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Vehicle Excise Duty

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much has been raised in vehicle excise duty in each year since 1997, broken down by category of vehicle. [38828]

John Healey: The Department for Transport publish statistics of VED revenues broken down into vehicle category in their annual Transport statistics bulletin. This is available at: www.dft.gov.uk/transstat

NORTHERN IRELAND

Administration Costs

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which functions of his core Department are carried out in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) Wales; and what administrative costs were associated with these functions for each area in the last year. [39948]

Mr. Woodward: The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) Core Department functions and the associated administrative costs for 2004–05, carried out in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) Wales were as follows:
(a)

Function	Total administrative costs 2004–05 (£)
Central Administration	27,898,559
Ministers	3,080,107
Political Directive	4,848,917
Bloody Sunday (Saville) Inquiry	1,180,000
Dept of the Director of Public Prosecutions	14,542,000
Criminal Justice	10,421,000
Policing and Security	4,634,000

(b) There are no functions of the NIO Core Department carried out in Wales.

Compensation Agency

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the total cost was of compensation payments paid out by the Compensation Agency as a result of terrorist attacks since the beginning of the Troubles, broken down by category. [39652]

Mr. Hain: The Compensation Agency cannot provide information about the cost of compensation stemming specifically from terrorist attacks as there is often no way of ascertaining the motives of a victim's assailants unless a prosecution follows. In many cases where the assailant(s) are unknown, or where no prosecution has
 
10 Jan 2006 : Column 563W
 
taken place, the Agency could only speculate about the perpetrator's motives and consequently figures provided on that basis would be very unreliable.

Departmental Expenditure

Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much his Department spent on bottled water in 2004–05. [40329]

Mr. Woodward: The Northern Ireland Office, excluding its Agencies and NDPBs, spent £29,915 on bottled water in 2004–05.

Ministerial Visits

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many overnight stays in Northern Ireland each Minister has made since taking up their post. [37588]

Mr. Hain: The number of overnight stays each Northern Ireland Minister has made between taking office in May 2005 and December 31 2005 is as follows:

Minister	Overnight	Day
Shaun Woodward	26	67
David Hanson	47	87
Angela Smith	62	88
Jeff Rooker	43	84

In addition to the time spent in Northern Ireland, Ministers undertake NIO business in Parliament and in the Northern Ireland Office at 11 Millbank.

Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he has received written representations from members of the armed forces in support of the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill. [40533]

Mr. Hain: No.

Shoplifting (Prosecutions)

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland pursuant to the answer of 13 December 2005, Official Report, column 1866–67W, on prosecutions, how many people were prosecuted for shoplifting in each constituency. [39274]

Mr. Hanson: Prosecution data is not readily available broken down by Northern Ireland constituency. The statistics provided in the table are for the years 2000 to 2003 and are based on the PSNI district command unit in which an offender's address falls. Due to the incomparability of 1999 data, (available only by the police division to which an offence was reported) 1999 figures are not included.

Data are collated on the principal offence rule, thus only the most serious offence for which an offender is charged is included. Statistics beyond 2003 will become available in early 2006.
 
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Prosecutions for shoplifting by police district command unit 2000–03

District command unit	2000	2001	2002	2003
Antrim	33	29	29	15
Ards	18	18	26	18
Armagh	2	8	11	15
Banbridge	5	2	5	12
East Belfast	91	61	44	54
North Belfast	172	109	79	106
South Belfast	56	38	39	45
West Belfast	100	63	67	72
Ballymena	26	33	20	17
Ballymoney	5	5	6	5
Carrickfergus	21	25	19	15
Coleraine	25	20	27	20
Cooksown	1	6	7	8
Craigavon	16	17	29	23
Castlereagh	27	13	8	24
Dungannon and South Tyrone	3	6	5	12
Down	17	10	15	9
Fermanagh	17	9	9	11
Foyle	69	69	59	50
Larne	4	13	10	3
Limavady	11	15	7	4
Lisburn	29	48	43	37
Magherafelt	3	6	5	7
Moyle	5	3	4	1
Newtownabbey	35	19	12	8
North down	24	38	22	26
Newry and Mourne	8	15	26	22
Omagh	7	12	14	11
Strabane	8	7	8	10
Missing	20	13	14	14
Total	858	730	669	674

Notes:
1. Data are based on the police district command unit (DCU) in which an offender's address falls.
2. Police DCUs became operational in April 2001. However, for the purposes of comparability, calendar year 2000 data are also disaggregated by DCU, rather than police division.
3. It is not possible to disaggregate data by DCU for 1999. Missing data relate to those offenders for which DCU information is not available.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Community Support Officers

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance he has issued to police authorities on meeting the shortfall in central funding for police community support officers in 2006–07. [38193]

Mr. Charles Clarke: We will be providing police authorities with good practice guidance early next year to assist them in developing their strategies for working with partners to obtain matched funding for police community support officer posts.

Experience Corps

Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects the March 2005 accounts of the Experience Corps to be published. [40238]

Paul Goggins: The Secretary of State for the Home Department has no responsibility for the March 2005 accounts of the Experience Corps. Section 47 of the Charities Act 1993 requires that all registered charities publish annual accounts.
 
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Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when a Minister in his Department last met representatives of the Experience Corps. [40239]

Paul Goggins: On 8 July 2003 Fiona Mactaggart met Baroness Greengross and Mavis Best of the Experience Corps and Stuart Etherington of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations.

Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department why his Department did not renew its original grant of £20 million to the Experience Corps. [40242]

Paul Goggins: The decision not to renew funding for the Experience Corps beyond March 2004 followed a fully independent assessment of their performance.

Mr. Fallon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what public funding the Experience Corps is receiving in 2005–06. [40243]

Paul Goggins: The Home Office did not make any funding available to the Experience Corps in the financial year 2005–06.
 
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