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26 Apr 2007 : Column 1240W—continued
Drink Driving: Greater London
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of drink driving were recorded in each London borough in year since 1997. [132923]
Mr. Coaker: Incidents of drink driving are not recorded centrally as the summary offences of ‘driving etc. after consuming alcohol or taking drugs’ do not form part of the recorded crime series.
Available information on the number of convictions at all courts and those dealt with by written warning, taken from the annual Home Office publication “Offences relating to motor vehicles, England and Wales Supplementary tables”, for the Metropolitan and City of London police force areas, from 1997 to 2004 (latest available) are given in the table.
Data are not available at London borough level. 2005 data will be available later this year.
| N umber of driving etc. after consuming alcohol or taking drugs( 1) offences found guilty at all courts or dealt with by written warning within the Metropolitan and City of London police force areas, 1997-2004 | ||||||||
| Number of offences | ||||||||
| Police force area/police action | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 |
| (1) Offences under the Road Traffic Act 1988. 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 inevitable limitations are taken into account when these data are used. | ||||||||
Golden Arrow Communications
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what meetings his Department's Ministers have held with representatives of Golden Arrow Communications over the last 12 months. [134244]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I refer the hon. and learned Gentleman to my answer of 27 March 2007, Official Report, column 1443W.
Manpower: Home Office
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which committees and working groups in his Department assess the capacity of prisons in England and Wales. [133423]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The operational capacity of individual prisons is assessed and agreed on behalf of the Secretary of State by Area Managers and the Director of High Security Prisons (within public sector prisons) and by Regional Offender Managers and the Head of the National Commissioner’s Support Bureau (within private prisons).
Prisoner Transfers
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the average number of transfers from one prison to another was per prisoner in the last year for which figures are available; [133278]
(2) how many and what percentage of prisoners were transferred from one prison to another (a) once, (b) twice, (c) three times, (d) four times, (e) five times, (f) six times, (g) seven times and (h) eight times or more in the last year for which figures are available. [133279]
Mr. Sutcliffe: This information is not held centrally.
Prisoners: British Nationality
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) British nationals were in prison abroad and (b) non-EU nationals were imprisoned in the UK in each of the last five years. [132745]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Figures on the numbers of both non-European Union prisoners held in prison establishments in England and Wales and the numbers of new detentions of British nationals held in prisons abroad can be found in the table. The Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Prison Service respectively hold information on prison numbers in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The figures on the numbers of British nationals detained in foreign prisons were taken from the answer given by my hon. Friend, Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Clegg) to his question on 16 January 2007, Official Report, column 999W. As at 30 September 2006, we were aware of 2,421 British nationals in detention overseas, either on remand or serving a custodial sentence.
These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems, which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.
| Non-EU foreign nationals in prisons in England and Wales | |
| 30 June: | Number |
| British nationals in prison abroad( 1) | |
| Number | |
| (1)These are the number of new detentions of British nationals each year, not the numbers held at any given date. The following is a link to show European Union membership http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1139991776535 | |
Prisoners: Suicide
Mr. Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the incidence of suicide and self-harm has been for prisoners serving indeterminate public protection sentences. [133784]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The exact information about indeterminate public protection sentenced prisoners has not been collated in the requested format and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many self-inflicted deaths have occurred in prisons since January 2006. [133976]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The number of self-inflicted deaths in prisons between 1 January 2006 and 24 April 2007 is 97.
Prisons: Drugs
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the impact of a switch from soft to hard drugs testing on positive mandatory drug testing rates in prisons; and if he will make a statement. [132974]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The standard group of drugs covered by mandatory drug testing in prisons remains as it was when the programme was introduced in 1995. There has been no switch from soft to hard drugs testing.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the accuracy of mandatory drug testing exercises within prison establishments as a measure of the extent of drug usage in prisons; and if he will make a statement. [132977]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The mandatory drug testing programme provides the best measure of the level of drug misuse. Research conducted by the Office for National Statistics published in January 2005 found that mandatory drug testing provides a good indication of patterns and levels of drug misuse over time particularly at a national and regional level or prison category type.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons there is no key performance target for targeted mandatory drug tests for prison establishments; and if he will make a statement. [132985]
Mr. Sutcliffe: All prisons carry out targeted mandatory drug tests. In order to allow prisons to target testing flexibly to meet local circumstances no key performance target has been set.
Solicitor-General
Serious Fraud
21. Anne Moffat: To ask the Solicitor-General if he will assess the merits of introducing plea bargaining in serious fraud cases. [133949]
The Solicitor-General: When the Government responded to the recommendations of the Fraud Review on 15 March 2007, they indicated that a working group would be established to explore how far it was possible to introduce a framework for plea negotiations in the context of the criminal courts in England and Wales. The group is scheduled to start its work next month, and a symposium chaired by the Attorney-General will be held on 30 April to explore some of the issues.
Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Solicitor-General what role he plans for plea bargaining in combating fraud following the fraud review. [133950]
The Solicitor-General: The Government have accepted the recommendations of the Fraud Review that further consideration should be given to the means by which we might introduce a framework for plea negotiations/plea bargaining into our criminal justice system. A working group is being established to engage in detailed consideration of the issues which need to be resolved.
Human Trafficking
23. Dr. Kumar: To ask the Solicitor-General what steps the Crown Prosecution Service is taking to improve prosecution rates in cases of alleged human trafficking. [133951]
The Solicitor-General: Since the introduction of human trafficking offences under the Sexual Offences Act 2003 the number of prosecutions brought to court has increased from 16 in 2004-05 to 116 in 2006-07.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) can only prosecute those cases which are referred to it by investigators. The CPS is working with colleagues in the Home Office to strengthen and improve investigation, law enforcement and the prosecution process against those who commit human trafficking offences.
The UK Action Plan on tackling human trafficking, which was published on 23 March 2007, recognises the need to ensure that human trafficking becomes part of ‘core’ police business by improving the capability of the police and their partners. Actions include the development of ‘key diagnostic indicators’ to measure performance and progress in dealing with human trafficking issues.
The United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) is now recognised as the central point for
the development of law enforcement expertise. The CPS is working closely with the UKHTC in developing .and taking forward training packages and courses for police, other law enforcement agencies and Crown prosecutors. Training, together with the development of an early victim identification toolkit for front-line police and immigration officers, will enable identification of trafficked victims at the earliest opportunity. This should prevent potential trafficked victims who have committed immigration offences from being removed before providing information or intelligence to investigators.
Crown Prosecution Service: Freemasonry
Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Solicitor-General what provisions exist for legally qualified staff in the Crown Prosecution Service to declare freemasonry membership on appointment. [133301]
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