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12 Dec 2006 : Column 1048W—continued
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the administrative cost of his Department’s library providing a blog monitoring service was in the last year for which figures are available; and what the budget for this service is for 2007-08. [104627]
John Reid: My Department’s library provides a current awareness service to all Home Office group staff that reviews published material in a wide range of printed and electronic formats. Because blogs are only one of several types of material reviewed and the number of items selected varies from month to month, no specific cost can be isolated for that element of the service.
Departmental Staff
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long Abid Javaid has been employed by his Department; what his responsibilities are; and whether he continues to carry out these duties. [107352]
John Reid [holding answer 4 December 2006]: It is not the policy of the Department to disclose personal details relating to members of staff or to discuss individual cases.
Dispersal Orders
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will commission research on the effects of the implementation of dispersal orders on the relationship between police officers and young people. [107618]
Mr. McNulty: We are keeping the need for research under review. From April 2006 we have been collecting data on the use of dispersal powers by police forces in England and Wales.
DNA Database
Lynne Featherstone:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who have been arrested but not charged or cautioned for any offence have their DNA profile stored on the National
DNA Database; and what proportion of these people are from each ethnic minority background. [101190]
Joan Ryan [holding answer 23 November 2006]: Data on whether persons with a profile on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) have been charged or cautioned for an offence are not held on the NDNAD, but are held on the Police National Computer (PNC). The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost by cross-searching approximately three million records retained for such persons on the PNC.
Drugs
John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost of policing drug related crime in each year since 2002. [107420]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 7 December 2006]: Home Office online report 16/06 “Measuring different aspects of problem drug use: methodological developments” includes estimates for 2003-04 of the social and economic costs resulting from the five major types of crimes committed by users of class A drugs. These estimates include policing costs, although there is no separate estimate within them for policing. The report is available on the Home Office website.
European Contract Law
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 relating to European contract law; and what its legal base is. [108068]
Vera Baird: I have been asked to reply.
There is no proposal for EU legislation in relation to the European Commission's proposal for the creation of a Common Frame of Reference (CFR) for European contract law. The Commission's Communication of 11 October 2004 (COM(2004) 65) explained that the CFR was intended to improve the quality and coherence of existing and future EU legislation. Work on the development of the CFR is continuing and its final form and purpose have not been settled. The Government are awaiting the Commission's Annual Progress Report for 2005-06 with interest and will examine it closely. The report is expected to be published in early 2007.
European Day of Civil Justice
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the proposed developments at EU level of the Annual European Day of Civil Justice; and what its legal base is. [108081]
Bridget Prentice: I have been asked to reply.
The European Day of Civil Justice is a joint initiative of the European Commission and the Council of Europe agreed in 2003 and held on 25 October each year. Events are organised throughout Europe with the aim of raising the profile of civil justice issues and
systems to make them more accessible and to enable citizens to be more aware of their rights arid to know how to enforce them.
Within the United Kingdom there have been court open days, events organised by the legal profession and a conference during the UK presidency of the EU on practical approaches to solving cross-border disputes. While Articles 61(c) and 65 of the treaty establishing the European Community set out the legal bases for legislative activity in the field of civil justice, no specific legal base is required in the treaties for this initiative.
European Evidence Warrant
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 European Evidence Warrant; and what its legal base is. [108065]
Joan Ryan: The Justice and Home Affairs Council reached a general approach on the Framework Decision for a European Evidence Warrant (EEW) on 1 June 2006. Formal adoption will follow agreement on the EEW form. The Government will then prepare legislation to implement the EEW.
The legal basis of the Framework Decision is Article 31 of the Treaty on European Union, which deals with common action on judicial co-operation in criminal matters.
Extradition Agreements
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what agreements the UK has with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on reciprocal extradition arrangements; what extradition agreements have been made between the UK and the UAE under the terms of the Extradition Act 2003; and if he will make a statement. [104941]
Joan Ryan: On 6 December 2006, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary signed an Extradition Treaty with the Emirati Minister of Justice at Lancaster House. The Treaty will come into effect after it has been ratified, instruments of ratification have been exchanged and, in the UK, the UAE has been designated under Section 69 of the Extradition Act 2003.
Up to that point, there will be no general extradition relations between the UK and UAE. However, the UK can have extradition relations with parties to international conventions, to which the UK is also a party, that contain extradition provisions. The UK is also able to process ad hoc requests for extradition with non-treaty countries.
The following table shows the Conventions for which the UAE has been designated for extradition purposes.
Gun Crime
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many gun crimes were committed in (a) England and Wales and (b) Gloucestershire in each of the last 15 years for which figures are available. [103273]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 27 November 2006]: Available data from 1990 up to and including 2004-05 are given in the following tables.
Gloucestershire’s figures from 1990 to 1996 include those involving air weapons.
| Table (a): Crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales and Gloucestershire( 1) in which firearms were reported to have been used, 1990 to 2001-02 | ||
| England and Wales | Gloucestershire | |
| (1) Figures exclude offences involving the use of air weapons. From 1990 to 1996 Gloucestershire police were unable to provide figures for offences excluding air weapons. (2) There was a change in counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998. (3) Numbers of some recorded crimes may have been inflated by some police forces implementing the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard before 1 April 2002. | ||
| Table (b): Crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales and Gloucestershire in which firearms were reported to have been used, 2002-03 to 2004-05 | ||
| England and Wales | Gloucestershire | |
| (1) The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced in April 2002. Because of this figures before and after that date are not directly comparable. | ||
Human Trafficking
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) incidents of and (b) prosecutions for child trafficking there were in each of the last five years. [107914]
Mr. Coaker: Data on of the numbers of children and unaccompanied minors trafficked into the UK for each year since 2000 are not centrally recorded.
To address this lack of data, the Government have commissioned the Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOP) to scope the scale and nature of child trafficking into the UK.
The most up-to-date information provided to the Home Office by the Crown Prosecution Service indicates that at least 12 defendants have been charged in three separate cases that involved female victims between the ages of 15 and 18. Of these 10 were convicted and received lengthy sentences.
Identity and Passport Service
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance he has issued to the Identity and Passport Service on ensuring full and immediate notification of passports stolen in other EU countries. [104966]
Joan Ryan: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has issued no such instructions to the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) because we already have adequate procedures in place for reporting British passports lost or stolen in other EU countries.
New reporting arrangements were introduced by IPS on 8 December 2003 for the reporting of loss or theft of a British passport to IPS by members of the public. Subsequent developments to this process allowed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (F&CO) to send electronic reports of loss and theft of a passport overseas to IPS. This functionality commenced in 2004 as part of an IT program undertaken by the F&CO.
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