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10 Nov 2005 : Column 749W—continued

Uzbekistan

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the Government of Uzbekistan regarding the treatment in detention of opposition leader Sanjar Umarov. [26770]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: Our Ambassador in Tashkent, David Moran, discussed the case of Sanjar Umarov, leader of the opposition group the Sunshine Coalition, on 25 October with First Deputy Foreign Minister Mustafayev and on 2 November with Foreign Minister Ganiev. David Moran raised our concerns at the treatment of Mr. Umarov in detention and requested medical treatment for Mr. Umarov.

As Presidency of the EU, we issued a statement on 25 October seeking clarification of the charges against Mr. Umarov and calling on the Uzbek authorities to treat Mr. Umarov according to international norms and to allow him full access to his lawyers, his family and others concerned about his wellbeing.

West Papua

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to support a UN-sponsored democratic self-determination referendum to be held in West Papua. [26133]

 
10 Nov 2005 : Column 750W
 

Ian Pearson: The UK supports the territorial integrity of Indonesia. We believe the best solution to the internal differences in Papua is to be found through peaceful dialogue between the Government of Indonesia and representatives of the Papuan people, and the implementation of the Special Autonomy Law of 2001. We welcome President Yudhoyono's recent statement that he is committed to a just, comprehensive and dignified solution", including through consistent implementation" of Special Autonomy.

CABINET OFFICE

Political Guidelines

Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what guidelines exist for executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies on making public comments on party political matters. [27237]

Mr. Jim Murphy: Staff in executive agencies are civilservants, and are therefore required to conduct themselves in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Service Code.

Staff in non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) are generally not civil servants. However, Cabinet Office guidance on NDPBs requires that they have a staff Code of Conduct, which should include the requirement for staff of public bodies to conduct themselves with impartiality, as well as integrity and honesty.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Pensions

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what role his Department has played in recent negotiations about the reform of public sector pensions. [24171]

Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer I gave to the hon. Member for East Antrim (Mr. Wilson) on 31 October 2005, Official Report, column 741W.

MINISTER FOR WOMEN

Women in Politics

Lynda Waltho: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps the Government is taking to increase women's representation in politics at all levels. [24109]

Meg Munn: In 2002 we introduced the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act allowing positive measures towards women's increased participation.

There are now:

127 women in the House of Commons;

133 female Peers;

6 female Cabinet Ministers;

50 per cent. of the Welsh Assembly are women;

39.5 per cent. of the Scottish Parliament are women.

 
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NORTHERN IRELAND

Call Centres

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many call centres were run by his Department and its agencies in (a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06 to date; and how many and what proportion of calls (i) were handled by an adviser, (ii)were received but abandoned and (iii) received an engaged tone in each year. [23298]

Mr. Hanson: No call centres were run by the Northern Ireland Office or its Agencies.

Correspondence

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he is taking to improve the Department's performance in replying to hon. Members' correspondence. [21909]

 
10 Nov 2005 : Column 752W
 

Mr. Hain: Every effort is made to handle all correspondence effectively and efficiently. All correspondence from hon. Members and Peers is handled in accordance with the principles set out in Handling Correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, MEPs and Members of Devolved Assemblies: Guidance for Departments". The same principles apply when handling correspondence from members of the public.

Information relating to the performance of Departments in replying to Members/Peers correspondence is published on an annual basis. The report for 2004 was published on 6 April 2005, Official Report, columns 137–40WS.

Departmental Consultations

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list formal consultations being sponsored by his Department and its agencies; and what the (a) commencement date and (b) deadline for responses is in each case. [22574]

Mr. Hanson: The information requested is as follows:

Title of Consultation	Commencement date	Deadline for response
Consultation paper on Electoral Registration in Northern Ireland	5 August 2005	14 October 2005
Consultation paper on proposals on the future of donations to political parties in Northern Ireland	5 August 2005	14 October 2005
Amendment to Code D of the Codes of Practice under the Police and Criminal Evidence (Northern Ireland) Order 1989 and Part 2 of the Section 99 Code of Practice issued under the Terrorism Act 2000	19 September 2005	12 December 2005
Consultation on Equality Impact Assessment into the terms of the Police Voluntary Severance Scheme	6 May 2005	(75)—

⁽⁷⁵⁾Deadline deferred pending the outcome of on-going legal proceedings in respect of the Severance Scheme.

Domestic Violence

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many incidents of domestic violence have been recorded in each of the district command units in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years; [24046]

(2) how many incidents of domestic violence reported in Northern Ireland have been violence (a) by men against women and (b) by women against men in each of the last five years. [24047]

Mr. Hanson: PSNI are the only organisation that record domestic violence incidents and it is believed that the very nature of domestic violence abuse—in that much of the abuse takes place behind closed doors with victims often living in fear—that most of the incidents of this crime go unreported.

The number of domestic violence incidents reported to the Police Service of Northern Ireland continues to rise annually. The number of incidents reported rose from 16,926 in 2003–04 to 20,959 in 2004–05 (an increase of 24 per cent.). It is recognised that there is considerable under reporting of incidents of domestic violence and an increase in reports is a welcome indication in confidence in the police to take effective action and support victims. PSNI figures for domestic incidents across District Command Units are available for the last three years only.

PSNI Information is available only on the total number of male and female victims. Figures from the Northern Ireland Crime Survey 2003–04 indicate that 20 per cent. of all females claim to have been victims of domestic violence at some time in their lives, while the victimisation rate in males is lower at 11 per cent.

PSNI statistics are available in the tables.

The Government have recently launched a new Domestic Violence Strategy for Northern Ireland.
Domestic incidents, crimes by District Command Unit and number of victims for April 2002 to March 2005

	2002–03
	Total number of:
	Incidents	Crimes	Male victims	Female victims	Victims under 17
Antrim	405	240	50	207	5
Ards	444	212	42	209	4
East Belfast	1,085	457	56	398	3
North Belfast	960	399	33	366	0
South Belfast	520	283	40	288	4
West Belfast	1,089	892	198	806	18
Carrickfergus	379	160	15	143	2
Castlereagh	399	191	54	165	1
Larne	354	188	42	143	3
Lisburn	1,198	560	97	460	3
Newtownabbey 641		281	43	235	3
North Down	643	326	72	404	7
Urban Region	8,117	4,189	742	3,824	53

 
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	2002–03
	Total number of:
	Incidents	Crimes	Male victims	Female victims	Victims under 17
Armagh	308	145	47	256	5
Ballymena	266	174	26	145	3
Ballymoney	146	72	11	61	0
Banbridge	351	199	53	279	18
Coleraine	531	286	68	385	19
Cookstown	329	160	39	115	6
Craigavon	778	348	94	514	26
Down	240	166	16	146	4
Dungannon and South Tyrone 259		194	35	179	0
Fermanagh	440	310	42	263	6
Foyle	1,391	590	69	494	9
Limavady	373	160	22	128	10
Magherafelt	426	153	26	122	6
Moyle	86	37	4	33	0
Newry Mourne	591	310	47	262	7
Omagh	527	302	42	257	9
Strabane	353	166	31	164	7
Rural Region	7,395	3,772	672	3,803	135
Total for Regions	15,512	79,611	1,414	7,627	188

	2003–04
	Total number of:
	Incidents	Crimes	Male victims	Female victims	Victims under 17
Antrim	537	257	42	207	8
Ards	473	380	68	312	0
East Belfast	1,491	420	45	371	4
North Belfast	1,023	434	52	368	14
South Belfast	553	272	36	227	9
West Belfast	977	681	80	599	2
Carrickfergus	440	186	24	160	2
Castlereagh	512	213	39	165	9
Larne	295	155	31	122	2
Lisburn	1,352	682	121	538	23
Newtownabbey	768	351	66	272	13
North Down	478	263	40	220	3
Urban Region	8,899	4,294	644	3,561	89

	2003–04
	Total number of:
	Incidents	Crimes	Male victims	Female victims	Victims under 17
Armagh	353	195	29	161	5
Ballymena	289	162	15	146	1
Ballymoney	168	92	16	72	4
Banbridge	352	211	22	184	5
Coleraine	683	358	47	295	16
Cookstown	430	186	44	140	2
Craigavon	912	493	76	402	15
Down	236	162	14	146	2
Dungannon and South Tyrone	258	169	25	144	0
Fermanagh	473	321	33	284	4
Foyle	1,491	685	112	563	10
Limavady	359	168	22	141	5
Magherafelt	453	208	42	154	12
Moyle	69	40	6	33	1
Newry Mourne	513	250	36	212	2
Omagh	580	330	49	270	11
Strabane	408	241	41	195	5
Rural Region	8,027	4,271	629	3,542	100
Total for Regions	16,926	8,565	1,273	7,103	189

 
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	2004–05
	Total number of:
	Incidents	Crimes	Male victims	Female victims	Victims under 17	Gender/age unknown
Antrim	628	235	52	164	13	6
Ards	728	345	87	235	21	2
East Belfast	1,246	397	98	272	22	5
North Belfast	1,843	630	113	462	38	17
South Belfast	853	325	78	229	11	7
West Belfast	1,086	522	91	401	18	12
Carrickfergus	364	152	28	115	9	0
Castlereagh	617	187	43	131	11	2
Larne	293	111	21	80	8	2
Lisburn	1,782	819	197	556	48	18
Newtownabbey	863	395	94	273	23	5
North Down	774	294	64	210	16	4
Urban Region	11,077	4,412	966	3128	238	80

	2004–05
	Total number of:
	Incidents	Crimes	Male victims	Female victims	Victims under 17	Gender/age unknown
Armagh	353	166	44	115	6	1
Ballymena	580	311	62	230	17	2
Ballymoney	255	122	28	84	9	1
Banbridge	346	200	57	127	10	6
Coleraine	824	309	54	228	21	6
Cookstown	446	196	56	118	21	1
Craigavon	1,233	556	129	375	30	22
Down	363	147	32	98	12	5
Dungannon and South Tyrone 323		122	29	88	4	1
Fermanagh	518	151	31	104	12	4
Foyle	1,921	651	126	469	44	12
Limavady	392	204	43	146	13	2
Magherafelt	448	99	22	71	5	1
Moyle	102	52	12	37	2	1
Newry Mourne	617	268	50	199	11	8
Omagh	666	219	48	157	11	3
Strabane	495	323	62	231	22	8
Rural Region	9,882	4,096	885	2,877	250	84
Total for Regions	20,959	8,508	1,851	6,005	488	164

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what strategies the Police Service of Northern Ireland has put in place to deal with incidents of domestic violence. [24048]

Mr. Hanson: The number of domestic violence incidents reported to the Police Service of Northern Ireland continues to rise annually. The number of incidents reported rose from 16,926 in 2003–04 to 20,959 in 2004–05 (an increase of 24 per cent.). The number of incidents reported where offences were identified fell
 
10 Nov 2005 : Column 756W
 
slightly from 8,565 in 2003–04 to 8,508 in 2004–05. These figures do not include breaches of non-molestation orders (1,148 breaches are recorded).

The PSNI is represented on the regional steering group on domestic violence and worked in partnership with all the other agencies in the development of the Government strategy 'Tackling Violence at Home'. The strategy was launched in October 2005 and aims to develop and implement a multi-agency co-ordinated response to domestic violence across Northern Ireland. The Police Service is also represented at various regional and local domestic violence forums and has been
 
10 Nov 2005 : Column 757W
 
involved in training provided to probation officers, participants in the men overcoming domestic violence programme, and to staff in the Northern Ireland Court Service.

In September 2004 the Police Service introduced a new domestic violence policy, The policy aims to:

record, respond and investigate effectively all reported incidents of domestic violence in a consistent, robust and proactive manner;

maintain specialist domestic violence investigators in every police district;

ensure that every reported domestic violence investigation is appropriately supervised;

ensure that, where a power of arrest exists, then only in exceptional circumstances will that power not be used;

ensure that every reported victim of domestic violence is offered the services of a Police Service domestic violence officer and provided with information relating to local statutory and voluntary support agencies;

take adequate steps to protect children (including unborn children) who may be at risk from domestic violence by engaging with the appropriate authority;

remove access to all licensed and personal protection firearms where domestic violence has been reported or identified; and

identify and meet the needs of members of minority and vulnerable groups who report domestic violence.

This policy is currently the subject of an annual review.

To date the Police Service have trained 61 specialist domestic violence investigators with a further course being planned for the new year. These officers in addition to supporting victims will investigate serious physical assaults and repeat offences. In addition to the existing corporate literature the Service has published a small pocket information booklet, which provides extensive information on safety advice, Police Service policy and details of support agencies. To date over 40,000 pocket booklets have been circulated to police districts, health trusts, solicitors, voluntary and statutory support agencies. Further work is ongoing to develop risk assessment procedures and guidance.

It is recognised that there is considerable under reporting of incidents of domestic violence and an increase in reports is a welcome indication in confidence in the police to take effective action and support victims.

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