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18 Dec 2008 : Column 1042W—continued
Shoplifting: Fixed Penalties
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many penalty notices were issued for shoplifting of goods up to the value of £200 in each of the last four years. [243323]
Maria Eagle: The number of persons aged 16 and over, issued with a PND for shoplifting (of goods up to a value of £200), from 2004 to 2007 (latest available) in England and Wales can be viewed in the following table. The offence of theft (retail) was added to the PND Scheme in November 2004.
Operational guidance issued to forces makes clear that PND disposal should normally be considered only for theft of goods up to a value of £100. PND disposal up to the cap of £200 would be exceptional and require the consent of the victim/retailer. The majority of PNDs are issued for theft of goods below £100.
| N umber of persons aged 16 and over, issued with a penalty notice for disorder for the offence Theft (retail under £200), in England and Wales, 2004 to 2007( 1, 2, 3) | |
| Number | |
| (1) 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 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. (2) Offence is a notifiable offence included within OBTJ figures. (3) The offence of theft (retail) was added to the PND Scheme in November 2004 Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform - Evidence and Analysis Unit. | |
Taxis: Licensing
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people were (a) charged, (b) convicted and (c) sentenced to immediate custody for offences relating to unlicensed taxis in each of the last five years. [244599]
Maria Eagle: The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 S.167, and the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 Sec 40-60 and 62-68, in England and Wales, 2003 to 2007 can be viewed in the following table.
Court proceedings data are unable to separately identify offences under section 47 of the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 as the offences of Hackney carriage driver without a licence and Employing an unlicensed Hackney carriage driver under this statute are grouped together.
These offences do not carry a custodial sentence. The maximum penalty that can be given for these offences is a fine.
These data are on the principal offence basis. The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one 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.
| Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for offences under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 S.167 and the Town Police Clauses Act 1847 Sec 40-60 and 62-68, in England and Wales, 2003-07( 1,2,3) | ||||
| Statute | ||||
| Town Police Clauses Act 1847 Sec 40-60 and 62-68 | Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 Sec 167 | |||
| Proceeded against | Found guilty | Proceeded against | Found guilty | |
| (1 )These data are on the principal offence basis. (2) Includes the following statutes and corresponding offence descriptions: Town Police Clauses Act 1847 Sec 40-60 and 62-68. Offences peculiar to stage carriage and public service vehicles. Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, Sec 167. Touting for hire car service without PSV operator's licence. (3) Court proceedings data are unable to separate Section 47—Act as a Hackney carriage driver without a licence and Employ an unlicensed Hackney carriage driver—from the other set of offences under this statute as they are grouped together. Note: These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system. Source: OMS Analytical Services. | ||||
Communities and Local Government
Billing
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many organisations her Department has contacted asking them to pay suppliers within 10 days of receiving an invoice. [244695]
Mr. Khan: The Department has written out to its agencies and non departmental government bodies.
Community Relations
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she expects to publish the feasibility study regarding the provision for the integration of migrants referred to on page 43 of the report, Managing the Impacts of Migration: a Cross Government Approach. [245547]
Mr. Khan: The ‘Review of Migrant Integration Policy in the UK (including a feasibility study of the proposal for an Integration Agency)’ was published on 11 June 2008. It can be viewed on Communities and Local Government's website at:
Community Relations: Religion
John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what publications her Department and its predecessors have issued on faith communities since 1997. [245430]
Mr. Khan:
I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Mr. Dhanda) to the right hon. Member for Leeds, West (John Battle) on 29 November 2007, Official Report,
column 689W. Since then, the Department has produced two further publications: “Face to Face and Side by Side—a framework for partnership in our multi faith society”, and “Believing in Local Action” in association with the Church Urban Fund.
Compulsory Purchase: Coastal Areas
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 25 November 2008, Official Report, column 1264W, on compulsory purchase: coastal areas, for what reasons the information requested is not held centrally. [244417]
Mr. Iain Wright: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 15 December 2008, Official Report, column 360W. CPOs made by local authorities are for a wide range of purposes and justified by site-specific considerations. We have no specific need to hold this information centrally and therefore the administrative cost of doing so is not justified.
Council Tax: Arrears
Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what guidance is given to local authorities on the recovery of council tax arrears and procedures to be followed by private companies contracted to recover them; and when this guidance will next be reviewed. [244148]
John Healey: Communities and Local Government's predecessor department the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister jointly published, with the Government Operational Research Service a Council Tax Collection Good Practice Report in 2004. The report looks at ways of sharing good practice among practitioners, in order to promote continuous improvement in service delivery and collection.
The report can be accessed via Communities and Local Government website at
Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government whether local authorities may use county courts to recover council tax arrears. [244150]
John Healey: No. Under Schedule 4 to the Local Government Finance Act 1992 recovery of council tax arrears must be through a magistrates court. However, we are looking at reforms to allow billing authorities to transfer council tax debts from magistrates courts to county courts in certain circumstances.
Council Tax: Pensions
Sir John Stanley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with reference to the answer of 19 November 2008, Official Report, column 505W, on council tax: pensions, what proportion of local authority revenue went towards meeting pension liabilities and costs in the latest period for which information is available. [244484]
John Healey: The proportion of local authority revenue expenditure in 2007-08 that comprised employers' contributions to pension funds and other retirement benefits was 8 per cent. Information used to compile this percentage was published in the ‘Local Authority Revenue Expenditure and Financing England 2007-08 Final Outturn’ statistical release on 28 November 2008.
Revenue expenditure defined here is that expenditure financed by grants inside Aggregate External Finance (i.e. revenue grants paid for council's core services), council tax and authorities' reserves and is on a non-Financial Reporting Standard (FRS) 17 basis.
Departmental Contracts
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with how many faith-based organisations her Department has contracts to provide public services. [244840]
Mr. Khan: This information is not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Energy
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps her Department is taking to reduce the amount of energy it wastes. [244606]
Mr. Khan: Communities and Local Government is undertaking a wide range of activity to reduce its energy consumption.
Programmes include installing boiler efficiency devices, replacing older lighting with high efficiency models fitted with movement and daylight sensors, fitting further timers to local water boilers and chillers, and reducing the use of humidification plant where appropriate.
We are actively rationalising our estate to reduce our total footprint. To assist this programme, we are adopting flexible desking in our main headquarter building to ensure the most efficient use of available workstations.
To reduce the demand for heating and air conditioning, building temperature set points are being reduced in winter and increased in summer.
We are reducing the number of printers, photocopiers, and fax machines and replacing them with multi-function devices as part of our wider Sustainable ICT Action Plan. Other initiatives will include removing screen savers and improving the energy efficiency settings of existing devices.
We are assessing further opportunities identified in the advisory reports which accompany our display energy certificates and energy performance certificate, and we are also conducting a number of feasibility studies to assess options for server room heat recovery, reconfiguration of hydraulics to reduce water cooling requirements, options for ground source cooling and potential for voltage optimisation.
Departmental Public Consultation
Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on which occasions her Department has convened a citizens' jury or randomly drawn panel of people to aid the
Department's policy making since 2000; whether the participants were paid in each case; and if she will make a statement. [243045]
Mr. Khan: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to the right hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May) on 22 October 2008, Official Report, column 350W.
My Department recognises the important contribution that the public can make in developing policy and carry out a wide range of activities which allow ministers and officials to listen to and understand the views of the public and stakeholders in developing policy.
With regard to the period before Communities and Local Government was formed in 2006, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given by the Under-Secretary my hon. Friend the Member for Poplar and Canning Town (Jim Fitzpatrick) to the hon. Member for North Swindon (Mr. Wills) on 31 January 2006, Official Report, column 420W and to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to the hon. Member for Maidenhead on 30 October 2007, Official Report, column 1161W.
Fire Services: Industrial Health and Safety
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when she plans to issue the guidance for independent qualified medical practitioners providing an opinion on permanent disability, fitness for regular work, qualifying injury and degree of disability document agreed with the Fire Brigades Union in June 2008. [244756]
Mr. Khan: The guidance is one element of a package which, earlier this year, the group reviewing ill health retirement arrangements in the Firefighters’ Pension Scheme agreed should be issued to help employers and medical practitioners carry out their duties under the scheme. As issues relating to the interpretation of the scheme are currently the subject of an appeal, we do not propose to issue the guidance until the judgment of the Court of Appeal is available and I am satisfied that the guidance is consistent with it.
Home Information Packs
Tom Levitt: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if she will make the fitting of a working carbon monoxide alarm a condition of a home information pack where a gas supply is present. [244106]
Mr. Iain Wright: No. The home information pack (HIP) provides prospective buyers with important information about a property early in the home buying and selling process. There is no power in the HIPs legislation to require sellers to make any changes or adaptations to their homes in order to be able to put them on the market.
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