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6 Feb 2007 : Column 790W—continued

The Home Office shares fingerprints with European member states through EuroDac, the European Asylum Fingerprint system.

Crime: Bus Services

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were committed on buses in each year since 1997. [118331]

Mr. Coaker: The information requested is not available centrally. Offences on buses cannot be separately identified in the recorded crime series.

Crime: Nature Conservation

Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers are employed in the investigation and prosecution of wildlife crime, broken down by constabulary. [119386]

Mr. Coaker: The requested information is not collected centrally.

Crime: Railway Stations

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were committed at each railway station in England and Wales in each year since 1997. [118332]

Mr. Coaker: The information requested is not available centrally. Offences at railway stations cannot be separately identified in the recorded crime series.


6 Feb 2007 : Column 791W

Crime: Weapons

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received on the use of metal detector gloves by police forces to detect weapons on suspects; and if he will make a statement. [118638]

Mr. McNulty: The Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB) has been made aware of metal detecting gloves by at least one UK supplier and they appear in the HOSDB ‘Manual of Search and Detection Equipment’ which goes out to all UK police forces each year. Other types of metal detector are also featured.

DNA Profiles

Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 16 January 2006, Official Report, column 1111-12W, on DNA profiles, what progress has been made towards allowing more accurate and easier cross-referencing of the DNA Database and the Police National Computer. [110656]

Joan Ryan: In 2005, the National DNA Database (NDNAD) and the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) had discussions on the possibility of making a technical change to the electronic link between the Police National Computer (PNC) and the NDNAD to enable data on arrest histories to be transferred from the PNC to the NDNAD.

In early 2006, the NDNAD and PITO decided to consider other options for the provision of such data as an alternative to a change to the electronic link. Several meetings were held between the NDNAD, the Home Office and PITO in 2006 on this issue and discussions are still ongoing on the possibility of being able to provide such information from the NDNAD and PNC in the future on a quarterly basis.

Driving Offences

James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have received (a) one and (b) more than one fixed penalty notice for driving without insurance in each year since 2003. [118252]

Mr. Coaker: A person cannot be offered more than one fixed penalty for uninsured driving in any one year. The offence carries obligatory endorsement of six to eight penalty points, so a second offence would render a person liable to disqualification under totting-up and a fixed penalty cannot be offered in such circumstances.

Available information taken from the Motoring Offences Fixed Penalty Notices collection held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform, from 2003 to 2004 (latest available) on the number of notices issued for the offence of driving without insurance is provided in the table.

2005 data will be available later in the year.


6 Feb 2007 : Column 792W
Total number of fixed penalty notices issued( 1,2 ) for the offence of using a motor vehicle uninsured against third party risks( 3) , England and Wales, 2003-04
Number of offences

2003(1)

458

2004

1,463

(1) As from 1 June 2003, ‘driving a motor vehicle while uninsured against third party risks’ became a fixed penalty offence.
(2) Only covers tickets paid where there is no further action.
(3) An offence under the Road Traffic Act 1988 s. 143 (2).
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 under way 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 limitations are taken into account when these data are used.

Geraldine Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions there were in (a) Morecambe and Lunesdale and (b) Lancashire for driving without insurance in (i) 2003, (ii) 2004, (iii) 2005 and (iv) 2006. [118028]

Mr. Coaker: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 30 January 2007, Official Report, column 193W.

Drug-related Offences

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many drug-related offences were recorded by police forces in each county of the east of England in each year since 1997. [118652]

Mr. Coaker: Data collected centrally do not identify whether offences (other than drug offences) are drug related. The recorded crime series does include numbers of drug offences which are given as follows.

Recorded drug offences for each police force in the eastern region
Force name 1997

Bedfordshire

223

Cambridgeshire

205

Essex

401

Hertfordshire

215

Norfolk

337

Suffolk

333

Note:
Prior to April 1998, ‘trafficking in controlled drugs’ was the only drug offence included in the recorded crime series.

1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02

Bedfordshire

1,141

1,081

896

1,009

Cambridgeshire

1,166

1,011

829

798

Essex

2,312

2,421

2,208

2,212

Hertfordshire

1,197

1,180

1,438

1,350

Norfolk

1,534

1,561

1,160

1,211

Suffolk

1,581

1,410

1,178

1,292

Note:
The introduction of the revised counting rules in April 1998 expanded offence coverage. This included the addition of ‘possession of controlled drugs’ and ‘other drug offences’. These data are not comparable with earlier years.

6 Feb 2007 : Column 793W

2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06

Bedfordshire

1,069

1,130

1,131

1,228

Cambridgeshire

904

1,047

1,174

1,442

Essex

2,377

2,295

2,328

2,889

Hertfordshire

1,553

1,678

1,754

2,044

Norfolk

1,392

1,508

1,602

1,821

Suffolk

1,689

1,923

1,974

2,015

Note:
Numbers of recorded crime were affected by changes in reporting and recording following the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These data are not comparable with earlier years.

Extradition Requests: Russian Federation

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the costs to the public purse were of extradition requests from the Russian Federation in the cases of (a) Arhmed Zachaeav, (b) Natalia Chernysheva, (c) Vladimir Maruev, (d) Alexandre Termerko, (e) Boris Berezovsky, (f) Ramal Boruganov and (g) Alexander Gorbachev, broken down by Government agency. [112497]

Joan Ryan: It is not feasible to provide a complete or accurate breakdown of costs incurred in individual extradition cases by each Government Department and its supporting agencies. In each agency involved, the cases were dealt with as part of its overall and larger caseload. However, there are known legal costs to the public purse in these seven cases amounting to £3,177,292.

Former German Prisoners of War

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what records of former German prisoners of war (POWs) from the Second World War were maintained in the UK; what assessment he has made of their accuracy; whether such records distinguish between POWs identified as Nazi Party members or active sympathisers and others; whether records are kept of which POWs in each category remained in the UK after the general repatriation of POWs; and if he will make a statement. [116974]

Joan Ryan: The Home Office was not responsible for Prisoners of War (POWs) during the Second World War. Personnel records maintained by the War Office’s Prisoner of War Information Bureau (PWIB) in London were transferred either to the German Red Cross in 1949 or to the Deutsche Dienstelle (WASt) in Berlin following a decision in 1960 to offer them to the German Federal Government. It is not feasible to make an assessment of the accuracy of these records or whether they contain the information sought. I understand that most other surviving records from the War Office and other Departments relating to German prisoners of war have already been released to the National Archives.

Highly Skilled Migrant Programme

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether those who applied to the
6 Feb 2007 : Column 794W
highly skilled migrant programme prior to September 2006 were warned of the potential for retrospectively-applied changes to the scheme. [112626]

John Reid: The recent changes to the highly skilled migrant programme have no effect on existing grants of leave. We are therefore not applying them retrospectively. A grant of leave in a category of the immigration rules does not create the expectation of a further grant of leave in that category.

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment the Government have made of the effect of changes to the highly skilled migrant programme on previously successful applicants. [112627]

John Reid: All persons who were granted leave under the highly skilled migrant programme (HSMP) before the changes were implemented will be able to complete that period of leave.

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effect of age discrimination legislation on the use of an age-related points system in the highly skilled migrant programme. [117782]

John Reid: Age discrimination legislation is aimed at preventing employers from carrying out practices which discriminate on the basis of age. The immigration rules do not therefore fall directly within its scope as they govern the entry into and stay of people in the UK who are subject to immigration control. The points for age were introduced to avoid disadvantaging younger people, who may have had less time to build up their earnings, from being able to enter under the scheme.

Mosaic Data

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department and its agencies use Mosaic data. [111211]

Joan Ryan: The Department and its agencies do not currently use Mosaic data.

Passports

Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any changes have been made to the criteria for acceptability for passport photographs submitted to the Identity and Passport Service since the publication of the most recent version of information leaflet PLE/04, on passport photographs. [118316]


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