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David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were doubling up in cells designed for single occupancy at the most recent date for which figures are available. [214068]
Mr. Charles Clarke [holding answer 4 February 2005]: At the end of December 2004,15,786 prisoners were doubled up in cells certified to hold one person.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average sentence length for offenders convicted of (a) rape, (b) robbery, (c) sexual assault, (d) grievous bodily harm, (e) actual bodily harm and (f) violence against the person was in each year since 1997; and how many convictions there were in each case in each of those years. [217750]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The available information is contained in the table and gives the number of offenders found guilty and the average custodial sentence length at all courts for the requested offences, England and Wales 1997 to 2003.
Statistics on court proceedings for 2004 will be published in the autumn.
Mr. Edward Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to assess the effectiveness of the Serious Organised Crime Agency. [218363]
Caroline Flint: The Serious Organised Crime Agency and Police Bill provides that the Secretary of State may determine strategic priorities for the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and, where he has done so, he may direct SOCA to establish levels of performance ("performance targets") to be aimed at.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the average age of serving special constables was, broken down by police force area in 1997; [216312]
(2) what the average tenure of serving special constables was, broken down by (a) year of entry and (b) police force area in 1997. [216313]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is not available.
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of producing a staff identity pass was in the Department on the latest date for which figures are available; and how many staff identity passes have been reported lost or stolen in each year since 1997. [215088]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The cost of producing a staff pass in February 2005 was £4.25 per pass (including the cost of the pass and administrative costs).
The number of Home Office passes reported lost or stolen on the central London and Croydon estates annually is as follows:
15 Mar 2005 : Column 204W
Number | |
---|---|
1998 | 95 |
1999 | 34 |
2000 | 89 |
2001 | 64 |
2002 | 138 |
2003 | 291 |
2004 | 321 |
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what resources were given to Sussex Constabulary to roll out the commission for Tetra police communication networks in Sussex. [220483]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 10 March 2005]: The Home Office has provided funding to Police Authorities for the implementation of the Airwave service. Sussex Police Authority received £4.575 million from the Home Office in 200203 to support installation costs within the force.
A further £441,000 has been provided during the current financial year and a one-off payment £1.067 million will be paid in 200506 to meet our commitment to provide all forces with sufficient funding to meet their initial costs from when ready for service status has been achieved.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action is to be taken by (a) his Department and (b) other appropriate authorities to seek to confiscate the money that has been earned by women forced into prostitution in the UK by foreign nationals who have recently been found guilty of the trafficking of women in court cases; and if he will make a statement. [220383]
Caroline Flint: The Government have introduced new legislation to enable appropriate authorities to confiscate the proceeds of crime. The Government encourage the police and other agencies to make use of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) at every appropriate opportunity. Under the Act anyone convicted of a criminal offence is liable to confiscation proceedings to recover any proceeds of their criminality. In the absence of a conviction it is open to law enforcement agencies to refer the case to the Assets Recovery Agency to consider civil recovery or taxation proceedings instead. POCA also contains provisions for enabling the seizure of cash where it can be demonstrated that it is from, or intended for use in, crime.
The Home Office funds Reflex, the multi-agency enforcement taskforce established to tackle organised immigration crime, including human trafficking. Many of the recent court cases have resulted from Reflex supported operations. Confiscating the proceeds of crime is an important part of the reflex strategy and a new dedicated Reflex Financial Investigation Unit has recently been established within the National Crime Squad.
In addition the Home Office funds five multi agency Regional Asset Recovery Teams to increase the confiscation of the proceeds of crime and tackle money laundering.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions have taken place for under-age drinking in each London borough in each year since 1990. [216846]
Paul Goggins: There is no specific offence of under-age drinking.
However, the available information from the Home Office Court Proceedings database, gives the number of defendants aged 1017 years who were proceeded against in each London borough, for offences of being drunk, drunk at a designated sports event and drunk and disorderly together with defendants proceeded against for the offence of:
Figures for 1990 to 2003 are given in the following table. Statistics for 2004 will be available in the autumn.
In addition, the penalty notice for disorder scheme provides for persons who commit specified penalty offences to be issued with a fixed penalty notice instead of being prosecuted or cautioned. The scheme was extended to 16 and 17-year-olds from 20 January 2004. The second table details the number of penalty notices issued for the listed offences which involve under age drinking. These include offences committed by 16 and 17-year-olds and alcohol offences involving the purchase for, sale or delivery to persons aged under 18 years.
The penalty notice for disorder scheme has been extended to allow penalty notices to be issued to 10 to 15-year-olds and pilots of these powers are now under way in seven police force areas including the borough of Kingston in the Metropolitan police force area. A further under age drinking offence, purchase of alcohol on licensed premises by a person under 18, is to be added to the scheme as set out in a draft Order laid before Parliament on 17 March.
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