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9 Jan 2007 : Column 551W—continued
Prostitution
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he plans to introduce legislation to implement the commitment in the Government prostitution strategy to exclude premises shared by two women from the definition of a brothel. [110441]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Following publication of the Government’s strategy on prostitution, which included our proposal to amend the definition of a brothel, it is clear that further consultation is required to ensure this change meets our objective of improving the safety of those involved in off-street prostitution, without inadvertently causing difficulties either for those involved or their neighbours. We will make an announcement in due course.
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken to engage other Government departments with the prostitution strategy; and how this work is co-ordinated. [110444]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Home Office co-ordinates the implementation of the strategy through bilateral meetings at official level, overseen by the Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group on Sexual Offending. The following Government Departments are represented on the Ministerial Group:
Department for Education and Skills
Department of Health
Department for Constitutional Affairs
Department for Communities and Local Government
Attorney General’s Office
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in implementing the Government’s strategy on reducing street prostitution. [110046]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Implementation of the strategy is well under way. At its heart is the need to tackle the issue at a local level and reduce the number of women tied to the streets by addressing the reasons for their involvement.
So far as the latter is concerned, the Government have invested £600 million in drug treatment provisions, with over 140,000 people successfully completing drug treatment programmes. We also plan
to introduce a new penalty requiring women to engage with services to deal with the issues behind their involvement in prostitution, including drug addiction and homelessness. In addition to this, the Sexual Violence Action Plan, due to be published in the new year, has a number of specific measures aimed at addressing sexual violence against people involved in prostitution.
The strategy provides a framework for local areas to develop their own co-ordinated response to the problems associated with prostitution in their areas. We continue to work with local partnerships and individual agencies, including the police, to ensure that a prostitution strategy is developed in every area where there is a problem to be addressed.
Recalled Prisoners
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders were recalled to prison for breach of the conditions of their release in each of the last 10 years. [113612]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the numbers of recalls of prisoners released on licence from prison establishments in England and Wales can be found in tables 10.7, 10.8 and 10.9 in the Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2005. This publication has recently been published and a copy is available in the House of Commons Library; it can also be accessed over the web at the website:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1806.pdf
These 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 figures may not be accurate to that level.
Re-offending
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the cost of re-offending to England and Wales in each of the last five years. [113640]
Mr. Sutcliffe: This information is not routinely collected and producing estimates would require disproportionate cost. There are some readily available sources that provide some indications of the nature of re-offending.
Information on the estimated costs of offences against individuals and households for 2003-04 and 2000 are published in Home Office Online Report 30/05, “The economic and social costs of crime against individuals and households 2003-04”.
Sentencing
Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average sentence was for (a) assault and (b) assault with a minor injury on a police officer in each year since 2002. [113267]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is contained in the table.
| Average custodial sentence length and proportion of persons given immediate custody for offences( 1) of common assault and assault on a police constable, England and Wales | ||||
| Common assault | Assault on a police constable( 2) | |||
| Percentage given custody | Average custodial sentence length (months) | Percentage given custody | Average custodial sentence length (months) | |
| (1) Principal offence basis. (2) Excludes offences of resisting or obstructing a police constable in execution of duty. Note: Although care is taken in collating and analysing the returns used to compile these figures, the data are of necessity subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Consequently, although figures are shown to the last digit in order to provide a comprehensive record of the information collected, they are not necessarily accurate to the last digit shown. Source: RDS-NOMS, Home Office. | ||||
Thames Valley Police
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what expenditure by the Thames Valley Police was under the headings of (a) non-incident linked paperwork, (b) checking paperwork (supervisory), (c) robberies, (d) house burglaries and (e) violent crime identified by the recent Activity- Based Costing Review for 2004-05. [109059]
Mr. McNulty: The information supplied to the Home Office for the 2004-05 Activity-Based Costing review did not include cost data for non-incident linked paperwork and checking paperwork.
The other information requested is as follows:
| £ million | |
| Note: Figures taken from Thames Valley ABC return for 2004-05. | |
Work Permits and Visas
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have made representations about their stay rights, having been granted a valid work permit since the change of system from unified work permit and stay visa application to separate applications for each; how his officials are dealing with such inquiries; if he will instruct his officials to take account of potential confusions following the change of system when permission to stay is being considered; and if he will make a statement. [103579]
Mr. Byrne:
The Department does not keep a record of the number of applicants who have made representations on their further leave to remain applications since the unified process was separated in April 2004. The regulations regarding the change to a
two-stage application process (work permit and then leave to remain application) were laid before Parliament on 10 March 2004. Information was also published on the Home Office’s website (www.workingintheuk.gov.uk) on 15 March along with the new application forms.
All representations are considered under the published Immigration Rules and internal guidance instructions, which caseworkers follow when considering all applications. Guidance on the change to a two-stage process was issued to caseworkers in March 2004.
Education and Skills
Apprenticeships
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many apprentices left their course during each quarter of the past three years; and what steps he is taking to reduce the drop-out rate. [113207]
Bill Rammell: Figures for those participating in apprenticeships funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) can be derived from the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). The work-based learning (WBL) ILR was collated as an interim collection for the first time in 2001/02 and figures are presented from that time.
The following table shows the success rate for apprenticeship courses on an annual basis (quarterly figures are not available). Drop-out rates do not exist for apprenticeships; the closest metric is the success rate which refers to the proportion of those who complete apprenticeships in each academic year who achieve the full apprenticeship framework in England. We are making good progress towards meeting a new performance indicator that by 2008 the numbers completing apprenticeships will have risen by three quarters (over 2002/03).
| Apprenticeship success rate, England | |
| Percentage | |
The Learning and Skills Council is working to assess provider performance against minimum levels of performance, expanding excellent provision, demanding improved success rates or looking to re-tender provision where appropriate to meet the needs and protect the interests of learners and employers.
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many modern apprenticeships have been undertaken in (a) Leeds, West and (b) Leeds in each of the last five years. [110350]
Bill Rammell:
Figures for those participating in apprenticeships funded by the Learning and Skills
Council (LSC) can be derived from the Individualised Learner Record (ILR). Figures for Leeds are available from 2002/03 onwards.
The following table shows the average number of apprentices in learning in Leeds based on the home postcode of the learner:
| Leeds | Apprentices |
| Note: Figures rounded to nearest 10. | |
Bonus Payments
Keith Vaz:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what criteria a civil servant in his Department must fulfil (a) to be considered for a
bonus on top of their regular salary and (b) to be awarded a bonus. [101025]
Mr. Dhanda: At the end of the reporting year, the Line Manger will draw together evidence of performance with the Job Holder. They will then agree a Performance Category marking, based on set criteria, which will be used to inform the decision whether or not the Job Holder will qualify for a bonus in addition to their salary. Detailed guidance is issued to Line Managers and Job Holders to support this process.
Child Care
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what percentage of child care (a) places and (b) providers have closed in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [107547]
Beverley Hughes: The available information is shown in the tables.
| Table 1: Closure rate for child care providers and places | ||||||||
| 2003/04 | 2004/05 | 2005/06 | March to September 2006 | |||||
| Provider closure rate | Places closure rate | Provider closure rate | Places closure rate | Provider closure rate | Places closure rate | Provider closure rate | Places closure rate | |
| Source: Ofsted | ||||||||
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