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22 Nov 2007 : Column 1074W—continued
Police: Manpower
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police force scenes of crime officers there were in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years. [164802]
Mr. McNulty: Information collected by the Home Office relates to the numbers of police officers and police staff that are primarily involved in the function “Scenes of Crime”. Data on this basis are available from 2005 and are contained in the following table.
| Scenes of crime function( 1,2) (FTE) in England and Wales as at 31 March | |
| Total number of officers/staff | |
| (1) Staff with multiple responsibilities (or designations) are recorded under their primary role or function. The deployment of police officers is an operational matter for individual chief constables. (2) Overall force totals including those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. | |
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) required and (b) actual headcount is of uniformed police officers in each London borough division of the Metropolitan police force; and if she will make a statement. [166675]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 20 November 2007]: The latest information available centrally relates to number of officers in post on 31 March 2007 for basic command units of the Metropolitan police (which corresponds with London boroughs, plus Heathrow). These figures appear in the following table.
Decisions on the deployment of officers to each BCU are a matter for the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
Police: Video Recordings
David Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police forces routinely record on video, or audio tape, briefings to officers before armed operations. [165573]
Mr. McNulty: The Association of Chief Police Officers Working Group on the Police Use of Firearms issued guidance on 18 June 2007 recommending that all forces should, where possible, aspire to audio record briefings for spontaneous and pre-planned firearms operations. This will help to assist post-incident investigations and provide a more robust audit trail of what information was given to officers prior to a firearms operation. It is a matter for individual chief officers to adopt the guidance in their forces.
Police: Witnesses
Mr. Touhig: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officer days have been lost by each police force in England and Wales as a result of officers appearing as witnesses in court. [165972]
Mr. McNulty: We are not able to provide figures for the number of officer days lost by each police force in England and Wales as a result of officers appearing as witnesses in court, because this information is not collected centrally.
Political Parties: Conferences
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the costs were of policing the annual party political conferences in each of the last three years; and how these costs were met. [165649]
Mr. McNulty: Costs of policing annual party conferences fall to the relevant police authority. In recent years the Home Office has provided additional grant to the forces responsible for policing the annual conference of the two main parties. The amount of additional grant paid in the last three years is set out in the following table.
| Year of party conference | Force | Amount of Government special grant (£ million) |
Prostitution: Illegal Immigrants
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women from central and eastern European countries were estimated to be working illegally in the sex industry in Britain in each of the last five years. [165808]
Mr. Coaker: We do not collect this information centrally.
Rape: Drugs
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what training in the specific handling of cases of drug rape is available to police forces; and how many forces have taken up such training, broken down by rank of police officer provided with training. [165666]
Mr. Coaker: Drug rape training is addressed in the initial policing learning and development programme (IPLDP) and in the specially trained officer course (STO). These two specific learning programmes are aimed at examining, and dealing with, the impact of drugs and alcohol upon a victim subjected to sexually offending behaviour.
The National Policing Improvement Agency provides national standardised training for delivery by all police forces in the above areas. Statistics on the numbers of officers who take up locally delivered training are not centrally collated.
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police forces are equipped with readily available test kits to secure samples in the event of a complaint of drug rape. [165667]
Mr. Coaker: In the summer of 2007, 38 police forces in England and Wales reported that they were equipped with early evidence kits to secure samples in suspected drug or alcohol facilitated sexual assault cases. The other five forces were actively seeking to implement their use.
Respect Task Force
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total funding allocated to the Respect Task Force was in each year since it was established. [164796]
Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.
The Respect Task Force received funding of £24.2 million in 2006-07 and £25.6 million in 2007-08.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many civil servants currently work in, or for, the Respect Task Force; and at what pay grade each is employed. [164806]
Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.
Following the Machinery of Government changes announced earlier this year the Respect Task Force was transferred to the Department for Children Schools and Families. On 5 October a Youth Task Force was announced, incorporating the Respect Task Force.
The headcount of the Youth Task Force is 14 full-time equivalent staff. The taskforce includes a mix of civil servants from several Government Departments for which pay bands vary. The headcount comprises of two senior civil servants, the remainder of staff are at departmental grades.
Security Industry Authority
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to her statement of 13 November, 2007, Official Report, columns 531-41, on the Security Industry Authority, if she will publish the findings of the taskforce chaired by the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, the hon. Member for Gedling (Mr. Coaker), on 8 October. [166775]
Mr. Coaker: The taskforce is an informal working group intended to oversee the work relating to the right to work checks being carried out by the Security Industry Authority and the Border and Immigration Agency.
The taskforce met for the first time on 8 October. It met again on 14 November, when it reviewed the
actions required to ensure completion of the retrospective checks of existing non-EAA licence holders by December 2007, in accordance with the Home Secretary’s undertaking to the House.
Terrorism
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) killed and (b) injured in terrorist attacks taking place in the UK in each of the last five years. [166491]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 20 November 2007]: Available information on persons killed relates to homicides recorded by police in England, Wales and Scotland each year between 2001-02 and 2005-06. Police recorded 52 homicides in 2005-06 where the circumstance was ‘attributed to acts of terrorism’. Each of the victims were killed as a result of the London bombings of 7 July 2005. There were no terrorist-related homicides recorded between 2001-02 and 2004-05.
The Official Report in to the 7 July London bombings states that an additional 700 persons were injured in the four attacks. It is not known how many injuries may have been inflicted as a result of terrorist activity in earlier years as details of the individual circumstances of offences are not included on the recorded crime datasets held by the Home Office and Scottish Executive.
Work and Pensions
Children Maintenance
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of the number of cases in each constituency being dealt with by the Child Support Agency in Scotland under the old system which will remain open when the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission’s rules are introduced. [162789]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 13 November 2007]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the Chief Executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 22 November 2007:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
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