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18 Jan 2007 : Column 1296W—continued


Local Government

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what targets his Department sets for local authorities. [108560]

Mr. McNulty: The only target the Home Office sets directly for local authorities is an efficiency target which it sets for the police service. The main way in which the Home Office delivers national public service agreements is through setting targets for local partnerships such as crime and drugs partnerships and youth offending teams.

Targets which local authorities are expected to deliver on are contained in local area agreements (LAAs). The following Home Office mandatory outcomes are included in all LAAs: reduce crime; reassure the public, reducing the fear of crime; reduce the harm caused by illegal drugs; and build respect in communities and reduce antisocial behaviour. There is also a sub-set of best value performance indicators relating to community safety. Four of these are directly related to crime levels which local authorities report on, in consultation with the police.

Police

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his written statement of 27 November 2006, Official Report, column 82WS, on local policing, what representations were made by (a) individual chief police officers, (b) the Association of Chief Police Officers, (c) individual police authorities and (d) the Association of Police Authorities on the number of police community support officers needed for the neighbourhood policing project; and if he will place such representations in the Library. [109607]


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Mr. McNulty: PCSOs and the appropriate level of resourcing to deliver and sustain neighbourhood policing in 2007-08 and beyond have been discussed generally in almost all official and ministerial meetings and discussions on policing (both informal and formal) in recent months and leading up to my written statement of 27 November 2006, Official Report, columns 82-86WS. The Association of Police Authorities and the Association of Chief Police Authorities have represented the police service as a whole in these discussions, although individual chiefs and chairs have also raised these issues.

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 14 December 2006, Official Report, column 1324W, on the police, which police forces in England and Wales have collected the data referred to, other than the Metropolitan Police Service; and if he will make a statement. [112869]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 8 January 2007]: All police forces, other than the Cambridgeshire constabulary, provided activity-based costing data to the Home Office, covering the 2004-05 financial year. This data was reported under a number of headings including robberies, violence against the person and burglary in a dwelling. Non-incident linked paperwork and checking paperwork (supervisory) are not costed specifically within the activity-based costing returns submitted to the Home Office.

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many police officers there are in (a) England, (b) Staffordshire, (c) Stoke on Trent and (d) Trent Valley division; [114969]

(2) how many police officers there are in (a) England, (b) Staffordshire, (c) Stoke on Trent, (d) Trent Valley and (e) Tamworth per 100,000 head of population. [114970]

Mr. McNulty: Police officer strength and the number of police officers per 100,000 head of population, by police force area, are given in Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Police Service Strength England and Wales 31 March 2006, available for download from:

Police officer strength and the number of police officers per 100,000 head of population, by basic command unit, are given in the additional tables of the above mentioned publication, available for download from:

Police strength data for the town of Tamworth are not available. The available local data for Staffordshire Basic Command Units are given in the following table.


18 Jan 2007 : Column 1298W
Police officer strength (FTE)( 1) and officers per 100,000 population by country, force and BCU as at 31 March 2006
Police force Basic command unit Police officers Police officers per 100,000 population

All England forces

133,925

269

Staffordshire

2,302

219

Chase

420

131

North Staffordshire

298

137

Stoke on Trent

578

243

Trent Valley

412

150

Central Services

594

(2)n/a

(1 )Full-time equivalents that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Due to rounding there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of constituent items. Figures include those officers on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave.
(2 )Central Services are an administrative boundary, not a geographic one, and therefore do not have a resident population.

Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any restrictions apply to applications to join the police from those with coeliac disease. [115362]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 15 January 2007]: There are no general restrictions on applicants to the police service with coeliac disease.

Home Office Circular 59/2004 sets out the medical guidelines for police recruitment and further guidance was issued by the Home Office in August 2004 to Force Medical Advisors. Forces look at each case individually and assess it on its merits.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers were employed in Essex in each of the last 10 years. [115864]

Mr. McNulty: The available data are given in the table.

Police strength data are published annually in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin “Police Service Strength, England and Wales”. The latest publication (data as at 31 March 2006) can be downloaded from:

Police officer strength (FTE)( 1) in Essex as at 31 March 1996 to 31 March 2006( 2)

1996

2,884

1997

2,961

1998

2,928

1999

2,891

2000

2,806

2001

2,897

2002

2,946

2003

2,989

2004

3,098

2005

3,190

2006

3,279

(1) Full-time equivalent. All officers less staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave (comparable with previously published figures).
(2) This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items.

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Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police forces in England and Wales have changed police injury pension payments so that payments are linked to national average earnings rather than police wages once injured officers reach compulsory retirement age (a) to all officers including those already receiving injury pensions who have reached compulsory retirement age, (b) to those receiving an injury pension but yet to reach compulsory retirement age and (c) only to those who were injured after the changes came into effect. [116123]

Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not held centrally. The decision on whether to review a police injury pension is for the police authority paying it. The size of an injury award is determined in the first instance by reference to the recipient’s final pensionable salary and length of service as a police officer and his or her loss of earning capacity as a result of the injury. Where a police authority is reviewing the size of an injury pension the key question is whether the former officer’s loss of earning capacity as a result of the injury has altered. When a former officer reaches what would have been his or her compulsory retirement age in the police service, Home Office guidance advises police authorities, in the absence of any cogent evidence to the contrary in a particular case, to assess the loss of earning capacity by reference not to police pay but to national average earnings.

Mr. Galloway: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many black and minority ethnic Metropolitan Police officers applied for positions with the rank of Commander in the last two years; how many have been appointed to those positions; and if he will make a statement. [114934]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 16 January 2007]: Statistics regarding applications for promotion are for the force concerned and are therefore a matter for the Metropolitan Police Service in this case.

Prison Service

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were carried out by people who had absconded from prison in each of the last five years. [114225]

Mr. McNulty: This information is not collected as part of the recorded crime series. Data held centrally are for numbers of crimes only and do not include details of the victim or suspect.

Proscribed Terrorist Organisations

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the UK-based organisations which are listed as proscribed terrorist organisations under international agreements to which the UK is a party. [108086]

Mr. McNulty: Both the EU and the UN maintain lists of terrorist organisations. Member states are obliged to apply financial sanctions (such as asset freezes) on the organisations on these lists.


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The EU list can be accessed at the following website:

The New Consolidated List of Individuals and Entities Belonging to or Associated with the Taliban and the Al-Quaida Organisation, as established and maintained by the United Nations 1267 committee, can be accessed at the following website:

Railways

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reported offences related to (a) pedal cycles and (b) motor vehicles have occurred at railway stations in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [115821]

Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not collected centrally. The Home Office does collect data on offences recorded by the British Transport Police but offences occurring specifically at railway stations cannot be separately identified.

Repeat Bail Offenders

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people arrested over 2005-06 were on repeat bail. [115680]

Mr. McNulty: Information on arrests held centrally covers persons arrested for recorded crime (notifiable offences), by age group, gender, ethnicity and main offence group within the 43 police force areas in England and Wales. Information is therefore not available centrally to the detail required. This information is held locally however and is one of the factors that can be considered by the courts when deciding whether or not to grant bail in a particular case. Other factors include the nature and seriousness of the alleged offence, and the defendant’s character, associations and community ties.

Road Safety

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cause is of the delay in publishing the report into the road death pilot projects which ended in March 2005; and when he expects it to be published. [115957]

Mr. Coaker [holding answer 16 January 2007]: Research Findings on the evaluation of support services for road traffic victims are due to be published in spring 2007. The report will be based on an examination of three Home Office funded pilot schemes—Bedfordshire, Bradford and Calderdale and Merseyside.

The publication date reflects the work that has been involved in finalising the research report from the evaluation, and in quality-assuring its contents.

Road Traffic Infringements

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what targets he has set police forces in their tackling of road traffic infringements. [115949]


18 Jan 2007 : Column 1301W

Mr. Coaker: The Roads Policing Strategy Statement agreed between ACPO, the Home Office and the Department for Transport sets five roads policing objectives: to deny criminals the use of the roads by enforcing the law, to reduce road casualties, to tackle the threat of terrorism, to reduce anti-social use of the roads and to enhance public confidence and reassurance by patrolling the roads. The update to the National Community Safety Plan issued in November last year set implementation of the Strategy as a key action for the police in 2007-08. How the Strategy is implemented is a matter for individual chief officers.

Speeding

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were convicted of speeding offences in (a) England, (b) Lancashire and (c) the Ribble Valley in each of the last five years. [116115]

Mr. McNulty: Available information on the number of convictions for offences of speeding taken from the Court Proceedings Database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform, from 2000 to 2004 (latest available) is in the table.

2005 data will be available later this year.

Data are not available at either local authority or constituency level.

Total findings of guilt at all courts: England and within Lancashire police force area for speeding offences( 1) , 2000 to 2004
Number of offences
England Lancashire police force area

2000

130,876

5,268

2001

127,647

4,468

2002

115,875

3,895

2003

128,517

6,862

2004

130,803

5,078

(1 )Offence under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 ss. 16, 81, 84, 86, 88 7 89; Motor Vehicles (Speed Limits on Motorways) Regs. 1973; Parks Regulation (Amendment) Act 1926—byelaws made thereunder.
Notes:
1. It is known that for some police force areas, the reporting of court proceedings, in particular those relating to summary motoring offences, may be less than complete. Work is underway to ensure that the magistrates courts case management system currently being implemented by the Department for Constitutional Affairs reports all motoring offences to the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. This will enable more complete figures to be disseminated.
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 the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when these data are used.

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