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6 Feb 2006 : Column 935W—continued
Death Statistics
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were killed by police personnel in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005. [48069]
Hazel Blears: Police forces are required to report deaths which occur in police custody or during police contact to the Independent Police Complains Commission (IPCC). The IPCC is responsible for publication of statistics relating to deaths in those circumstances. Any inquiries should be made to the Chair of the Commission.
Departmental Publications
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the cost of the publication Compact on the Department's relationship with the voluntary sector; and if he will make a statement. [47212]
Paul Goggins: The Compact on Relations between Government and the Voluntary and Community Sector sets out the rules for engagement between government bodies and the sector. The costs of publishing the Compact in October 1998 with subsequent reprints were £28,200. We have published Codes of Good Practice that underpin the Compact. The costs for these and subsequent reprints were £95,300. Summaries of the Compact and Codes have also been published and the costs for these and reprints were £18,700.
Departmental Targets
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the time scales are for each aspect of performance against 2004 public service agreement target No. 4. [29935]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
Details of the target levels and time scales are set out in the public service agreements (PSA) technical notes. For the element on offenders
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entering treatment, these details were added in a revision published in July 2005 and can be found at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/documents/psa-technical-note-SR04- jul-05. Performance against PSA No. 4 was published in the Home Office autumn performance report in December. This is a Command Paper and available on the Home Office website.
DNA
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance he has issued to chief constables on the retention of the DNA records of (a) children and (b) adults who have not been convicted of any offence. [47518]
Andy Burnham [holding answer 31 January 2006]: Home Office Circular 25/2001 issued to chief constables in June 2001 states that when an individual is cleared of an offence, samples taken during an investigation may be retained, but that they may only be used for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime, the investigation of an offence or the conduct of a prosecution. Since April 2005, they may also be used for the purposes of identifying a deceased person. There is no distinction between the retention of DNA profiles of an adult or a juvenile.
Guidance has also been issued in The Codes of Practice (Code D) made under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 which give advice on the taking, use and retention of samples. The Codes of Practice (Code C) also give advice on interviewing juveniles.
The decision whether or not to retain a DNA sample is an operational one for the chief constable of the force which took the sample, and the Association of Chief Police Officers has for some time been developing guidelines to assist them in the exercise of their discretion. It is expected that a decision not to retain a DNA sample will be made in exceptional circumstances only. These guidelines will be issued shortly.
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Dog Fighting Act
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were prosecuted under the Dog Fighting Act 1835 in each year since 1997; and what sentences they received. [45219]
Fiona Mactaggart: The question relates to the Cruelty to Animals Act 1835 which has been repealed. There is no record on the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice of any prosecutions under this Act.
Drugs
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the results of the Drug Intervention Programme. [44094]
Paul Goggins: Since its introduction in April 2003, over 33,000 drug misusing offenders have entered treatment through the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP). Waiting times for treatment in the 'intensive' DIP areas have fallen to their lowest levels ever. Acquisitive crime—to which drug related crime makes a substantial contribution—fell by 12 per cent. in the year to April 2005.
Its success has been achieved through a combination of additional resources, new legislation, revised working practices and a stronger focus on partnership working.
We are on track to achieve the overall target of 1,000 offenders a week into treatment by 2008 and we exceeded the interim (March 2005) target by 54 per cent. Over 2,000 offenders entered treatment in November 2005.
The programme continues to be developed and strengthened. For example, from 1 December 2005 new provisions contained in the Drugs Act 2005 have been implemented in three police force areas: Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire and Nottingham. These give police powers to test for specified Class A drugs on arrest and to require persons who have tested positive for a specified Class A drug to attend an assessment of their drug use (an initial assessment). These powers are improving access to offenders including those who have previously not been in treatment. They will be extended to other intensive areas by 31 March 2006 on which date restriction on bail provisions will also be available across the whole of England.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been remanded in police custody for a further 192 hours under the Drugs Act 2005 for drug trafficking offences. [47711]
Paul Goggins: The power for a magistrate to remand into police custody a person charged with a drug trafficking offence for a period of up to 192 hours was contained in the Drugs Act 2005. This provision commenced on 1 January 2006, and no figures are available for its use to date.
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of problem drug misusers he estimates are addicted to heroin. [44642]
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Paul Goggins: Current estimates of the number of problematic drug users do not provide a breakdown by type of drug used.
However, the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) has published provisional figures showing that in 2003–04 about two thirds (67.3 per cent.) of drug treatment clients in England used heroin as their main drug. This may not provide an entirely accurate reflection of the percentage of problematic drug users who are addicted to heroin as the numbers will be influenced by the types of services that are available (reflecting historical patterns of drug use), the availability of effective treatments, and the type of clients who present to drug treatment services.
Electronic Monitoring
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) age group and (b) sex was of each asylum claimant carrying an electronic tag on 31 December 2005. [47481]
Mr. McNulty: Section 36 of the Immigration and Asylum (treatment of claimants etc.) Act 2004 allows for the electronic monitoring of those of at least 18 years of age. On 31 December 2005 there were a total of 71 asylum claimants wearing an electronic tag. Their ages ranged from 20–53 years. 65 were male and 6 were female.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of the number of asylum claimants who will be carrying an electronic tag on (a) 30 June 2006 and (b) 31 December 2006. [47483]
Mr. McNulty: For the financial year 2005–06, a maximum of 200 new inductions have been funded, increasing to 800 new inductions for 2006–07. These projections are based on funding allocations.
Emigration
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have emigrated from the UK in each year since 1990. [47742]
John Healey: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 6 February 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question regarding the number of people emigrating from the United Kingdom in each year since 1990.1 am replying in her absence. (47742)
Estimates of emigration from the UK are shown in the attached table. The figures are based on the most comprehensive estimate of migration produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Total International Migration (TIM), which is based on a number of sources. TIM estimates using the current methodology are only available from 1991 onwards. The latest estimates, for 2004, were published in the First Release on 20 October 2005, and can be found on the National Statistics website: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Product.asp?vlnk=507.
(32) Data for 1991 to 2004 are based mainly on data from the International Passenger Survey. Includes adjustments for (1) those whose intended length of stay changes so that their migrant status changes; (2) asylum seekers and their dependants not identified by the IPS; and (3) flows between the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Note:
A small weighting adjustment has been applied to IPS data for 1991 to 1998. This reflects the estimated effect of applying the weighting improvements made to IPS data from 1999 onwards.
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