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11 Nov 2005 : Column 844W—continued

British Transport Police

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions were made by the British Transport police in each British Transport police area, for (a) selling alcohol or attempting to sell alcohol to a person who is drunk, (b) selling alcohol or attempting to sell alcohol to an individual under 18 years, (c) being drunk and disorderly, (d) being drunk and incapable and (e) violence against the person in each year for which figures are available. [24967]

 
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Hazel Blears: It is not possible to identify prosecutions made by the British Transport police on the Home Office court proceedings database as the prosecuting authority cannot be identified.

Citizenship Tests

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether people from abroad with only limited English need to pass the Life in the UK test to gain British citizenship. [25428]

Andy Burnham: All those applying for naturalisation as UK citizens will need to demonstrate that they have a sufficient knowledge of life in this country unless they are exempt, for instance on grounds of age. As first set out in the written statement dated 15 June 2005, Official Report, columns 15–16WS, there are two ways of doing this. An applicant may qualify by passing the Life in the UK test, or by successfully completing an accredited ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) course which includes approved teaching materials on the theme of citizenship.

Crime

Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of antisocial behaviour have been reported to police in Hemel Hempstead constituency in each year since 1997. [25582]

 
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Hazel Blears: There is currently no data on the number of incidents of antisocial behaviour (ASB) due to the subjective nature of ASB itself. The latest data collected on ASB relates to the public perception of ASB in England and Wales and is measured by the British Crime Survey

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions for each category of crime there have been in (a) Essex, (b) the Metropolitan police area of London and (c) Hertfordshire in each of the last five years for which figures are available; what the (i) conviction rate and (ii) clear-up rate for each category was in that period; and if he will make a statement. [20093]

Hazel Blears: Information on the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for each category of offence in Essex, the Metropolitan police force area and Hertfordshire, 1999 to 2003, is given in the table together with the conviction rates. Statistics for 2004 will be published in late November.

The detections rate statistics are based on the number of offences recorded and detected by the police in England and Wales. These data are not comparable with those for convictions, which look at the actual number of defendants found guilty. Data on detection rates are provided in table 2.
Detection rates by offence group and police force area Percentage

Police force area	Total	Violence against the person	Sexual offences	Robbery	Burglary	Theft and handling stolen goods	Fraud and forgery	Criminal damage	Drug offences	Other offences
2000–01
Essex	26	78	56	26	13	18	30	15	96	67
Metropolitan Police	15	28	31	12	10	9	10	9	89	46
Hertfordshire	24	74	65	34	14	18	35	12	96	66
2001–02
Essex	26	79	50	25	13	19	28	14	95	67
Metropolitan Police	14	26	32	11	10	9	10	8	84	43
Hertfordshire	24	80	68	31	11	20	38	12	99	80
2002–03
Essex	27	71	40	21	13	17	22	15	93	63
Metropolitan Police	14	24	33	13	13	8	9	8	82	44
Hertfordshire	23	66	53	31	15	18	23	12	97	68
2003–04
Essex	28	69	37	21	12	17	24	15	95	66
Metropolitan Police	15	26	34	12	12	8	13	9	87	49
Hertfordshire	25	64	54	34	17	17	21	14	93	67
2004–05
Essex	27	63	33	23	12	17	28	15	93	74
Metropolitan Police	21	43	35	15	13	10	12	13	97	61
Hertfordshire	29	68	41	36	21	19	21	15	95	76

Notes:
1. Offences detected in the current year may have been initially recorded in earlier years and for this reason percentages may exceed 100.
2. Number of recorded crimes and detections will be affected by changes in reporting and recording. For more information see Chapter 3 in 'Crime in England and Wales 2002/03'.




 
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Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for all offences by offence type, with conviction rates⁽¹⁷⁾. Essex, Hertfordshire and Metropolitan police force areas, 1999–2003

	1999			2000			2001
Police force area	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)
Essex
Violence against the person	1,454	622	43	1,361	569	42	1,547	613	40
Sexual offences	228	81	36	151	81	54	195	66	34
Burglary	828	533	64	837	436	52	717	403	56
Robbery	132	89	67	153	78	51	198	80	40
Theft and handling stolen goods	3,669	2,815	77	3,473	2,572	74	3,476	2,677	77
Fraud and forgery	591	411	70	637	386	61	627	403	64
Criminal damage	530	323	61	483	274	57	1,195	798	67
Drug offences	1,267	1,131	89	1,139	1,001	88	1,133	979	86
Other indictable offences	1,799	854	47	1,687	790	47	1,811	725	40
Indictable motoring offences	294	203	69	260	188	72	293	210	72
Summary offences (excluding motoring) 19,485		16,198	83	20,858	16,682	80	15,595	12,330	79
Summary motoring offences	24,212	20,691	85	23,985	20,062	84	26,345	22,125	84
Total all offences	54,489	43,951	81	55,024	43,119	78	53,132	41,409	78

	2002			2003
Police force area	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)
Essex
Violence against the person	1,298	618	48	1,471	702	48
Sexual offences	201	79	39	186	77	41
Burglary	680	405	60	648	410	63
Robbery	206	95	46	171	84	49
Theft and handling stolen goods	3,169	2,484	78	2,994	2,457	82
Fraud and forgery	593	395	67	525	386	74
Criminal damage	728	441	61	648	402	62
Drug offences	1,095	981	90	1,038	896	86
Other indictable offences	1,806	726	40	2,001	799	40
Indictable motoring offences	278	192	69	246	183	74
Summary offences (excluding motoring)	17,862	14,255	80	17,298	13,932	81
Summary motoring offences	32,747	26,932	82	26,466	21,960	83
Total all offences	60,663	47,603	78	53,692	42,288	79

	1999			2000			2001
Police force area	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)
Metropolitan police
Violence against the person	11,024	4,905	44	11,166	5,076	45	11,853	5,413	46
Sexual offences	1,117	532	48	1,043	463	44	1,283	527	41
Burglary	5,264	3,297	63	5,302	3,276	62	5,310	2,977	56
Robbery	2,806	1,410	50	3,591	1,451	40	4,856	1,767	36
Theft and handling stolen goods	23,276	18,511	80	21,363	16,799	79	21,160	16,356	77
Fraud and forgery	4,825	3,306	69	4,609	3,269	71	4,302	2,997	70
Criminal damage	3,137	1,804	58	2,571	1,458	57	2,551	1,340	53
Drug offences	11,280	9,999	89	10,387	8,868	85	11,465	9,181	80
Other indictable offences	12,088	6,995	58	12,038	6,802	57	12,669	7,141	56
Indictable motoring offences	1,162	779	67	1,085	741	68	1,187	767	65
Summary offences (excluding motoring) 96,567		79,401	82	100,234	83,61 1	83	79,562	64,079	81
Summary motoring offences	80,268	63,387	79	71,610	55,542	78	70,370	55,099	78
Total all offences	252,814	194,326	77	244,999	187,356	76	226,568	167,644	74

	2002			2003
Police force area	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage
Metropolitan police
Violence against the person	12,808	6,394	50	11,992	5,871	49
Sexual offences	1,461	603	41	1,548	567	37
Burglary	5,715	3,339	58	5,343	3,207	60
Robbery	4,872	1,936	40	4,048	1,835	45
Theft and handling stolen goods	22,517	17,773	79	20,239	15,845	78
Fraud and forgery	4,816	3,420	71	5,038	3,601	71
Criminal damage	2,437	1,378	57	2,459	1,357	55
Drug offences	12,404	10,461	84	12,327	10,408	84
Other indictable offences	14,518	8,235	57	13,983	7,865	56
Indictable motoring offences	1,304	857	66	1,576	1,008	64
Summary offences (excluding motoring)	98,044	81,098	83	93,106	76,548	82
Summary motoring offences	74,836	59,442	79	78,790	62,518	79
Total all offences	255,732	194,936	76	250,449	190,630	76

 
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	1999			2000			2001
Police force area	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage)	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage
Hertfordshire
Violence against the person	903	393	44	973	467	48	1,005	456	45
Sexual offences	114	49	43	103	63	61	87	55	63
Burglary	373	254	68	426	255	60	398	226	57
Robbery	74	63	85	136	57	42	124	89	72
Theft and handling stolen goods	1,743	1,315	75	2,015	1,482	74	1,966	1,482	75
Fraud and forgery	376	263	70	445	348	78	343	250	73
Criminal damage	69	40	58	56	37	66	29	41	141
Drug offences	525	447	85	481	421	88	536	462	86
Other indictable offences	871	440	51	905	447	49	960	494	51
Indictable motoring offences	84	67	80	109	81	74	111	80	72
Summary offences (excluding motoring) 9,382		7,324	78	10,640	8,161	77	9,955	7,687	77
Summary motoring offences	12,854	10,203	79	12,218	9,239	76	11,866	8,961	76
Total all offences	27,368	20,858	76	28,507	21,058	74	27,380	20,283	74

	2002			2003
Police force area	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Conviction rate (percentage
Hertfordshire
Violence against the person	1,046	539	52	1,190	507	43
Sexual offences	114	70	61	132	52	39
Burglary	524	314	60	545	313	57
Robbery	185	113	61	177	110	62
Theft and handling stolen goods	2,102	1,558	74	2,161	1,671	77
Fraud and forgery	371	280	75	409	297	73
Criminal damage	64	32	50	106	60	57
Drug offences	582	481	83	630	545	87
Other indictable offences	1,025	471	46	1,379	624	45
Indictable motoring offences	149	95	64	198	128	65
Summary offences (excluding motoring)	8,840	6,696	76	11,264	8,469	75
Summary motoring offences	13,823	10,389	75	15,186	11,987	79
Total all offences	28,825	21,038	73	33,377	24,763	74

⁽¹⁷⁾ Conviction rate is based on the proportion of defendants proceeded against, who were found guilty
Note:
These data are on the principal offence basis.
Source:
RDS—Office For Criminal Justice Reform.

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