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UKPS Biometric Trials

Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the results were of the UKPS biometric trials that commenced in April 2004 and was completed in December 2004. [14629]

Andy Burnham: The full report of the UKPS biometric trial was published and made available on the UKPS website at www.passport.gov.uk and also at www.identitycards.gov.uk on 25 May 2005.

The biometric trial's goal was to test the processes and record customer experiences and attitudes during the recording and verification of facial, iris and fingerprint biometrics.

The majority of participants felt biometrics would help with passport security, preventing identity fraud, preventing illegal immigration and are not an infringement on their civil liberties.

Under-age Drinking/Alcohol Sales

Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions for the offence of supplying alcohol to a person under the age of 18 were secured in the area of the North Wales Police Force in each of the last three years for which figures are available. [12772]

Hazel Blears: The numbers of defendants found guilty at all courts in North Wales for selling etc., intoxicating liquor to persons under 18 for consumption on the premises' (including wholesaler selling intoxicating liquor to a person under 18") were no defendants in 2000, one defendant in 2002 and five defendants in 2003.

Statistics for 2004 will be available in the autumn.

The penalty notice for disorder (PND) scheme provides for persons who commit specified penalty offences to be issued with a fixed penalty notice instead of being prosecuted. The offence of selling alcohol to persons aged under 18 was added to the PND scheme on one November 2004 for use on bar or off license staff, licensees will be prosecuted to enable action to be taken to revoke their licenses.
 
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In North Wales, one penalty notice was issued for this offence in 2004 and provisional data for 2005 shows that four were issued to the end of May.

Additional powers are being put forward in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill that was introduced on 8 June 2005 to give partners additional tools to help them tackle alcohol misuse. The Bill enables local authorities and the police to create Alcohol Disorder Zones for targeted action; introduces a new Drinking Banning Order and on-the-spot 48 hour exclusions to target those who are or who represent a public order risk; and a power for the police to impose 48-hour bans on pubs and clubs persistently selling to underage drinkers.

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions have taken place for under-age drinking in Sheffield, Hallam in each year since 1990. [13778]

 
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Fiona Mactaggart: As such there is no specific offence of under-age drinking because the offence is covered under a number of offences on the Home Office Court Proceedings Database.

Information on these offences is provided in the table, which gives the number of defendants aged 10 to 17 years who were proceeded against in the Sheffield magistrates courts, for selected offences related to alcohol.

Statistics for 2004 will be available in the autumn.

The penalty notice for disorder scheme was rolled out to all police forces in England and Wales during 2004. The scheme provides for a range of minor offences to be dealt with by the issue of a fixed penalty notice. The offences include ones, which relate to under age drinking, being drunk and disorderly and being drunk in a highway or public place. Data on these offences are collected centrally at police force level only and therefore data related to Sheffield is unavailable.
Number of defendants aged under 18 proceeded against at Sheffield magistrates courts foroffences related to underage drinking 1990–2003⁽¹⁷⁸⁾

Offence description	Principal statute	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Being found drunk in a highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on licensed premises	Licensing Act 1872 S.12	—	—	—	—	1	—	2
Drunk in, or when entering, a designated sports event	Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc) Act 1985 S.2(2)	2	4	4	—	2	—	—
Being guilty while drunk of disorderly behaviour	Criminal Justice Act 1967 S.91	53	22	5	5	2	6	12
	Licensing Act 1 964 S.169C(1)and E(1)as added by Licensing (Young Persons) Act 2000 S.1; Licensing
Person under 18 buying or attempting to buy or consuming intoxicating liquor in licensed premises	(Occasional Permissions) Act 1 983 S.3 Schedule Para.4(2)	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Total	55	26	9	5	5	6	14

Offence description	Principal statute	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Being found drunk in a highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on licensed premises	Licensing Act 1872 S.12	—	—	3	—	1	—	—
Drunk in, or when entering, a designated sports event	Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc) Act 1985 S.2(2)	1	1	—	—	1	—	—
Being guilty while drunk of disorderly behaviour	Criminal Justice Act 1967 S.91	15	20	26	24	16	31	36
	Licensing Act 1 964 S.169C(1)and E(1)as added by Licensing (Young Persons) Act 2000 S.1; Licensing
Person under 18 buying or attempting to buy or consuming intoxicating liquor in licensed premises	(Occasional Permissions) Act 1 983 S.3 Schedule Para.4(2)	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
	Total	16	21	29	24	18	31	36

⁽¹⁷⁸⁾These data are on a principal offence basis.



 
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Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions there have been for under-age drinking in each police authority in each of the last 10 years. [14740]

Andy Burnham: There is no specific offence of under-age drinking. The table, which has been placed in the Library, gives the number of defendants aged 10 to 17 years who were proceeded against at magistrates courts, for selected offences related to alcohol, for the years 1993–2003, broken down by police force area.

Statistics for 2004 will be available in the autumn.

Vehicle Recovery (North Wales)

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will list the garages and scrap merchants contracted to recover vehicles from road traffic accidents in the North Wales police area in the last 12 months; [13224]
 
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(2) how many vehicles were recovered from road traffic accidents by commercial garages and scrap merchants in the North Wales police area in the last three years for which figures are available. [13223]

Paul Goggins: The information requested is not collected centrally.

Vehicle Registration/Taxation

Mark Tami: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions relating to the non-payment of road tax there have been in each police authority in England and Wales in each of the last five years. [9229]

Andy Burnham: Available information taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database from 1999 to 2003 (latest available) is given in the table.

2004 data will be available early in 2006.
Proceedings at magistrates courts and total findings of guilt at all courts for the vehicle offence of failing to pay appropriate duty⁽¹⁷⁹⁾, by police force area, England and Wales Number of offences

	1999		2000		2001
Police force area	Total proceedings	Findings of guilt	Total proceedings	Findings of guilt	Total proceedings	Findings of guilt
Avon and Somerset	7,676	6,442	6,786	5,635	5,893	4,850
Bedfordshire	1,488	1,248	1,166	988	846	708
Cambridgeshire	23	8	13	10	48	44
Cheshire	1,211	1,055	3,534	3,176	4,078	3,619
Cleveland	2,265	1,710	2,319	1,799	1,990	1,599
Cumbria	784	688	915	773	78	65
Derbyshire	1,242	979	1,090	832	980	774
Devon and Cornwall	6,162	5,010	5,923	4,901	5,540	4,653
Dorset	2,591	2,191	2,948	2,485	3,376	2,855
Durham	728	563	336	261	162	125
Essex	10,784	9,992	9,703	8,162	6,439	5,584
Gloucestershire	1,660	1,391	1,627	1,324	1,794	1,541
Greater Manchester	5,502	4,868	6,917	5,959	5,087	4,444
Hampshire	7,513	6,088	7,813	6,247	7,921	6,380
Hertfordshire	5,068	4,209	5,142	4,150	4,935	4,052
Humberside	4,333	3,626	4,838	3,984	4,532	3,801
Kent	189	134	43	17	2,250	1,935
Lancashire	5,146	4,170	5,890	5,013	7,215	6,151
Leicestershire	5,460	4,616	5,802	4,759	5,487	4,639
Lincolnshire	2,661	2,397	2,162	1,905	2,078	1,833
London, City of	632	496	344	311	389	368
Merseyside	2,762	2,277	4,656	3,865	5,573	4,692
Met Police	16,375	14,910	15,408	14,052	15,603	14,267
Norfolk	903	864	875	786	1,937	1,676
Northamptonshire	3,908	3,316	4,824	4,061	4,408	3,808
Northumbria	3,619	3,065	4,559	3,839	4,245	3,587
North Yorkshire	1,076	854	924	735	950	749
Nottinghamshire	4,965	4,188	4,558	3,818	4,001	3,299
South Yorkshire	981	773	954	752	1,249	1,019
Staffordshire	571	482	409	348	146	115
Suffolk	2,923	2,532	3,593	3,026	2,912	2,391
Surrey	1,478	1,254	2,197	1,889	2,269	1,929
Sussex	5,330	4,416	7,114	5,831	6,794	5,454
Thames Valley	1,239	985	2,811	2,306	2,456	1,999
Warwickshire	1,002	892	942	817	872	740
West Mercia	2,944	2,543	3,419	2,905	3,122	2,738
West Midlands	7,432	6,039	6,607	5,367	5,035	4,139
West Yorkshire	5,685	4,627	6,246	4,927	5,662	4,550
Wiltshire	2,330	1,985	2,146	1,800	2,292	1,924
England	138,641	117,883	147,553	123,815	140,644	119,096
Dyfed Powys	2,289	2,014	2,067	1,777	1,841	1,603
Gwent	1,985	1,740	2,783	2,425	3,456	3,123
North Wales	1,359	1,140	1,613	1,329	1,941	1,589
South Wales	4,550	3,880	4,155	3,430	4,383	3,772
Wales	10,183	8,774	10,618	8,961	11,621	10,087
England and Wales	148,824	126,657	158,171	132,776	152,265	129,183

 
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Number of offences

	2002		2003
Police force area	Total proceedings	Findings of guilt	Total proceedings	Findings of guilt
Avon and Somerset	7,963	6,554	7,027	5,868
Bedfordshire	1,308	1,103	2,149	1,791
Cambridgeshire	13	3	22	12
Cheshire	3,782	3,321	4,826	4,368
Cleveland	1,585	1,348	2,432	2,387
Cumbria	10	6	1,085	913
Derbyshire	1,131	927	3,870	3,250
Devon and Cornwall	8,827	7,498	9,826	8,414
Dorset	3,058	2,557	3,601	3,090
Durham	47	17	11	4
Essex	7,091	6,129	6,080	5,371
Gloucestershire	1,667	1,461	2,230	1,926
Greater Manchester	4,570	4,125	8,756	7,749
Hampshire	8,768	7,029	7,714	6,350
Hertfordshire	3,559	2,923	4,643	3,771
Humberside	4,649	3,940	5,410	4,610
Kent	4,503	3,865	5,411	4,607
Lancashire	5,351	4,748	6,414	5,645
Leicestershire	5,881	4,949	5,671	4,691
Lincolnshire	2,303	2,049	2,501	2,171
London, City of	476	442	408	376
Merseyside	4,864	4,091	8,252	6,824
Met Police	14,649	13,420	26,813	24,765
Norfolk	2,059	1,829	3,118	2,771
Northamptonshire	4,880	4,169	4,462	3,817
Northumbria	3,618	3,034	3,183	2,599
North Yorkshire	714	568	846	680
Nottinghamshire	4,265	3,528	3,920	3,198
South Yorkshire	1,336	1,045	3,771	3,196
Staffordshire	81	56	75	43
Suffolk	2,911	2,381	2,993	2,442
Surrey	2,612	2,265	2,240	1,923
Sussex	6,803	5,660	7,733	6,363
Thames Valley	1,894	1,533	3,409	2,817
Warwickshire	798	694	983	873
West Mercia	3,099	2,646	3,061	2,677
West Midlands	5,528	4,606	14,040	11,472
West Yorkshire	5,151	4,143	8,547	7,101
Wiltshire	2,281	1,915	2,425	2,049
England	144,085	122,577	189,958	162,974
Dyfed Powys	1,925	1,715	1,784	1,568
Gwent	4,330	3,866	4,184	3,738
North Wales	2,781	2,298	3,188	2,711
South Wales	4,776	4,142	6,362	5,590
Wales	13,812	12,021	15,518	13,607
England and Wales	157,897	134,598	205,476	176,581

⁽¹⁷⁹⁾Offence under the Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994 s. 29 (1)-(3).
Note:
The statistics of court proceedings are based on returns made by the police to the Home Office's Data Collection Group. Although these include offences where there has been no police involvement such as those prosecutions instigated by Government Departments (in this case the DVLA) and private organisations and individuals, the reporting of these types of offences is known to be incomplete. Moreover, it is thought that for some police force areas, the reporting of court proceedings, in particular those relating to motoring offences and to TV licence evasion, may also be less than complete; the extent of under-reporting may vary from year to year and this could be responsible in part for the annual variations.





 
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