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15 Jun 2006 : Column 1362W—continued
Police
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what complaints to the Independent Police Complaints Commission have been upheld in each year since its inception; what (a) response was made and (b) action was taken by the relevant police force to implement the recommendations; and if he will make a statement. [77250]
Mr. McNulty: The Independent Police Complaints Commission is responsible for the management of the police complaints system. I will ensure that the chairman receives a copy of the question and replies to you directly. Copies of the letter containing the IPCC’s response will be placed in the House Libraries.
Prisoners' Compensation
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 17 May 2006, Official Report, column 1049W to the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies), on prisoners’ compensation, if he will break down the awards by the prison where the prisoner was being held. [73338]
Mr. Sutcliffe: A copy of the table will be placed in the Library.
Prisons
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners under the age of 18 years are in HMP Gloucester; and what plans he has to transfer those individuals to specialist youth institutions. [74500]
Mr. Sutcliffe: There were no prisoners under the age of 18 held in HMP Gloucester on 8 June 2006.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) maximum, (b) mean and (c) median amount of money is held in prisoners’ private cash accounts at each prison establishment; and if he will make a statement. [78194]
Mr. Sutcliffe: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Prostitution
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Prostitution Strategy announced in January 2006 has been implemented; and if he will make a statement. [76708]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Implementation of the prostitution strategy is currently under way. This involves working with a range of stakeholders from across Whitehall as well as with non-government organisations and voluntary sector groups.
Working up the proposed new rehabilitative penalty for the offence of loitering and soliciting.
Working with police training provider, Centrex, to design a training package for police, with a multi-agency focus, for tackling prostitution in local areas.
Expansion of the scheme to report “dodgy punters” through a national Crimestoppers campaign (Ugly Mugs scheme).
Working with the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to develop Personal, Social, Health Education guidance for schools—with a focus on prevention and safety.
Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions restraint was used on trainees at Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre between July and October 2005. [76204]
Mr. Sutcliffe: In the four months July-October 2005, trainees at Rainsbrook were restrained on 194 occasions. This figure includes low-level interventions, such as a trainee being led away from a potential incident.
Safety Cameras
Mr. Walter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the police in Wiltshire use the LTI 20.20 mobile speed cameras. [76705]
Mr. McNulty: There are a number of speed meters type approved for police use, including the LTI 20.20. It is for individual police forces to decide which type approved to purchase and use. I understand that the Wiltshire constabulary do use the LTI 20.20.
Security Industry
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many meetings senior officials of the Security Industry Authority have held with officials of the National Security Inspectorate to discuss the implementation of the new approved contractor scheme. [75663]
Mr. Coaker: Insight Certification (the parent organisation of the National Security Inspectorate) was one of eight assessing bodies appointed in August 2005 to carry out assessments for the Approved Contractor Scheme. Accordingly there has been regular and frequent contact between the SIA personnel responsible for the ACS and NSI personnel at all levels.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what checks are in place to ensure that applicants for a security licence from the security industry authority originating from (a) other EU countries, (b) sub-Saharan Africa and (c) South East Asia do not have a criminal record in their country of origin. [75664]
Mr. Coaker: The SIA require that all applicants provide a complete five year address history preceding their application. If at any time during the past five years any applicant was abroad for six continuous months or more, they are required to provide an overseas criminality certificate (OCC) from the official competent issuing authority of the country concerned. This policy is uniform in its application and applies to all applicants irrespective of the country concerned.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what target has been set for processing applications for licences issued by the Security Industry Authority; and what the (a) mean and (b) modal period has been for processing applications since its inception. [71143]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 18 May 2006]: The SIA do not calculate the mean or modal period processing times for applications. Some, such as those involving overseas criminal records checks, unavoidably take a considerable time. The SIA have a published target of processing 80 per cent. of all applications within six weeks, measured from the date that a properly completed application enters the processing system to the date that a licence is issued. From April 2004 until August 2005 the SIA processed 62 per cent. within six weeks and 88 per cent. within nine weeks. Since September 2005, there has been a backlog of applications that have been waiting to enter the system. These have added an additional time of between two and four weeks to the process, so it is now taking up to 10 weeks to process most applications.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the ability of the Security Industry Authority to respond to telephone enquiries; and if he will make a statement. [55234]
Mr. Coaker: On average, the SIA call centre handles approximately 1,000 calls a day. During March 2006, average call volumes were four times higher than normal, reaching a peak of 8,000 calls on 20 March 2006. This high level of demand resulted from a late influx of cases.
To address this high demand, the SIA have increased the number of phone lines, hired more operators, and made their website more user-friendly. For example, the SIA are going to put onto their website an online tracker facility enabling applicants to check the progress of their application and to inform them of the date when they are likely to receive their licence.
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many security personnel at (a) ports, (b) harbours and (c) airports are required to have Security Industry Authority licences by 20 March 2006; and how many have yet to receive such licences. [58986]
Mr. Coaker: There are no figures available of the number of personnel working at UK sea ports and harbours who are required to hold a SIA licence, although the Department for Transport (DfT) estimates the number to be relatively small.
To avoid double licensing, security personnel at UK airports have been exempted from SIA licensing where they are already subject to the DfT’s directed personnel security and training regimes. This applies to all contracted security staff working airside at passenger terminals.
Minister for Women
Gender Pay Gap
Ms Abbott: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what assessment she has made of the effects of occupational segregation in the gender pay gap. [75576]
Meg Munn: Occupational segregation has been identified as a significant contributor to the gender pay gap as women are highly concentrated in lower paid jobs or part-time occupations, which tend to be lower paid.
There is a body of evidence, most recently in “Shaping a Fairer Future”, the report of the Women and Work Commission, which indicates that occupational segregation narrows the pool of talent that employers can choose from, which means that not everyone’s skills are being utilised to the full. Government are committed to taking action on the recommendations and will issue an action plan later in the year.
Rape Sentences
Ms Abbott: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what discussions she has had with the Solicitor-General about the Sentencing Guidelines Council’s recent recommendation that men convicted of rape should receive a lighter sentence if they had been close to their victim before the offence. [75578]
Meg Munn: The draft sentencing guidelines on sexual offending were published on 7 June and I will be discussing them with colleagues at the forthcoming inter-ministerial group on sexual offending. I sit on this group in my capacity as Deputy Minister for Women and Equality.
Women (Parliament)
Ms Abbott: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what assessment she has made of progress in more women being (a) selected and (b) elected to Parliament. [75355]
Meg Munn: In 2002 we introduced the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act allowing positive measures towards women’s increased participation. This legislation is having an impact and the numbers are rising particularly in the parties that made use of these measures.
The Labour Party was able to increase the percentage of women MPs in the last general election by using all-women shortlists to select candidates in its retirement seats.
By contrast the Liberal Democrat Party and the Conservative Party respectively only selected 32 per cent. and 12 per cent. of women candidates for its 50 most winnable seats.
Overall, 20 per cent. of MPs are now women compared with 9 per cent. before 1997. Nearly 27.4 per cent. of Labour MPs are now women, while 8.6 per cent. of Conservative MPs and 14.3 per cent. of Liberal Democrat MPs are women.
Communities and Local Government
Bus Vouchers (Pensioners)
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will provide (a) petrol and (b) taxi vouchers to pensioners who live in rural areas which do not have bus services; and if she will make a statement. [74171]
Gillian Merron: I have been asked to reply.
There are no plans to provide a statutory entitlement to petrol or taxi vouchers for older people. However, local authorities have the discretion to offer concessionary travel schemes which give discounted travel on public transport other than buses, such as taxi vouchers.
Cultural Strategy (Coventry)
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding her Department is providing towards Coventry council’s cultural strategy. [76451]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 13 June 2006]: Through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund my Department is supporting projects that contribute towards cultural activities in Coventry. They include:
‘Coventry Fusion’: £486,000—Preventative programmes to reduce crime, the fear of crime and antisocial behaviour. The project will deliver activity and diversionary programmes to children and young people.
‘Lady Godiva Half Marathon’: £50,000—To continue to establish the half marathon event as a flagship initiative with the aim of promoting exercise in general, particularly in priority neighbourhoods. It will also look to broaden the diversity of participants.
‘One Body, One Life’: £300,000—The project delivers a health programme for children, young people and families. The programme will be targeted at 1,000 individuals.
‘Coventry—let’s walk’: £200,000—The project aims to develop a co-ordinated programme of activities around walks.
Coventry New Deal for Communities Partnership, is part of the Coventry Partnership and is a priority neighbourhood within the Coventry Partnership.
The NDC has also funded a number of projects that contribute towards the delivery of the cultural strategy albeit in the NDC area only. These include the provision of additional sport and recreation areas, leisure activities programmes, community music facilities, dance and theatre productions, totalling some £2.6 million in grant aid.
In addition, general Government support for local services, including cultural activity, is provided through the unhypothecated formula grant. Coventry receives increases in formula grant of 2.4 per cent. in 2006-07 and 4.0 per cent. in 2007-08.
Fires (Schools)
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many daytime fires in schools have been reported since 2001. [77453]
Angela E. Smith: The number of daytime fires reported to, and attended by fire and rescue services in England since 2001 is set out as follows:
| Number of daytime school fires attended | |
| Number | |
| (1) Provisional figures. Notes: 1. Day time assumed to be 8.30 am—4.00 pm. 2. Figures include weekends and school holidays. 3. Fires were not recorded during the strike periods in November 2002 and January/February 2003. Source: Fire and Rescue Service FDR1 returns to DCLG | |
Home Ownership
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many people in each electoral ward in the Stroud constituency own their own home. [77789]
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 15 June 2006:
The National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people in each electoral ward in the Stroud constituency own their own home. I am replying in her absence. (77789)
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