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25 Nov 2008 : Column 1238W—continued
| Table 2: Numbers of assault without injury offences on a constable offences recorded in England, 2003-04 to 2007-08 | |||||
| Area | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
| Table 3: Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for assaulting a constable in England, 2002 to 2006( 1,2) | |||||
| Region | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| (1) These data are on the principal offence basis. (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 and police forces. 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. | |||||
Asylum: Work Permits
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many work permit applications were made by asylum seekers whose asylum decisions had been delayed for more than one year in the last year; and how many such applications were (a) accepted and (b) refused. [221653]
Mr. Woolas: The requested information on the number of work permit applications made by asylum seekers whose asylum decisions had been delayed for more than one year, and those accepted and refused, is not collated and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Borders: Personal Records
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department had spent on consultancy services for the e-borders project by 30 June 2008. [218907]
Mr. Woolas: The total expenditure on consultancy services and legal support by the e-Borders Programme, from 2004 until 30 June 2008, was £43.5 million.
Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will estimate the number of (a) ex-offenders living in the principal seaside towns, (b) ex-offenders per 10,000 population in such towns and (c) ex-offenders per 10,000 population nationally. [238675]
Mr. Hanson: I have been asked to reply.
Prisons record the address to which discharged prisoners state they will be going, but are not able to confirm whether ex-offenders actually go to this address or whether they remain there.
Individual probation areas maintain records of offenders who are serving community punishments or who are under supervision following release from prison on licence, but do not generally keep records of ex-offenders.
Those records that they do maintain are on an area basis rather than a specific town.
We therefore have no basis on which to estimate the number of ex-offenders living in specific locations.
Community Relations
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her Department’s responsibilities for preventing violent extremism are. [218428]
Mr. Coaker: The Office for Security and Counter Terrorism (OSCT) in the Home Office is responsible for co-ordinating activity to deliver the Government counter terrorist strategy (CONTEST), which in this context will also include the Prevent agenda. It will increasingly become the central co-ordinating point for guidance and support on a number of key issues to all practitioners engaged with the agenda. Key to our work is supporting the police and police authorities in fulfilling their roles across the Prevent agenda.
Community Relations: Leicestershire
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how much funding will be given to community groups and organisations in Leicestershire from the funds allocated by her Department for tackling radicalisation in communities; what the procedure is for deciding (a) which organisations receive such funding and (b) how much they receive; and what public consultation will take place as part of that process; [218181]
(2) what mechanisms will be used to monitor the effectiveness of funding allocated to prevent the radicalisation of communities in Leicestershire; who will undertake that monitoring; who will be consulted as part of the monitoring process; what information will be published as a result of that monitoring; and when that information will be published. [218149]
Mr. Coaker: The Home Office regularly carries out cross government consultation with all of its key stakeholders including Ministry of Justice, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Children Schools and Families, the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills along with Government offices among others to identify organisations with experience in dealing with vulnerable individuals. All approved projects are scrutinised by governance boards, which feed into the NSID(E) board chaired by the Prime Minister.
The Home Office is currently funding one project for community groups and organisations in Leicestershire for tackling radicalisation in communities. Build is a community group in Leicester that supports Muslims to obtain an accredited mentoring certificate so that they can engage in outreach to other young Muslims who are risk of criminality, drug abuse and radicalisation. As well as befriending their subjects, the mentors refer them to associated education and employment programmes in order to improve their social skills, their resistance to radicalisation and their relationships with families and with the wider community.
Build is linked to Forward Thinking, which is active in community counter radicalisation work. The project is being funded with £77,490 over three years.
The project is evaluated through internal and external monitoring using forms and reports with separate reports from service users, volunteers, parents and other organisations. Focus groups for young people, parents and community members to discuss and feedback the activities are also carried out. Separately the Home Office will carry out their own internal monitoring on a regular basis to ensure the project meets the criteria laid down.
Finally, Build is expected to publish a report at the end of the project which will summarise their activities and achievements.
Crime: Intellectual Property
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the proportion of commercial crime which is committed in the workplace in relation to intellectual property offences. [238356]
Mr. Alan Campbell: I have made no assessment of the proportion of commercial crime which is committed in the workplace in relation to intellectual property offences. The UK Intellectual Property Office (which takes the lead on the National IP Crime Strategy) publishes an annual Intellectual Property Crime Report. The 2007 report notes that the true measure of the level of IP crime in the UK is unknown but the report sets out available evidence from a number of sectors.
Crime: Newcastle
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the evidential basis is for the Prime Minister's Statement on 18 June 2008, Official Report, column 944, that CCTV has reduced crime in Central Newcastle by 60 per cent. [221501]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 22 July 2008]: CCTV has consistently proven to reduce crime as evidenced in case studies such as the one reported in the NIJ Journal Issue No. 249 CCTV: ‘Constant Cameras Track Violators’, 2003.
Criminal Records Bureau: International Cooperation
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) from which countries the Criminal Records Bureau receives information regarding offences committed overseas; and how frequently such information is updated in each case; [233787]
(2) how many overseas nationals working in the UK have committed an offence overseas which if they had committed it in the UK would bar them from working with children or vulnerable adults. [233858]
Meg Hillier: There are two types of checks conducted by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), standard and enhanced disclosures, both of which require a detailed search for any convictions contained on the Police National Computer (PNC).
Criminal Convictions on the Police National Computer will include convictions of UK nationals in the European Union (EU) sent to the UK Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal Records (UKCA-ECR) as well as convictions of UK nationals sent via Interpol channels to the Serious and Organised Crime Agency. In addition the UKCA-ECR can request previous conviction history regarding EU nationals being proceeded against in a UK court of law. When there is previous conviction history, this information is input onto the PNC and is available for the CRB to access as part of their normal checking procedures.
Information about the number of overseas nationals working in the UK that may have committed an offence overseas which, had this been committed in the UK, would have prevented them from working with children and vulnerable adults, is not available centrally. However, conviction information coming to light through the procedures described above will be disclosed to employers should a CRB check be requested. The CRB also provides an overseas information service to all its customers via its website at: www.crb.gsi.gov.uk.
Criminal Records Bureau: Standards
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 10 November 2008, Official Report, columns 791-2W, on the Criminal Records Bureau: standards, how many Criminal Records Bureau disclosures involved (a) a not-guilty verdict following a court appearance, (b) a charge being issued without subsequent prosecution, (c) an arrest without charges pressed and (d) questioning without arrest in each year since 2003-04; and how many of these were disputed. [237104]
Meg Hillier: The information requested is not recorded by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and therefore is not available.
Demonstrations: Parliament Square
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what consultation she has undertaken with (a) Mr. Speaker and (b) the House authorities on use of loudhailers in Parliament Square, pursuant to Mr. Speaker’s Statement of 28 October 2008, Official Report, column 729; [238291]
(2) if she will bring forward proposals to give powers to the police to confiscate amplification equipment when it is being used in (a) Parliament Square and (b) other public places without permission to (i) abuse and (ii) otherwise harass people going about their lawful occasions; and if she will make a statement; [238198]
(3) what steps she plans to take to give local authorities the power to prevent (a) unauthorised and (b) harassing or abusive broadcasting of protest messages in public places; and what assessment she has made of the potential for use of injunctions in such circumstances; [238199]
(4) what effect the proposed repeal of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 will have on the law relating to (a) unregulated and (b) unlimited use of (i) loudhailers and (ii) other amplification equipment by protestors in Parliament Square. [238292]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 24 November 2008]: The Government’s draft Constitutional Renewal Bill included proposals to repeal sections 132-138 of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 which set out a framework for managing demonstrations in a designated area around Parliament. The Joint Committee on the draft Constitutional Renewal Bill published its report in July 2008 including recommendations on dealing with noise and the use of loudspeakers. The Government will be responding to the Joint Committee’s report imminently, addressing those recommendations in the wider context of existing legislation to address harassment and local byelaws.
Home Office officials met with the House authorities on 15 October 2008 to help inform the Government’s response to the Joint Committee’s report.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was claimed in reimbursable expenses by press officers in her Department and its agencies in each of the last three financial years. [221177]
Mr. Woolas: The following are the total reimbursable expenses claimed by press officers employed by the Home Office and agencies for each of the last three financial years:
| £ | |
All expenses claimed were checked and authorised for payment in accordance with the Civil Service Management Code section 8.
Departmental Procurement
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2008, Official Report, column 259W, on Departmental procurement, what payments her Department made to Jeeves Jewellers in 2007-08; on what dates; and for what purpose in each case. [233441]
Jacqui Smith: Pursuant to the answer of 21 October 2008, O fficial Report, column 259W, on departmental procurement, based on the purchase order data held in the Home Department’s financial database, the details of the payments made to Jeeves Jewellers, who provide warrant cards, in 2007-08 are as follows:
| Description of purchase | Value (£) | |
Departmental Sick Leave
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average duration of single periods of sick leave taken by staff in (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) the non-departmental bodies for which it has responsibility was in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [216108]
Mr. Woolas: The following table shows United Kingdom Border Agency's (UKBA) work days lost (WDL) for the last three years:
UKBA's data prior to 2005 are unavailable due to data migration to a new management system and will incur disproportionate cost to extract.
HO HQ, IPS and CRB data are unavailable and would incur disproportionate cost to manually check each record. However, the Home Office is currently undergoing a HR change programme, one area of which is looking at HR data, measures, and reporting. PQs such as this which are currently a disproportionate cost to answer will be fed into the change programme activity with a view to improving the position in the future.
The HO does not report on non-departmental public bodies data.
| Work days lost (WDL) in the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) for the last three years | |||
| Days | |||
| Stress related sickness (WDL) | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
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