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Raoul Wallenberg

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received about including Raoul Wallenberg in Holocaust Memorial Day. [48881]

Paul Goggins: I have not received any representations about including Raoul Wallenberg in Holocaust Memorial Day, an event which, from this year onwards, is arranged under the auspices of the Holocaust Memorial Trust.
 
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Photographs of Raoul Wallenberg were included in the trust's information pack that provided guidelines for local activities. Also, prior to the main event, which took place on 26 January in Cardiff, First Minister of Wales, Rhodri Morgan and Cardiff Council Leader Rodney Berman signed a Book of Commitment to Holocaust Memorial Day, at a special ceremony on Wednesday 18 January. Chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust Dr. Stephen Smith and Chief Executive Nick Joseph presented the book at the ceremony, which took place at the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial in Cathays Park, Cardiff.

The Chair of the Trust, Stephen Smith, spoke about Raoul Wallenberg, when he signed the book of commemoration in Cardiff saying pointing out it was particularly fitting that the ceremony should take place at the memorial to Raoul Wallenberg, who was instrumental in saving thousands of lives during the war and at considerable risk to himself.

Respect Agenda

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the Government's Respect agenda will affect Romford; and whether the implementation of that agenda will include increasing funding for law enforcement in Romford. [48552]

Hazel Blears: The Respect Action Plan sets out the Government's plans for a renewed and broader drive against antisocial behaviour. The measures include: plans to develop neighbourhood policing and increase the number of police community support officers; measures to build stronger communities and empower local people including the community call for action to deal with antisocial behaviour; increasing the accountability of Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships; and a range of new powers to help police and local authorities take action against unacceptable behaviour.

I announced the final details of the 2006–07 grant settlement for all police authorities in England and Wales on 31 January. On a like for like basis Government grant and central spending on services for the police will have increased by nearly 50 per cent. or around £3.5 billion between 2000–01 and 2006–07.

The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) will receive an increase in general grant of 3.1 per cent. (£54.7 million) over the comparable figure for 2005–06. This is in line with the broadly flat rate increase of 3.1 per cent. for all forces in England and Wales. The MPA also gains £4.3 million and £1 million from the Amending Reports for 2004–05 and 2005–06, bringing its overall increase in 2006–07 to 3.4 per cent.

In addition to general grant the MPA will receive £54.72 million in special formula grant and £339.76 million in specific grant and capital provision.

Allocation of these resources and appropriate budget management are matters for the MPA and the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
 
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Secondments

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people from science and technology backgrounds have been seconded into the civil service in his Department in each of the last three years. [48407]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Secondments are part of the interchange initiative, which promotes the exchange of people and good practice between the civil service and other organisations—public, private and voluntary. Interchange provides opportunities for civil servants to learn new skills, widen their experience and develop ideas. It also brings in skills and experiences from other sectors.

During the period 1 April 2002 to 31 December 2005, 208 staff were seconded into the Home Office from outside the civil service. The Home Office records data on inward secondees according to their originating sector—i.e. private, voluntary, academic and public service—but it does not specifically collate data on secondees with a science and technology background.

The annual number of inward secondments to the Home Office from outside the civil service for each of the past three years was:

	Number of inward secondments
2002–03	78
2003–04	64
2004–05	66

Sex Offenders

Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 30 January to Question 44622, on sex offenders, what information is supplied to the police regarding the relevant conviction in court to enable enforcement of the requirement of the offender to notify the police; how many relevant offenders were required to make an initial notification to the police in 2005; and how many did so. [48890]

Hazel Blears: The courts will provide the police with an offender's name, address and date of birth; the offence(s), sentence(s) and date of the conviction(s); any ancillary orders made by the court and the duration of the notification period (the period of time the individual will spend on the sex offenders register"). Figures for the number of offenders who become subject to the notification requirements in any 12 month period are not held centrally. In 2001 we introduced the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and the requirement on each police and probation area to produce annual reports detailing the work undertaken to safeguard the public and manage dangerous offenders in the community. The MAPPA reports include statistics on the number of offenders who are subject to the notification requirements. The 2004–05 reports state that on 31 March 2005 there were 28,994 registered sex offenders living in the community.
 
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Terrorism

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been arrested in (a) Romford, (b) Havering and (c) Greater London under anti-terrorism legislation in the last five years. [48558]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Statistics on Terrorism Act 2000 arrests and outcomes of those arrests are published on the Home Office website on the following link: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/security/terrorism-and-the-law/terrorism-act/

Figures are not currently broken down into specific areas because they are not collated in this way. The statistics have instead been collated nationally from 11 September 2005 and are updated quarterly.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests linked with terrorism have been made in Wales in each of the last five years. [48566]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Statistics on Terrorism Act 2000 arrests and outcomes of those arrests are published on the Home Office website on the following link: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/security/terrorism-and-the-law/terrorism-act/

Figures are not currently broken down into force areas because they are not collated in this way. The statistics have instead been collated nationally from 11 September 2001 and are updated quarterly.

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what meetings have been held in the last six months of the pilot group tasked with taking forward the recommendation adopted at the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on 28 and 29 November 2002 in relation to terrorist profiling; and what was discussed at those meetings. [47574]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Following the last meeting of the pilot group, held in November 2003, the task of developing terrorist profiles has been taken forward by Europol's Counter-Terrorism Task Force. The pilot group itself has therefore not met again since November 2003. Europol hosted a project workshop, with UK representation, on 28 and 29 June 2005, and another meeting is planned for early February 2006. This is an ongoing project which continues to receive member states' contributions and share its interim results. However, you will understand that it would not be appropriate for me to disclose the specific details of these discussions.

Vehicle Thefts

Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many thefts have been recorded by the Metropolitan police of (a) cars, (b) motorcycles, (c) vans and (d) heavy goods vehicles in each of the past five years. [47151]

Hazel Blears: The available information relates to the offence of theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle and is given in the following table. A more detailed breakdown of type of motor vehicle is not collected centrally.
 
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Theft or unauthorised taking of a motor vehicle

Financial year	Metropolitan police
2000–01	62,452
2001–02	62,112
2002–03	58,405
2003–04	55,158
2004–05	48,026

Note:
The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. Figures are therefore not directly comparable with those for earlier years.

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