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Parole Board
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals were released on licence where the parole board decision was not unanimous in the 2005-06 financial year. [88481]
John Reid: Currently, any decision by a majority of the members of a parole board panel is legally the decision of the panel as a whole. No statistics are kept by the board as to whether decisions are taken unanimously or by a majority. The Government believe that the interests of public protection now demand that all such decisions should be taken unanimously and will bring forward legislation to this effect when parliamentary time allows.
Paroled Prisoners
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the rate of recidivism was amongst paroled prisoners in each of the last five years, broken down by length of sentence served by those paroled. [87573]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is not available. The most recent information on the re-offending of adults in England and Wales was published in December as “Adult Re-offending: Results from the 2002 Cohort, Home Office Statistical Bulletin 25/05”. The report is available online at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb2505.pdf
Passports
Mr. David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans to extend free passports to British citizens born after 2 September 1929 when they reach their 75 birthday. [55405]
Joan Ryan: I refer to the reply I gave on 15 May 2006, Official Report, column 650W, in response to a question from the hon. member for East Londonderry.
The decision to give free passports for those born on or before 2 September 1929 was announced on 19 May 2004. This was a special concession intended to recognise the sacrifices made by adults of the world war II generation, whether in the services or on the home front. It would therefore not be appropriate, and there are no plans, to extend the scheme by reducing the qualifying age.
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 28 June 2006, Official Report, column 514W, on passports, whether he plans to make UK passport facilities available to people in the Irish Republic on the same basis as Irish Passport applicants have in Northern Ireland. [82880]
Joan Ryan: I have no plans to change the current arrangements whereby British citizens can obtain UK passports from the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) only while present in the UK. British citizens resident in the Irish Republic are welcome to make appointments to apply in person at any IPS office, including Belfast, when present in the UK. The services available in this way are the same day premium service or the one week fast track service. Applications by post from British citizens resident in the Irish Republic must be made to the British embassy in Dublin.
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people applied for UK passports between 2000 and 2004 using a current address in the Irish Republic. [82881]
Joan Ryan: The number of passports issued by the British embassy in Dublin was as follows:
| Financial year | Total passports issued |
In addition an unknown number of British citizens resident in the Irish Republic would, during visits to the UK, have used the Premium or Fast Track services available by applying in person to an Identity and Passport Service office, including Belfast. Records of passport applications are not kept in a way that would enable this number to be ascertained.
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passports has been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the past five years. [87892]
Joan Ryan: The Identity and Passport Service processed the following reports of (a) lost, (b) theft and (c) other, of a passport in each of the past five calendar years:
| Lost | Stolen | Other( 1) | Total | |
| (1)
Includes passports reported as damaged or destroyed.
(2) Combined total. (3) Current
figures. | ||||
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passport applications were received in each of the last 12 months. [88949]
John Reid: The number of passport applications processed by Identity and Passport Service for the last 12 months are as follows:
| Month | Intake |
Penalties and Warrants (Enforcement)
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what average time taken was for enforcement of (a) community penalties and (b) warrants, as referred to in the Home Office Departmental Report 2006 in each of the last five years. [88537]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows.
(a) The Home Office Departmental Report 2006 refers to the average time taken from failure to comply with a community penalty to resolution of the case, measured in working days. Data on this has only been centrally collected since October 2005, so it is not possible to provide data for the last five years. In March 2006 (the date referred to in the Home Office Departmental Report 2006), the average time taken was 43 days. This is a new data collection and some early problems are still being resolved.
(b) Data on the average time taken to enforce warrants is not held centrally.
Penalty Notices
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) fixed penalty notices and (b) penalty notices have been issued in each year since 1997. [88657]
Mr. McNulty: Penalty notices for disorder (PND) were piloted in four police forces for 12 months from August 2002 being rolled out to all police forces in England and Wales during 2003-4 financial year, under the provisions of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001. . Further information on the Penalty Notices for Disorder scheme and information on where data from the pilot can be obtained can be accessed via the following website:
linkhttp://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/rdsolr3505.pdf
Data from the PND database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform shows that, in 2004, there were 63,639 Penalty Notices for Disorder issued and provisional data for 2005 shows there were 142,625 Penalty Notices for Disorder issued in that year. Provisional data for 2006 will be available when 2005 data has been published.
The Office for Criminal Justice Reform also collects information that identifies the number of motoring offences fixed penalty notices issued.
Available information on motoring offences fixed penalty notices issued can be found within the Home Office publication, ‘Offences relating to motor vehicles England and Wales, Supplementary tables’ (latest available, 2004). Copies are available in the Library and can also be accessed on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics (RDS) website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index.htm
2005 data will be available early in 2007.
Under the Road Traffic Act 1991, Decriminalised Parking Enforcement (DPE) powers allow local authorities to take over responsibility for enforcing parking contraventions from the police. 2003 and 2004 data on penalty charge notices (PCNs) from individual local authorities operating Decriminalised Parking Enforcement can also be found in the above mentioned publication.
People Trafficking
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been convicted of offences related to human trafficking in each year since 1997. [74858]
Mr. Coaker: Following the commencement of dedicated trafficking offences in 2004 the convictions are as follows:
| Conviction | |
Prior to the introduction of this dedicated legislation there was only one conviction for a trafficking offence under the Immigration Act 1971.
Perverting the Course of Justice (Punishments)
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the punishments available for those found guilty of (a) attempting to pervert and (b) perverting the course of justice. [64700]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Perverting the course of justice and attempting to pervert the course of justice are common law offences for which there is no statutory maximum. The full range of penalties is therefore available. Custodial sentences of up to eight years have been imposed in recent cases. Sentences average around eight months.
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