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9 Oct 2006 : Column 315W—continued
A third tranche, for festivals between 1 December 2006 to 31 March 2007, has still to be awarded. The closing date for receipt of applications is 18 August 2006.
Correspondence
Lady Hermon:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he will answer the letter from the hon. Lady for North Down dated 10 February
transferred to his Department from the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in relation to the firefighters' pension scheme; what the reasons are for the delay in replying. [89747]
Paul Goggins: There is no record of this letter having been received by the Secretary of State or by the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety. I would advise the hon. Lady to write to me directly on this matter.
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he will reply to the letter dated 30 May from the hon. Lady for North Down in relation to the support given to children who are victims of sexual abuse in Northern Ireland. [89749]
Paul Goggins: A reply to the letter of 30 May was issued to the hon. Lady on 5 July 2006 and a copy has been forwarded to her office.
Crime Reporting/Statistics
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps have been taken to establish the level of crime that is not reported to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) across each of its district command units; and what investigations have been undertaken to establish the reasons for possible changes in the reporting of crime to the PSNI. [89313]
Paul Goggins: Recorded crime statistics are produced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) in line with Home Office Counting rules and are broadly comparable with those supplied by police forces in England and Wales.
Information on crime levels and public attitudes to crime is gathered through the Northern Ireland Crime Survey (NICS), run by NISRA central survey unit on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office. The survey is also the main vehicle by which the Department is able to (1) identify those most at risk from different types of crime, (2) examine people’s attitudes to crime and (3) measure confidence in the police and the wider criminal justice system. By examining crime reporting levels in Northern Ireland the survey also offers comparisons to reporting levels in England and Wales.
Results from the Northern Ireland Crime Survey (2003-04—the last full year for which results are available) showed that 45 per cent. of comparable crimes were reported to the police. This is broadly similar to England and Wales where the British Crime Survey (2003-04) stated that 42 per cent. of such crimes were reported to the police for the same period. Due to its sample size, the NICS cannot be used to produce sufficiently robust crime reporting data to facilitate analysis at district command unit level.
The Northern Ireland Crime Survey also examines reasons for not reporting crime in Northern Ireland. In the most recent survey, only 1 per cent. of respondents who did not report crime gave the reason ‘dislike/fear the police’, while the most common reasons were ‘too trivial/no loss’ (33 per cent.), ‘police could not have done anything’ (32 per cent.) and ‘police would not have been bothered/been interested’ (24 per cent.).
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many crimes were (a) reported and (b) successfully prosecuted in (i) the Ards, (ii) the Castlereagh and (iii) the Down district command units in each of the last four years. [89314]
Paul Goggins: The number of reported crimes for the last four financial years and areas in question is shown in Table 1. Table 2 contains the number of convictions for the last four calendar years for which figures are available. The conviction data are collated on the principal offence rule thus only the most serious offence with which an offender is charged is included. In addition, conviction data is offender-based and does not offer a direct comparison to the number of crimes recorded.
| Table 1: Crimes recorded | |||
| Ards DCU | Castlereagh DCU | Down DCU | |
| Source: Central Statistics Unit, PSNI. | |||
| Table 2: Convictions( 1) | |||
| Ards DCU | Castlereagh DCU | Down DCU | |
| (1) Figures are based on the DCU in which the offender’s address falls rather than the DCU in which the offence was reported. Source: NIO Statistics and Research Branch. | |||
Crown Court (Northern Ireland)
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many and what percentage of Crown court sentences in Northern Ireland were successfully appealed by (a) the Crown and (b) the defendant in each of the last five years. [89739]
Bridget Prentice: I have been asked to reply.
The number and percentage of Crown court sentences successfully appealed in Northern Ireland, based on the year the appeal was lodged, is as follows:
| Crown (by way of Attorney-General reference) | ||||
| Number of appeals lodged | Number of successful appeals | Percentage of successful appeals | Number outstanding | |
| Defendants | |||||
| Number of appeals lodged | Number of successful appeals | Percentage of successful appeals | Number outstanding | Percentage outstanding | |
Departmental Carbon Emissions
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the total carbon emission from his Department’s buildings in each year since 1997. [89615]
Mr. Hain: The Northern Ireland Office has not made any recent estimate of its carbon emissions. However, the NIO is committed to promoting sustainable development and is working with the Northern Ireland Departments to make the Government estate carbon neutral by 2015. In addition the NIO is a participant in the Government Carbon Offsetting Fund, which aims to offset all carbon emissions from ministerial and official air travel.
Departmental Publications
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the (a) circulation, (b) cost and (c) title is of each publication his Department has issued since 1 July 2005. [89616]
Mr. Hain: Details of the publications issued by the Northern Ireland Office since 1 July 2005, including circulation, cost and title are given as follows:
Departmental Vehicles
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many cars were (a) owned and (b) leased by his Department in each of the last five years. [52986]
Mr. Hain: The details of the cars owned and leased by the Northern Ireland Office in each of the last five years are contained in the following table.
| Owned | Leased | |
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