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Crime

Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the levels of (a) violent crime, (b) car crime, (c) robbery and (d) burglary in Uxbridge constituency; and if he will make a statement. [53640]

Hazel Blears: Uxbridge comes within the Hillingdon crime and disorder reduction partnership (CDRP) area. The available information for the Hillingdon CDRP is given in the table.
Recorded crime in the Hillingdon crime and disorder reduction partnership area, 2004–05

Offence	Number of offences
Violent crime	6,782
Domestic burglary	2,056
Robbery	593
Vehicle crime	4,812

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made using the
 
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Home Office Trends in Crime model of the impact on crime rates of (a) economic and (b) demographic changes in each year since 1995; and if he will make a statement. [53898]

Hazel Blears: The Home Office Trends in Crime model is an empirical model which attempts to explain annual changes in recorded crime in England and Wales by reference to annual changes in a number of economic, demographic, and criminal justice variables. It has been developed by joint external and internal research effort with the purpose of providing the Home Office with a tool for identifying those determinants of crime that are both within and outside of its control.

The model is robust, but highly aggregated. As such it cannot account for all the factors that impact on crime rates. It has nonetheless demonstrated that economic and demographic factors have been important determinants of changes in crime over time.

The model has not been used to attribute annual changes in crime to each of the explanatory variables. However, the model predicts that, if other factors remain constant, a permanent 1 per cent. increase in the growth rate of consumption expenditure reduces the growth rate of crime by about 1.7 per cent. On a similar basis, an increase of 1 per cent. in the growth rate of the proportion of young males in the population would increase the growth rate of crime by about 0.5 per cent.

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what changes have been made to the Home Office Trends in Crime model in the last year; and if he will make a statement. [53899]

Hazel Blears: The Trends in Crime model is a forecasting tool developed by the Home Office with the purpose of providing a mechanism to quantify the autonomous determinants of crime using time series data from 1950 to 2004. The model attempts to explain annual changes in recorded crime by annual changes in a combination of economic, socio-demographic and criminal justice variables for the jurisdiction of England and Wales.
 
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Separate models have previously been estimated for five disaggregated property recorded crime types: total burglary, total robbery, theft of and from a vehicle and theft from a shop. These models have been recently updated with no major changes.

New models have been developed for three additional crime types: total theft, criminal damage and violence against the person. These models are currently awaiting peer review.

Coverage of recorded crimes in the Trends in Crime model now accounts for approximately 70 per cent. of total recorded crime.

Criminal Cases Review Commission

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Criminal Cases Review Commission received in grant aid in each year since 1997. [47398]

Fiona Mactaggart: The amount of grant in aid received by the Commission each year since 1997 is shown in the following table.

	£
1997–98	4,303,977
1998–99	4,517,134
1999–2000	5,530,000
2000–01	5,415,000
2001–02	6,525,000
2002–03	7,000,000
2003–04	7,800,000
2004–05	5,750,000

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 7 February 2006, Official Report, column 1094W, if he will place in the Library a list of the cases where (a) convictions have been found to be unsafe and (b) sentences have been found to be unfair. [53087]

Fiona Mactaggart: Since its inception, the commission had reviewed 7,590 cases by 31 December 2005, including 308 cases which had been referred to the appeal courts. 252 of the 308 referred cases had been heard by the appeal courts which had quashed 156 convictions and reduced 22 sentences. The breakdown by year is set out in the following table.

	Cases not referred	Convictions referred	Sentences referred	Convictions quashed by appeal courts	Sentences reduced appeal courts
1997–98	299	10	1	9	1
1998–99	461	27	4	17	1
1999–2000	979	33	3	23	2
2000–01	1,065	41	4	18	4
2001–02	1,164	36	2	26	2
2002–03	952	32	3	28	1
2003–04	871	26	4	18	3
2004–05	780	35	10	12	7
1 April to 31 December 2005	711	29	8	5	1

Deactivated Weapons

Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of violent crime using a deactivated weapon were recorded in each year since 1997–98. [54112]

Hazel Blears: Data for recorded crime involving specific types of imitation firearms in England and Wales have been only collected centrally since April 2004. In 2004–05 police recorded one violent offence that involved a deactivated weapon.
 
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Death Statistics

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were killed by people diagnosed with a mental illness in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005. [48068]

Hazel Blears: Available data are in the form of currently recorded homicides where the apparent circumstances of the offence involved a mentally disturbed suspect and were published in table 2.06 of Violent Crime Overview, Homicide and Gun Crime 2004/05" (HOSB 02/06). Based on information held on 28 November 2005, there were 40 victims in 2003–04 and 30 in 2004–05 where the suspect was considered to be mentally disturbed.

Departmental Catering Budget

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much and what proportion of his Department's catering budget was spent on fair trade produce in the last period for which figures are available. [49912]

Mr. Charles Clarke: Figures for the entire Home Office estate are not collated centrally. However, at the Department's new headquarters building our facilities manager has estimated that approximately £123,000 was spent on refreshments, primarily provided for meetings with visitors, which were fair trade (Rainforest Alliance/Fairtrade) products since moving in, in early 2005. This represents 25 per cent. of the total of such spending. There were in excess of 130,000 visitors recorded during this period.

Andrew George: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his Department's policy is on the procurement of fair trade produce for consumption on its premises. [49922]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The Home Office is fully aware of the Government's commitment to support ethical trading wherever possible and provides fair trade tea and coffee as standard refreshments at meetings at some of its key buildings.

In addition a range of fair trade products is available for staff to purchase at some restaurants and cafes on the Home Office estate.

On the public sector prison service estate, prison shops in some establishments sell a small range of fair trade products to prisoners and certain fair trade items are supplied for prisoner catering.

Departmental Recruitment

Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many job advertisements were placed by his Department (a) in total, (b) in print newspapers and magazines and (c) on a recruitment website in each year since 1997; and at what (i) total and (ii) average cost in each case. [50744]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is not held centrally and to provide a breakdown as requested could be supplied only at disproportionate costs.
 
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