| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
23 Jun 2008 : Column 95W—continued
Missing Persons: Wiltshire
Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reports of missing people were made to Wiltshire constabulary in 2007, broken down by local authority area; how many of them related to (a) vulnerable adults, (b) children under the age of 12, (c) children aged 12 to 16 and (d) young people aged 17 to 18 years; and how many of the reports of a missing person under the age of 18 years related to a child or young person (i) in the care of a local authority, (ii) with a learning disability and (iii) with a physical disability. [207690]
Mr. McNulty: This is a matter for Wiltshire constabulary. Statistics on the number and age of individuals who are reported missing from home are not currently collected centrally.
The Missing Persons Bureau has as one of its priorities the development of a national picture of the phenomenon of missing persons. It is working towards this in conjunction with its partners and stakeholders, including Missing People and the Missing Persons Strategic Oversight Group.
National Security
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she has liaised with her counterparts in the (a) Welsh Assembly Government, (b) Northern Ireland Executive and (c) Scottish Executive in respect of the application of anti-terrorism measures to the devolved Administrations as set out in The Prevent Strategy: A Guide for Local Partners in England. [210895]
Mr. McNulty: The Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism in the Home Office works with colleagues in the devolved Administrations to ensure that the Government's counter-terrorism strategy, CONTEST, is delivered effectively across the UK.
The Prevent Guide published on 3 June 2008 is aimed at local partners in England only because of the different local delivery arrangements in the devolved Administrations. However, much of the cross-cutting information it contains will help local partners and partnerships in the devolved Administrations to develop and implement effective actions to stop people becoming or supporting terrorists or violent extremists.
Office for Civil Nuclear Security: Vetting
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions her Department has had with the Office for Civil Nuclear Security on the implications for its vetting procedures of the addition of several categories of nuclear specialists to the national shortage list. [211944]
Mr. Byrne: No discussions have been held with the Office for Civil Nuclear Security (OCNS). Employers are responsible for ensuring that appropriate vetting is undertaken with the OCNS.
Changes to the national shortage list are based on labour market considerations only, where research, endorsed by industry stakeholders, highlights UK-wide skills shortages.
Police Custody
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers in each police force have undertaken Operation Safeguard duties in the last 12 months; and how much time was spent on such duties by each force. [202369]
Mr. Straw: I have been asked to reply.
Operation Safeguard is an arrangement between the National Offender Management Service and the Association of Chief Police Officers. The estimated cost to NOMS
of the provision of police cells under Operation Safeguard in 2007-08 is in the region of £53 million. This includes staff costs. The number of police officers who have taken part in Operation Safeguard is an operational matter for police authorities and chief officers and the information is not held centrally.
Police: ICT
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has for the future (a) governance and (b) funding of NSPIS Custody and Case Preparation; and if she will make a statement. [211852]
Mr. McNulty: Now that the implementation of the NSPIS Custody and Case Preparation systems has been achieved, the programme is nearing completion and plans are in place for its formal closure. At that point, the responsibility for the governance of the delivered systems will pass to the National User Group which is chaired by an ACPO officer and which is made up of representatives from forces and from the NPIA.
The cost of the NSPIS CuCP programme will be met by the NPIA in 2008-09. Thereafter, the costs of supporting and maintaining these systems will be shared with police forces. The NPIA is working with the National User Group to agree a programme of work to reduce these costs.
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in the IMPACT programme; and if she will make a statement. [211853]
Mr. McNulty: The IMPACT Programme, which is now part of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA), has made considerable progress on its three main work streams:
The programme is helping forces to implement the requirements of the Code of Practice and supporting Guidance on the Management of Police Information, which together provide a national framework for improved and more consistent processes for managing information. As part of this, two sets of peer reviews have been completed, the results of which show that forces are making good progress towards the target of implementation across all business areas by 2010. A third set of reviews is ongoing and is due to be completed later this year.
The programme delivered the IMPACT Nominal Index (INI) in December 2005. This provides a means for an investigating officer in one force or other policing agency to quickly and efficiently establish which other policing agencies might hold information on an individual of interest to their inquiries. The system has now been deployed to 67 organisations across the United Kingdom and currently holds over 61 million records. Over the 12 months from April 2007, use of the INI tripled, with around 36,000 searches being conducted in March 2008. Since its deployment, around half-a-million searches have been conducted in total, an estimated 11 per cent. of which have led to requests to other agencies for access to information they hold.
The programme is in the process of selecting a commercial partner to design, build, deploy and run a Police National Database (PND). Having established the Police Services’ requirements, a Contract Notice was published in the Official Journal of the European Union in May 2007. From the 14 consortia that formally responded, the Programme selected three to participate in detailed negotiations. It is anticipated that, following completion of these negotiations and the evaluation
of the final tenders, a contract will be awarded to the successful supplier before the end of 2008.
It is planned to roll out the system in phases, with the first phase focusing on sharing and linking information that is currently held in local systems across the main United Kingdom police forces. Most of the first phase of capabilities are expected to be deployed during 2010, although it is possible that some early functionality might be delivered during 2009.
Subject to affordability in the next spending period, the second phase will focus on broadening the user base for the PND and securing the long term future of the current Police National Computer. Deployment of phase two is expected to commence after 2012.
Police: Joint Ventures
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she provides guidance to chief constables on the appropriateness of them serving on the boards of joint venture companies which have a majority shareholding by a private company. [211443]
Mr. McNulty: No such guidance has been issued. Regulation 7 of the Police Regulations 2003 requires that chief police officers give written notice of any business interest to the relevant police authority.
Police: Pay
Mr. David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what estimate she has made of the cost of backdating the revision of commutation factors for the lump sum paid to all police officers who retired before 1 October 2007; [212173]
(2) what estimate she has made of the number of retired police officers who would benefit if the revision of commutation factors for the lump sum paid to all police officers who retired before 1 October 2007 was backdated; [212174]
(3) for what reasons the backdating of changes to the revision of commutation factors for the lump sum paid to retiring police officers was applied to officers retiring after 1 October 2007. [212175]
Mr. McNulty: The detailed arrangements for the implementation of new lump sum commutation factors under the Police Pension Scheme 1987 required time for consideration and consultation across Departments before they could be put in place. In view of the time taken we decided, in consultation with the Government Actuary’s Department, that it would be appropriate to backdate implementation to 1 October 2007.
As at 31 March 2007, the most recent date for which figures are available, projections suggested a total of 95,000 retired police officers in receipt of a police pension. Estimates have not been made of the number of these former officers who commuted part of their annual pension for a lump sum, or the cost of applying the new commutation factors to all such former officers.
Stop and Search: Greater London
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been stopped and searched by police in each London borough in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) age and (b) ethnic background. [210338]
Mr. McNulty:
Data on stops and searches are collected by police force area. People stopped and
searched are not required to provide their age or date of birth. Therefore information is not available on break down by age.
Information on the number of stop and searches by ethnicity in the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police areas for 2006-07 will be published in July 2008. The following tables provide statistics for the reporting years 2001-02 to 2005-06.
| Metropolitan Police: ‘Stop and search' by ethnicity, 2001-02 to 2005-06 | ||||||
| Number | ||||||
| Ethnic appearance of person searched | ||||||
| White | Black | Asian | Other | Not known/recorded | Total | |
| City of London Police: ‘Stop and search' by ethnicity, 2001-02 to 2005-06 | ||||||
| Number | ||||||
| Ethnic appearance of person searched | ||||||
| White | Black | Asian | Other | Not known/recorded | Total | |
| Note: Police officers have the power to stop and search individuals under a range of legislation, including section 1 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) as well as section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 and section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Section 44 information was not collected until 2002-03. Source and quality: These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, but the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system, and so although shown to the last individual, the figures may not be accurate to that level. | ||||||
Television
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department to what premium Sky, digital terrestrial or cable television channels (a) her Department and (b) each of its agencies subscribes; and at what cost in the most recent year for which figures are available. [210841]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office estate in 2 Marsham Street has two TV feeds:
(a) One via satellite that can access “free to air” service for all channels used. There is no cost to this service.
(b) One via cable from the Palace of Westminster. This provides:
Division Bell overlay used by the Secretary and Ministers of State to advise when their attendance is required to vote;
Parliamentary channels not available to the general public derived from the Palace itself (e.g. live feeds from both chambers and Westminster Hall); and other channels as part of the package, but these are not itemised individually.
The charge for the cable service is £12,500 per annum plus £1,500 for annual line maintenance between the Palace of Westminster and 2 Marsham Street.
Beyond the 2 Marsham Street estate, individual business areas are able to buy their own television and cable equipment and subscriptions and there is no centralised record of such services purchased by the agencies of the Department.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |