| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
4 Jun 2008 : Column 996W—continued
Alcoholic Drinks: Crime
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the proportion of occurrences of alcohol-related disorders that may be attributed to the sale by (a) supermarkets and off licences and (b) pubs and other licensed premises of alcohol to under 18 year olds. [187291]
Jacqui Smith: The arrests collection held by the Ministry of Justice covers persons arrested for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only. Summary offences of ‘being drunk and disorderly’ are non-notifiable and as a result are not covered by the collection.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many penalty notices for disorder have been issued in Cheshire since 2004 for (a) being drunk and disorderly in a public place, (b) selling alcohol to a person who is drunk, (c) supplying alcohol to a person under 18 years old, (d) buying or attempting to buy alcohol on behalf of a person under 18 years old, (e) being drunk on a highway, (f) consumption of alcohol by a person under 18 years old, (g) allowing the consumption of alcohol by a person who is under 18 years old on relevant premises and (h) buying or attempting to buy alcohol by a person under 18 years old. [204405]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested on penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued in Cheshire police force area is provided in the following table.
Animal Experiments: Primates
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department from which countries the UK imported non-human primates for the purposes of scientific research in the last 12 months. [207499]
Meg Hillier: Non-human primates for the purpose of scientific research were imported from the following countries during the last 12 months.
China;
Vietnam;
Mauritius;
Israel; and
Netherlands.
Crime
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate her Department has made of the number of (a) drug dealers, (b) people dealing in counterfeit currency and (c) people dealing in counterfeit goods in England and Wales. [205641]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 15 May 2008]: Recently published Home Office figures estimate that there may be around 3,300 drug importers and wholesalers operating in the UK market at any time. The Home Office has made no estimates for dealers in counterfeit currency or counterfeit goods.
Firearms
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her most recent estimate is of the number of illegal firearms in England and Wales. [206485]
Jacqui Smith: There is currently no reliable method of assessing how many illegal firearms are held. Any estimate is unverifiable and likely to be misleading.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) firearms, (b) imitation firearms and (c) knives were seized by officers (i) on the street, (ii) from vehicles, (iii) from residential properties and (iv) from other properties in each police force area in each of the last 10 years. [206487]
Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not collected centrally.
The National Ballistics Intelligence Database, which is currently being implemented, will in future provide improved information on firearms seized by police in England and Wales.
Firearms: Crime
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many women were charged with firearms offences in each police force area in each of the last 10 years; [206482]
(2) how many people under the age of (a) 30, (b) 21, (c) 18 and (d) 16 years were charged with firearms offences in each police force area in each of the last 10 years. [206483]
Jacqui Smith: The requested data are not available centrally.
Genetics: Cross Border Cooperation
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the written ministerial statement of 27 June 2007, Official Report, column 32WS, on the Justice and Home Affairs Council, what estimate she has made of the annual cost of providing DNA data to European partners under PrĂ1/4m Treaty obligations. [205601]
Jacqui Smith: The UK is not a party to the PrĂ1/4m Treaty but the Government have agreed, within the Justice and Home Affairs Council, a Council Decision on the sharing of DMA, fingerprint and vehicle registration data. This is awaiting adoption. In negotiating that measure, the Government estimated the start up costs for UK implementation to be £31 million including running costs estimated to be £2.5 million for the first year.
Identity Cards: Aviation
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations she has received from trade unions on the issue of identity cards to airside staff. [203858]
Meg Hillier: Consultation is under way on the proposal to start issuing identity cards to people working at airports as set out in the National Identity Scheme Delivery Plan published on 6 March 2008. As part of this consultation, discussions are continuing with trade unions whose members work airside.
Identity Cards: Finance
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate her Department has made of the likely cost to local authorities for (a) IT equipment, (b) staff training and (c) other costs required for the use of national identity cards for the Government’s aims of reducing (i) council tax, (ii) voter registration and (iii) other frauds; and whether these costs are planned to be met by central Government. [203832]
Meg Hillier: Local authorities already require individuals to provide proof of identity in order to access many services. Identity cards will be more convenient and secure than the array of documents that are currently used to prove identity, thus making the process more efficient from the very beginning.
Linked to the National Identity Register, identity cards will provide a range of levels of identity verification, the majority of which will be a basic visual check of the card and not all transactions will require a check against the register.
It will be the responsibility of local authorities to decide what level of identity verification they require and if they wish to invest in equipment, such as card readers, or identity verification services provided by the Identity and Passport Service.
Imitation Guns
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many injuries were caused by each type of imitation firearm in each of the last five years. [206488]
Jacqui Smith: Information on the number of crimes recorded in England and Wales in which imitation firearms caused injury, by being fired or used as a blunt instrument from 2002-03 up to and including 2006-07 are shown in the following table.
Breakdowns by type of weapon for 2002-03 and 2003-04 are not available centrally.
| Crimes recorded in which imitation firearms were used( 1) and caused injury, by weapon type: England and Wales, 2002-03 to 2006-07 | |||||
| Imitation weapon type( 2) | 2002/03( 3) | 2003/04 | 2004/05( 4) | 2005/06 | 2006/07 |
| n/a = not available (1) By being fired or used as a blunt instrument. (2) Information on type of imitation firearm has been collected centrally only since April 2004. (3) The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced on 1 April 2002. Figures for some crime categories may have been inflated by this. (4) More explicit guidelines for the classification of weapons introduced on 1 April 2004 may have increased the recording of firearm offences, particularly those committed by imitation weapons. | |||||
National Identity Register
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how individuals will be able to (a) check whether information about them saved on the National Identity Register, including their audit log, is accurate and (b) update their records held on the National Identity Register; [202759]
(2) in what circumstances (a) addresses and (b) other information on the National Identity Register may be made available to databases held by other Government Departments or agencies; [202760]
(3) by what means an individual’s identity will be verified using the National Identity Register. [202764]
Meg Hillier: Individuals will be able to contact the Identity and Passport Service in order to check that their National Identity Register record is up to date and amend it as necessary. They will also be able to apply for a copy of the information held about them on the register, including the audit record, through a subject access request under the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998.
The Identity Cards Act 2006 provides that public authorities listed in the Act and to be specified in secondary legislation or, with the individual’s consent, private organisations may be provided with information from the National Identity Register to verify an individual’s identity. The exact way in which such identity verification services will be provided has yet to be finalised.
Passports: Interviews
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the average cost of a face-to-face passport interview has been; [202851]
(2) how many face-to-face passport interviews have been conducted since the procedure was introduced. [202852]
Jacqui Smith: The average cost, excluding depreciation is about £74 per interview. Once the interview network is complete and operating at full capacity, I would be in a position to provide detail on numbers of customers interviewed. These costs are spread across all passport customers rather than being recovered solely from first time adult applicants.
During the past 12 months there has been a gradual build-up in capacity of the interview office network. The following shows the number of interviews conducted during this period of roll-out of the new capability:
| Interview office | Passport interviews completed |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |