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13 July 2006 : Column 2016W—continued

Home Department

Animal Welfare

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list his Department’s (a) advisory bodies and (b) committees concerned with animal health and welfare; and if he will make a statement. [67179]

Joan Ryan: The Home Office has one advisory body concerned with animal health and welfare, the Animal Procedures Committee. The role of the Animal Procedures Committee is to advise the Home Secretary on matters concerned with the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and his functions under it. In doing so, the Committee is required to have regard to the legitimate requirements of science and industry and to the protection of animals against avoidable suffering and unnecessary use in scientific procedures. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has lead responsibility for other aspects of animal health and welfare.


13 July 2006 : Column 2017W

Antisocial Behaviour

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions under the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 there have been for (a) noise, (b) graffiti and fly-posting and (c) waste and litter in (i) each local authority and (ii) each police authority, broken down by basic command unit, in each region of England and Wales in each year since the introduction of the powers. [83765]

Mr. McNulty: Data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for selected offences related to antisocial behaviour are provided in the table A.

Noise is often one of the symptoms of other antisocial behaviour and anecdotal evidence suggests that a variety of other tools, such as warnings, ASBOs,
13 July 2006 : Column 2018W
ABCs, parenting contracts and demotion of tenancy are used to tackle perpetrators’ antisocial behaviour rather than a noise prosecution. It is not possible to ascertain the number of individual graffiti and fly-posting prosecutions because graffiti is recorded as criminal damage and fly-posting is recorded as an illegal display of advertisements. The penalty notice for disorder scheme was brought into effect in all police forces in England and Wales during 2004. Under the scheme the police are able to issue persons committing specified minor offences with a fixed penalty notice, including the offence of littering, which was added to the scheme on one November 2004.

No admission of guilt is required and payment of the penalty discharges all liability for the offence. Data showing the number of penalty notices for disorder issued in 2004 for the offence of littering broken down by police force area, as well as provisional data for 2005, is provided in table B. Data on prosecutions for 2005 will be available in the autumn .


13 July 2006 : Column 2019W

13 July 2006 : Column 2020W
Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for selected offences related to antisocial behaviour, by police force area, England and Wales, 2003 and 2004( 1)
Contravening conditions of a waste management licence( 2) Depositing litter( 3) Noise exceeds permitted level after service of notice and other summary offences( 4)
Police force area 2003 2004 2003 2004 2003 2004

Avon and Somerset

2

1

5

4

—

—

Bedfordshire

6

3

2

4

—

—

Cambridgeshire

—

—

5

1

—

—

Cheshire

4

2

2

4

—

—

Cleveland

4

3

8

4

—

—

Cumbria

5

8

32

39

—

—

Derbyshire

3

7

1

5

—

—

Devon and Cornwall

3

2

9

25

—

—

Dorset

1

—

2

—

—

—

Durham

—

—

4

5

—

—

Essex

6

2

9

28

1

Gloucestershire

2

—

1

3

—

—

Greater Manchester

11

15

17

129

—

—

Hampshire

2

3

18

15

2

Hertfordshire

14

15

6

16

—

—

Humberside

4

5

4

3

—

—

Kent

3

4

6

12

—

—

Lancashire

5

4

11

13

—

—

Leicestershire

—

2

18

20

—

—

Lincolnshire

1

1

1

2

—

—

Merseyside

2

1

6

59

—

—

Metropolitan Police

54

122

107

174

—

—

Norfolk

—

1

5

4

—

—

North Yorkshire

4

2

5

9

—

—

Northamptonshire

2

—

2

1

—

—

Northumbria

—

1

69

90

—

—

Nottinghamshire

9

13

7

10

—

—

South Yorkshire

4

5

26

43

—

—

Staffordshire

—

1

5

10

—

—

Suffolk

—

—

5

2

—

—

Surrey

8

4

2

3

—

—

Sussex

1

3

2

2

—

—

Thames Valley

6

6

5

1

—

—

Warwickshire

3

2

2

2

—

—

West Mercia

12

9

10

14

—

—

West Midlands

8

16

21

20

—

—

West Yorkshire

10

40

10

49

—

—

Wiltshire

3

8

4

1

—

—

Dyfed-Powys

7

11

5

2

—

—

Gwent

5

8

26

34

—

—

North Wales

18

18

3

7

—

—

South Wales

49

41

63

39

—

—

England and Wales

281

389

551

908

—

3

(1 )These data are provided on the principal offence basis. (2) Offence under Environmental Protection Act 1990Sec.33(6) (3) Offence under Environmental Protection Act 1990 S.87 (4) Offence under Noise Act 1996 Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform
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