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10 Nov 2008 : Column 786W—continued

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people of each nationality have been granted UK citizenship since 1987. [232783]

Mr. Woolas [holding answer 3 November 2008]: Statistics on persons granted British citizenship by previous nationality are published annually in Home Office National Statistics statistical bulletins.

The requested data can be found in table 4 of “Citizenship Statistics United Kingdom” for the years 1987 to 1990 and in “Persons Granted British Citizenship United Kingdom” for the years 1991 to 2007. These publications may be obtained from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for UK citizenship were refused on the grounds that the applicant was not of good character in each year since 1997. [232784]

Mr. Woolas [holding answer 3 November 2008]: The available data from 2002 to 2007 are shown in the following table.

Data regarding refusals of applications for British citizenship before 2002 are not available.

Data are published annually as National Statistics and are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website:

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.

Refusal of British citizenship on grounds of the applicant not being of good character, 2002 to 2007
	Number of applications refused as not of good character( 1)
2002	740
2003	945
2004	1,185
2005	1,665
2006(2)	1,765
2007(3)	1,695
(1 )Includes applicants who are considered a threat to national security. (2) Revised (3) Provisional

10 Nov 2008 : Column 787W

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people renounced UK citizenship in each year since 1987, broken down by new nationality taken. [232785]

Mr. Woolas [holding answer 3 November 2008]: The following table shows the number of people who renounced British citizenship in each of the last six years.

	Number of renunciations
2002	1,140
2003	680
2004	670
2005	590
2006	600
2007	585
Total	4,265

Information relating to the nationality acquired or retained as a result of the renunciation and information for the period from 1987 to 2001 could be obtained by the detailed examination of individual case records only at disproportionate cost.

10 Nov 2008 : Column 788W

The information has been provided from local management information and is not a National Statistic. As such it should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change.

British Nationality: Assessments

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the pass rate was of those taking the Knowledge of Life test (a) applying for citizenship and (b) applying for settlement in each of the last eight quarters for which figures are available. [232781]

Mr. Woolas [holding answer 3 November 2008]: The pass rates for candidates taking the Life in the UK test are as follows.

Candidates are asked whether they are sitting the test because they wish to apply for citizenship or settlement. A small proportion of candidates (1.3 per cent.) are unable to state what type of application they will be making to UKBA following their test and these are recorded as other.

Percentage
Pass rates	October to December 2006	January to March 2007	April to June 2007	July to September 2007	October to December 2007	January to March 2008	April to June 2008	July to September 2008
Citizenship	66.2	70.1	64.8	65.7	68.4	70.2	68.9	66.2
Settlement	—	—	76.3	74.4	76.1	76.6	75.6	74.2
Other	—	—	58.6	49.3	57.3	53.1	53.8	45.3
Note: Data provided by University for Industry.

Crime: Maps

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what effects local crime mapping has had on householders living in the areas where the scheme is in operation with regard to (a) insurance premiums and (b) other matters. [232990]

Mr. Alan Campbell: All police forces are committed to deliver public-facing crime mapping by December 2008 as part of the Policing Pledge that was announced in the Policing Green Paper ‘From the neighbourhood to the national’ in July 2008. Five forces currently produce monthly crime maps for the public.

(a) We are unaware of any evidence which suggests that crime mapping has had any effects on insurance premiums.

(b) West Yorkshire police have carried out two small scale market research studies with members of the public which seem to suggest crime maps did not increase the level of fear of crime. Those in higher crime areas tend not to be alarmed by the level of crime depicted on crime maps and those in lower crime areas were often surprised about the low level of crime.

Crimes of Violence: Convictions

Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many people were convicted of serious violent crime offences in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England and Wales in each year since 1997; [228714]

(2) how many people were convicted of violent crime offences in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England and Wales in each year since 1997. [228715]

Mr. Alan Campbell: The available data have been provided by the Ministry of Justice and give the number of persons found guilty at all courts for offences of violence against the person in the north-east region and in England and Wales from 1997 to 2006. The court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform cannot provide data for Jarrow constituency or South Tyneside as data are not held at the required level. Court proceedings data for 2007 will be available in November 2008.

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10 Nov 2008 : Column 790W

Number of defendants found guilty at all courts for offences of violence against the person in the north-east region and in England and Wales, 1997 to 2006( 1,2,3)
	Offence	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
	North-east region
001	Murder	17	16	25	12	16	18	13	13	9	19
002	Attempted murder	3	3	2	7	1	1	6	—	4	1
003	Threat or conspiracy to murder	48	50	42	36	23	40	42	46	39	37
004	Manslaughter, etc	34	36	18	24	28	30	26	35	39	18
037	Causing death by aggravated vehicle taking	—	1	1	—	—	1	1	3	—	—
005	Wounding or other act endangering life	130	127	93	89	99	112	129	115	126	127
006	Endangering railway passenger	4	3	—	1	—	1	2	2	3	4
	More serious offences	236	236	181	169	167	203	219	214	220	206
007	Endangering life at sea	—	—	1	1	—	—	1	—	—	—
008	Other wounding, etc	2,096	2,300	2,290	2,172	2,234	2,306	2,181	2,124	2,356	2,511
011	Cruelty to or neglect of children	21	14	27	28	23	18	23	32	30	38
013	Child abduction	2	5	4	3	3	4	3	7	1	5
	Less serious offences	2,119	2,319	2,322	2,204	2,260	2,328	2,208	2,163	2,387	2,554
	Total indictable violence against the person	2,355	2,555	2,503	2,373	2,427	2,531	2,427	2,377	2,607	2,760
	England and Wales
001	Murder	275	256	252	261	285	324	277	361	394	372
002	Attempted murder	70	64	70	65	46	65	94	96	66	79
003	Threat or conspiracy to murder	503	488	457	428	383	448	543	576	600	518
004	Manslaughter, etc	541	549	484	505	565	619	561	590	605	513
037	Causing death by aggravated vehicle taking	7	18	7	12	14	10	13	11	22	9
005	Wounding or other act endangering life	1,864	1,775	1,622	1,531	1,595	1,699	1,675	1,897	1,872	1,721
006	Endangering railway passenger	23	23	23	23	20	36	32	23	30	28
	More serious offences	3,283	3,173	2,915	2,825	2,908	3,201	3,195	3,554	3,589	3,240
007	Endangering life at sea	4	—	3	5	1	1	2	3	7	2
008	Other wounding, etc	30,838	33,431	32,239	31,940	31,913	34,003	34,257	34,977	36,768	38,046
011	Cruelty to or neglect of children	390	390	469	448	415	444	494	542	482	488
012	Abandoning child aged under 2 years	1	1	1	—	1	—	1	—	—	2
013	Child abduction	40	51	71	50	59	59	82	72	80	81
014	Procuring illegal abortion	5	3	—	1	—	—	1	1	—	—
015	Concealment of birth	1	1	2	1	1	—	4	—	3	3
	Less serious offences	31,279	33,877	32,785	32,445	32,390	34,507	34,841	35,595	37,340	38,622
	Total indictable violence against the person	34,562	37,050	35,700	35,270	35,298	37,708	38,036	39,149	40,929	41,862
(1) The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (2) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. (3) The definition of more serious violence is that used in publications on sentencing relating to the years 1997 to 2006.

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