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15 July 2008 : Column 258W—continued
Domestic Violence
Mrs. Riordan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken together with local authorities to encourage women to report domestic violence. [217174]
Mr. Coaker: The Home Office has developed a co-ordinated community response to domestic violence, which has included:
providing funding to local partnerships through the Government offices for the regions to support them in developing and rolling out awareness raising campaigns to encourage victims of domestic violence to report incidents.
providing funding to the Local Government Association in December 2003 to run a three-year domestic violence project aimed at identifying and promoting good practice of councils and partner organisations in addressing domestic violence.
developing local area agreement stretch targets for local partnerships, which included increasing the rate of reporting of domestic violence to various agencies.
working with local partnerships through the Government offices for regions to launch the ENOUGH campaign in 2006 and 2007 which encouraged third party reporting of domestic violence incidents.
developing and rolling out routine inquiry to all women attending antenatal clinics and encouraging similar responses for all social and health care agencies to identify victims of domestic violence.
Drugs: Burma
Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the extent of illicit trafficking of opium across Burma’s borders into neighbouring countries; and what proposals the Government has put forward to reduce the trade. [218327]
Mr. Coaker:
The most recent assessment was conducted in 2007 and drew on information from the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime’s World Drugs Report 2006. This noted that opium and heroin from
Laos and Burma is trafficked to neighbouring South East Asia countries (notably China) and to the Oceania region (mainly Australia). The main focus of the United Kingdom Government’s drugs strategy is on drugs trafficked to this country and there was no indication that any of the traffic out of Burma is destined for the United Kingdom. The current stance of the Burmese Government makes it difficult for any non-Burmese national and international agency to work in that country.
Female Genital Mutilation
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of female genital mutilation have been referred to the police since 2003. [217605]
Mr. Coaker: The Home Office collects recorded crime data for offences committed under the Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003. However, these offences are recorded under the offence classification of ‘Less serious wounding’ and cannot be separately identified from other offences within that offence classification.
Fraud: Crime Prevention
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department to what extent combating fraud is a national policing priority; and whether she plans to alter the level of national priority currently accorded to combating fraud. [216034]
Mr. Coaker: The Government take all forms of fraud seriously which is why they have allocated £29 million over the next three years to implement the recommendations of the fraud review. Some of this funding will be directed towards enhancing the police response to fraud by giving the City of London police a national lead role in fraud investigation. The force already receives additional Government and Corporation of London funding to perform a lead force role across the South East and this further funding will enable the force to expand its Economic Crime Department and take on the investigation of serious and complex frauds across the country. The force will also establish a centre of excellence which will provide best practice advice to other forces around the country.
The Home Secretary sets strategic priorities for the police service each year to inform police planning. Last year, these were included in the National Community Safety Plan. Combating fraud is one aspect of the priority on serious and organised crime. We will keep this under review.
Human Trafficking
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the victims of trafficking found during Operation Pentameter 2 were found outside city centres. [217973]
Mr. Coaker: Information on location of victims was not collected under Operation Pentameter 2 in a way that defined city centres as geographically separate from the cities themselves.
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many victims of human trafficking were found in (a) residential properties and (b) massage parlours and saunas raided under Operation Pentameter 2. [217976]
Mr. Coaker: A total of 167 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation were recovered under Operation Pentameter 2 from a number of properties including residences and massage parlours.
The precise numbers found in each type of property is not held centrally.
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much of the money recovered as a result of Operation Pentameter 2 has gone to (a) victims in compensation and (b) the Exchequer; and what currencies the money recovered was in. [217978]
Mr. Coaker: All receipts from recovered assets are transferred to the Treasury with 50 per cent. returned to the investigative, prosecution and enforcement bodies for re-investment in further asset recovery activity. The remaining 50 per cent. is received by the Home Office and supports a range of business, including community crime reduction projects.
There are various avenues for victims of crime to claim compensation. Victims of violent crime can apply to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, which has granted awards for victims of human trafficking. Additionally, prosecutors can request a compensation order following a conviction and the Crown Prosecution Service has issued guidance highlighting the application of this in human trafficking cases. It is also open to a victim to pursue compensation directly through the civil courts.
The vast majority of cash seized under Operation Pentameter 2 was in sterling with a small amount in euros.
Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps she has taken to stop human trafficking; and if she will make a statement. [218460]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 14 July 2008]: On 2 July we published the update on the United Kingdom Action Plan on Tackling Human Trafficking and on the same day announced the outcomes of Operation Pentameter 2.
The original action plan was published in March 2007. It outlines the Government’s end to end strategy to tackle human trafficking and to identify and protect victims. The update reports on progress since then and sets out new actions—85 in total, up from 62 actions originally.
Operation Pentameter 2 was a major success. It resulted in the arrest of 528 people and the recovery of the 167 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation. A total of 15 victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation were recovered in Scotland.
We remain committed to tackling this horrendous crime and continue to make progress towards our overall aim of ensuring the UK becomes a hostile environment for the traffickers. This will be further reinforced by the ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings before the end of 2008.
Human Trafficking: Arrests
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people arrested under Operation Pentameter 2 have been (a) charged and (b) convicted of human trafficking offences. [217969]
Mr. Coaker: As at May 2008 a total of 71 people arrested under Operation Pentameter 2 had been charged with offences under the dedicated human trafficking legislation. These cases are currently at different stages of the criminal justice process.
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals were arrested during Operation Pentameter 2. [217970]
Human Trafficking: Children
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the children found as a result of Operation Pentameter 2 have (a) been provided with safe house accommodation and (b) gone missing since being rescued. [217977]
Mr. Coaker: It is the statutory responsibility of local authorities to assess the needs of all separated children at risk of harm and in need of accommodation. It is their responsibility to provide suitable accommodation, following this assessment, ensuring that they are safeguarded and their welfare promoted under the provisions of the Children Act 1989.
We understand from the police that Operation Pentameter 2 identified 16 children, 13 of whom had been trafficked for sexual exploitation and three for forced labour.
All were appropriately referred to local authorities. We understand from the police that one has absconded.
Human Trafficking: Repatriation
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the adult victims of trafficking found under Operation Pentameter 2 have been returned to their country of origin. [217975]
Mr. Coaker: Under Pentameter 2, forty-eight individuals identified as victims of trafficking by the police have returned to their country of origin.
Robbery: Wales
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many recorded incidents of (a) robbery and (b) drug offences there were in each police authority area in Wales in each year since 1997. [218761]
Mr. Coaker: The available information relates to the number of recorded robbery and drug offences and is given in the following tables.
| Table 1 Offences of robbery recorded by the police in Wales, 1997 | |
| Number of offences | |
| Table 2 Offences of robbery recorded by the police in Wales, 1998-99—2001-02 | ||||
| Number of offences | ||||
| 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 | |
| Notes: 1. The coverage was extended and counting rules revised from 1998-99. Figures from that date are not directly comparable with those for 1997. 2. The data in this table are prior to the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard. These figures are not directly comparable with those for later years. | ||||
| Table 3 Offences of robbery recorded by the police in Wales, 2002-03—2006-07 | |||||
| Number of offences | |||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
| Note: 1. The data in this table take account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years. | |||||
| Table 4 Drug offences recorded by the police in Wales, 1997( 1) | |
| Number of offences | |
| (1). Figures for 1997 are for drug trafficking only. | |
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