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21 Apr 2008 : Column 1454W—continued
Police Bureaucracy
20. Mr. Goodwill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to reduce police bureaucracy. [199743]
Mr. McNulty: In his recent Review of Policing, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, examined the issue of police bureaucracy.
Sir Ronnie's wide ranging recommendations have been accepted and work continues apace to remove unnecessary bureaucratic burdens from police officers.
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary's strong endorsement of Sir Ronnie's measures is clear evidence of our commitment to bear down on unnecessary bureaucracy in policing.
Crime: Rugby and Kenilworth
21. Jeremy Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes of violence against the person were recorded in Rugby and Kenilworth constituency in each of the last five years. [199871]
Mr. Coaker: The Home Office does not collect crime data specifically for constituencies. The Rugby and Kenilworth constituency comes within the combined Rugby and Warwick Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership areas. The number of violence against the person offences recorded in these combined CDRPs was as follows:
| Number | |
Police Funding: Airports
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to bring forward legislation to reform the allocation of funding for policing at airports. [199729]
Mr. McNulty: The Home Office and Department for Transport are jointly taking forward work to strengthen airport security planning at airports and establish a transparent funding process for policing costs. This work builds on the recommendations of the Independent Review of Airport Policing carried out by Stephen Boys Smith.
We understand the importance of these measures and are actively seeking to place them on a legislative footing at the earliest opportunity to introduce a more robust system that ensures that individual airports look at all the threats and risks, that appropriate mitigation is in place and that the airport operator meets the costs of any agreed uniformed police presence.
Domestic Violence
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to reduce the incidence of domestic violence. [199733]
Jacqui Smith: We have developed a national delivery plan to address domestic violence.
The plan includes the development of 98 Specialist Domestic Violence Courts, and national coverage of Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conferences; these are now part of the Tackling Violence Action Plan 2008-11.
We are doubling the number of Specialist Domestic Violence Courts, rolling out Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conferences by 2011 and ensuring that
vulnerable victims of domestic violence will have access to specialist support services.
We will be continuing to fund Independent Domestic Violence Advisers to support the Specialist Domestic Violence Courts in 2008-09.
We are committed to ensuring perpetrators are held to account and we are developing proposals for extending existing arrangements for managing violent offenders in order to manage proactively those individuals who are identified as being at risk of committing serious violence.
Animal Experiments
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she plans to take to reduce the number of animals used in the testing of food additives. [199669]
Meg Hillier: The testing of food additives is carried out to satisfy the requirements of the Food Safety Act 1990, for which the Food Standards Agency (FSA) has responsibility, and is an example of specific legislative requirements under which procedures on animals are carried out. The number of animals used varies from year to year and depends on the requirements of industry and the regulators concerned. In the circumstances, it would not be appropriate to place a limit on such testing. However, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 requires that the procedures authorised must cause the minimum possible suffering to the smallest number of animals of the least sentience and we will continue to ensure that these requirements are met in all categories of animal use, including the testing of food additives.
Case Resolution Directorate
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) running, (b) IT, (c) legal, (d) consultancy and (e) administrative costs for the Case Resolution Directorate have been; what they are expected to be in the next three financial years; and if she will make a statement. [196104]
Mr. Byrne: The costs associated with the Case Resolution Directorate from April 2007 to the end of February 2008 were as follows:
(a) running costs which encompass resource costs such as pay stood at £26.426 million;
(b) IT costs are managed centrally by Home Office IT and to isolate the Case Resolution element could be obtained only at disproportionate cost;
(c) Legal costs which are taken to mean legal fees, adverse costs and compensation stood at £0.211 million. Appeal costs are borne elsewhere in the Border and Immigration Agency.
(d) Consultancy costs stood at £0.771 million;
(e) Administrative costs (assuming to mean all non-pay costs, including training) stood at £1.451 million.
The total spend for the Case Resolution Directorate stood at £28.860 million.
The budget for the forthcoming three financial years have not yet been set.
Credit Cards: Theft
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will take steps to compel credit card companies to report the (a) theft and (b) misuse of credit cards to the police; and if she will make a statement. [198463]
Mr. Coaker: The financial industry, the police and the Home Office all recognised that the system for reporting and recording cheque, plastic card and internet banking fraud that applied prior to 1 April 2007 was both bureaucratic and did little to further the investigation and prosecution of offenders.
To combat this, the Home Office, with agreement from Association of Chief Police Officers and APACS (UK Payments Association), introduced a new system. From 1 April 2007, it became the responsibility of financial institutions to pass on directly to the police, via a single point of contact in each police force, those matters where an investigation could be pursued, to provide a greater chance of prosecuting offenders than before.
The changes to reporting and recording are intended to reduce the level of bureaucracy involved in fraud recording, and streamline the reporting and initial investigation of such frauds. A Home Office chaired group comprising representatives from the banks and law enforcement meets to keep these new arrangements under review and make changes where appropriate.
As part of work to implement the findings of the Fraud Review, new money has recently been allocated to establish a new National Fraud Reporting Centre which will equip law enforcement agencies with a powerful intelligence tool and help form the basis of better prevention advice and alerts to fraud threats for business and the public.
Crime: Victims
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many and what percentage of victims of (a) violent incidents, (b) burglaries and (c) vehicle-related thefts were (i) unemployed, (ii) employed, (iii) students (iv) looking after a family home, (v) long-term or temporarily sick, (vi) retired and (vii) other unclassified in each police force area in each year since 1997; [199570]
(2) in how many and what percentage of violent incidents the victim was classified in ACORN categories (a) wealthy achievers, (b) urban prosperity, (c) comfortably off, (d) moderate means and (e) hard pressed in each police force area in each year since 1997; [199571]
(3) in how many and what percentage of (a) incidents of violence against the person, (b) burglaries, (c) vehicle related thefts, (d) incidents of vandalism and (e) thefts from the person the victim had a yearly
income of (i) less than £10,000, (ii) between £10,000 and £20,000, (iii) between £20,000 and £30,000, (iv) between £30,000 and £40,000, (v) between £40,000 and £50,000 and (f) £50,000 and above in each police force area, in each year since 1997; [199572]
(4) in how many and what percentage of (a) violent incidents, (b) burglaries, (c) vehicle related thefts, (d) vandalism and (e) thefts from the person the victim was (i) an owner occupier, (ii) a social renter and (iii) a private renter in each police force area, in each year since 1997; [199573]
(5) how many and what percentage of (a) victims of burglary and (b) others owned (i) a burglar alarm, (ii) a deadlock, (iii) an outdoor sensor, (iv) an indoor sensor, (v) window locks, (vi) window bars and (vii) a security chain on the door in each police force area in England and Wales, in each year since 1997; [199574]
(6) in how many and what percentage of (a) violent incidents, (b) burglaries, (c) vehicle related thefts, (d) cases of vandalism and (e) cases of theft from the person the victim lived in (i) a semi-detached house, (ii) a detached house, (iii) a terraced house, (iv) a flat/maisonette and (v) other accommodation in each police force area, in each year since 1997. [199580]
Mr. Coaker: The information requested is not available at police force area level.
The British Crime Survey is designed to examine variations in levels of victimisation by sub-groups of the population across England and Wales as a whole. Expanding the survey to provide similar estimates at police force area level could be achieved only at disproportionate cost.
Crimes of Violence: Drugs
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of offenders involved in violent incidents were under the influence of (a) drugs and (b) drink in (i) England and Wales and (ii) each police force area in each year since 1997. [199398]
Mr. Coaker: Information on the number and percentage of offenders involved in violent incidents that were under the influence of drugs or alcohol is not available.
However, the British Crime Survey (BCS) routinely collects information on the proportion of violent incidents in England and Wales, where the victim believed the offender(s) to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
According to the latest BCS (2006-07), the offender was thought to be under the influence of alcohol in 46 per cent. of violent incidents, and under the influence of drugs in 17 per cent. of violent incidents (see table 1 for figures for all available years since 1997). The sample size of the BCS is not sufficient to provide such estimates by police force area.
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