of the results of this evaluation in February 2005.

Child Abuse

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of the proportion of (a) sex offenders and (b) the general population who have been victims of sexual or physical abuse as children. [195482]

Paul Goggins: The information requested is not available from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database. No information on the circumstances of individual cases or the histories of those appearing before the courts is collected.

A Home Office Police Research Series Paper published in 1998 ("Sex offending against children: Understanding the risk"—number 99) reviewed a number of studies in relation to sex offending against children and found differing percentages of sex offenders who had experienced childhood sexual abuse. There is no known source of this information in relation to the general population.

The information requested in relation to the general population is not available centrally.

Citizenship Applications

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for citizenship were rejected in 2003. [196360]

Mr. Browne: 10,680 applications for citizenship were refused in 2003.

Further information on all areas of citizenship can be found in the statistical bulletin "Persons Granted British Citizenship United Kingdom, 2003". This publication can be found on the Home Office website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html
 
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Civil Servants

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of continuous service for civil servants within the Department is. [194409]

Fiona Mactaggart: The latest figures for the average length of continuous service for civil servants in the department and its agencies (where known) as at 1 April 2004 have been placed in the Library.

Community Safety Wardens

Mr. Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out the terms under which police authorities may access additional resources to fund police community safety wardens; and what the timetable is for implementation of the process. [197234]

Ms Blears: Our target is to deliver 24,000 Community Support Officers (CSOs) by 2008 as a key part of our strategy to boost neighbourhood policing and tackle antisocial behaviour. The first phase of the Neighbourhood Policing Fund (NPF) will provide £50 million to enable police forces to recruit an additional 1,500 CSOs by the end of March 2005 and to support salary and related costs in 2005–06. Forces will be notified shortly of their allocations under this round of the NPF.

We will shortly begin discussions with the Association of Chief Police Officers and with the Association of Police Authorities on how the NPF will achieve the next phase of growth in CSO numbers.

Coroner/Death Certification Services

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in the reform of the coroner and death certification services. [196632]

Paul Goggins: The timetable for reform of the coroner service was set out in the position paper "Reforming the Coroner and Death Certification Service" which was published in March 2004.

Work on reform is progressing well and I expect a White Paper to be published, as promised, in spring 2005.

Counter-terrorism

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects the (a) Metropolitan Police and (b) British Transport Police to take delivery of high standard chemical and biological suits for counter-terrorism duties; when he expects each force to have similar standard suits available for joint operations; and if he will make a statement. [196487]

Mr. Blunkett: UK police forces are equipped with military-style police personal protective equipment. To meet civilian requirements UK police forces including the Metropolitan Police are being trained and equipped in the new generation personal protective equipment, the CR1 suit. This began in April this year and is due to finish in April 2006.
 
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British Transport Police are trained and equipped with the military-style police personal protective equipment and they have developed an additional capability for specialist staff to use gastight suits and self-contained breathing apparatus to provide a response to incidents in the London underground and elsewhere.

Joint exercises using the respective personal protective equipment take place routinely.

Crime/Sentencing Statistics

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the ratio of crimes committed to police officer numbers is in Barnet; what the ratio in (a) outer London boroughs and (b) England and Wales is; and if he will make a statement. [196410]

Ms Blears: The information is set out in the following table.

Area	Number of crimes per officer(42)
Barnet	27.6
Outer London (2)	21.0
England and Wales	17.5

⁽⁴²⁾ Calculation is based on the number of crimes for the six key offence groups: violence against the person, sexual offences, robbery, burglary, theft of a motor vehicle and theft from a motor vehicle. It does not include fraud and forgery, criminal damage or drugs and other offences categories of crime.
⁽⁴³⁾ The Metropolitan Police advise that the outer London boroughs are, Barking and Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Enfield, Havering, Harrow, Hillingdon, Kingston-upon-Thames, Redbridge, Richmond-upon-Thames and Sutton.

The deployment of police officers to Barnet Operational Command Units (OCU) and the other London borough OCUs is a matter for the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (Sir John Stevens).

I understand that the London borough of Barnet Operational Command Unit had 541 police officers at the end of March 2004. Only one of the 13 outer London boroughs had a higher number of police officers.

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders placed on the home detention curfew scheme were (a) cautioned and (b) convicted in each year since 1999; and how many are awaiting prosecution. [190930]

Paul Goggins: As of 30 September 2004, 100,345 prisoners have been placed on the home detention curfew scheme since the scheme was introduced in January 1999. Up to 30 September 2004, 2,075 of those prisoners have been reported to the Home Office as having been cautioned, convicted or awaiting prosecution for an offence committed whilst they were subject to the scheme. This represents 2 per cent. of the offenders placed on the scheme.

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