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19 Feb 2008 : Column 582W—continued
Drug Screening
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answers of 15 October 2007, Official Report, columns 553-4, on drug screening, what further progress has been made towards making a roadside drug screening device available for use by the police; and if she will make a statement. [186018]
Mr. Coaker: Any drug screening device to be used by the police in a suspected drug driving case must be of a type approved by the Secretary of State. It remains the position that no device currently available is type approved. The independent advice we have received is that, whatever its use in other circumstances, none should be type approved for use at the roadside in this country to assist in enforcing the criminal offence of driving while impaired by a drug.
Type approval will be granted to devices that meet an appropriate specification and perform satisfactorily in an operational setting. Our advisers are continuing their work to produce such a specification. We hope to reach a conclusion shortly.
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answers of 15 October 2007, Official Report, columns 553-4, on drug screening, when she expects a roadside drug screening device to be available for use by the police. [186019]
Mr. Coaker:
It is necessary first to resolve the issues raised by setting realistic requirements for a device that will meet police needs and be useful rather than counter-productive. This work is in its final stages. Once it is done, it will be for manufacturers to prepare devices and put them through the type approval process. The time scale will depend on how quickly they can submit
devices, how well those devices perform, how quickly the manufacturers can make any necessary adjustments and how soon they can put them on the market once type approved.
Drugs: Rehabilitation
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of drug rehabilitation beds in England and Wales are (a) occupied and (b) vacant; and if she will make a statement. [178104]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.
This information is not collected centrally.
Drugs: Schools
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many school pupils were arrested for possession of illegal substances in schools in (a) England and Wales, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley district and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency in each of the last five years. [185509]
Mr. Coaker: The Ministry of Justice and Department for Children, Schools and Families both confirm that no information is collected centrally on arrests of school pupils.
Genetics: Databases
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of maintaining the DNA database was in each year of its operation. [167015]
Meg Hillier: The National DNA Database (NDNAD) was established in 1995, when responsibility for the operational management of the NDNAD rested with the Forensic Science Service (FSS) on behalf of the Police Service. No central records of costs relating to the maintenance of the NDNAD are held prior to 2002, as cost data were incorporated in other costs incurred by the FSS.
In December 2005, the FSS was vested as a Government owned company and ownership of the NDNAD transferred from the FSS to the Home Office. On 1 April 2007 the NDNAD transferred from the Home Office to the National Policing Improvement Agency. Costs for the 2007-08 financial year are not yet available.
The costs relating to the maintenance of the NDNAD from 2002-07 are given in the following tables. The costs for 2006-07 are higher than for previous years, because of the complete separation of costs from the FSS, and because the increase in the number of forensic suppliers requires additional resources for accreditation and continuous monitoring.
| Table 1 | |||
| £ | |||
| NDNAD Services costs | Supplier Accreditation costs | Total | |
| Table 2 | |||
| £ | |||
| NDNAD Service delivery including delivery of IT development projects | Custodian accreditation | Total | |
Identity Cards: Databases
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much additional data storage will be required to administer the national identity card database. [185514]
Meg Hillier: Until the national identity scheme is up and running it is too soon to determine the amount, if any, of additional storage that will be required to administer the national identity scheme. The information that may be recorded on the national identity register is set out in section 3 and schedule 1 of the Identity Cards Act 2006.
Identity Cards: Finance
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent in preparation for and on development of the Government’s identity card scheme. [172036]
Meg Hillier: I refer the hon. Member to the response to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban), on 4 February 2008, Official Report, column 812W.
Immigration: Children
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to her written ministerial statement of 31 January 2008, Official Report, columns 28-9WS, on care for children in the immigration system, how much extra funding will be allocated to local authorities that will be part of the specialist network looking after unaccompanied child asylum seekers; and whether her Department's central funding will cover the full costs incurred by the local authorities. [184737]
Mr. Byrne: The amount of funding available to local authorities who wish to be specialist authorities will be agreed in advance. Funding will be based on the costs the specialist authority incurs directly in supporting the care and accommodation needs of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Metropolitan Police Arts and Antiques Squad: Finance
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how much funding has been allocated to the Metropolitan Police Arts and Antiques Squad in each of the last three years; [186761]
(2) what plans she has to expand the Metropolitan Police Arts and Antiques Squad; and if she will make a statement. [186762]
Mr. McNulty: Funding of the Arts and Antiques Unit is an operational matter for the Metropolitan Police Commissioner.
Migration
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the impact of migration on the UK’s gross domestic product in the last 10 years; and if she will make a statement. [186936]
Angela Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
In HM Treasury’s trend growth framework, migration contributes to output growth through its contribution to growth in the working age population.
Latest data available from the Office for National Statistics indicate that between mid-1997 and mid-2006, migration contributed around 0.5 percentage points. per year to growth in the working age population, and therefore towards the trend rate of growth in the economy.
Offensive Weapons: Durham
John Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were arrested and prosecuted for the carrying and use of a knife in the Durham police authority area in 2007. [183029]
Mr. Coaker: The arrests collection undertaken by the Ministry of Justice provides data on persons arrested for recorded crime (notifiable offences), by age group, gender, ethnicity, and main offence group only, i.e. violence against the person, sexual offences, robbery, burglary, etc. More detailed data about specific offences do not form part of this collection.
The information requested on prosecutions for 2007 will be available in the autumn of 2008.
Opium: Crops
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 21 November 2007, Official Report, columns 868-69W, on opium: crops, if she will break down the figures by the location in which the crops were grown. [181714]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 24 January 2008]: During 2007, opium poppies were grown at 67 locations in nine counties, as shown in the following table.
| County | Number of growing sites | Total area (ha) |
Police: Bureaucracy
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many departmental officials have been working on reducing police bureaucracy in each of the last 10 years. [176299]
Mr. McNulty: Until 1 April 2007, when the newly vested police-led National Policing Improvement Agency took on policy oversight for reducing unnecessary police bureaucracy, overall policy oversight for reducing unnecessary bureaucracy was held by the Police Reform Unit in the Home Office. However, a much wider number of departmental officials in many different business areas have been involved in contributing to this important area of work over the last 10 years. This work has included:
improvements to custody and case management information technology systems;
the implementation of new time and labour saving technology such as electronic fingerprinting;
the development of improved business processes and work force management as part of wider efficiency and value for money work; and
the development of a new performance management framework which recognising the significant improvements made to date, will provide greater local flexibility and reduce the number of targets that necessitate measurement by the police going forward.
It is not possible therefore to specify a ‘headcount’ number which would properly reflect the contribution of such a wide number of departmental officials.
Reducing unnecessary bureaucracy is the duty of all those involved in policing. It is the responsibility of local managers and chief officers in particular, to keep processes as streamlined as possible and to empower and equip officers to provide the most visible and accessible police presence in the community possible.
Police: Surveillance
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) communications intercept and (b) surveillance requests by Essex constabulary have been (i) made and (ii) approved in the last 12 months. [186166]
Mr. McNulty: Figures for the numbers of interception warrants and authorisations in respect of directed and intrusive surveillance are published annually by, respectively, the Interception of Communications Commissioner and the Chief Surveillance Commissioner. Copies of both reports are in the Library of the House.
Police: Urban Areas
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Government is taking to increase the number of policemen on the beat in urban areas. [186916]
Mr. McNulty: The deployment of police personnel to urban areas is an operational matter for each chief officer of police.
Security Industry Authority
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the challenges to the Security Industry Authority’s minded to revoke letters have been processed; and when this process is expected to be complete. [185696]
Mr. Coaker: I refer the hon. Member to my written ministerial statement on 31 January 2008, Official Report, columns 29-30WS, in which I outlined the steps being taken by the Security Industry Authority and the Borders and Immigration Agency following their checks on the right to work of non-EEA licence holders. In that Statement I reported that some 10,500 individuals had been contacted by the SIA and informed that the SIA was minded to revoke their licences, and that some 3,000 challenges to the minded to revoke letter were being processed.
We plan to send updates on the position to the Home Affairs Select Committee in March and June 2008. I will arrange for copies of those letters to be placed in the Library of the House.
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