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17 Oct 2005 : Column 699W—continued
Consultants
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many consultants are employed by his Department to advise on (a) police force numbers and (b) the reorganisation of police authorities. [17565]
Hazel Blears: No consultants are employed by the Home Office to advise on police force numbers or on the reorganisation of police authorities.
Crime
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on current levels of (a) violent crime, (b) car crime, (c) sexual crime, (d) burglary and (e) robbery in Southend, West constituency. [16594]
Hazel Blears: The Southend, West constituency comes within the Southend basic command unit. The current levels of recorded offences for the crimes requested are given in the table.
(15)The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on current detection rates of (a) violent crime, (b) car crime, (c) sexual crime, (d) burglary and (e) robbery in Southend, West constituency. [16595]
Hazel Blears: The Southend, West constituency comes within the Southend basic command unit. The detection rates for the crimes requested are given in the following table.
Lynne Featherstone:
To ask the Secretary of State forthe Home Department if he will make a statement on (a) levels and (b) detection rates of (i) violent
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crime, (ii) sexual crime, (iii) car crime, (iv) robbery and (v) burglary in the Hornsey and Wood Green constituency. [17008]
Hazel Blears: The Hornsey and Wood Green constituency comes within the Haringey basic command unit. The levels of recorded offences and detection rates for the crimes requested are given in the tables.
(16)The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences.
(17)The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences.
Criminal Courts
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the recommendation regarding disclosure made by Lord Justice Auld in his review of the criminal courts report has been implemented. [16470]
Fiona Mactaggart: The Government's response to SirRobin Auld's recommendations, including those on disclosure, is set out in the Annex to the Criminal Justice White Paper: Justice for All" (CM 5563) issued in July 2002. In large part the recommendations on disclosure were accepted and implemented in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, the relevant provisions of which came into force on four April 2005. The recommendation that the Government consider setting up a new statutory scheme for third party disclosure remains under consideration. Owing to its wide ranging and complex nature, an interdepartmental working party has been established to take forward this recommendation.
Drugs
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the value of the illegal drugs trade in 2004–05, broken down by (a) London borough and (b) police authority; and if he will make a statement. [17014]
Paul Goggins
[holding answer 13 October 2005]: The Home Office does not estimate the value of the illegal drugs trade at a local level. We do, however, estimate the overall size of the market for illicit drugs on a national basis. In 2001, the Home Office published an estimate of the size of the market for illicit drugs in the UK which amounted to
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around £6.6 billion in 1998. Full details of this study (Occasional Paper 74) are available to download at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/drugs1.html.
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of progress towards the target of halving drug use, stated in Tackling Drugs to build a Better Britain. [16483]
Paul Goggins: The Comprehensive Spending Review, published in July 1998, included targets that reflected the aims set out in Tackling Drugs to build a Better Britain. These targets were revised in subsequent Spending Reviews to reflect the developing evidence base and provide a clear focus on delivery and outcomes.
My department reports on performance against targets in its autumn and annual reports, copies of which are available in the House Library and on the Home Office website www.homeoffice.gov.uk
Emergency Calls
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of 999 calls received in London were considered unnecessary in each year since 1997. [16898]
Hazel Blears: The requested information is not collected centrally in the police statistics.
Environmental Sustainability
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made on his Department's Sustainable Development Strategy. [16194]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
Officials have held meetings to discuss the content of the Home Office strategy and have drawn up a work schedule for publishing it by mid-December 2005.
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General Almog
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when his Department was informed of the issuing by Bow Street magistrates of an arrest warrant against General Almog. [17026]
Hazel Blears: The Department was informed on Monday 12 September 2005 that an arrest warrant had been issued on Saturday 10 September 2005.
Group 4
Mr. Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by his Department and public bodies and agencies for which he is responsible on security contracts with Group 4 Securicor in 2004–05; and if he will list (a) the nature and location of services provided and (b) the start and end dates of such contracts. [13521]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The total aggregate expenditure by the Department, its Executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPB's) on security contracts directly with Group 4 Securicor during the financial year 2004–05 was £90,826,000. Details of thenature and location of the services provided and the start and end dates of the current contracts that the expenditure relates to are provided in the following table. Group 4 Securicor also provide services to the Youth Justice Board as an operating sub-contractor at Oakhill Secure Training Centre Milton Keynes. The contract is held by STC (Milton Keynes) Ltd. Contracts have also been placed with fully owned operating subsidiary companies of Group 4 Securicor. One is for the provision of security guards at PSDB from November 2003 until October 2006 and Securicor (now G4S Justice Services Ltd.) provided an approved overseas escort service for Immigration and Nationality Directorate during 2004–05.
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