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22 Jan 2008 : Column 1880W—continued
—continuedPolice: Lost Working Days
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officer working days were lost due to (a) stress and (b) illness in each police force in each of the last five years. [172861]
Mr. McNulty: The available data are for the amount of police officer working time lost to sickness. Breakdowns for the type of sickness are not collected centrally. Data are available for 2002-03 onwards.
Police Officer sickness absence data for 2002-03 onwards are available on the Home Office website, located at:
For 2002-03 and 2003-04, the data are given in the 2003-04 Police Performance Monitoring report, in the form of police officer days lost per person per year.
For 2004-05 onwards, the data are given in the annual Police Performance Assessment reports, in the form of average number of police officer hours lost per person per year.
Police: Manpower
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police community support officers and (b) police officers there were in (i) England and Wales and (ii) each police force area in each of the last three years. [176316]
Mr. McNulty: Figures for numbers of police community support officers and police officers as at 31 March by police force area are published each year in the Home Office Statistical Bulletins ‘Police Service Strength, England and Wales’. They are accessible online at:
Police: Pay
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what commitments on pay and conditions were made to staff transferring from other police services to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency; and if she will make a statement. [179337]
Mr. Coaker: The terms applying to staff from the precursor agencies that formed the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) were regulated by the Transfers to SOCA Scheme 2006, made under Schedule 3 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005.
The terms of transfer were in accordance with the Cabinet Office Statement of Principles (COSOP) which reflects the provisions of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Act 1981. The core principle under COSOP is that on transfer staff should not be in a worse position than under their previous conditions of employment.
Commitments were given, and communicated to staff in the lead up to SOCA’s inception, that any incremental progression arrangements would be honoured and that the purchasing power of their salaries would be maintained. Police officers were able to retain certain allowances; retained membership of the Police Pension Scheme; and maintenance of their pay review date (1 September).
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she will next meet staff representatives of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency to discuss pay and conditions; and if she will make a statement. [179338]
Mr. Coaker: I will be meeting members of the Public and Commercial Services Union by the end of February.
Police: Sick Leave
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officer working days were lost to sickness in each (a) police force in England and Wales and (b) London borough in each of the last five years. [174810]
Mr. McNulty: The available data for the amount of police officer working time lost to sickness, are for 2002-03 onwards at the police force level only. Police Officer sickness absence data for 2002-03 onwards are available on the Home Office website, located at:
For 2002-03 and 2003-04, the data are given in the 2003-04 Police Performance Monitoring report, in the form of police officer days lost per person per year.
For 2004-05 onwards, the data are given in the annual Police Performance Assessment reports, in the form of average number of police officer hours lost per person per year.
Prostitution
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research she has commissioned on the extent and nature of all forms of commercial sexual exploitation in off-street settings. [179222]
Mr. Coaker: We have not commissioned any formal research on this. Our co-ordinated prostitution strategy included a specific commitment to undertake action research into off-street prostitution, and through Pentameter 1 and 2 we have collated a considerable amount of information about the extent and nature of off-street prostitution in the United Kingdom.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what advocacy services are available to support women in prostitution who become victims of serious violent and sexual crime. [179223]
Mr. Coaker: Prostitution is inherently dangerous and the safety of those involved is of the utmost importance. Our co-ordinated prostitution strategy recognises the importance of advocacy services for those involved in prostitution, who are often at increased risk of being the victims of serious or sexual violence.
As part of wider work to reduce sexual violence, we have funded 38 Independent Sexual Violence Adviser posts across the country, to provide support for the victims of this horrendous crime. Although all of these Advisers will be available to those involved in prostitution who have been the victims of sexual violence, we have also funded a specific post in the Armistead Project in Liverpool. An evaluation is currently under way and will report this summer. However, anecdotal information from the project suggests that the post has increased reporting and engagement in the criminal justice process among this particularly vulnerable group, through advocacy, information provision and general support.
The cross-Government Action Plan for Sexual Violence and Abuse also recognises those involved in prostitution as a particularly vulnerable group, and includes specific measures to improve our response to those who are the victims of serious sexual violence. This includes the provision of personal safety training, delivered by the Suzy Lamplugh Trust to projects working with individuals who sell sex, and personal safety leaflets, which provide practical advice about staying safe. In partnership with Crimestoppers we have also launched a national ‘ugly mugs’ campaign, which is aimed at increasing the circulation of information about those who perpetrate crimes against those involved in prostitution, and increasing reporting of these crimes.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what specialised (a) drug treatment programmes, (b) mental health services and (c) housing-related support have been made available to those involved in prostitution in each of the last three years. [179224]
Mr. Coaker: Our co-ordinated prostitution strategy provides a framework for local areas to develop their own responses to prostitution, so that local strategies can respond to local prostitution markets. Where prostitution is identified as an issue, local authorities should work in partnership with other agencies to ensure that they respond effectively. This response should include the appropriate provision of services for those involved in prostitution in terms of harm minimisation and developing routes out, specifically in relation to drug treatment, mental health services and housing-related support. These services are commissioned locally and we do not hold any central information about the nature or extent of provision.
We plan to examine the local implementation of the Government’s strategy, which will include the provision
of dedicated services. The results of this exercise will feed in to the development of commissioning guidance for local partnerships.
Visas: Overseas Students
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of students in the UK on student visas who are not complying with the visa length of stay requirements. [178053]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 14 January 2008]: As the then Home Secretary set out in his evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 23 May 2006, following the dismantling of routine embarkation controls beginning in 1994, no government have been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally, and that remains the case.
A clear goal has been set to reintroduce systems to count everyone in and out of United Kingdom (UK). The e-Borders programme, scheduled to commence this year, will strengthen and modernise our border control including providing an electronic record of all those entering and leaving the UK. We expect to count 95 per cent. of all passengers in and out of the country by the end of 2010.
In the meantime, targeted embarkation controls continue to take place at major ports to identify failed asylum seekers and other immigration offenders who are leaving the UK, and the Border and Immigration Agency is reviewing its capacity to extend these.
International Development
Developing Countries: AIDS
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what funding his Department is providing to tackle AIDS in developing countries in 2007-08; how much of this funding is going to children affected by AIDS; and if he will make a statement. [180913]
Mr. Douglas Alexander: The precise value of HIV and AIDS funding in 2007-08 will not be known until the end of the current financial year.
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress he has made in increasing the access of people with AIDS in developing countries to generic medicines; and if he will make a statement. [180915]
Mr. Malik: The Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM), UNITAID and the US Government’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) are the largest funders of HIV treatment for low and middle income countries. Each allows countries to purchase generic medicines. PEPFAR, UNITAID and the GFATM provide guidelines for the quality assurance of antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) purchased with their support.
The UK has made a commitment to the GFATM of up to £1 billion up to 2015 subject to performance. The UK has also made a commitment to UNITAID of up to £760 million over 20 years subject to performance.
The GFATM estimates that it has provided treatment for 1.8 million people over five years. It has strongly supported the purchase of generic ARVs by countries. However, the GFATM does not currently publish a total figure for the proportion of ARVs purchased with its funding that are generics.
For HIV treatment, UNITAID provides funding primarily for paediatric and second-line ARVs. UNITAID also provides funding for diagnostic tests and treatment to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children. UNITAID specifically aims to increase access to quality low-price and generic ARVs through its funding.
PEPFAR’s supply chain management system reports that it increased its purchasing of generic versus branded ARVs from 72 per cent. between April and September 2006 to 88 per cent. (by volume) from January to March 2007.
Developing Countries: Trade Barriers
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on reducing trade barriers to goods from developing countries. [180916]
Mr. Thomas: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development is in regular contact with his EU counterparts, both informally and during formal encounters in Brussels. The most prominent recent discussions on reducing trade barriers to goods from developing countries have related to the adoption of a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and some 78 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACPs). EPAs will allow full access to European markets for ACP country goods as of this year for those who sign them, apart from a few interim arrangements. My right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State held important and extensive talks on EPAs with his EU counterparts before and at the General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on 19-20 November 2007.
Overseas Aid
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what estimate he has made of the percentage of his Department’s funding for microfinance which reaches families living on the equivalent of less than US$1 a day. [180967]
Mr. Thomas: The Department for International Development is committed to tackling poverty and reducing the number of people living on less than US$1 a day. All of our programmes, including our financial sector programmes, are designed to help the world’s poorest people.
A review of DFID’s largest financial sector programmes showed that in 2006 more than nine million people benefited from microfinance initiatives that received
support from DFID in that year. DFID programmes use different, country specific, measures of poverty for measuring their impact. Calculating an aggregate figure, across all programmes, for the proportion of families living on less than US$1 per day would incur a disproportionate cost. DFID regularly carries out evaluations of its programmes to ensure that they are reaching the poorest people.
Pakistan: Education
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent steps he has taken to encourage the Government of Pakistan to spend a higher percentage of its national income on education; and if he will make a statement. [179890]
Mr. Malik: The 10-year Development Partnership Arrangement (DPA), signed by the Prime Ministers of the UK and Pakistan in November 2006, sets out a number of commitments by the Government of Pakistan to poverty reduction. In education, the Government’s commitment are
“to good quality primary education for all, particularly girls and children in difficult circumstances”.
In the context of the DPA, one of the indicators that DFID has used to make decisions about budget support is education spending as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). This increased by 21 per cent. between 2004-05 and 2005-06, exceeding the jointly agreed target of 13 per cent. More generally, in the Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation Act 2005, the Pakistan Government have made a commitment to double spending in both education and health as a percentage of GDP by 2015.
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