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5 Mar 2008 : Column 2675W—continued
Police: Information and Communications Technology
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding her Department (a) spent on and (b) committed to the Police Portal; why the Police Portal was withdrawn; what plans she has to introduce a secure online crime reporting system for use by police forces; and if she will make a statement. [190342]
Mr. McNulty: This matter is subject to ongoing legal proceedings and it would, therefore, not be appropriate to provide the requested information at this stage.
Police: Retirement
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of retired police officers in North Yorkshire and the impact of the cost of their pensions on the operational budget of North Yorkshire Police. [189093]
Mr. McNulty: Information on the number of retired police officers in individual police forces is not held centrally as the administration of the police pension schemes is the responsibility of each individual police authority.
Under the new system of pensions financing introduced on 1 April 2006 police authorities now have a separate pensions account out of which retired officers’ pensions are paid. Where the cost of pensions in payment exceeds the level of employer and officer contributions paid into the pension account in any year the account is topped up with a grant from central Government; any surplus is recouped. A key benefit of this change is that it takes away from police authorities the burden of the rising cost of pensions, as the number of pensioners increases, from the operational budget. Instead, the operational budget now only has to provide for the employers’ contributions in respect of serving officers.
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many senior police officers were permitted to retire while under disciplinary investigation in each of the last five years. [189159]
Mr. McNulty: The retirement of senior police officers is primarily a matter for the officer concerned, and his or her police authority. The Home Office does not collate information on those who retire while subject to disciplinary investigation.
Resettlement: Iraq
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for the Gateway Programme the UK Government has received from Iraqi citizens formerly employed by the Ministry of Defence. [189855]
Mr. Byrne:
The Gateway programme policy states that an individual cannot make an application for resettlement directly to the Border and Immigration Agency. Applications can only be made by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to the UK following an individual assessment by them
in a third country. As of 27 February, one formal application for the Gateway programme had been made by UNHCR to the UK on behalf of Iraqi citizens formerly employed by the Ministry of Defence.
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Iraqi citizens formerly employed by (a) the Ministry of Defence, (b) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and (c) the Department for International Development have been screened by the Border and Immigration Agency since 8 October 2007. [189942]
Mr. Byrne: Since 8 October 2007 the Border and Immigration Agency has screened the following number of Iraqi citizens who were formerly employed by the three main employing Departments:
74 Iraqi citizens who were formerly employed by the Ministry of Defence have been or are being screened by the Border and Immigration Agency.
Eight Iraqi citizens who were formerly employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have been or are being screened by the Border and Immigration Agency.
Three Iraqi citizens who were formerly employed by the Department for International Development have been or are being screened by the Border and Immigration Agency.
Serious and Organised Crime Agency
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many disclosure notices have been obtained by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency to date. [187276]
Jacqui Smith: SOCA’s annual report for 2006-07 reported the use of 22 disclosure notices. Comparable figures for 2007-08 are not yet available.
The Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 confers powers on the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions and the Lord Advocate in relation to the giving of disclosure notices. Detailed cross-matching and validation of data between SOCA and its partners is carried out at the end of each financial year.
As required under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, SOCA will publish a report on the exercise of its functions during 2007-08 as soon as possible after the end of the financial year. Comparable figures for 2007-08 will be available when this report is published.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people employed by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency have been trained in powers of arrest since 1 April 2006. [187277]
Jacqui Smith: ( )Further to my response of 8 March 2007, 182 SOCA staff are undergoing( )the SOCA investigators course, which incorporates training in powers of( )arrest.
David Davis:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases relating to (a) drugs, (b) firearms and (c) counterfeit currency have
been referred to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) by HM Revenue and Customs; and how many of those cases have been investigated by SOCA. [187278]
Jacqui Smith: ( )Between 1 April 2006 and 31 August 2006, 444 notifications relating to( )drugs seizures were referred to SOCA by HM Revenue and Customs.( )Four of these cases were investigated by SOCA.
In order to align these notifications with the UK Serious Organised Crime( )Control Strategy a refined framework was introduced on 1 September( )2006. Since then 101 notifications relating to drugs seizures have been( )received and SOCA has undertaken investigations in 30 of these cases.
No notifications have been received relating to firearms or counterfeit( )currency.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) arrested, (b) prosecuted and (c) convicted as a result of operations by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency. [187280]
Jacqui Smith: The SOCA annual report for 2006-07 reported that SOCA casework in the UK had led to 749 arrests; 283 cases reached court and 271 resulted in convictions.
Detailed cross-matching and validation of data between SOCA and its partners is carried out at the end of each financial year. SOCA will publish a report on the exercise of ail their functions during 2007-08 as soon as possible after the end of the financial year.
Serious and Organised Crime Agency: Firearms
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many firearms have been seized by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency. [187284]
Jacqui Smith: The SOCA Annual Report for 2006-07 reported that SOCA activity had contributed to the seizure of 151 firearms in the UK.
Detailed cross-matching and validation of data between SOCA and its partners is carried out at the end of each financial year. As required under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005, SOCA will publish a report on the exercise of all its functions during 2007-08 as soon as possible after the end of the financial year.
Serious and Organised Crime Agency: Manpower
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were employed by the Serious and Organised Crime Agency in the most recent period for which figures are available. [187283]
Jacqui Smith: ( )The number of full-time equivalent staff directly employed by SOCA at 31( )January 2008 was 4,008.
Serious and Organised Crime Agency: Resignations
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many members of staff resigned from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency in each quarter since 1 April 2006. [187279]
Jacqui Smith: The number of resignations from SOCA over the past seven quarters, since 1 April 2006, are: seven, 10, 28, 30, 36, 46, 29 and three staff have resigned during the current quarter.
Serious and Organised Crime Agency: Secondment
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officers from the Serious and Organised Crime Agency are seconded to partner agencies overseas. [187282]
Jacqui Smith: There are 32 officers from the Serious Organised Crime Agency embedded with partner agencies overseas.
Shoplifting: Wales
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) arrested and (b) convicted for shoplifting in the South Wales police force area in each of the last two years. [187096]
Mr. McNulty: Information on how many people were (a) arrested for shoplifting cannot be separately identified from the main offence group of 'other theft offences' of which it is a part.
The number of people who were (b) convicted for shoplifting in the South Wales police area was 1,704 in 2005 and 1,187 in 2006.
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of the incidence of shoplifting in the South Wales Police Division H area. [187097]
Mr. Coaker: It is not possible to accurately assess the prevalence 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.
South Wales police Division H equates to the Swansea basic command unit (BCU). At BCU level, the Home Office collects statistics on the numbers of offences recorded by the police for that area.
The following table shows that when comparing 2005-06 with 2006-07, shoplifting offences recorded for Swansea BCU have increased by 19 per cent., from 1,449 to 1,726 offences. In 2006-07, shoplifting accounted for 8 per cent. of all crime recorded by the police in the Swansea BCU.
Overall in 2006-07 there was a fall of 6 per cent. in total recorded crime in Swansea. There were also significant decreases in some of the high volume crimes with theft of a motor vehicle down 22 per cent., theft from a vehicle down 11 per cent. and violence against the person down 15 per cent.
| Shoplifting offences recorded and detected in Swansea basic command unit (BCU) | |||
| Number of offences recorded | Number of sanction detections | Sanction detection rate (percentage) | |
Special Constables: Travel
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she plans to extend free travel on mainline railways in London to volunteer special police constables within the Metropolitan Police Service; and if she will make a statement. [190160]
Mr. McNulty: I understand that the Metropolitan Police Service has no plans to extend free travel on mainline railways for special constables.
Task Force on Child Protection: Internet
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the operating budget was of the Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet in each year since its inception; and how many dedicated staff were employed by the Task Force in each year. [190814]
Mr. Coaker: All groups and organisations in the Home Secretary’s taskforce on Online Child Protection contribute to resources and products which have been produced on an ‘as needed’ basis. There is no dedicated budget or resource.
Terrorism
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will bring forward proposals to create offences of (a) grooming and (b) radicalisation of children and vulnerable people by terrorists and extremist organisations. [188303]
Mr. McNulty: There are no current plans for additional legislation to create specific offences of ‘grooming’ and ‘radicalising’ children and vulnerable people. The Terrorism Act 2006 introduced offences regarding the encouragement of terrorism which we believe are sufficient in this regard. Government continue to monitor the effectiveness of current terrorism legislation, and we are committed to working with communities and young people to build resilience to the threat from violent extremists who seek to undermine our shared values.
Mr. Ingram: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations she has received from the Scottish Executive on the judicial processes to apply to those to be charged with terrorist offences where those offences are planned in England but carried out in Scotland. [190852]
Mr. McNulty
[holding answer 3 March 2008]: The Counter-Terrorism Bill introduced on 24 January 2008 includes a proposal to enable specific terrorist offences committed in any part of the UK to be dealt with in
any part of the UK. This provision updates the law and enables police forces and prosecuting authorities to handle terrorist cases in the most effective way. The Scottish Executive was fully consulted on this proposal before the Counter-Terrorism Bill was introduced.
Terrorism: Arrests
Mr. Heath: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) men and (b) women have been (i) arrested, (ii) charged with and (iii) convicted of terrorist-related offences since the introduction of the Terrorism Act 2000; [184744]
(2) how many people have been (a) arrested, (b) charged and (c) convicted of terrorist-related offences under (i) the Terrorism Act 2000, (ii) the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, (iii) the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and (iv) the Terrorism Act 2006; [184745]
(3) how many people arrested under (a) the Terrorism Act 2000, (b) the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, (c) the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 and (d) the Terrorism Act 2006 have been (i) charged with and (ii) convicted of a non-terrorism related offence since each Act came into force. [184746]
Mr. McNulty: Statistics on the number of arrests, charges and convictions under the Terrorism Act 2000 and under other legislation are available on the Home Office website. The figures are not broken down in the format requested as a power of arrest only exists under S41 of TACT 2000. There is no power of arrest under any of the other Acts mentioned.
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