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20 Jun 2006 : Column 1848W—continued

In reading the data supplied in the table, the following factors should be considered:

(i) the data include crimes committed on train journeys ending at these locations as well as those occurring on the stations themselves; and

(ii) the Home Office introduced a National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) that all police forces across England and Wales were required to adopt. BTP adopted this standard on 1 April 2002. The impact of the new recording standard saw an increase in recorded crime, equating to an average 22 per cent. increase recorded by all police forces across England and Wales. The basic principle of NCRS is that if on the balance of probability a crime has been committed it is recorded as a crime. As a result 2001-02 data cannot be meaningfully compared with subsequent years. The standard has made crime recording more victim focused.

Road Traffic Act

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) males and (b) females were (i) prosecuted and (ii) convicted in (A) Southend, (B) Essex, (C) Hertfordshire and (D) England and Wales of offences under sections (1) 16 and (2) 17 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 in each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by age group. [75630]

Mr. Coaker: The table shows numbers of prosecutions and convictions for offences under section
20 Jun 2006 : Column 1849W
16 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 over the five year period from 2000 to 2004. The offences under section 17 of the same act form part of a group of miscellaneous motoring offences in the data held by the
20 Jun 2006 : Column 1850W
Office for Criminal Justice Reform. It is not possible to separate these offences from others within the group and therefore no separate data can be provided. Data for 2005 will be available in the autumn of 2006.

Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts, by sex and age group under section 16 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 in England and Wales, 2000 to 2004( 1)
	2000		2001		2002		2003		2004
Age	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty	Proceeded against	Found guilty
10-11
Male	—	—	1	1	1	1	2	2	—	—
Female	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Total	—	—	1	1	1	1	2	2	—	—
12-14
Male	17	15	22	17	31	21	20	13	24	14
Female	4	2	—	—	2	2	—	—	2	2
Total	21	17	22	17	33	23	20	13	26	16
15-17
Male	106	91	129	105	112	86	116	88	133	105
Female	5	4	9	8	2	2	7	6	6	1
Total	111	95	138	113	114	8	123	94	139	106
18-20
Male	84	74	78	67	71	59	72	62	56	52
Female	8	7	1	1	7	5	6	5	1	1
Total	92	81	79	68	78	64	78	67	57	53
21 and over
Male	76	60	76	61	57	43	67	54	140	120
Female	5	4	9	8	5	5	8	6	4	4
Total	81	64	85	69	62	48	75	60	144	124
All ages
Male	283	240	306	251	272	210	277	219	353	291
Female	22	17	19	17	16	14	21	17	13	8
Total	305	257	325	268	288	224	298	236	366	299
(1 )These data are on the principal offence basis. Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform.

Security Industry Authority

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average wait for a licence issued by the Security Industry Authority has been since licensing was introduced. [62301]

Mr. Coaker: The SIA do not calculate the average 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.

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