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Probation Staff

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance has been given to the national probation service regarding the level of qualification of staff necessary to produce (a) pre-sentence, (b) short format and (c) fast delivery reports. [5642]

Fiona Mactaggart: The National Probation Directorate issued guidance on the provision of reports to court in Probation Circular 18/2005. There are now two types of report:

Fast Delivery PSR

Normally to be completed on the day, which is the aim whenever possible, but may be completed in up to five days, usually without a full OASys assessment.

 
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Standard Delivery Pre-Sentence Report (PSR)

For completion on adjournment based on a full OASys assessment.

Fast Delivery PSRs are currently completed by probation officers and probation service officers.

Standard Delivery PSRs require a full assessment using OASys and including a full risk of harm assessment. These can only be done by probation officers who have received appropriate training.

In all probation areas a probation officer has to provide approval if there are significant risk of harm issues.

Race Crime

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to deal with race crime, with particular reference to attacks on Jewish cemeteries in East London. [8701]

Paul Goggins: The Government are committed to tackling all forms of racism wherever it exists and deplore anti-Semitic attacks such as the recent desecration of Jewish cemeteries in East London. These incidents are the subject of police investigation. The Government and police are aware of the concerns of the Jewish community and we continue to monitor the situation carefully in co-operation with community organisations.

Specific offences with increased maximum penalties for racially aggravated violence, harassment and criminal damage were introduced in the Crime and Disorder Act 1998; and work to prioritise hate crime continues across the criminal justice system.

Rape (Essex)

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many allegations of rape were made to Essex police in (a) 2001, (b) 2002, (c) 2003 and (d) 2004; how many (i) remain unsolved and (ii) were subsequently withdrawn by the accuser, broken down by year of allegation; in how many cases it was
 
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established that a rape had taken place, broken down by year of allegation; how many malicious allegations of rape were made in each year; how many convictions for rape there were in each year; and if he will make a statement. [10229]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 11 July 2005]: The information is not available in the form requested. No statistics are collected centrally on the number of allegations, the number which were malicious or the number which are subsequently withdrawn by the accuser.

The available information relates to offences of rape recorded by the police in the Essex police force area and those which were detected. The information is on a financial year basis and is given in Table 1. Because of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002, figures before and after that date are not comparable.

Table 2 gives the number of defendants proceeded against at all courts for rape. It contains details on the number of defendants proceeded against, those where the case was discontinued, discharged or withdrawn together with those found guilty. This information is on a calendar year basis.

Because Table 1 relates to recorded offences and Table 2 relates to persons, the two sets of data are not directly comparable.
Table 1: Recorded offences of rape in Essex, 2001–02 to 2003–04

	Number recorded	Detected	Undetected
2001–02
Rape of a male	12	5	7
Rape of a female	190	62	128
2002–03
Rape of a male	13	8	5
Rape of a female	281	85	196
2003–04
Rape of a male	19	3	16
Rape of a female	316	93	223

⁽⁷⁰⁾The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced in April 2002 and figures before and after that date are not comparable.



Table 2: Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for rape in Essex police force area, 2001–03⁽⁷¹⁾

	Magistrates court						Crown court(73)
	Proceeded against	Discontinued	Discharged	Withdrawn	Guilty(72)	Committed for trial	Not tried	Acquitted	Guilty
2001
Rape of a male	3	1	—	—	—	2	—	—	—
Rape of a female	44	5	4	1	—	34	—	12	9
2002
Rape of a male	2	—	—	—	—	2	—	—	—
Rape of a female	58	—	3	—	1	54	—	1	7
2003
Rape of a male	1	—	—	—	—	1	—	1	—
Rape of a female	51	1	1	—	—	49	2	18	7

⁽⁷¹⁾These data are on the principal offence basis
⁽⁷²⁾Juvenile found guilty at the Youth court
⁽⁷³⁾Cases where a trial for a rape offence is reduced to a non-rape offence will not be included here.



 
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Re-offenders

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of (a) female and (b) male offenders re-offended within 12 months of being released in each year since 1997. [7745]

Fiona Mactaggart: Actual re-offending rates are not available, we have shown reconviction rates which are a commonly used proxy.

The figures shown are the combined actual one-year reconviction rates for adults and juveniles discharged from custody. 2001 is the latest year for which data is currently available.

Reconviction rates should be used with caution as a number of different factors can influence them. Reconviction rates can be adjusted to take account of the changing characteristics of offenders and these adjusted rates are published annually on the Home Office's research website (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index.htm).

Satellite Tagging

Dan Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the outcome of trials of satellite tagging of paedophiles and other offenders. [12689]

Fiona Mactaggart: A pilot of the satellite tracking of offenders started in three areas in September 2004 and is still continuing. Sex offenders are among the categories of offender being tracked. The pilots are being evaluated by a team of researchers from Birmingham university, who have been asked to submit their report by the end of March 2006

Security Services

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints have been made to the relevant Tribunal or Commissioner in relation to the actions of the Security Service since the enactment of the Security Services Acts and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000; and how many complainants had their complaint upheld in each year. [13170]

Hazel Blears: The records of the Tribunal (the Security Service Tribunal") established under the Security Service Act 1989 show that the number of complaints it received and those referred to the Commissioner (the Security Service Commissioner") were as follows:
Table 1

Date	Number of complaints received by Tribunal	Number of complaints referred to the Commissioner in accordance with Paragraph 4(1) of Schedule 1 of the 1989 Act
1989–90	55	22
1991	29	16
1992	25	5
1993	36	14
1994	42	19
1995	21	13
1996	34	10
1997	45	15
1998	28	24
1999–2000	22	12

 
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No complaints were upheld.

The Tribunal (the Investigatory Powers Tribunal") established under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) came into being on 2 October 2000. From that date the Investigatory Powers Tribunal assumed responsibility for the jurisdiction previously held by, amongst others, the Security Service Tribunal.

In his annual reports to the Prime Minister, the Interception of Communications Commissioner has explained that complaints to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal cannot be easily categorised" under the three tribunal system that existed prior to the 2000 Act RIPA (ie. The Interception of Communications Tribunal, the Security Service Tribunal and the Intelligence Services Tribunal). Consequently it is not possible to detail the number of complaints lodged with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal that would have been considered previously by the Security Service Tribunal.

The total number of complaints received by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal is as follows.
Table 2

Date	Number of complaints to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal
2000(74)	11
2001	91
2002	130
2003	109
2004	(75)—

⁽⁷⁴⁾First three months of operation.
⁽⁷⁵⁾Figures to be published shortly in the Interception of Communications Commissioner's Annual Report for 2004.

Of the 341 complaints reported, on no occasion did the Investigatory Powers Tribunal conclude that there had been a contravention of RIPA or the Human Rights Act 1989. Consequently no complaints were upheld.

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal, like the Security Service Tribunal before it, is a wholly independent body made up of senior members of the legal profession.

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