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2 Jun 2008 : Column 719W—continued
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media/B/B/pbr_csr07_ incometax713.pdf
Pre-School Education: Finance
Susan Kramer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of extending the early years education entitlement to 20 hours per week for (a) three to five year olds in workless households, (b) children living in relative poverty and (c) all three to five year olds. [205622]
Yvette Cooper:
The CSR settlement for DCSF announced at Budget 2007 includes more than £3 billion per year on funding the free early education entitlement. An additional £590 million over the CSR period will extend that entitlement to 15 hours per week by 2010-11. The free-entitlement funding is in addition to significant increases in funding for other Sure Start, Childcare and early years policies, such as
children's centres and improved quality provision, leading to spending over £1.6 billion by 2010-11, an increase of over £340 million during the CSR period.
To estimate costs of an extension to 20 hours would require an analysis of childcare costs and other factors at the time of implementation, and of the impact on both supply of and demand for provision in the childcare market. Costing a targeted extension would require an assessment of any extra administrative costs from targeting and any differences in the cost of making provision available to particular groups.
Public Expenditure: Defence
Dr. Fox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes to the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance for 2008-09 he intends to make in relation to the Ministry of Defence; and if he will make a statement. [207060]
Yvette Cooper: Such changes to the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance for 2008-09 as will affect the Ministry of Defence's budgeting framework are summarised in the Guidance on page 3.
Revenue and Customs: Correspondence
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs received the letter from the right hon. Member for Birkenhead on the credit appeal of a constituent (reference chm/08593/2008); and when he expects to bring the appeal to tribunal. [208108]
Jane Kennedy: The HM Revenue and Customs acting chairman received my right hon. Friend’s letter on 6 March 2008.
HMRC have now settled this appeal direct with the customer.
Revenue and Customs: Kendal
Tim Farron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects a decision on the retention or closure of HM Revenue and Customs offices in Kendal to be made; and if he will make a statement. [207494]
Jane Kennedy: HMRC has recently announced to staff its intention to put forward proposals for consultation for all its offices that have not yet been reviewed, including Kendal, by early June. It hopes to announce decisions on the future of those offices by the end of the year.
Subsidies: Agriculture
Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to publish his recent letter to other EU finance ministers on reform of the Common Agricultural Policy. [207324]
Angela Eagle: The Chancellor's letter of 13 May to the Slovenian Finance Minister is available on the Treasury's website:
Vice-Chamberlain of Her Majesty's Household
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the ministerial duties and responsibilities of the Vice-Chamberlain of Her Majesty's Household are, with particular reference to communication with Buckingham Palace. [207736]
Angela Eagle: The duties and responsibilities of the Vice-Chamberlain are not a matter for the Treasury.
Welfare Tax Credits
Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 20 May 2008, Official Report, columns 12-13WS, on tax credits, for what reason the numbers of overpaid awards were expressed in multiples of a thousand rather than in millions in the statement. [207733]
Jane Kennedy: The text of the written statement mirrored the presentation of the numbers in the table on page 3 of the ‘Finalised awards, Child and Working Tax Credits Statistics 2006-07, Supplement on payments’.
Home Department
101 Calls
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average number of telephone calls to the 101 number were per month in (a) the Isle of Wight, (b) Cardiff, (c) Sheffield, (d) Leicester City and Rutland and (e) Northumberland and Tyne and Wear in the period of the pilots. [203602]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 6 May 2008]: The average number of telephone calls to the 101 number per month by partnership area over the period of the pilots were as follows:
| Partnership | Average calls per month |
We do not have data for the Isle of Wight, as requested, as that area was included in the whole of the partnership which includes Hampshire. Also the Leicester City and Rutland partnership expanded to cover Melton and Harborough.
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the 101 number in (a) the Isle of Wight, (b) Cardiff, (c) Sheffield, (d) Leicester City and Rutland and (e) Northumberland and Tyne and Wear pilots. [203604]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 6 May 2008]: The evaluation of the five pilot areas found that the 101 service had successfully improved public access to and satisfaction in the community safety services in all areas. Through greater partnership working and better information from the public about what problems are happening where, the 101 service had helped local police and councils to target their resources more effectively and efficiently and improve the delivery of those services to the public.
Alcoholic Drinks: Crime
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) males and (b) females were arrested for alcohol-related offences in Buckingham constituency in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available. [206942]
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, i.e. violence against the person, sexual offences, robbery, burglary, etc. More detailed data about specific offences do not form part of this collection.
Asylum: Children
Mr. Cameron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to reimburse the outstanding costs incurred by local authorities in caring for unaccompanied asylum seeking children in (a) 2006, (b) 2007 and (c) 2008; and what plans she has to provide local authorities with 100 per cent. of their future funding to care for unaccompanied asylum seeking children. [203514]
Jacqui Smith: The Home Office provides a grant to local authorities for the provision of support to unaccompanied asylum seeking children aged under 18. All authorities have been fully funded up to national rates in 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 for cases supported under the grant instructions. Those authorities on enhanced rates have also been fully funded up to their enhanced rate claim value for 2005-06 and 2006-07. In addition the authorities identified as gateways received 100 per cent. of special circumstances claimed for 2005-06 and 70 per cent. for 2006-07. The other authorities that claimed were awarded 82.5 per cent. and 38.5 per cent. of their claim respectively.
All outstanding claims for 2007-08 are due from local authorities by 31 July 2008.
There are no plans to increase funding levels for previous years, and the budget remains fixed for 2007-08. Discussions on this matter are on- going with representatives from the Local Government Association and London councils.
In January 2008, we set out in the paper “Better Outcomes: The Way Forward—improving the Care of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children” (a copy of which is in the Library, DEP2008-0274) our plans to enter into new arrangements with selected local authorities who would become specialists in the care of unaccompanied asylum seeking children. These new
arrangements would simplify funding and mean that the specialist authorities receive payment in full for the services they provide.
Asylum: Grants
Mr. Cameron:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what dates asylum seeker
support grant instructions were issued to local authorities in each year since 2001. [203519]
Jacqui Smith: Asylum grant instructions have been issued on the following dates to local authorities since 2001:
Border UK Agency: Uniforms
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent on the (a) design and (b) manufacture and distribution of uniforms for the UK Border Agency. [205464]
Mr. Byrne: We are not yet in a position to provide the cost of the design, manufacture and distribution of uniforms for the UK Border Agency. We are currently scoping the requirements for a single uniform for front-line officers. The costs will be dependent on the commercial and procurement solutions delivered.
Community Policing
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which advertising agency her Department contracted to design the advertising campaign for neighbourhood policing teams; and what the value of that contract was. [204923]
Mr. Byrne: The advertising agency that designed the neighbourhood policing ads that ran on March 31 2008 is M and C Saatchi.
We have given the media costs of the campaign (in answer to PQ answered on 20 May 2008, Official Report, columns 225-26W,) but the agency fee is commercially confidential.
Community Support Officers: North Yorkshire
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what plans she has to provide funding for police community support officers in North Yorkshire beyond the expiry of the original allocation period; [201117]
(2) for what period the initial funding allocated to police community support officers in North Yorkshire was provided. [201118]
Mr. McNulty: In 2008-09, funding for neighbourhood policing, including PCSOs, in North Yorkshire is £3.2 million (2.7 per cent. more than in 2007-08) and we remain committed to providing this funding in each of the CSR years. The Home Office first provided funding for 30 police community support officers (PCSOs) in North Yorkshire in 2003-04. Continuation funding is still provided towards the cost of those PCSOs and for those recruited in subsequent years for which further PCSO allocations were made through the Neighbourhood Policing Fund.
Crime
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many criminal offences related to the misappropriation of proofs of identity have been (a) reported and (b) brought to trial in each of the last five years; in how many such prosecutions convictions were achieved; and what information has been collated on the number of victims of such crimes from answers to the new questions incorporated into the British Crime Survey in 2005 on such matters. [178629]
Jacqui Smith: In terms of recorded crime and court proceedings, statistics are not available in the form requested.
The use of another person’s identification details (or the use of false identification details), often referred to as identity theft, is not in itself an offence in law. It is the action that is undertaken, using those identification details, that needs to be considered in respect of whether an offence has occurred. As such no specific information is available.
Most instances of ‘Identity Theft’ come to light when victim’s details are used to obtain goods, services or money using credit arrangements or loans. Instances of this should be recorded under the new Home Office offence classifications ‘Fraud by False Representation Other Fraud’ or ‘Obtaining Services Dishonestly’. These
new offences were created following the introduction of the Fraud Act 2006 and were introduced into the recorded crime series with effect from April 2007.
Where bank, credit card, or store card accounts are opened using identities to which the individuals are not entitled, and then used to commit fraud, then an offence of ‘Fraud by False Representation Cheque, Plastic Card and Online Bank Accounts (NOT eBay or Pay Pal)’ should be recorded.
If there is no intent to commit fraud and there is evidence that an account has been created using a false, stolen or improperly obtained identity document contained within the Identity Cards Act 2006 then an offence under the new classification ‘Possession of False Documents’ should be recorded.
Statistics for all the new recorded crime offence classifications referred to above will be available for 2007-08 and will be published in July 2008. Information on fraud and forgery offences recorded by the police using the old classifications is available in table 2.04 of ‘Crime in England and Wales 2006/07’. The table can be accessed at:
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