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Victims' Code of Practice
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on progress in the implementation of the Victims' Code of Practice. [26646]
Fiona Mactaggart: The final Code of Practice for Victims of Crime was laid before Parliament on 19 October 2005. The code will come into force in April 2006, however, criminal justice agencies are aiming to deliver as many of the obligations in the code as they can in advance of April 2006. The Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) is working intensively with the criminal justice agencies, both nationally and locally, to assist them with delivery of the code.
Victims Fund
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when an announcement is expected to be made about the continuation of the Victims Fund beyond 31 March 2006. [27197]
Fiona Mactaggart: We have been considering the options for future funding schemes within the Victims Fund and expect to make an announcement shortly.
Violent Crime/Sexual Assaults
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to tackle (a) violent crime and (b) sexual assaults. [27148]
Hazel Blears: The information is as follows:
(a) The Government are currently taking forward a very full range of work which will continue to reduce violent crime. We are, for example, introducing new measures which will give police and local communities the powers they need to tackle guns, knives and alcohol-related violence in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill which is currently before Parliament.
Domestic violence is also a key priority. Our National Delivery Plan to tackle domestic violence provides support for victims, strengthens the Criminal Justice System to be more responsive to domestic violence cases and holds perpetrators to account.
(b) The Government gives high priority to tackling sexual offending because of the nature and extent of the harm caused to victims.
We have improved the care available to victims of sexual crime by developing the network of Sexual Assault Referral Centres and supporting complementary community-based services. We are committed to bringing more sexual offenders to justice. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 redefined and increased the penalties for many sexual offences.
We are encouraging more victims to report sexual crime and specially trained police officers and prosecutors have been established to deal with rape cases. At court, we have introduced a range of measures to facilitate the giving of evidence by victims.
The Government are particularly determined to ensure that child abuse is tackled rigorously and works with the police and other agencies to minimise the risk
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of children being sexually abused. We are establishing a centre which will target paedophiles using the Internet to distribute illegal images of and to groom children. Following the Bichard enquiry, wide-ranging action has been implemented to develop joined-up working between different agencies.
We have developed the way that agencies work together to ensure that decisions about managing known sex offenders are based on the best information available. Based on evidence about what really works to reduce offending, programmes are being run in prisons and the community to educate sex offenders about the harm they have caused and bring them to realise what they need to do to stop offending.
Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Government are taking to tackle violent crime in Bedfordshire; and if he will make a statement. [24369]
Hazel Blears: The Government are currently taking forward a very full range of work which will continue to reduce violent crime.
In Bedfordshire, the Luton Safe and Bed Safe initiatives have made a serious impact on the reported level of violent crime in recent months and Bedfordshire police have been pro-active in tackling these issues. Community Support Officers have been pro-actively enforcing alcohol bans in designated areas. Additional officers are now on the streets on Friday and Saturday nights in town-centres where police strategy involves high-visibility patrols, pro-active use of CCTV and mobile CCTV, mobile police stations, anti-drug operations using sniffer dogs and electronic testing devices, and partnership work with licensees to ensure they take their responsibilities and obligations seriously.
Further priorities are robbery—Operation Falcon in South Bedfordshire has seen significant reductions in the number of robberies—and domestic violence where multi-agency approach has been adopted and best practice has been embedded.
Nationally, there is a huge programme of work. We are, for example, introducing new measures which will give police and local communities the powers they need to tackle guns, knives and alcohol-related violence in the Violent Crime Reduction Bill which is currently before Parliament.
Domestic violence is a key priority. Our National Delivery Plan to tackle domestic violence provides support for victims, strengthens the Criminal Justice System to be more responsive to domestic violence cases, holds perpetrators to account and provides resettlement for victims and rehabilitation packages for perpetrators through end-to-end offender management and the concept of a whole sentence plan.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) gun crimes and (b) sexual assaults were recorded in each London borough in each year since 1997. [26445]
Hazel Blears:
The available information relates to (a) offences involving firearms, excluding air weapons, recorded by the Metropolitan Police Service since
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1997–98 and (b) indecent/sexual assaults recorded by each of the Metropolitan Police's Basic Command Units since 2000–01.
The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002 and statistics before and after that date are not directly comparable.
The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, re-defined many sexual offences, including indecent assault. As such, data for 2004–05 and earlier years are not directly comparable.
(100) The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. Figures before and after that date are not directly comparable.
(101) The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences. Offences included in Tables 3 and 4: (a) up to and including April 2004—indecent assault on a male, indecent assault on a female; (b) from May 2004—sexual assault on a male aged 13 and over, sexual assault on a male child under 13, sexual assault on a female aged 13 and over, sexual assault on a female child under 13.
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