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29 Jan 2007 : Column 138W—continued

Prisoners and Detainees: False Addresses

Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many immigrants awaiting deportation who have absconded gave non-existent residency addresses in the last two years. [116310]

Mr. Byrne: The information is not held in the requested format and it could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Prisons

Mr. Burns: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps to install modesty screens around every lavatory in shared cells in HMP Chelmsford; and if he will make a statement. [110597]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The senior management team at Chelmsford prison is considering the best way to proceed with the installation of privacy screens. It is intended that work will begin in April 2007.

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many inmates of HMP Channings Wood, Denbury were diagnosed with a mental illness in each of the last three years. [111420]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested is not held centrally.

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many doubled cells there are in HMP Channings Wood; how many of these are without screens around the lavatory; and what steps he has taken to ensure the adequate supply of screens. [111421]

Mr. Sutcliffe: There are 33 double cells at Channings Wood; all of which have privacy screens around the lavatory.

Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners in England and Wales have absconded from custody in each of the last 10 years; and how many have not been caught. [116558]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table sets out how many prisoners have absconded from open prisons and escorts in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years.

Accurate figures for recaptured prisoners are currently available only at a disproportionate cost. However, validation of management information has shown that around three quarters of all absconders are returned to prison within 12 months of absconding.

Absconds from open prisons and escorts in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years
Number

1996-97

1,115

1997-98

1,056

1998-99

969

1999-2000

907

2000-01

787

2001-02

782

2002-03

950

2003-04

1,310

2004-05

877

2005-06

709


Public Sector Pensions

Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cash equivalent transfer
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value is of the public sector pensions of the 10 highest paid members of staff in his Department and its executive agencies; and if he will make a statement. [113815]

Mr. Byrne: The Home Office calculates Cash Equivalent Transfer Values (CETV) for board level staff on an annual basis. The results for the core Department and Executive Agencies are published in the appropriate Annual Reports. When the exercise was completed for the financial year 2005-06, the top earners were employed primarily by the Home Office and Prison Service. Their annual reports can be found on official departmental websites using the following links. Details of CETV figures for staff in the Criminal Records Bureau and Identity and Passport Service can also be found online using the following links. Each annual report includes further information on the principles of CETV and the basis for their calculation.

Home Office Resource Accounts 2005-06 (pages 48 to 50 refer):

HMPS Annual Report and Accounts 2005-06 (pages 51 to 53 refer):

Criminal Records Bureau Annual Report and Accounts 2005-06 (pages 24 to 26 refer):

United Kingdom Passport Service Annual Report and Accounts 2005-06 (pages 46 to 51 refer):

Schengen Information System

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many UK citizens have had their data placed on the Schengen Information System. [107201]

Mr. Byrne: This information is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Statistics

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which statistics released by his Department and its agencies are classified as (a) national statistics and (b) official statistics; and if he will make a statement. [115468]

Mr. Byrne [holding answer 16 January 2007]: A list of the titles of all of the National Statistics produced by each Department and Agency was placed in the Library of the House on 8 January 2007 to accompany the Second Reading of the Statistics and Registration Bill. An equivalent list was also placed on the National Statistics website. Theses list can be accessed using the following URL:

In addition to National Statistics, the Home Office publishes a wide range of other numerical information
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in a variety of forms including other data produced from the management and administration of the Department and in research reports. We are currently working to review this data, however there is not currently a complete centrally held list of all information published by the Home Office.

Street Robberies

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many street robberies were committed in Lancashire in the last 12 months; and how many were committed on 11 to 16 year olds. [111015]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 24 January 2007]: The recorded crime statistics, collected centrally, relate to numbers of offences. The series does not contain information on victims or offenders.

Muggings are classified as robbery of personal property.

The available information is given in the following table:

Offences of robbery of personal property in Lancashire police force area, 2005-06
Basic command unit Robbery of personal property

Lancashire Central

204

Lancashire Eastern

183

Lancashire Northern

81

Lancashire Southern

88

Lancashire Western

171

Pennine

177

Total

904


Translation Services

Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what documents his Department and its agencies translate for people in the UK who do not speak English; into which languages such documents are translated; and what the cost was of producing such translations in each of the last five years, broken down by language of translation. [113891]

Mr. Byrne: Any document for which an operational need for translation arises, within the Department and any of its executive agencies, may be translated. A central record is not maintained historically.

Expenditure depends on patterns of language usage, and its variable demand in any period. No collated expenditure figure for all parts of the Department is maintained.

Trespass: Schools

Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of trespass into school properties in the city of Leicester were reported in the last 12 months; and how many trespassers caught were aged under 10 years. [111088]

Mr. McNulty: Data on trespass are not collected centrally. Trespass is a summary offence and as such is not included in the recorded crime data series.


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Under-age Drinking

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 20 December 2006, Official Report, column 1165W, on under-age drinking, why the full amount has not yet been paid out. [116363]

John Reid: The Home Office made available £350,000 for this campaign. Local Trading Standards areas were then invited to make bids to the Home Office for funding according to their own local assessment of their capacity to conduct test purchases and the number of test purchases they proposed to conduct. All of the bids received from local areas were approved. On the basis of work they then conducted, local trading standards areas have received £303,481 of Home Office funding in the current financial year.

Violent Crime: Public Transport

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many criminal offences involving violence were carried out on public transport in each year since 1997, broken down by mode; and if he will make a statement. [111782]

Mr. McNulty: Violent crime data for each year since 1997 can be found in Home Office Statistical Bulletin No. 12/06 available online at:

From the information collected centrally it is not possible to identify where the violence occurred or the individual circumstances of the offence.

War Criminals

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps have been taken to cross-check the names of former German prisoners of war still resident in the UK from the Second World War with the United Nations list of suspected war criminals. [116975]

Mr. McNulty: The UN War Crimes Commission’s lists of suspected war criminals were incorporated into the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects (CROWCASS) created by the UK and USA in 1945. CROWCASS lists were issued to appropriate UK authorities and war crimes investigators at the time. The 1989 War Crimes Inquiry report also noted that the members of the 14th Waffen SS (Galizien) Division were later checked against the UNWCC lists before their civilianisation, although the report acknowledged that the UNWCC lists included few suspects identified from the territories controlled by the Soviet Union.

It would be an operational matter for the police to consider whether to search any particular records, but it is likely to be of limited evidential value unless conducted in the context of a particular criminal investigation. I understand that the police have searched for former members of the 14th Waffen SS Division still residing in the UK against the extensive
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database of persons suspected of war crimes held by the US Department of Justice Office of Special Investigations (OSI).

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what police resources are allocated to the investigation of Second World War criminals who may be resident in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [116857]

Mr. McNulty: The Metropolitan police has the lead responsibility in the UK for the investigation of crimes against humanity, including allegations arising from the Second World War. The Crimes Against Humanity Unit has a core staff of two officers and administrative support drawn from the Anti-Terrorist Branch and additional resources are allocated according to operational requirements.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress is being made in identifying former members of the SS Galizien division resident in the UK who are suspected of war crimes in the Second World War; how many former SS Galiziens are resident in the UK; how many of them (a) have been positively cleared of involvement in war crimes and (b) (i) are war crimes suspects, (ii) have been interviewed as to their possible involvement in war crimes, (iii) have known addresses and remain to be interviewed and (iv) have unidentified addresses; what steps are being taken to identify their present whereabouts; and if he will make a statement. [116858]

Mr. McNulty: No specific allegation of war crimes has been received against any former member of the 14th Waffen SS (Galizien) Division resident in the UK. Police inquiries in 2003 indicated that 1,450 ex-Galizien were still resident in the UK. The Metropolitan police visited a sample 13 former members in 2005 to ascertain any information about crimes against humanity but no such crimes were disclosed.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions his Department has had with the authorities in (a) the USA, (b) Germany, (c) Poland, (d) Hungary, (e) Belarus, (f) Georgia, (g) Russia, (h) Estonia, (i) Latvia, (j) Lithuania, (k) Ukraine, (l) the Czech Republic and (m) Slovakia (i) to establish best practice links and procedures with stakeholders in the prosecution of alleged Nazi war criminals and (ii) to identify alleged Nazi criminals resident in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [116860]

Mr. McNulty: There have not been any recent bi-lateral discussions with the countries listed about alleged Nazi war criminals in the UK, but officials from the Home Office have participated in meetings of the European Network of Contact Points on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, most recently in May 2006, to exchange information and best practice with our European partners. Police investigators and prosecutors may also seek assistance from authorities in other countries to identify and prosecute war criminals using established procedures for police and judicial co-operation.


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Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the letter of 11 August from the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to the hon. Member for Hendon, what progress has been made to ascertain from the German authorities whether any German pensions paid to UK residents have been withdrawn on suspicion that the recipient was involved with war crimes in the Second World War; and if he will make a statement. [116869]

Mr. McNulty: The Metropolitan Police made a request to the German authorities to establish whether
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they could supply details of any person in the UK whose pension had been withdrawn because of involvement in war crimes, but no information has been received to date.


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