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17 Jan 2006 : Column 1282W—continued
Traffic Offences
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many motorists stopped for breaking the speed limit in (a) Southend, (b) Essex, (c) Hertfordshire, (d) the Metropolitan Police area of London and (e) England and Wales received a (i) warning and (ii) caution in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [39714]
Hazel Blears: The annual Home Office publication 'Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales, Supplementary tables' 1999 to 2003 (latest available), Table 18 gives data by police force area on written warnings (which includes formal cautions) issued by motoring offence groups. Copies of the publications are available in the Library. The publications can also be accessed on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics (RDS) website at:
It is not possible from the data collected centrally to identify Southend within the geographical area covered by the Essex police force. 2004 data will be available end of March 2006.
Under-age Drinking
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many fixed penalty notices were issued for the consumption of alcohol by under-18s in licensed premises in (a) England and Wales, (b) Greater London and (c) Croydon in (i) 2004 and (ii) 2005; [41129]
(2) how many fixed penalty notices were issued for selling alcohol to under-18s in (a) England and Wales, (b) Greater London and (c) Croydon in (i) 2004 and (ii) 2005. [41130]
Paul Goggins:
The penalty notice for disorder (PND) scheme was brought into effect in England and Wales during 2003–04 to provide the police with a quick and effective means of dealing with minor offences. Under the scheme an offender is issued with a fixed penalty notice and has 21 days in which to pay the penalty or request a court hearing.
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The offences of sale of alcohol to a person under 18 and consumption of alcohol by a person under 18 were added to the scheme with effect from 1 November 2004.
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The latest available figures showing the number of penalty notices issued for these offences from November 2004 to September 2005, are provided in the table.
(18) Provisional data.
Source:
RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform.
It is not possible to identify penalty notices for disorder issued in Croydon as the data is not broken down to that level of detail.
Vulnerable Witnesses
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vulnerable witnesses were interviewed by police in each year since 2000; and if he will make a statement. [29340]
Hazel Blears: This information is not collected centrally.
War Crimes
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests for war crimes under the Geneva conventions have been made by the Metropolitan police since 1997. [40801]
Andy Burnham: The Metropolitan police unit responsible for war crimes has no record of any arrests under the provisions of the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 since 1997.
Young Offenders
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many young people of school age (a) found guilty of a crime and (b) placed in custody had a previous history of being in care in (i) Wimbledon and (ii) the London Borough of Merton in each year since 1997. [41707]
Fiona Mactaggart: This information is not collected centrally.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were committed by young offenders in each of the last eight years. [42167]
Hazel Blears: The information requested is not collected centrally. It is not possible to identify the age of the offender in the recorded crime data series.
Youth Crime
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to tackle youth crime in Southend; and if he will make a statement. [34027]
Hazel Blears: The Youth Justice Board has recently awarded a grant of £217,000 to Southend Youth Offending Team for services to prevent youth crime and antisocial behaviour between 2006 and 2008. The Youth Offending Service in Southend provides a range of services aimed at preventing offending and re-offending, including Youth Inclusion and Support Panels, a Family Support Project, Positive Action for Young People and drug treatment programmes. As part of the Government's Prolific and other Priority Offenders programme, Southend Youth Offending Team, in partnership with other agencies, is currently targeting 20 young offenders who have been identified as being most at risk of becoming future prolific offenders. The focus is on working intensively with these young offenders to address all the risks associated with their re-offending through a multi-agency response.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
BBC World Service
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the role of the BBC World Service in Central Asia. [41682]
Mr. Straw: The role of the BBC World Service is to deliver high quality international news coverage to a global audience through radio, TV and new media, thereby bringing benefit to Britain. Vernacular radio services targeted towards the Central Asia region include Azeri, Kyrgyz, Pashto, Mandarin, Russian and Uzbek. World Service English language broadcasts are also available as are websites in English, Mandarin and Russian. Recently the World Service closed its dedicated Kazakh service because of low reach and impact.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how funding for the proposed BBC World Service Arabic TV channel will be sourced. [41683]
Mr. Straw: The new channel will be funded from the existing grant in aid to BBC World Service which is currently £239 million per annum. Following a review of its output and input, the World Service has decided to close a number of low impact vernacular services. These closures, together with efficiency measures, will release resources to launch 12-hour Arabic TV.
Burma
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much investment in Burma has been made through UK dependent territories in each of the past five years. [42247]
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Ian Pearson [holding answer 16 January 2006]: We do not hold any statistics on investment being channelled through the British Overseas Territories into Burma.
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of (a) problems facing the oil industry in Muanda, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and (b) the impact of Angolese soldiers in that region; and if he will make a statement. [41426]
Ian Pearson: We are not aware of any reports of problems facing the oil industry in Muanda, nor of the presence of Angolan troops in Muanda. However, Angolan troops are conducting a bilateral training programme at Kitona in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, at the request of the Congolese Government.
Departmental Equipment
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many (a) laptops and (b) mobile phones his Department bought in each year since 1997; and what the cost of each category of equipment was in each year. [41262]
Mr. Straw: While core IT equipment is centrally provided, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) operates a devolved system of budgeting under which directorates and overseas posts have the freedom to buy a range of IT and other equipment to support their work. Laptop computers, in particular, are frequently bought from such devolved budgets and no central figures exist for the numbers used within the FCO. To obtain this information would incur disproportionate costs.
Since 2003, officially supplied mobile telephones for use by the FCO in the UK are obtained under the central Government GTM contract owned by the Office of Government Commerce. Records available show that in the financial year 2004–05 the Department bought 269 mobile phones and 18 Blackberries" at the prices specified under that contract. Prior to 2003, mobile phones were obtained under a variety of contracts, but there was generally no charge for the equipment supplied. Responsibility for contracts for mobile phones used by staff overseas is devolved to our overseas missions and to obtain the relevant figures would incur disproportionate costs.
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