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| (1) The Foundation Programme Year 1 grade was introduced in 2005 Copyright Â(c) 2006, The Information Centre, Medical and Dental Workforce Census. All rights reserved. This work remains the sole and exclusive property of The Information Centre and may only be reproduced where there is explicit reference to the ownership of The Information Centre. | ||||||
Welfare Foods
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children whose fourth birthdays fall after 1 September 2006 and will not attend school until September 2007 will not as a result be eligible for tokens for the welfare food scheme. [104918]
Caroline Flint:
From the 27 November 2006, Healthy Start will provide vouchers that can be used to purchase Healthy Start foods for children in qualifying
families, until their fourth birthday. Previously, the welfare food scheme provided milk tokens to eligible children up to their fifth birthday.
It is estimated that approximately 120,000 children aged four and under five are affected by this change. The number of children eligible to receive Healthy Start vouchers at any one time will fluctuate according to the number of families receiving qualifying benefits.
Children aged four and under five attending registered day care for more than two hours per day may be entitled to one third of a pint of free milk per day. In addition, some children aged four in nurseries attached to LEA schools will also be eligible to receive free fruit through the school fruit and vegetable scheme.
West Devon Meat
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will make representations to the Food Standards Agency to ensure that the investigation into West Devon Meat is resolved as quickly as possible to allow operations to resume; and if she will make a statement; [108782]
(2) if she will make representations to the Meat Hygiene Service to ensure that the investigation into West Devon Meat is concluded as quickly as possible to allow operations to resume; and if she will make a statement. [108781]
Caroline Flint: The Food Standards Agency has advised that the case has been referred by the Meat Hygiene Service to the agency's investigation branch. A thorough investigation will be carried out as rapidly as possible in line with the agency's legal standard for investigations.
The case concerns West Devon Meat’s approval to slaughter cattle aged over 30 months and does not affect any other part of the company's business.
Home Department
Acceptable Behaviour Contracts
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many acceptable behaviour contracts have been made in East Sussex over the last 12 months. [105207]
Mr. McNulty: Data on numbers of acceptable behaviour contracts are not collected by the Home Office as they are voluntary agreements and therefore not suitable for central data collection.
Assets Recovery Agency
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the completed cases handled by the Assets Recovery Agency in (a) each complete financial year since it commenced operations and (b) 2006-07. [105585]
Mr. Coaker: The number of cases concluded by the Agency in (a) each financial year since its establishment in 2003 and (b) 2006-07 is set out in the following table.
The Agency publicises all its completed cases unless there are exceptional reasons (e.g. legal or operational) that prevent this. The Agency’s website contains details of all cases that are in the public domain. It would be disproportionately costly to produce a list of completed cases.
| Assets Recovery Agency: completed cases | |
| Number | |
| (1) Provisional figures to end of November 2006. | |
Bluewater
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether training has taken place at the Bluewater shopping centre to prepare for a serious terrorist type attack. [106766]
Mr. McNulty: The provision of security advice and training, and to whom this is provided, is kept under regular review.
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Bluewater shopping centre has received a specific terrorist threat; and whether he considers it a terrorist target. [106768]
Mr. McNulty: It is Government policy not to disclose specific threat information in the interests of national security.
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department has advised the Bluewater shopping centre owners on protecting the estate from a potential terrorist threat. [107296]
Mr. McNulty: The provision of security advice and training, and to whom this is provided, is kept under regular review.
Chaplaincy Staff
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many publicly funded full-time equivalent chaplaincy staff there were in the Prison Service in 2005-06, broken down by religion; what the cost was of chaplaincy staff in 2005-06; what estimate he has made of the costs in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08; and whether he has made an assessment of the merits of providing equivalent pastoral support for those who are not religious and who may not wish to receive such support from a religious chaplain. [105333]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the number of directly employed chaplaincy staff is contained in the following table. Information on the present and projected costs is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Chaplaincy Teams are available to provide pastoral support to prisoners and staff, both to those who have registered in a particular religion, and to those who have not. There are a wide range of other services and provision for those who do not wish to receive support from a chaplain, including the personal officer scheme, prison visitors and listeners.
| Number of directly employed chaplaincy staff | |
| Religion | Full-time equivalent staff 31 March 2006 |
Children and Young People: Crime
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of financial hardship among children and young people on crime. [105342]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on risk factors associated with victimisation and with offending (including household income) is published as part of the results of the Offending Crime and Justice Survey, and the Youth Lifestyles surveys, copies of which are available from the Library of the House or from the Home Office website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/offending_survey.html. In particular the report of the Youth Lifestyles Survey (HORS 209) p21-22 discusses social class and offending, and employment and offending. The OCJS 2004 main report Appendix D refers to “living in households in financial difficulty” as a general risk factor for victimisation for young people; findings 245 also identified this as a risk factor for committing antisocial behaviour.
Community Justice Projects
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the performance of North Liverpool and Salford community justice projects. [107590]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 6 December 2006]: Both the North Liverpool Community Justice Centre and Salford Community Justice Initiative are being evaluated by independent consultancy firms. The final evaluation reports for both projects are due by the end of February 2007.
The evaluations will look at the impact of the projects on reducing fear of crime and increasing community confidence in the criminal justice system (CJS); increasing compliance with sentences; increasing victim and witness satisfaction in the CJS; and increasing involvement of the community in the CJS. The evaluation will also draw out lessons which will be applied to the design and implementation of the 10 new community justice projects announced in a written ministerial statement by my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Camberwell and Peckham (Ms Harman) Harman and the Lord Chancellor on 27 November 2006, Official Report, column 78WS.
Crime Detection Rates
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) levels of and (b) detection rates for (i) violent crime, (ii) sexual crime, (iii) car crime, (iv) robbery and (v) burglary were in the Haringey basic command unit in the last year for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [104963]
Mr. McNulty: The latest information on offences by Basic Command Unit is available online as accompanying tables to Home Office Statistical Bulletin number 12/06, Crime in England and Wales 2005/2006.
The recorded crime levels can be found at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/bcu1.xls
The detection rates can be found at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/bcu2.xls
Criminal Assets
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the proposed EU development of legislation concerning the confiscation of criminal assets; and what its legal base is. [108066]
Joan Ryan: There has been work under title VI of the Treaty on European Union to adopt two legislative instruments. The Council Framework Decision 2005/212/JHA on confiscation of crime-related proceeds, instrumentalities and property requires member states to have in place at a national level measures to enable them to confiscate instrumentalities and proceeds from criminal offences. It was adopted with particular regard to articles 29, 31(1)(c) and 34(2)(b) of the TEU.
The Council Framework Decision 2006/783/JHA on the application of the principle of mutual recognition to confiscation orders puts in place a mechanism for the cross-border recognition and execution of confiscation orders. It was adopted with particular regard to articles 31(1)(a) and34(2)(b) of the TEU.
No further legislation is planned at this time in the area of Justice and Home Affairs but work is also ongoing under title V TEU to promote the confiscation of assets belonging to banned terrorist groups.
Cyclists
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cyclists have been prosecuted for highways offences in each of the last five years. [105633]
Mr. Coaker: The following table shows data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform on the number of prosecutions for offences connected with pedal cycles.
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