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28 Mar 2007 : Column 1630W—continued
Drugs
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans to review the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. [129916]
Mr. Coaker: There are no plans to review the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971.
Drugs: Crime
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women are in prison for drug offences; how many were in prison for drug offences in 1997; and if he will make a statement. [126435]
John Reid: At the end of January 2007 there were 1,241 women held in prison in England and Wales for drugs offences. On 30 June 1997 the number was 815.
These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.
Drugs: Misuse
Paul Flynn:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the prevalence of (a) heroin, (b) cocaine, (c) cannabis,
(d) ecstasy and (e) amphetamines use in each of the last 10 years. [128098]
Mr. Coaker: Estimates of the prevalence of drug use among the household population in England and Wales are provided by the British Crime Survey (BCS), which has included a comparable self-completion module on drug use since 1996.
The prevalence of self-reported drug use in the past year amongst those aged 16-59 in England and Wales from the BCS is shown in the following table. This shows that use of amphetamines and cannabis has declined significantly since 1998. Cocaine powder use has increased over the same period but most of this increase took place prior to 2000, since when use has remained generally stable.
It should be noted that general population surveys such as the British Crime Survey provide poor coverage of more problematic users, who are more likely to use heroin and crack. These figures are therefore likely to be an underestimate of use of these drugs. A three year research programme is currently underway which will provide us with a better assessment of trends in the prevalence of problematic opiate and crack use in the future.
| Table 1. Figures for the proportion of 16-59 year olds reporting ‘having used drugs in the last year’, 1996 to 2006-06 British Crime Survey | |||||||||
| Drugs | 1996 | 1998 | 2000 | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | Statistically significant change 1998 to 2005-06 |
| (1 )Statistically significant increase at the 5 per cent. level. (2 )Statistically significant decrease at the 5 per cent. level. Note: From 2001, the reporting year for BCS data switched from calendar to financial years. Source: 1996,1998, 2000, 2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 BCS. | |||||||||
Drunkenness: Crime Prevention
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the timetable is for the (a) introduction and (b) designation of alcohol disorder zones by local authorities. [129475]
Mr. Coaker: Sections 15-20 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 empower local authorities to designate Alcohol Disorder Zones (ADZs) where there is nuisance, disorder or annoyance associated with the consumption of alcohol in the area or the consumption of alcohol supplied in the area which is likely to be repeated. The Act allows the Secretary of State to make regulations enabling local authorities to charge certain licensed premises in ADZs for additional enforcement activity.
The Act requires the Secretary of State to issue guidance to cover the use of ADZs and requires him to consult stakeholders before that guidance is issued. The guidance will be subject to formal consultation shortly. Following the consultation, regulations will be placed before Parliament at the earliest opportunity. The earliest possible date for commencement of ADZs will be 1 October 2007, in line with the Common Commencement Date (CCD) initiative for regulation bearing on business.
Local authorities may designate an ADZ, in their area, following commencement provided that the statutory criteria are met. These include undertaking a 28 day consultation period and an opportunity for licensees to take steps to implement an Action Plan within eight weeks of its publication. The guidance will place ADZs as a last resort intervention.
Fingerprints: Pilot Schemes
Mr. Clegg:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of
the results of the pilot project codenamed Lantern on the use of mobile fingerprint scanners. [129120]
John Reid: The Lantern pilot is still in its early stages and the initial results and feedback received to date indicate that Lantern is delivering the expected business benefits and that officers are finding it easy to operate and a useful tool that they would not want to be withdrawn. Currently results are being returned to the device in less than two minutes with an accuracy rate of approximately 97 per cent. and a hit rate of 40 per cent. (i.e. 40 per cent. of people checked are recorded on IDENT1). This high hit rate reflects the environment in which the devices are being used—proactive, intelligence led policing.
A number of arrests have been made, particularly of disqualified drivers presenting false ID. Lantern has also been used to identify a vehicle occupant who presented a false identity but was wanted by three forces for fraud and ATM card skimming. In another case Lantern played a large part in apprehending a man described by police as ‘the most wanted nominal’ in the area. In many of these cases the individuals would not have been arrested without the identifications provided by Lantern.
Results indicate that Lantern is showing time savings beyond expectations and hence allowing officers to spend more time on the streets and providing a visible deterrent. Establishing a person’s identity at the roadside avoids the need to arrest a person and take them to a custody suite to do this—a process which typically takes about three hours. Early results show that in encounters where officers have reported a time saving using Lantern, the average time saved has been about 90 minutes. There have also been a number of cases where Lantern has provided early identification of deceased persons carrying no ID and hence saved a considerable amount of police and coroners time and also enabled next of kin to be informed sooner. Cases have included fatal road traffic collisions, sudden deaths and suicide victims on railway lines.
Firearms: Imports
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many assault rifles and machine guns imported in 2005 from Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatia have been destroyed. [130154]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 27 March 2007]: The information requested is not collected centrally.
Identity and Passport Service: Contracts
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contracts the Identity and Passport Service has with Whitehead Mann; what the value and remit of such contracts are; and if he will make a statement. [127874]
John Reid: IPS has one Contract with Whitehead Mann to provide executive search Services in relation to the recruitment of Executive Directors. The value of this contract is commercially confidential.
Identity Cards
Mr. Clegg:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the oral answer from the Minister for Immigration of 19 February 2007, Official Report, column 1, on identity cards, which 55 countries propose to introduce biometric passports;
and which two do not have plans for biometric passports. [127718]
John Reid: My hon. Friend identified 53 countries that have introduced or indicated that they propose to introduce biometric passports (containing a facial biometric image) as stated on 19 February 2007, Official Report , column 1. Since then, updated research has identified 54 such countries.
These include all 27 member states of the European Union and the following other countries:
Australia
Canada
China
Egypt
Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region)
India
Indonesia
Japan
The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Malaysia
Morocco
New Zealand
Nigeria
Pakistan
Philippines
Russian Federation
Serbia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United States
Venezuela
On the basis of the latest information obtained by the Identity and Passport Service, Brazil, Argentina and the Ukraine do not have plans at present to introduce e-Passports, although such information may be subject to change. We also understand that Mexico does not have any plans at present to introduce e-Passports but does record the fingerprints of individuals prior to the issue of a passport.
Kongra-Gel
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what reviews of the ban on Kongra-Gel under anti terror legislation have recently taken place. [129792]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 26 March 2007]: Kongra-Gel was added to the list of proscribed organisations as an alternative name for the already proscribed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in August 2006. A rolling programme of reviews of each of the groups on the list is currently in train; Kongra-Gel has not yet been reviewed as part of this process.
Metropolitan Police: Civilians
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Metropolitan Police civilian staff are based in each London borough. [129461]
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