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10 Oct 2006 : Column 697W—continued
Money Laundering
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures have been put in place to tackle money laundering by Turkish criminals living in the United Kingdom. [92488]
Mr. Coaker: The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 contained new measures to strengthen and tighten the UK's anti-money laundering laws. The investigation of money laundering offences is a matter for the police and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA). SOCA ensures that all their investigations include strategies to identify criminal assets. SOCA is taking advantage of new powers in the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005; the first use of the new Financial Reporting Order under the Act was against a Turkish organised criminal.
The Metropolitan police has established a dedicated unit in Haringey to conduct financial investigations in respect of suspected drug traffickers, and others benefiting from crime and money laundering. The unit has actively investigated Turkish criminals involved in money laundering and successfully disrupted criminal networks within the Turkish speaking community.
Offender Management
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to encourage competition from the business and voluntary sectors in offender management. [92014]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The National Offender Management Service published “Improving Prison and Probation Services: Public Value Partnerships” on 17 August 2006, which set out the NOMS vision for contestability and partnership working, and the initial programme of competitions.
The publication of the prospectus is an opportunity to consult and engage with existing and potential providers. NOMS will publish updates on their plans for contestability on a regular basis. The first update will be later this year, with the publication of national and regional commissioning plans.
Organised Crime Consultation
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which individuals and organisations have been consulted in relation to the consultation “New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime”; and what progress has been made with the consultation. [91868]
Mr. Coaker:
The organisations consulted during the development of the recent green paper “New Powers Against Organised and Financial Crime” are outlined
in Annex B of that publication. Comments on the paper are invited by 17 October 2006 and I would encourage any interested individual or organisation to submit their views before this date.
The Home Office plan to publish a summary of the consultation responses in November 2006.
Passport Agency
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many UK passports were returned to the Passport Service after being delivered to the wrong address in (a) 2005 and (b) 2006. [91675]
Joan Ryan: Figures for passports returned to the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) after being delivered to the wrong address for 2005 and 2006 are as follows:
2005: 4,120 (0.06 per cent. of total passports produced).
2006: 5,006 (0.09 per cent. of total passports produced to end September).
These figures represent passports returned to IPS which have been marked as “addressee not known”. Some of these will have been returned as a consequence of customers providing incorrect or illegible addresses, moving, or submitting fraudulent applications. Others represent passports misposted by couriers due to human error or errors in addresses as a result of mistakes during the passport examining process.
Pharmaceuticals
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his letter to my hon. Friend the Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) of 10 July 2006 on Home Office interpretation of the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, what assessment he has made of the extent to which his Department's policy on the importation of narcotic drugs for medicinal use is consistent with (a) the judgment of the European Court of Justice (61993J0324) in The Queen v. Secretary of State for Home Department, ex parte Evans Medical Ltd and Macfarlan Smith Ltd of 28 March 1995 and (b) recommendations given by the Office of Fair Trading in March 2006 in document OFT834; and if he will make a statement. [89895]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 9 October 2006]: I am satisfied that the importation policy for such drugs is lawful in all respects. The Government’s response to the OFT Report on Opium Derivatives confirms that position.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department further to his speech on protectionism at the German-British Chamber of Commerce annual dinner on 4 July, what assessment he has made of progress on modernising the UK Government’s interpretation of United Nations Single Convention 1961 in relation to the 1993 ruling by the European Court of Justice (Ref 61993J0324); and if he will make a statement. [91841]
Mr. Coaker
[holding answer 9 October 2006]: I am satisfied that the interpretation of the United Nations
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 in respect of importation policy is both lawful and consistent with the ruling of the European Court of Justice (effected actually in 1995).
Prisons
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) educational, (b) recreational and (c) other information produced for sentenced or remand prisoners is available in (i) a Welsh language version and (ii) foreign languages. [91430]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Educational materials are made available in other languages, including Welsh, when indicated in the prisoner’s individual learning plan. Prison libraries are required to cater for the informational, cultural, occupational and recreational needs of all prisoners, and will source material in foreign languages as required. Prisoner information books are available in 22 other languages including Welsh.
Prison Service Order 6710 on prison libraries requires the library to cater for the informational, cultural, occupational and recreational needs of all prisoners.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the highest amount earned by a prisoner working inside a prison was in each of the last five years. [91508]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Prison Service Order 4460 devolves responsibility to Governors and Directors of contracted prisons to set rates of pay for their establishment. Individual prisoner payments are not centrally recorded. I have recently placed a copy of the PSO in the Library.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what total amount of wages was paid to prisoners working inside prisons in each of the last five years. [91509]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table shows the total amount of wages paid to prisoners in public sector prisons over the past five years. This information is not available for private sector prisons. It is a matter for individual contractors how they record their expenditure.
| Total amount paid (£) | |
The total amount for each year represents an average weekly wage per prisoner of approximately £8.00.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether prisoners who are working and earning wages are required to pay council tax. [91511]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Prisoners who are working and earning wages do not have to pay council tax which is based on the value of a home and the number of people living in it. A prison is not considered to be a home for this purpose.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether prisoners who work in the community and earn wages make any contribution towards their upkeep in prison. [91512]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Current legislation prevents prisoners being required to finance the cost of their prison sentence. The Prison Act 1952, section 51, requires that all expenses incurred in maintaining both prisons and prisoners must be met from public funds.
Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many objections were received by his Department to the Christian Inner Change programme offered to prisoners at Dartmoor prison; and how many of these objections were from prisoners (a) of other faiths and (b) defining themselves as homosexual; [92097]
(2) what assessment has been made by his Department of the effectiveness of the Inner Change prison programme. [92098]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The programme was introduced as a pilot only. Following a review under Prison Service Order 4350 (Effective Regimes Interventions) the programme is currently being withdrawn. The Review Panel identified a range of concerns, the most significant being the poor quality of the manuals which did not demonstrate a structured and coherent programme, a lack of consistency and clarity about the primary aims of the programme, a lack of understanding and appropriate sensitivity to the diversity agenda of Her Majesty’s prison service, and an absence of protocols for the management of the mentor system, making it unsafe.
Prisons (Compensation Claims)
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many compensation claims were made by prisoners against prison authorities in each of the last five years. [91505]
Mr. Sutcliffe: From the figures available centrally, prisoners in public sector prisons in 2004-05, submitted 975 compensation claims. A further 975 claims were received in 2005-06. Data prior to this are unreliable as systems were not in place to co-ordinate litigation centrally. Litigation in private sector prisons is a matter for the individual contractor
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners received compensation payments from prison authorities as a result of negligence in each of the last five years; and what the largest single payment was. [91506]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Compensation payments to prisoners are not recorded using negligence as a specific criteria. To provide this data would involve disproportionate costs.
Remand Prisoners
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many prisoners are currently being held on remand; [92012]
(2) for what offences prisoners have been held on remand in the last 12 months, broken down by number of prisoners held. [92013]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The number of prisoners held on remand in England and Wales on 31 August 2006 was 13,301. Information on the numbers of prisoners in England and Wales over the last 12 months, including offence types, can be found at: http://www. homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/omcsa.html.
The figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and although shown to the last individual the figure may not be accurate to that level.
Scooters
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been prosecuted for driving mini moto scooters illegally in each of the last five years; what the (a) maximum, (b) minimum and (c) average penalty imposed was for this offence in each year; and if he will make a statement. [92637]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The only offences identified by the statistical collections on the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform, that are specific to motor cycles are “failing to wear a crash helmet” and “unlawful pillion riding”. All other offences committed by motorcyclists cannot be identified from the data held centrally either because the offence as defined in legislation is not specific to any type of motor vehicle (e.g. driving on a footpath or vehicle not taxed or insured against third party risks) or because it is not identified separately, and grouped together with other miscellaneous motoring offences.
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints each police authority has received in each of the last five years about the use of mini moto scooters. [92638]
Mr. Coaker: It is not possible to show the number of mini-moto complaints in each police authority over the last five years because the data are not collected centrally.
Security Industry Authority
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints the Security Industry Authority received in the last 12 months relating to the loss of or damage to the documents applicants submitted in order to be considered for a security licence. [91536]
Mr. Coaker:
In the 12 months up to October 2006 the Security Industry Authority (SIA) received directly
90 written complaints about the loss of documents submitted in support of SIA licence applications. Over the same period the SIA processed over 120,000 applications.
The SIA does not collect information about complaints received about documents submitted in order to be considered for a security licence which were damaged on receipt by the SIA or by the applicants.
Sentence Appeals
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners since 1997 have been given leave to appeal; and how many prisoners have had their sentences reduced as a result. [92241]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information regarding the numbers of appeals by prisoners and their individual outcomes is not available in the form requested and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Sentencing
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of prisoners remanded in custody who were subsequently sentenced went on to receive non-custodial sentences in the past 12 months. [92011]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the number of prisoners held on remand who were subsequently sentenced to non-custodial sentences is to be found at table 7.11 at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs05/hosb1705section7.xls.
The figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and so is not necessarily accurate to the last whole number.
Under-age Drinking
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions of retailers there have been in each of the past 10 years for selling alcohol to underage customers. [92249]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information from the Court Proceedings Database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of retailers prosecuted for selling alcohol to minors is shown in the following table. Figures for 2005 will be available in November 2006.
The offence of sale of alcohol to a person under 18 can attract a penalty notice for disorder (PND). The offence was added to the PND scheme on 1 November 2004, and there were 113 Penalty Notices issued for the offence in November and December of that year. Provisional data for 2005 show that a further 2,009 penalty notices were issued for the offence in 2005.
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