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7 Feb 2007 : Column 977W—continued
Police: Pensions
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what average percentage of the operational budget for policing of police forces in England and Wales was spent on police pensions in the last period for which figures are available. [118174]
Mr. McNulty: The total net revenue budget for the police service in 2006-7 is £10.0 billion. The projected figure for employer’s pension contributions is £1.13 billion (11 per cent.).
Under the new system of pensions financing introduced on 1 April 2006 police authorities now have a separate pensions account out of which retired officers’ pensions are paid. Where the cost of pensions in payment exceeds the level of employer and officer contributions paid into the pension account in any year the account is topped up with a grant from central Government; any surplus is recouped. A key benefit of this change is that it takes away from police authorities the responsibility for meeting the rising cost of pensions, as the number of pensioners increases, from the operational budget. Instead, the operational budget now only has to provide for the employer’s contributions.
Private Prisons
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases there were of (a) doors found to be unlocked and (b) prisoners (i) absconding and (ii) escaping at each privately run prison in 2005-06. [117568]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is provided in the table.
The incident reporting system does not provide a discrete figure for doors found to be unlocked. These are reported within the category for incidents involving locks and keys. The table therefore provides figures for the total number of incidents involving locks or keys within the reporting periods.
| Number | ||||||
| 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2005 | 1 January 2006 to 31 December 2006 | |||||
| Prison | Incidents involving locks or keys | Prisoners absconded | Actual prisoners escaped | Incidents involving locks or keys | Prisoners absconded | Actual prisoners escaped |
Trevor Cross
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the case of the whistleblower Trevor Cross. [111206]
John Reid [holding answer 25 January 2007]: Trevor Cross was a temporary member of staff recruited by an employment agency to work in the Disclosure Unit of the Devon and Cornwall constabulary. The termination of his employment is a private matter between Mr. Cross and his employer.
Mr. Cross raised two principal concerns; that Devon and Cornwall constabulary have downgraded their checks on certain positions which involve applicants working with children and vulnerable adults, and that he has concerns about the accuracy of checks overall because of the Criminal Records Bureau’s data capture processes.
I have been assured by the Devon and Cornwall constabulary that there has been no downgrading or reduction in the consistency of the work conducted by their disclosure unit and that the enhanced checks for the occupations Mr. Cross has referred to are being carried out to the required standard.
The CRB employs a wide range of measures and quality controls to ensure that the information provided on application forms is correctly captured from the forms and used when checking for any criminal record.
UK-US Extradition Treaty
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the drafts of the extradition treaty (a) submitted to the Home Office on 8 February 2002 by the United States and (b) discussed in London on 12 July 2002. [117779]
John Reid: It is not Home Office policy to release the texts of draft treaties as to do so could jeopardise international relations between the UK and the state in question and could also prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs for any future negotiation of bilateral extradition treaties.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contributions Ministers made to the drafting of the extradition treaty with the United States between 8 February 2002 and the signing of the treaty. [117793]
John Reid: The treaty was negotiated in the same way that all such treaties are negotiated, following procedures laid down in the Ponsonby Rule, which has been in operation since 1924.
It is not Home Office policy to comment on the negotiation of individual treaties but I can confirm that the final text of the US-UK extradition treaty was approved by the then Home Secretary on 25 March 2003.
Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long each child held at Yarl’s Wood detention centre has been there. [112318]
John Reid: On 30 September 2006 there were 20 minors being held in Yarl’s Wood as part of family groups. All the children had been held for fewer than 14 days.
Education and Skills
Adventure Activities Licensing Authority
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who the board members are of the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority. [110877]
Jim Knight: The board of the Adventure Activities Licensing Authority comprises Sir Brooke Boothby (Chair), Mr. John Walsh-Heron (Chief Executive), Mr. Alan Blackshaw QBE and Mr. Ian McMorrin.
Assessments: Languages
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills whether (a) GCSE and (b) A-level examinations are available in (i) Gujarati, (ii) Hindi, (iii) Urdu, (iv) Tamil, (v) Somali, (vi) Farsi, (vii) Cantonese and (viii) Mandarin; and if he will make a statement. [118471]
Jim Knight: GCSE and A-level examinations are available for Gujarati, Urdu, Persian (Farsi) and Chinese (Mandarin/Cantonese), but not for Hindi, Tamil or Somali.
Citizenship Education
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many schools in (a) Leicester and (b) Leicestershire employ a teacher with (i) a Citizenship PGCE and (ii) other citizenship education or citizenship teaching qualifications. [111726]
Jim Knight: The information requested is not available at local authority level.
The following table provides the number of teachers teaching by subject, including citizenship, in maintained secondary schools in England and the highest post-A-level qualification held in the subject taught. The information is from 2002, the latest available.
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