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Gypsies and Travellers

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions East Sussex Constabulary (a) has and (b) has not moved on illegally parked Gypsies and Travellers in each of the last five years. [116552]

Mr. McNulty: Sussex police do not hold data on the number of times Travellers have been moved or the decision taken not to move them in a central location. All such decisions are authorised by a superintendent or chief superintendent rank and the rationale recorded. On east Sussex division, since October 2006, Travellers have been moved on three occasions and a decision not to move Travellers has been made on another three occasions.

Identity Fraud

Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes involving identity fraud were committed (a) in the last 12 months and (b) in each of the previous 10 years. [110990]

Joan Ryan: The information sought is not available centrally because there is no single offence of identity fraud. However, questions have been incorporated into the British Crime Survey and the results should give us more information about the victims of this type of crime.

In addition, the 250 members of CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service for the private sector (mainly financial services companies), recorded 51,025 victims of identity fraud in the first three quarters of 2006 and estimate that this will rise to 68,000 for the entire year. Victims of identity fraud as recorded by CIFAS in previous years are 22,520 in 2000, 26,266 in 2001, 32,737 in 2002, 43,094 in 2003, 50,455 in 2004 and 56,200 in 2005.

Identity Theft

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what estimate he has made of the number of people subject to identity theft in each year since 2002; [110757]

(2) how many and what proportion of persons subject to identity theft were (a) under 18 years of age and (b) under 12 years of age in each year since 2002. [110758]

Joan Ryan: The information sought is not available centrally because there is no single offence of identity theft. However, questions have been incorporated into the British Crime Survey and the results should give us more information about the victims of this type of crime. Due to the economic motive for identity theft, the number of victims under 18 years of age and 12 years of age is likely to be very low.

In addition, the 250 members of CIFAS, the UK’s Fraud Prevention Service for the private sector (mainly financial services companies), recorded 32,737 victims of identity fraud in 2002, 43,094 in 2003, 50,455 in
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2004, 56,200 in 2005 and 51,025 for the first three quarters of 2006 (CIFAS estimate that this will rise to 68,000 for the entire year).

CIFAS also commissioned Perpetual Research and Consultancy International (PRCI) Ltd to conduct a study to access the impact of identity fraud on victims. The report ‘Identity Fraud: What about the victim?’ included an assessment of all of the 55,548 victims of impersonation recorded on the CIFAS database as at the end of July 2005. Of these, 1 per cent. were under 21 years of age.

Informants: Prisons

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library a copy of the training documentation on the handling of informants in HM Prison Service. [110811]

Mr. Sutcliffe: It would not be appropriate to do so. The training documentation is operationally sensitive and may be shared only with staff actively engaged in the handling of informants or the management of those processes.

Murders

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murderers released on parole in each of the last 15 years have subsequently been convicted of violent crime. [112668]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Reconviction information for offenders convicted of murder, released on life licence, and subsequently reconvicted for a grave offence was published in 1997 as: Life Licensees—Reconvictions and recalls by the end of 1995: England and Wales, Home Office Statistical Bulletin 297. The report is available online at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/hosb297.pdf

Grave offences are mainly offences of homicide, serious wounding, rape, buggery, robbery, aggravated burglary and arson endangering life.

Table 3 (page 10) of the report shows that 1.1 per cent. of people who served a mandatory life sentence for murder and were released on life licence between 1972 and 1993 were reconvicted of a grave offence within two years of release (12 of 1,121 released and successfully matched to the Offenders Index for their criminal history. A total of 1,212 were released during this period; 91 could not be matched to the Offenders Index).

A five-year reconviction rate is available for those released between 1972 and 1990, and shows that 2.7 per cent. of people who served a mandatory life sentence for murder and were released on life licence were reconvicted of a grave offence within five years of release (26 of 936 released and successfully matched to the Offenders Index for their criminal history. A total of 1,019 were released during this period; 83 could not be matched to the Offenders Index).

Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders were committed by criminals out of prison on licence in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [114950]


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Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is not available in the form requested. Data on the number of individuals convicted of murder while being supervised by the Probation Service cannot be broken down to show how many of those individuals were serving community sentences and how many were on licence following release from custody.

Neighbourhood Crime Monitoring

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what resources were made available to (a) Neighbourhood Watch and (b) farm watchers (i) in England and (ii) in the Vale of York in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement; [116510]

(2) what follow-up there is to reports of suspicious activities by farm watchers in rural areas by vehicles whose registration numbers are posted to the police for this purpose. [116511]

Mr. Coaker: The Home Office does not provide direct funding to Neighbourhood Watch and other Watch schemes. However, in the last three years, the Home Office has provided free literature to Neighbourhood Watch and Home Watch schemes, a training pack for co-ordinators, a website providing information and news plus a discussion forum, and public liability insurance for Neighbourhood Watch activities. A national conference was organised for Neighbourhood Watch members in March 2005.

Neighbourhood Watch schemes in Vale of York have access to these resources.

Farm Watches are voluntary organisations similar to Neighbourhood Watch schemes, set up where needed in rural areas. The Home Office does not provide any resources specific to Farm Watch, although generic Neighbourhood Watch literature and advice can be adapted.

Response by police reports from Farm Watches will vary depending on local issues, control strategies, response plans, tactical assessments, circumstances, and availability of resources. When given reports of suspicious vehicles, the police may check the Police National Computer, which may indicate any stolen, or other vehicle interest markers and any other previous police checks. Further checks can then be made and the result of these checks and the circumstances would influence local police response.

Non-emergency Police Number

Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans there are to introduce the non-emergency police number 101 in the Dorset area. [117320]

Mr. McNulty: Evaluation and assessment of the introduction of the Single Non-Emergency Number, 101, in the five Wave one Police and Local Authority Partnership areas are currently ongoing. Plans for future programme development beyond wave one partnership areas, including Dorset, will be deferred pending the outcome of this evaluation and assessment, including optimum costs and benefits, to be completed in autumn 2007.


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Overseas Registration Plates

Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps to ensure that vehicles with overseas registration plates can be traced in order to enforce prosecutions and penalties after they are identified on cameras committing speed and red light offences. [111346]

Mr. Coaker: The growing use of automatic number plate recognition cameras, which check passing vehicles against various databases, is already helping enforcement action against the drivers of foreign registered vehicles detected speeding and jumping red lights. The number plates of those who leave the country without being dealt with can be recorded on a database and so be detected and dealt with on return here. We have also taken a number of measures to improve enforcement action against the drivers of foreign registered vehicles. These include a provision in the Road Safety Act 2006 which will allow the exchange of driver licensing and vehicle registration information with other countries. Further help will be provided by the European framework decision on the mutual recognition of financial penalties, which will allow courts in one member state to have the penalties they impose enforced in another and by the international convention on the mutual recognition of driving disqualifications.

Prisoners and Detainees: False Addresses

Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many criminals who have absconded gave a non-existent address for residency in the last two years. [116309]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Information to answer this question is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Prisons

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of male prisoners are fathers. [113625]

Mr. Sutcliffe: This information is not routinely collected, but a resettlement survey commissioned in 2003 by the then Custody to Work Unit, Prison Service, showed that almost half (48 per cent.) of all adult male prisoners had dependent children (including stepchildren) under 18. The proportion of young male prisoners (18 to 20) who had dependent children (including stepchildren) under 18 was 20 per cent.

Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners were held at Ford prison in each month since 1 January 2006. [116195]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The requested figures are in the following table, which are also available in monthly updated websites (see table 4) at:

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing
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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.

Population of Ford prison (end month figures for 2006)
Total prison establishment

January

464

February

490

March

522

April

517

May

348

June

382

July

394

August

416

September

476

October

482

November

454


Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedures his Department has in place to assess the suitability of prisoners to be placed in low security prisons. [116316]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Prisoners are assessed objectively in a robust and rigorous process looking at all aspects of their offending behaviour, actions they have taken to reduce their likelihood of re-offending and the risk they pose to the public. They are placed in the lowest security category consistent with their assessed risk. Only prisoners placed in the lowest security category (D) may be allocated to open conditions.

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many adult prisoners absconded from prisons in Surrey in each of the last three years, broken down by category of conviction; how many such prisoners are still at liberty, broken down by category of conviction; and if he will make a statement. [116576]

Mr. Sutcliffe: There are no recorded absconds from any prison in Surrey in the period 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2006.

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison staff have been (a) disciplined and (b) prosecuted for taking illicit drugs of Class A or B into prisons in England and Wales in each of the last three years; and how many people other than prison officers were prosecuted in the same period for the same offence. [116610]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Information is not held centrally to answer the question to the level of detail required, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures the Government are taking to maintain accurate records of prisoners within the prison system. [116315]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Prison Core Records are currently created by the receiving establishment and managed locally at which ever holding establishment has custody of the prisoner. On release the Prisoner Core Record remains at the releasing establishment. HQ caseworker
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files prefixed PDP are created on request. They are tracked and stored centrally.

The first release of C-NOMIS (the replacement prisoner case management system) was very successfully implemented, as planned, in the HM Prison Service designated early adopter, HMP Albany on 10 December 2006. It is now in use as the operational case management system for the prison.

The implementation process requires regular checking and, if necessary, upgrading of the quality of the data held on Local Inmate Database System (to enable its successful transfer to C-NOMIS). This was achieved very successfully at HMP Albany. Measures to maintain and enhance data quality will be a continuing part of C-NOMIS during its roll out across all prisons.

Probation Service

Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money has been allocated to the probation service for (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [106752]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The current resource allocation to the probation service for 2006-07 is £883 million. The resource allocation for 2007-08 is not yet settled; the indicative allocation is £908 million. After allowing for a £7 million technical adjustment relating to the funding of probation service IT, this is an increase of 3.7 per cent.

These allocations are in respect of the local probation boards and the national probation directorate (NPD). Certain expenditure related to the probation service, but managed centrally by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), is not included. Arising from a review of NOMS HQ, the national probation directorate is being incorporated into the NOMS centre and in 2007-08 there will not be a separate NPD budget.


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