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4 Mar 2008 : Column 2304W—continued
Risk Assessment: Domestic Violence
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to enable multi-agency risk assessments to be on a statutory basis. [188950]
Mr. Coaker: Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences (MARACs) are a recent development in services offered to victims of domestic violence.
MARACs are being rolled out incrementally to ensure that standards are maintained and monitored through the Home office funded MARAC Implementation programme provided by the charitable training agency Coordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse (CAADA). We currently have no plans to place MARACs on a statutory footing, but are keeping the situation under review.
Romford Police: Stop and Search
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals were found to be carrying (a) illegal weapons and (b) illegal drugs during stop and search procedures by the police in Romford in each of the last four years. [186898]
Mr. Coaker: This information is not collected centrally. Information about stop-and-search procedures for the Essex police force area as a whole is given in the following table.
| Searches by Essex police of persons or vehicles under section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and other legislation( 1) and resultant arrests, by reason for search/arrest | ||||||
| Number | ||||||
| Searches made by reason for search | Arrests made by reason for arrest | |||||
| Drugs | Firearms | Offensive weapons | Drugs | Firearms | Offensive weapons | |
| (1) Includes searches for drugs and firearms under the Misuse of Dugs Act 1971 and the Firearms Act 1968 respectively. | ||||||
| Searches by Essex police of persons or vehicles under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and resultant arrests | |||
| Number | |||
| Stops and searches in anticipation of violence | |||
| Searches | Number of persons found to be carrying offensive weapons or dangerous instruments | Arrests for offensive weapons | |
| Note: 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 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. | |||
Sexual Offences: Multiple Occupation
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will take steps to counter violence and sexual assault in mixed houses when in the context of multi-occupancy housing in areas with large migrant worker populations. [188173]
Mr. Coaker: The Government have introduced the mandatory licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) of three or more storeys, housing five or more persons who form two or more households. Landlords of licensable HMOs must be identified as being “fit and proper” persons.
Local housing authorities must have regard to any previous convictions relating to violence, sexual offences, drugs, fraud, housing and landlord and tenant offences, before licences can be issued. Landlords may also seek possession of a property if a tenant is in beach of their tenancy agreement, or has been guilty of unlawful conduct.
Sexual Offences: Staffordshire
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many residents in (a) Tamworth constituency and (b) Staffordshire were on the national sex offenders register at the most recent date for which figures are available. [187857]
Mr. Coaker: Data on registered sexual offenders are collated geographically by police force area and broken down to basic command unit (BCU) area. The data are published in local Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) annual reports, which are available in the House Libraries and online at:
The Tamworth constituency is not coterminous with any BCU area, but is covered by the data relating to the Trent Valley BCU in Staffordshire.
As of 31 March 2007, there were 145 registered sex offenders in Trent Valley and 676 in Staffordshire.
Shoplifting
Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking to reduce shoplifting. [189324]
Mr. Coaker: The Government are working in partnership with retail organisations to tackle retail crime including shoplifting. As part of this work we have set up a National Retail Crime Steering Group to provide an opportunity for discussion of retailers’ crime concerns and to devise strategies to deal with these.
We have made a commitment to raise the profile of crimes against businesses, make provision for better information about them and produce guidance to support local partnerships in their efforts to tackle the crimes which affect them.
The Home Office has also provided funding to the Perpetuity Group to develop a crime reduction tool for small and medium sized retailers to design out crime in their stores and significantly reduce the opportunities for shop thieves to operate.
Shoplifting: Cleveland
Ms Dari Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the incidence of shoplifting in (a) the Cleveland Police Area and (b) Stockton in the latest period for which figures are available. [189323]
Mr. Coaker: It is not possible to accurately assess the incidence of shoplifting. For a variety of reasons many offences are not reported to the police and many offences do not come to the attention of the victim. The available information is contained in the Home Office recorded crime statistics.
Between 2005-06 and 2006-07, shoplifting offences recorded in Cleveland decreased by 6 per cent. from 4,924 to 4,652 offences. In 2006-07, shoplifting accounted for 7 per cent. of all crime recorded by the police in the Cleveland police force area.
Overall in 2006-07 there was a fall of 5 per cent. in total recorded crime in Cleveland. There were also significant decreases in some of the high volume crimes with theft of a motor vehicle both down 22 per cent. and domestic burglary down 15 per cent.
Between 2005-06 and 2006-07, shoplifting offences recorded in the Stockton Basic Command Unit decreased by 9 per cent. from 1,151 to 1,053 offences. In 2006-07, shoplifting accounted for 6 per cent. of all crime recorded by the police in the Stockton BCU.
Overall in 2006-07 there was a fall of 5 per cent. in total recorded crime in Stockton. There were also significant decreases in some of the high volume crimes with violence against the person and theft of a motor vehicle both down 12 per cent., theft from a vehicle down 14 per cent. and domestic burglary down 9 per cent.
Support Orders
Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 25 January 2007, Official Report, column 2029W, on support orders, when she will publish the results of the three month survey of 50 respect areas to assess the use of individual support orders. [188762]
Mr. Coaker: The results of last year’s survey of 50 areas will be placed in the Library when the next set of antisocial behaviour order data, which will include national data on the use of individual support orders, is published. We expect to do so shortly.
Task Force on Child Protection
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the operating budget was of the Child Exploitation Online Protection centre in each month since its inception in 2006; and how many dedicated staff were employed by it in each year. [190815]
Mr. Coaker:
The Child Exploitation Online Protection Centre (CEOP) receives an annual budget from the Home Office, which is paid through the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) to which it is
affiliated. In addition to the Home Office grant, CEOP receives significant levels of support from industry and the third sector.
In 2007-08, CEOP received an annual budget (from the Home Office) of £5.657 million and an annual budget of £5.110 million in 2006-07.
At the end of CEOP’s first operational year 2006-07, it had nearly 80 staff, of whom, 10 were seconded from partner agencies. The figure is now 115, of which, 24 posts are either provided free by partners or are funded externally for discrete projects.
Terrorism: Internet
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to reduce the potential of the internet to be a tool for extremist groups. [181576]
Mr. McNulty: We are working with law enforcement and industry partners to target extremist use of the internet and where there is illegal material we are working to remove it. Under the Terrorism Act 2000/2006 this includes material that either incites or encourages terrorism. In the coming weeks we will be talking to industry, and those in the community, about what more we can do to protect communities from extremist exploitation of the internet.
Thefts: Metals
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she is taking to reduce the incidence of metal thefts from ecclesiastical properties in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire; and if she will make a statement. [190915]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 3 March 2008]: We are working closely with a range of stakeholders, other Government Departments and the police to develop a response to tackle these crimes.
I am aware that theft of metals is a growing concern which affects business, transport, communication and ecclesiastical properties.
The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) has set up a working group, chaired by the British Transport Police and with Home Office representation. The group is developing an action plan to address the problem from national co-ordination to local responses to tackle metal thieves, including an examination of the effectiveness of current legislation relating to scrap metal recycling.
A national day of action was held at the end of January. In Cambridgeshire this resulted in several arrests in addition to checks being made on scrap metal dealers.
Olympics
Departmental Advertising
Tom Brake: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what percentage of her budget has been spent on advertising since its inception. [187184]
Tessa Jowell: The public sector funding package for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games does not include any specific provision for expenditure on the promotional advertising of the Games and none of this funding has been spent on such a purpose. This is because promotional advertising of the Games is planned and co-ordinated by the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), as the body responsible for hosting and staging the Games in 2012. LOCOG’s budget of £2 billion will be met almost entirely from private sources (the exception is a small contribution towards the staging of the Paralympic Games). LOCOG is, therefore, not funded from the public sector funding package.
Olympic Games 2012
Robert Neill: To ask the Minister for the Olympics which public authorities will have liabilities for operating and maintaining the facilities built for the London Olympics after 2012. [184422]
Tessa Jowell: Options are currently being developed for the long-term arrangements for ownership and management of the Olympic Park, including for the operation and maintenance of the facilities built for the London Games in 2012. Decisions are expected to be taken during 2008, in parallel with the development of the Legacy Masterplan Framework.
Olympic Games 2012: Construction
Robert Neill: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what estimate (a) her Department and (b) its agencies have made of the annual revenue costs of (i) running buildings and facilities constructed for the 2012 Olympics and (ii) associated debt repayments once the Games are over; and to which public bodies liability for these costs will fall. [184426]
Tessa Jowell: The Olympic Delivery Authority and London Development Agency are currently considering the long-term viability of each of the venues to be constructed for the London Games. Work is also being carried out to develop a fully integrated business plan for the Olympic Park as a whole, which will take into account the likely annual revenue costs for the individual venues and other facilities. This work will also help the development of the Legacy Masterplan Framework, and development of the options for the long-term arrangements for the ownership and management of the Olympic Park, decisions on which are expected to be taken during 2008.
Olympic Games 2012: Essex
Mr. Amess: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what steps her Office (a) has taken and (b) plans to ensure that local authorities in Essex share in the (i) economic, (ii) social and (iii) sporting benefits arising from the 2012 Olympic Games; what discussions her Office has had with local authorities in Essex; and if she will make a statement. [188995]
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