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21 Nov 2005 : Column 1756W—continued
Missing Persons
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in (a) Havering, (b) Greater London and (c) England and Wales who have been classified as a missing person in each year since 1980 remain missing. [27125]
Hazel Blears: The information requested is not collected centrally by the Home Office.
Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases were covered by multi-agency public protection arrangements on 31 March of each year between 2001 and 2005. [23833]
Fiona Mactaggart: The number of offenders managed under multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) per year (1 April to 31 March) is as follows:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | (91)47,209 |
| 2002–03 | (91)52,809 |
| 2003–04 | 39,492 |
| 2004–05 | 44,592 |
(91) The figures for the first two years of counting include offenders both in custody and in the community. The figures for the later years include only offenders in the community. This counting rule was changed to reflect the fact that the MAPPA were established specifically to help improve the protection of the public from sexual and violent offenders in the community.
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National Identity Register
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when it was decided to have 13 items of biometric data per person on the National Identity Register. [19872]
Andy Burnham: No firm decision to hold 13 items of biometric data (facial image, 10 fingerprints and two irises) per person has been taken. The assumption that these 13 items of biometric data will be stored is a working assumption used in our modelling of enrolment processes and in the costing of the business case. Final decisions on the type and quantity of biometric data held will be informed by the procurement process within the constraints imposed by the Identity Cards Bill.
David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce measures to prevent the disclosure without the consent of the individual of information held on the proposed National Identity Register. [24395]
Mr. McNulty: We expect most of the checks on the register to be done with the consent of the individual. Under Clause 14 of the Bill, regulations may be made prescribing how the individual's authority for the provision of information is to be given. This clause limits the information that may be provided to accredited organisations as part of a verification check. This includes information within paragraphs one, three and four of Schedule one, the photograph, signature, information concerning whether the ID card is valid, voluntary information and confirmation of the answers to security questions. The organisation will only be told that the information provided by the individual coincides with that which is held on the register. The organisation themselves will not be given the answers to the security questions. This limitation on the information that may be checked means that information falling in other parts of Schedule one, for example the records of provision of information (paragraph nine of Schedule 1), may not be provided to organisations verifying identity under the powers in this clause.
One of the purposes of the Identity Cards Scheme, as set out in the Bill at Clause one (3) is the provision of a secure and reliable method for registrable facts about individuals to be verified wherever it is necessary in the public interest. There will be occasions when it is in the public interest for information held on the register to be disclosed without the individual's consent. However, the provision of such information is strictly limited in the Bill. The Identity Cards Bill includes measures to regulate the provision of information without consent and to prevent unauthorised disclosure. Information
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may be disclosed without consent to security and intelligence agencies to ensure that the scheme benefits the work of those organisations by supporting their stated statutory purposes. The police and Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs may also be provided with the registrable facts held for law enforcement and related purposes, minus the audit log of card use and information about other occasions when a person's record has been checked. Provision of this information to these bodies would only apply in cases of serious crime. The Bill ensures that provision of information without consent will be properly regulated and subject to independent oversight. The Bill also includes regulation making powers that would allow specified information to be provided without consent to other Government Departments or public authorities with the consent of Parliament. The Bill which was introduced to the House of Commons in May 2005 differed from that which was debated in the previous Parliament in that under the current Bill information cannot be disclosed without an individual's consent to organisations which are not public authorities.
Clause 29 of the Bill creates a new offence, that of unauthorised disclosure of information. This offence will apply to persons who hold an office or employment in which the duties relate to the establishment or maintenance of the register, the issue, manufacture, modification, cancellation or surrender of ID cards or the carrying out of the Commissioner's functions. A person guilty of an offence under this section may be liable to two years imprisonment, a fine or both.
Offences Against the Person Act
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) males and (b) females were (i) charged and (ii) convicted in England and Wales of offences under sections (A) 4, (B) 5, (C) 9, (D) 17, (E) 22, (F) 24, (G) 29, (H) 30, (I) 32, (J) 33, (K) 34, (L) 35, (M) 36, (N) 57 and (O) 60 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [27139]
Hazel Blears: Statistics on the number of males and females charged with an offence are not centrally collected.
Information taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings database on the number of males and females found guilty of the sections under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 which are requested at all courts England and Wales, 1994—2003 is contained in the table.
Court statistics for 2004 will be available later this month.
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(92) These data are provided on the principal offence basis.
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