| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
4 Mar 2005 : Column 1401W—continued
Tax Take (Scotland)
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the impact (a) in total and (b) as a percentage on (i) total Government revenue, (ii) income tax take, (iii) corporation tax take, (iv) national insurance take and (v) revenue from duties of an increase in Scottish gross domestic product of (A) 0.5 per cent., (B) 1 per cent. and (C) 1.5 per cent. on his most recent estimate for UK gross domestic product growth. [212356]
Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is not available. The overall impact on revenues of stronger relative Scottish growth would depend upon the composition of the extra growth.
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the impact (a) in total and (b) as a percentage on (i) total Government revenue, (ii) income tax take, (iii) corporation tax take, (iv) national insurance take and (v) revenue from duties of a medium-term fall in Scotland's population of (A) 100,000, (B) 250,000 and (C) 500,000. [212357]
Dawn Primarolo:
The information requested is not available. The impact on total government revenues from a fall in the population of Scotland would depend in part on the effects on the age profile and income distribution of the population.
4 Mar 2005 : Column 1402W
HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION
Portcullis House (Fire Alarms)
Mr. Dismore: To ask the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire, representing the House of Commons Commission how many fire alarms have gone off in Portcullis House in each of the last two years; how many were found not to have been caused by a fire; what the (a) shortest, (b) average and (c) longest period was that the building was closed; and if he will make a statement. [219696]
Sir Archy Kirkwood: In 2003, detecting devices were triggered in Portcullis House on 73 occasions, of which 18 were caused by fire and smoke, 17 were activated for other reasons such as steam, and 38 were faults in the system. The corresponding figures for 2004 are 86, 18, 14 and 54. The fire alarm sounded and as a result there was a full evacuation of the building on two occasions in 2003 and seven in 2004. Records are not kept of the length of each evacuation.
SOLICITOR-GENERAL
Crown Prosecution Service Prosecutions
Mr. Amess: To ask the Solicitor-General how many (a) fraud, (b) forgery, (c) gun crime, (d) internet crime, (e) robbery, (f) snatch theft and (g) alcohol-related violent offence cases the Crown Prosecution Service has brought in (i) Essex and (ii) England and Wales in each year since 1997; and how many of these resulted in (A) conviction and (B) acquittal. [210455]
The Solicitor-General: Gun crime, internet crime and alcohol-related violent offences are offences which cannot be separately identified on the Home Office Court Proceedings Database. Snatch theft is categorised as theft from the person. The table sets out the relevant figures for the other requested categories. The figures relate to persons for whom these sentences were for the principal offences for which they were found guilty. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences it is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
4 Mar 2005 : Column 1403W
(4) These data are on the principal offence basis.
Freedom of Information Requests
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Solicitor-General what her policy is in respect of the publication (a) on the departmental website and (b) by placing copies in the Library of (i) all or (ii) a selection of the information disclosed in response to Freedom of Information requests since January. [215220]
The Solicitor-General: Where a response is likely to be of general interest, I have arranged for the information to be placed on the departmental website. This is decided on a case-by-case basis.
This is consistent with Guidance on Publication Schemes issued by the Department of Constitutional Affairs in July 2002, which recommended that where information is disclosed to an individual in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, Departments should consider whether the information disclosed is of general interest and include released information in the Publication Scheme where appropriate.
I do not intend as a general rule to make such information available in the Library, as placing it on the website makes it available to a wider audience.
Rape/Sexual Assault
Vera Baird: To ask the Solicitor-General what plans she has to improve the prosecution attrition rate in rape cases. [215577]
The Solicitor-General:
The HMCPSI and HMIC joint thematic inspection into the investigation and prosecution of cases involving allegations of rape was
4 Mar 2005 : Column 1404W
published in April 2002. The report set out concerns regarding levels of victim satisfaction, high attrition rates and low conviction rates in cases of rape.
In July 2002, the Government published a Rape Action Plan. It accepted nearly all the recommendations put forward by the HMCPSI and HMIC report.
Implementation of these recommendations has been ongoing since the publication of the Rape Action Plan. The measures implemented by the Crown Prosecution Service following the Rape Action Plan include each CPS Area having a rape co-ordinator to provide and disseminate good practice within and across areas; that rape cases are reviewed by specialist lawyers; that decisions to drop or substantially reduce the prosecution case, or to advise the police to take no further action, are discussed with a second specialist lawyer before a final decision is made; that instructions are given to prosecuting advocates that offensive and seemingly irrelevant cross-examination should be challenged, and inappropriate cross-examination about previous sexual experience should be challenged; and that the Crown Prosecution Service has published its policy statement on rape explaining to the public how the Crown Prosecution Service deals with rape cases.
There will be an audit of the Rape Action Plan of police forces and CPS areas by a working group comprised of Home Office, CPS and ACPO officials. The audit of the Rape Action Plan will take into account forthcoming research in attrition rates and other recent publications, both in terms of assessing progress, and identifying any further recommendations that may follow. It is planed to carry out this audit in the spring/summer of this year.
4 Mar 2005 : Column 1405W
The work of the audit will tie in with the Home Office research planned to look in detail at the decline in detection rates in rape and sexual assault cases and current variation in detection rate performance.
An audit of the Rape Action Plan will enable the Government to identify what is working and what remains to be done to tackle attrition in rape cases, which has been identified by the Inter-departmental Ministerial Group on Sexual Offending as a key priority.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |