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1 Mar 2006 : Column 813W—continued
External Consultants
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department has paid since 2004 to external consultants who had previously been employed by the Department in any capacity within the previous five years. [41200]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Information on whether external consultants have previously been employed by the Department in any capacity is not held centrally. To obtain this information and the total cost of employing such consultants would incur disproportionate cost.
Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether a fund analogous to the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund exists from which non-religious belief groups may receive grant money. [54260]
Paul Goggins: The Government are investing in a number of funds to support capacity building in the voluntary and community sector:
£80 million in the ChangeUp programme to improve the support available to front line voluntary and community sector organisations. Investment is being made at national, regional and local level and is focused on infrastructure organisations within the voluntary community sector.
£125 million in Futurebuilders fund which is investing in front line VCS public service delivery schemes in priority service areas of health and social care; crime; community cohesion; education and learning; and support for children and young people.
In addition, as part of the implementation of the recommendations within the Russell Commission report the Government are investing £1 million in a programme to build the capacity of voluntary and community sector organisations to involve more young volunteers. 45 national, regional and local organisations have been awarded funding and there will be a programme of training and support offered across England.
Any VCS organisation that can satisfy the criteria for any of the above programmes would be eligible to apply for that programme.
Firearms
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests have been made in each year since 1997 for possession of firearms; and how many gun-related incidents have been recorded in each of those years. [54477]
Hazel Blears: Available information on arrests for possession of firearms following searches of persons or vehicles under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 can be found in table PA of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin 21/05 Arrests for Recorded Crime (Notifiable Offences) and the Operation of Certain Police Powers under PACE, England and Wales, 2004/05".
Table 3.01 of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin Violent Crime Overview, Homicide and Gun Crime, 2004/05"shows the number of notifiable crimes
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recorded by the police in England and Wales in which firearms (including air weapons) were reported to have been used.
Both bulletins are available on the Home Office website www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/hosbpubs1.html.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of illegally held firearms in England and Wales. [54478]
Hazel Blears: There are no reliable estimates of the number of firearms held illegally.
Fireworks
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many penalty notices have been issued in relation to the illegal use of fireworks in (a) West Lancashire and (b) the Lancashire police force area since the relevant legislation was introduced. [53392]
Hazel Blears: Offences under the Fireworks Regulations 2004 (made under section 11 of the Fireworks Act 2003) for breach of the national fireworks curfew, the illegal possession of category four fireworks and the possession by a person under 18 of an adult firework attract penalty notices for disorder, as well as the offence of throwing fireworks. The offence of throwing fireworks has been included in the penalty notice for disorder scheme since it was introduced nationally during 2004. The offences under the Fireworks Regulations 2004 were brought into the scheme with effect from 11 October 2004. The numbers of penalty notices issued by Lancashire police force area for 2004 and provisional data from January to September 2005 are provided in the table. It is not possible to identify the number of Penalty Notices for Disorder issued in West Lancashire police force area as centrally available data is not broken down to that level of detail.
Source:
RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform
Fraud (Bank Accounts)
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the level of fraud involving (a) basic bank accounts and (b) current accounts. [53600]
Hazel Blears:
Information is not collected centrally on the level of fraud involving basic bank accounts and current accounts.
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Freedom of Information
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what total sum has been received by his Department for the provision of information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in its first year of operation. [48497]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The total sum received by the Department for the provision of information under the Freedom of Information Act is zero.
The Freedom of Information Act allows for public authorities to determine when the cost of processing a request will exceed the appropriate limit, which for central Government are set at £600 and for the wider public sector £450.
Further information on the FOI fees regime can be found on the DCA website at http://www.foi.gov.uk/feesguide.htm.
Graffiti
Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to extend the powers of local authorities to remove graffiti from private property. [52689]
Hazel Blears: Defacement Removal Notices as introduced by the Antisocial Behaviour Act 2003 (and amended by the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005) will be commenced on 6 April 2006. This provision enables a local authority to serve a defacement removal notice on the owner of street furniture or property owned by a statutory undertaker when they have failed to remove graffiti or fly-posting.
There are no plans to extend this to cover private domestic property.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which major investigations have been inspected by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary since 1997. [49129]
Hazel Blears: HMIC reported on the investigation by Cambridgeshire Constabulary into the murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells on 4 August 2002.
Home Detention Curfew Scheme
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people convicted of (a) gun crimes and (b) drug crimes were released (i) on licence, (ii) on the Home Detention Curfew Scheme and (iii) early, having not reached their sentence expiry date, in each of the last five years. [45844]
Fiona Mactaggart:
Information on numbers of those convicted of gun crimes who were released from prison establishments is not available centrally. An indication of the number of releases of those convicted of drugs offences can be found in tables 7.2 of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin: Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004, a copy of which can be found in the House of Commons Library. This shows the number of sentenced receptions each year.
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The number of people sentenced for drugs offences who were released under the Home Detention Curfew Scheme between the years 2001 and 2005, as recorded on the Prison Service IT system, is provided in the following table.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 2,213 |
| 2002 | 2,669 |
| 2003 | 2,777 |
| 2004 | 2,427 |
| 2005 | 2,530 |
Notes:
1. These statistics are based on information recorded on the central Prison Service IT system at 9 February 2006. Further updates and amendments may be made to records on this system in future resulting in revised figures.
2. Offence recorded on Prison Service IT system.
Investigations suggest that around 5 per cent. of offence types recorded on this system do not relate to the offence for which they were released on HOC but relate to offences committed after release from prison and before the licence expiry date for their sentence.
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