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Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what budget was allocated to the (a) Police Information Technology Organisation, (b) witness care units, (c) Youth Justice Board, (d) youth inclusion and support panels and (e) the youth offending teams in each of the last two years; and how many staff each organisation employed in each year. [201726]
Fiona Mactaggart: The information is as follows:
(a) The Police Information Technology Organisation's budget (including resource and capital) for the financial year 200304 was £220.2 million, rising to £284.4 million in 20045. PITO employed 643 staff and 695 staff respectively.
(b) In the financial year 200304, Witness Care Units were set up in five pilot sites only. In 200405, funding was awarded to set up Witness Care Units in each of the 42 Criminal Justice System areas. The figures for the budget and staff employed (full-time equivalent) are listed in the following table:
Budget (£ million) | Staff | |
---|---|---|
200304 | 0.338 | 145.7 |
200405 | 5.592 | 934.1 |
(c) The Youth Justice Board's (YJB) budget in the financial year 200304 was £373 million reducing to £369 million in 200405.
The YJB employed 180 staff in each year.
(d) We are advised that responsibility for allocating budgets to the 77 youth inclusion and support panels falls within the remit of the Department for Education and Skills.
(e) The total budget for all of the Youth Offending Teams (YOT) was 217 million in the financial year 200304, rising to £220 million in 200405. These figures include a contribution of £48 million per annum from the Youth Justice Board. The YOTs employ 10,000 staff.
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Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his Department's strategy is to tackle knife crime. [205305]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 20 December 2004]: The Government are determined to tackle knife related violence. As we announced on 15 December, the Home Office is considering a package of measures working with the Department for Education and Skills and the Association of Chief Police Officers. We are focusing on analysis of information, tackling the knife culture, especially among young people, community involvement and strengthening legislation. The measures under consideration include: raising the minimum age for purchasing a knife to 18; adding new categories of knife now being used in crime to the list of banned offensive weapons; providing a power to require specified licensed premises to search for an offensive weapon on entry; giving head teachers a new power to search pupils for knives; pulling together best practice from initiatives and schemes focusing on knife crime and developing local crime reduction and enforcement strategies on dealing with the carrying of knives.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which counties were visited by his officials and Ministers in relation to substance misuse in 2004. [208932]
Caroline Flint: Ministers and officials regularly visit counties in pursuance of delivery of the Government's Drug Strategy. To provide details of the visits undertaken in 2004 would incur disproportionate costs.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the likely size of the national identity register at the end of financial year (a) 201213 and (b) 201314. [209619]
Mr. Browne: The current best estimate of the number of enrolments recorded in the National Identity Register by the end of the financial year: (a) 201213 is 31,282,000, and (b) 201314 is 39,999,000.
Ross Cranston: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the funding needs for the implementation of the Prison Service Alcohol Strategy; and what the timetable will be for its implementation. [207193]
Paul Goggins: The strategy will be implemented within existing funding settlements. It will be for individual prison establishments to implement the measures as their priorities allow. No central timetable has been set.
Mr. Willetts:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many fixed penalty notices have
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been issued under section 72 of the Highways Act 1835 to Royal Mail employees for cycling illegally on footpaths in each year since 1997. [203163]
Caroline Flint: Data on the number of fixed penalties issued to pedal cyclists riding on a footpath contrary to section 72 of the Highways Act 1835 are not collected centrally.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will commission an independent investigation into the escape of three prisoners from Stafford Prison on 8 December; and if he will publish the results. [207270]
Paul Goggins: No. An independent investigation is not considered necessary or appropriate for most escapes. The normal practice is for an escape to be investigated by a senior manager of the Prison Service from a prison or unit other than that from where the escape occurred. In this case an investigation has been commissioned by the Area Manager of West Midlands and is being led by the Head of Security Group in Prison Service headquarters. The reports of internal investigations are not published.
Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the Government's immigration policies with the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and their Families. [207706]
Mr. Browne: The UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families is not compatible with the Government's immigration policies. For example, most overseas nationals coming to the UK to take employment require a work permit. The UK employer applies for a work permit to enable them to fill a specific vacancy in the UK, following which the worker applies for leave to enter or remain in the UK. If the migrant worker leaves this employment they are expected to leave the UK or to apply for a work permit for their new employment. The Convention, however, would allow them to remain in the UK for the duration of their leave, whether or not they were still employed. We consider that unemployed migrants being able to remain in the UK and claim benefits in these circumstances would act as an unnecessary "pull factor" and undermine current immigration controls.
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he has taken to ensure (a) that all entrance routes to the segregation unit at HMP Wormwood Scrubs are covered by close circuit television cameras and (b) that all visits to the unit by prison officers are recorded. [206584]
Paul Goggins: All entrances to the Wormwood Scrubs segregation unit and activity in the unit are covered by 16 continuously recording cameras.
All staff are required to sign in and out of the unit.
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Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make it her policy to seek to increase levels of consumer protection for airline passengers on scheduled flights who are not part of a package holiday. [201826]
Charlotte Atkins: I have been asked to reply.
The Government are currently examining the potential regulatory impact of a broad range of consumer protection options, including extending the current arrangements to cover airline passengers who are not part of a package holiday.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry with regard to the recent Statement by the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines, on Avient, whether the National Contact Point sought confirmation of Avient's account of its activities during the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (a) with MONUC and (b) with the UN's Department of Peace Keeping Operations; and if she will make a statement. [200491]
Mr. Alexander: The Statement made by the National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines on Avient drew, in part, on documentation provided by the UN. In accordance with the confidentiality provisions of the Guidelines process that apply to the dialogue stage, the Government cannot discuss the content of the issues raised in that process.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) with regard to the recent Statement by the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines, on Avient, what role (a) the Secretary of State and (b) the Department's solicitor played in the decision to exclude the non-governmental organisations RAID and Action contre I'impunite pour les Droits Humans (ACIDH) from acting as complainants; which officials were involved in the decision to proceed with the Avient case without a complainant; and if she will make a statement; [200492]
(2) whether the non-governmental organisations RAID and Action contre I'impunite pour les Droits Humans (ACIDH) were accepted by her Department as complainants in respect of allegations against Avient. [200755]
Mr. Alexander: RAID and ACEDH have not submitted a complaint supported by evidence. They are not excluded from acting as complainants.
They are welcome to enter their own complaint which will be dealt with under the procedures for the Guidelines.
Ministers approved the recommendation for a twin track approach to the Avient case due to a requirement to maintain the confidentiality of the UN documentation.
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