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Crime

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many snatch thefts have been reported to (a) Essex police and (b) Southend police in each year since 1997; and how many reports led to a (i) prosecution and (ii) conviction. [208638]

Ms Blears: The available information relates to offences of theft from the person. Tables 1 and 2 give the number of offences recorded by the police in the Essex police force area and the Southend Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) area. Recorded crime data are published on a financial year basis and data at CDRP level for theft from the person are only available from 2001–02.

Table 3 gives the number of defendants proceeded against and found guilty in the Essex police force area and South East Essex petty sessional area. Court proceedings data are published on a calendar year basis. Data for 2004 will not be available until the autumn.

Because recorded crime deals with offences and court proceedings deals with defendants, the two data sets are not directly comparable.
Table 1: Offences of theft from the person recorded by the police, 1997–98 to 2001–02

		Number of offences
Essex police force area	1997–98(40)	631
	1998–99(41)	717
	1999–2000	693
	2000–01	879
	2001–02	1,449
Southend Crime and Disorder	1997–98	n/a
Reduction Partnership area	1998–99	n/a
	1999–2000	n/a
	2000–01	n/a
	2001–02	275

n/a—not available.
⁽⁴⁰⁾ The number of crimes recorded using the coverage and rules in use until 31 March 1998.
⁽⁴¹⁾ The number of crimes recorded using the expanded coverage and revised counting rules which came into effect on 1 April 1998.
Note:
The data in this table are prior to the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard. These figures are not directly comparable with those for later years.




Table 2: Offences of theft from the person recorded by the police, 2002–03 and 2003–04

		Number of offences
Essex police force area	2002–03	1,810
	2003–04	1,783
Southend Crime and Disorder	2002–03	354
Reduction Partnership area	2003–04	299

Note:
The data in this table take account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years.





 
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Table 3 Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts, 1997 to 2003⁽⁴²⁾

	Theft from the person
Area and year	Proceeded against	Found guilty(43)
Essex police force area
1997	140	158
1998	192	164
1999	139	127
2000	70	55
2001	165	112
2002	177	138
2003	204	173
South East Essex petty sessional area(44)
1997	43	44
1998	66	41
1999	61	51
2000	20	18
2001	42	29
2002	45	30
2003	36	28

⁽⁴²⁾ These data are on the principal offence basis.
⁽⁴³⁾ For South East Essex PSA the guilty figures include those found guilty at the Crown court where South East Essex PSA was the committing court.
⁽⁴⁴⁾ Covers Southend and includes some parts of Rayleigh, Benfleet and Canvey.

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many instances of gun crime have been reported to (a) Essex police and (b) Southend police in each year since 1997; and how many reports led to a (i) prosecution and (ii) conviction. [208641]

Ms Blears: The available information is given in the table and relates to crimes recorded by the police in Essex in which firearms were reported to have been used. This information is not collected centrally for Southend.

With regard to prosecutions and convictions, this information is not available centrally as the individual circumstances of the offence are not collected.
Firearms offences recorded by the police in Essex Number of offences

	Air-weapons	Non air-weapons	Total
1997	211	58	269
1998–99(45)	270	47	317
1999–2000	283	61	344
2000–01	279	77	356
2001–02	448	98	546
2002–03(46)	584	148	732

⁽⁴⁵⁾ There was a change in the counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998.
⁽⁴⁶⁾ The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. Figures may have been inflated by this.

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of crimes reported within the Greater London area has been cleared up in each of the last three years. [208747]

Ms Blears: The clear up rate for all offences recorded in the Greater London region was 14 per cent. in 2001–02,15 per cent. in 2002–03 and 16 per cent. in 2003–04.
 
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Criminals (Release of Identity)

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the policy of his Department is on publishing the identities of criminals wanted by the police: [205354]

(2) what the policy of the police is on publishing the identities of criminals wanted (a) for questioning and (b) to appear in court. [205355]

Ms Blears: The issue of publishing the identities of persons suspected of involvement in an offence and wanted by the police either for questioning or for court appearance is an operational matter for the individual chief officer police.

Guidance is published by the Association of Chief Police Officers Media Advisory Group on using public media to locate or identify individuals. The guidance is available at http://www.acpo.police.uk/policies/index.html.

Departmental Expenditure (Asylum)

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on the delivery of the asylum process in the last year for which figures are available. [209485]

Mr. Browne: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate's (IND) resources cover a wide range of activities including the asylum process and it is not possible to identify separately the costs of the asylum process. Total IND resource expenditure for 2002–03 was £1,863 million.

Deportation

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he is taking to accelerate the deportation of foreign nationals who remain in detention, having completed their sentence; and if he will make a statement. [209451]

Mr. Browne: Detention under Immigration Act powers is only used where there is no reasonable alternative once a deportee reaches the end of his or her prison sentence but cannot be immediately removed. The common barriers to removal are the unavailability of valid travel documentation, an outstanding application for leave to remain in the United Kingdom or an appeal against the decision to make a deportation order.

The Immigration and Nationality Department's (IND) criminal casework team recruited an additional 16 staff in November 2004 to ensure that the deportation cases are considered at an earlier stage into the sentence and to afford those being detained greater priority. It is additionally currently recruiting a further seven immigration officers to increase the number of surgery visits conducted across the Prison Service estate in order to complete applications for replacement passports at an earlier stage where they have been lost or destroyed.

IND has no influence over the determination of an appeal as this properly falls to the independent appellate authorities who in turn are responsible to the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA). However, IND does
 
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highlight to the independent appellate authorities that a person is detained in order for the appeal to be heard as quickly as possible.

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in the prison estate are held on remand awaiting deportation having completed their sentences; how many prisoners were held on this basis in 2004; and what the average period was for which such prisoners were held on remand. [208507]

Mr. Browne: Information on the number of people who were detained in prison establishments awaiting deportation after completion of a criminal sentence is not available.

Work is on-going to improve the quality of data held on those people detained under Immigration Act powers in prison establishments.

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