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16 Oct 2006 : Column 1042W—continued
Buddhist Groups
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 9 August 2006 to Question 85303, which other Buddhist organisations his Department consults. [91730]
Mr. Byrne:
The list of contacts the department has for Buddhist groups includes The Buddhist Society and
the London Buddhist Vihara as well as the Network of Buddhist Organisations. We do not hold records when or how often organisations are consulted.
Children (Offences)
Lynne Featherstone:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children under the age of 14 years were (a) convicted in the Crown court, (b) acquitted after Crown court trial and (c) found to be unfit to plead in the Crown court in relation to charges of (i) murder, (ii) manslaughter, (iii) rape, (iv) serious drug offences and (v) other crimes in each of
the last five years; and how many of those children were in care in each year. [92750]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform for the number of children under the age of 14 years who were convicted or acquitted in the Crown court between 2000 and 2004 can be found in the following table. No children under 14 years of age were found to be unfit to plead.
Data on the number of these children who were in care are not held centrally.
Data for 2005 will be available in mid-November.
| Number of children under 14 years convicted or acquitted at the Crown court, for various offences in England and Wales, 2000 to 2004( 1, 2) | ||||||
| Defendants | ||||||
| Murder | Manslaughter | Rape | Drug offences | Other crimes | Total | |
| (1 )These data are provided on the principal offence basis. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by court and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: RDS Office for Criminal Justice Reform. | ||||||
Correspondence
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of 31 July 2006 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mrs. Syeda Khalroun Nesa Begum. [92055]
Mr. Byrne: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 5 October 2006.
Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Minister for Immigration will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood, dated 24 May (acknowledged 31 May 2006 re B13764/6) regarding Mr. M. Lewis, HO Ref L1049561. [92401]
Mr. Byrne: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) wrote to my right hon. Friend on 26 September 2006. In the light of my right hon. Friend’s question, Mr. Lewis’ case was reviewed and, as a result, IND wrote again to my right hon. Friend on 5 October.
Crime
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of violence against the person were reported in Milton Keynes in each year between 1997 and 2006. [91664]
Mr. McNulty: Milton Keynes is a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area (CDRP). Data at CDRP level are available from 1999-2000 and the statistics are given in the following tables.
| Table 1: Recorded offences of violence against the person in the Milton Keynes Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area—1999-2000 to 2001-02 | |
| Number of offences | |
| Note: Expanded offence coverage and revised counting rules came into effect on 1 April 1998. The figures in this table are therefore not directly comparable with those for earlier years. | |
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken to reduce the number of vehicle break-ins in Milton Keynes. [91666]
Mr. McNulty: Vehicle crime, including both theft of and theft from motor vehicles, is addressed in the Milton Keynes Community Safety Partnership's (CSP) overall strategy for crime reduction, which is supported by a detailed Police Basic Command Unit (BCU) Crime Reduction Plan. The CSP continues to target vehicle crime through enforcement, prevention, intelligence and communication.
Police operations have been targeted both at known offenders and at those areas where offences have been committed. These have been supported by regular dedicated automatic number plate recognition operations and the daily use of this technology by the Thames Valley Police Roads Policing Department in the Milton Keynes area. The CSP has also made effective use of CCTV, and has both a fixed and a mobile capability to target known ‘hotspot’ locations.
There are currently 45 adult offenders on the Milton Keynes Prolific and Priority Offenders scheme, receiving intensive supervision by both the police and probation service. Of these, 23 have offending histories of, or current links to, vehicle crime.
The CSP and police have undertaken a number of actions to raise awareness of vehicle crime and advise the public on how to protect their property. For instance, as more than 20 per cent. of vehicle crime in Milton Keynes since January 2006 has been associated with satellite navigation systems, specific communications activity has taken place to raise public awareness and reduce offending opportunities. In the longer term the partnership continues to seek to improve the overall security of its car parks.
At a national level, officials have produced a crime prevention leaflet on the internet aimed specifically at theft of satellite navigation devices and have liaised with four of the biggest manufacturers, resulting in the introduction of improved security features in a number of devices that have recently come on the market.
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vehicle break-ins were recorded in Milton Keynes in each year between 1997 and 2006. [91667]
Mr. McNulty: Milton Keynes is a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area (CDRP) and data at CDRP level are available from 1999-2000.
The Home Office does not collect statistics specifically relating to ‘vehicle break-ins’. Such offences would be included within the recorded crime classification of ‘theft from a vehicle’ and figures for this offence are provided in the following tables. However, it is not possible to identify the method by which property is removed i.e. whether a vehicle was actually broken into in order to obtain property.
| Table 1: Recorded offences of theft from a vehicle in the Milton Keynes Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area—1999-2000 to 2001-02 | |
| Number of offences | |
| Note: Expanded offence coverage and revised counting rules came into effect on 1 April 1998. The figures in this table are therefore not directly comparable with those for earlier years. | |
| Table 2: Recorded offences of theft from a vehicle in the Milton Keynes Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area—2002-03 to 2005-06 | |
| Number of offences | |
| Note: The data in this table take account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years. | |
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of crime levels in communities in West Bromwich in (a) 2005-06 and (b) 2006-07. [92679]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 11 October 2006]: Information specifically for West Bromwich is not collected centrally. West Bromwich comes within the Sandwell Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area. In 2005-06, there were 28,619 offences recorded in Sandwell which represents a fall of 5 per cent. over the previous year. Information for 2006-07 is not yet available.
Departmental Staff
Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when and how he plans to publish the disability equality scheme for his Department and in what formats. [91969]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office Disability Equality Scheme will be published on 4 December 2006 in compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act 2005. It is intended that the scheme will be produced in electronic Word and PDF documents online. It will be available in large print and Braille.
Mr. Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what methods are used to involve disabled people in the production of his Department’s disability equality scheme. [91970]
Mr. Byrne: Focus groups, meetings, seminars and conferences have been used to involve disabled people in drafting the scheme. The Home Office has sought to involve individual disabled members of staff, disabled staff networks and external disabled organisations wherever possible. The stakeholders will be invited to comment on the scheme before its publication on 4 December.
Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many disabled people were hired by his Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available; what percentage of the overall work force these figures represented in each year; and how many disabled people left their employment in his Department over the same period. [92464]
Mr. Byrne: Home Office data for 2003, 2004 and 2005 are published along with other Government Departments and are available in the Library of the House or online at the Cabinet Office website: http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/statistics/reports/index.asp
Figures for 2000-02 are not available without incurring disproportionate costs.
Figures for 2006 at the civil service wide level will be available from Cabinet Office in 2007.
Disability status is self-declared and voluntary.
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