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Women Police Constables
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) which police forces in England and Wales refer to women police constables as WPCs; [52071]
(2) what criteria are used in deciding whether women police constables are called WPCs or PCs; who makes the decision; what changes there have been in policy on the issue in the last five years; whether it is normal practice to consult affected personnel; and if he will make a statement. [52073]
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Hazel Blears: The information requested is as follows:
(1) The title WPC" is not used in any police force in England and Wales.
(2) Police forces in England and Wales do not differentiate between male and female officers when using rank or role identification. Although there is no explicit policy on the use of the term WPC", police forces increasingly discontinued its use over a number of years. The British Association for Women in Policing and Police Federation have been influential in highlighting barriers facing women in the service and seeking to remove these. The removal of unnecessary gender labels supports deployment based on skills and experience rather than gender.
All police roles are open to both women and men. Gender is relevant when it comes to searching individuals; otherwise, it is an officer's skill, ability, knowledge and experience which are relevant.
Young Offenders
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) the capacity and (b) the population is of each young offender institution. [42162]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested, as recorded on the Prison Service IT system, is provided in the following table.
Note:
The table does not include establishments that hold adults only; where the site is split between young persons and adults, the capacity of the whole establishment is shown and remand, sentenced, young adults, juveniles, males and females are included.
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Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the levels of re-offending by young offenders were in each year between 2001–02 and 2005–06. [53008]
Fiona Mactaggart:
The most recent data on re-offending are published in 'Juvenile reconviction: results from the 2003 cohort, RDS OLR 08/05'. The report, which covers 2001 to 2003, is available on-line at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/onlinepubs1.html.
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Youth Justice Board
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding the Youth Justice Board received in 2004–05 for the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme for young offenders. [53997]
Fiona Mactaggart: The Youth Justice Board received £29.6 million to fund the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme for 2004–05.