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19 Oct 2005 : Column 1006W—continued
HOME DEPARTMENT
Antisocial Behaviour
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he proposes for dealing with antisocial behaviour by children under 10 years. [18847]
Hazel Blears: The Government are determined to ensure that parents take full responsibility for their children's behaviour and are considering a range of measures to do so. We have no plans to introduce antisocial behaviour orders for those aged under 10.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many antisocial behaviour orders were issued in the Peterborough city council area in (a) 2002, (b) 2003 and (c) 2004. [18209]
Hazel Blears: The information requested is available on the Crime Reduction website at www.crimereduction.gov.uk
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many anti-social behaviour orders have been issued in (a) Essex and (b) each police division in Essex in each of the last three years. [18083]
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Hazel Blears: Available information is given in the table.
Antisocial behaviour order data are not available by police division. A table giving a breakdown by the local government authority area in which prohibitions are imposed within orders is available on the Crime Reduction website at www.crimereduction.gov.uk
| Number issued | |
|---|---|
| 2002 | 2 |
| 2003 | 13 |
| 2004 | 37 |
Asylum
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the average length of time to determine asylum appeals from the date of being lodged to the date of hearing for appeals lodged (a) before and (b) after 4 April 2005; and if he will make a statement. [18968]
Bridget Prentice: I have been asked to reply.
The latest provisional information available from the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) indicates that an asylum appeal lodged (a) before the 4 April 2005 took on average 33 weeks from first being lodged to a decision being promulgated by an Immigration Adjudicator of the Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA).
Asylum appeals arising from a claim refused by the Home Office prior to the 4 April 2005 were lodged first, in accordance with the Tribunal's procedure rules, with the decision maker, before being transferred to the IAA to be determined by an Immigration Adjudicator.
The latest provisional information available from the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) indicates that an asylum appeal lodged (b) after the 4 April 2005 took on average five weeks from being lodged, to a decision being promulgated by an immigration judge of the AIT.
Asylum appeals arising from a claim refused by the Home Office after the 4 April 2005 are lodged directly to the AIT in accordance with Rule 6 of The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (Procedure) Rules 2005.
British Citizenship
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons who have been granted British citizenship since 1 January 2000 had, prior to the granting of British citizenship, been (a) found guilty of a criminal offence by a court in the United Kingdom and (b) sentenced to a custodial sentence by a court in the United Kingdom. [16346]
Mr. McNulty:
All persons applying for naturalisation as a British citizen are required to meet a good character requirement. As part of the naturalisation process a police record check is made into all applicants. A check is also made on older minors who are applying for registration at the Secretary of State's discretion. In assessing whether any previous criminal activity would
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affect a person's ability to meet the good character requirement, we would take into account the nature of the offence, the age of the offender and the length of time that had elapsed since conviction. If sufficient time free of further offending had not elapsed since the offence, the application would normally be refused.
Between 1 January 2000 and 4 October 2005 765,833 applications for British citizenship have been decided. Of those, 4,947 were refused on character grounds.
Community Support Officers
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is Home Office policy that police community support officers are entitled to be issued with personal protective equipment including anti-stab vests. [17709]
Hazel Blears [holding answer 14 October 2005]: The issue of personal protective equipment to community support officers (CSOs) is an operational matter for chief officers. Guidance issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers recognises that the issue of body armour to CSOs has become commonplace and that forces should consider issue of this equipment in light of local health and safety assessments.
Crime Statistics
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the levels of (a) violent crime, (b) car crime, (c) robbery and (d) burglary in Pudsey constituency; and if he will make a statement. [18922]
Hazel Blears: The Pudsey constituency comes within the Leeds Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP). The current levels of recorded offences for the crimes requested are given in the table.
(3)The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences.
Drug Addiction (Crime)
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment his Department has made of the proportion of crime undertaken as a direct consequence of drug addiction; and if he will make a statement. [16701]
Paul Goggins:
Crime statistics used for monitoring overall crime trends, such as recorded crime and the British Crime Survey, do not contain information about the drug habits of individual offenders or their motivation for offending. It is therefore not possible to provide firm estimates of the total amount of crime undertaken as a direct consequence of addiction.
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Findings from the Home Office sponsored New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring survey programme (NEW-ADAM), in which arrestees in custody suites in 16 high crime areas in England and Wales were interviewed and tested for drugs between 1999 and 2001, found that 38 per cent. of all arrestees included in the survey tested positive for opiates such as heroin, and/or cocaine/crack.
Furthermore, more than one-third (35 per cent.) of all interviewed arrestees were problem drug users (i.e. they reported recent signs of dependence on one or more illicit drug types).
Among those arrestees who reported recent drug dependence, 62 per cent. said that they were dependent on heroin.
Four out of five interviewed arrestees reported the use of at least one illicit drug in the previous 12 months and nearly two-thirds of these drug users said they had committed an acquisitive crime, such as burglary, shoplifting or other theft, during the same period.
Among those who used illicit drugs and had committed an acquisitive crime in the past year 60 per cent. overall said there was some link between their drug use and offending—this rose to 84 per cent. among crack users and 87 per cent. of heroin users. The findings from this study can be accessed via the Research Development and Statistics website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/drugs_new_adam.html
A new Arrestee Survey is currently being undertaken which will provide more comprehensive and nationally representative information on the proportion of crime that is drug-related in the future.
Environmental Sustainability
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what remit relating to sustainable development is (a) required and (b) undertaken by bodies for which his Department is responsible; and if he will make a statement. [16313]
Andy Burnham: Advice on sustainable development will be issued shortly to Home Office-sponsored Executive and Advisory non-departmental public bodies (NDPB's) as part of a wider revision of central guidance. The advice will, among other things, explain that NDPBs must consider the responsibilities they have for meeting the Government's commitment to sustainable development. We currently do not collate information about the extent to which NDPBs incorporate sustainable development into their remit, but some do have environmental policies.
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