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Criminal Records Bureau: Checks

Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what compensation scheme is in place for (a) teachers and (b) other educational staff who require Criminal Records Bureau clearance who have experienced loss of earnings while their application for a criminal record check was under consideration by the Criminal Records Bureau in each of the last four years; [244627]

(2) how much compensation has been paid by the Criminal Records Bureau for delays in processing criminal record checks to (a) applicants, (b) employers and (c) others in each of the last four years; to which types of disclosures such payments related; and how many (i) applicants and (ii) employers were so compensated in each year. [244628]

Meg Hillier [holding answer 17 December 2008]: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not pay compensation, the payments CRB makes are on an ex gratia basis, as an award to reinforce the sincerity of an apology.

The CRB is bound by the Treasury Guidelines and must endeavour to put all individuals, not just those working within the education sector, back into the position they would have been but for any maladministration on the part of the Bureau. This scheme is called a redress scheme. The CRB award redress if they have not followed their procedures and it has caused the applicant a loss.

The number of cases requesting redress and the amount paid by the CRB to applicants for delays in processing CRB checks in each of the last four years is detailed in the following table.

	Cases received requesting redress	Amount paid in redress (£)
2005	513	111,995.56
2006	559	52,733.97
2007	571	254,590.07
2008 (up to 30th November 2008)	823	154,420.55

The CRB does not provide redress to employers or organisations registered with them to verify disclosure applications.

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The CRB does not separately record the number of individuals that have received redress or the number of each type of disclosure the redress payments were made against. To obtain this level of detailed analysis would involve manually re-processing source records and this could be done only at a disproportionate cost.

Criminal Records Bureau: Complaints

Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) received on the time taken to process applications for CRB clearance in (a) the last 12 months and (b) the last five years. [243592]

Meg Hillier: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) received 3,733 complaints on the time taken to process applications in the last 12 months up until November 2008. During this same period the CRB issued 3.6 million disclosures.

The CRB did not separately record delay complaints before April 2007. To obtain this level of detailed analysis would involve manually re- processing source records and this could be done only at a disproportionate cost.

The CRB endeavours to issue both standard and enhanced disclosures in the shortest time possible. Some disclosures do take a matter of days, while others can take considerably longer. There are a number of factors that can affect the timely completion of checks, including but not restricted to the timely submission of application forms by registered bodies to the CRB; the accurate completion of the application form; the clarity of the information provided; the existence on conviction or non-conviction information and the operational effectiveness of the disclosure units at the police forces involved in the enhanced disclosure process.

Domestic Violence

Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences of (a) sexual assault and (b) domestic violence were recorded in each month of (i) 2007 and (ii) 2008. [243547]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 15 December 2008]: Police forces in England and Wales are asked to provide monthly cumulative data for use in the Home Office’s quarterly and annual crime statistics publication. However, the validation processes relate to quarterly data rather than monthly and therefore quarterly data for all sexual offences are given in the table. Quarterly data for July to September 2008 will be published on 22 January 2009.

From the information collected centrally on recorded crime, it is not possible to identify recorded cases of domestic violence. Such offences are not specifically defined by law and details of the individual circumstances of offences are not collected.

Domestic violence statistics are based on British Crime Survey interviews, which include crimes not reported to the police.

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Sexual offences recorded by the police in England and Wales
Quarter	Number of offences
January to March 2007	12,732
April to June 2007	14,129
July to September 2007	14,361
October to December 2007	12,067
January to March 2008	12,983
April to June 2008	14,307

Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her policy is on tackling domestic violence; and if she will make a statement. [244494]

Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government are committed to tackling domestic violence. We have a cross-Government National Domestic Violence Delivery Plan which provides a strategic framework to address domestic violence to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice while providing the best possible help for victims and their children.

The Plan covers specific initiatives such as the expansion of the Specialist Domestic Violence Court programme; the roll-out nationally of multi-agency risk assessment conferences and supporting the establishment of independent domestic violence advisers.

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Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004

Mr. Timpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when she expects to commence section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004; [244477]

(2) for what reason section 12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 has not been implemented. [244478]

Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 16 December 2008]: We do not have a commencement date for S12 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 but are still committed to its implementation and continue to look at ways to take this forward across Government.

Driving Under Influence

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many breathalyser tests were carried out in each year since 1997, broken down by (a) month, (b) region, (c) age of the driver and (d) result. [242901]

Mr. Alan Campbell: The available information is given in the following tables. Information on breathalyser tests broken down by the age of the driver is not collected centrally.

Screening breath tests by month, England and Wales 1997 to 2006
Total tests
	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004( 2)	2005( 1)	2006( 1)
January	65,300	64,700	66,700	65,000	54,100	45,700	47,000	46,200	48,400	50,200
February	52,400	53,400	55,900	53,400	44,300	43,500	41,800	40,300	40,900	41,000
March	55,000	55,600	57,300	51,900	46,500	43,200	41,300	40,600	42,500	40,200
April	53,600	57,200	56,400	54,600	49,900	43,200	38,800	41,800	41,700	40,100
May	58,600	58,500	55,500	53,300	52,000	44,400	40,100	43,200	44,700	42,100
June	57,000	58,200	55,700	48,600	44,200	43,300	40,400	44,600	44,200	55,300
July	66,900	61,200	57,800	53,100	43,300	40,800	39,400	46,000	44,700	44,600
August	64,200	66,800	68,400	66,500	52,700	45,400	44,200	45,000	48,100	43,400
September	56,300	59,600	54,500	48,500	44,000	41,500	39,000	45,400	41,500	39,200
October	60,200	68,200	56,500	50,800	42,200	43,300	41,100	45,900	51,700	42,300
November	67,900	69,500	59,500	61,300	51,600	46,700	44,500	52,000	52,100	45,200
December	142,900	142,500	120,300	107,600	99,100	89,100	76,800	86,800	106,800	118,000
Total(4)	800,300	815,500	764,500	714,800	623,900	570,200	534,300	(3)578,100	607,400	601,600
(1) Following a comparison between the number of positive breath tests reported by each police force in 2006, and the number of court proceedings for drink/driving related offences, it became clear that there was under-reporting in a number of forces. As a result Essex, Humberside, Lancashire, Norfolk, Northumbria, Staffordshire, Dyfed-Powys, Gwent and South Wales court proceedings figures have been substituted for the positive breath test figures. Similar adjustments were also made to various forces data between 1998 and 2005. (2) Total revised since publication, monthly revisions are not available so original 2004 data are provided. (3) Amended from original publication (4) Figures may not match totals due to rounding.

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