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12 Jan 2009 : Column 297W—continued
Olympic Games 2012: Security
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she expects to publish her estimate of the likely security costs arising from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. [245942]
Mr. Coaker: The then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport my right hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Tessa Jowell) announced on 15 March 2007 that the overall budget for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games included a £600 million envelope of provision for policing and wider security. This is on top of the ODA budget for security of £354 million and the provision that LOCOG has set aside for in-venue security. An additional £238 million will be made available for contingency if required. Work is continuing to finalise the security strategy and plans within these funding estimates.
Overseas Visitors: Japan
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Japanese citizens visited the UK in (a) 2007 and (b) 2006. [245289]
Mr. Woolas: The number of Japanese nationals given leave to enter the United Kingdom as visitors in 2006 and 2007 is given in the following table. The information shown is based on landing card information and may include the same individuals more than once if they visited the United Kingdom on multiple occasions in the period.
Statistics on passengers given leave to enter the United Kingdom by purpose of journey and nationality are published annually in table 2.3 of the Home Office publications “Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom” which are available in the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at:
Table 2.3 gives details of other reasons that Japanese nationals entered the UK each year.
| Japanese nationals given leave to enter the United Kingdom by purpose of journey, 2006 and 2007. United Kingdom | ||
| Number of journeys | ||
| Passengers admitted, by purpose of journey | 2006( 1) | 2007( 2, 3) |
| (1 )Due to some gaps in the data from ports, estimates have been used. (2 )May understate due to some administrative records on non-EEA nationals being unavailable for statistical analysis. (3 )Provisional. Note: Data rounded to three significant figures. | ||
Passports: Biometrics
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of each (a) biometric passport reader and (b) identity card reader is expected to be. [243419]
Jacqui Smith: Readers for the current first generation of e-passport, incorporating facial image biometrics, are already in place at immigration posts at the United Kingdom border. Precise costs for readers for the second generation of e-passports and identity cards, incorporating fingerprint biometrics, are not yet available.
Passports: Finance
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the annual resource costs of providing passports to British citizens were in each of the last five years. [241861]
Jacqui Smith: The annual expenditure of providing passports services for British nationals in each of the last five financial years was:
| £ million | |
The resource costs of providing passports to British nationals is recovered by the fees charged in accordance with HM Treasury guidance. Passport fee levels are reviewed annually with HM Treasury to ensure they remain at appropriate cost recovery levels.
Piracy
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people originally detained by the Royal Navy, other agencies or foreign navies who are known or suspected of being involved in piracy and other crimes in the Indian Ocean off the coast of east Africa have (a) applied for, (b) been granted asylum in the UK and (c) been allowed into the UK for an asylum claim to be considered in each of the last five years. [244115]
Mr. Woolas: Information on the number of people who have (a) applied for entry to the United Kingdom (b) been granted entry to the United Kingdom and (c) applied for asylum at a port of entry who had at some point previously been detained by the Royal Navy, other agencies or foreign navies, who are known or suspected of being involved in piracy and other crimes in the Indian Ocean off the coast of east Africa, is not collated.
Police: Bureaucracy
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been carried out of the effect on the amount of police paperwork of moving responsibility for charging decisions from police forces to the Crown Prosecution Service under the statutory charging initiative. [241859]
Jacqui Smith: Although no specific assessment has been carried out on its impact on police paperwork, a full independent evaluation of the pilot exercise identified a number of significant benefits of statutory charging for the criminal justice system at large, including the police service.
One of the main benefits of the scheme is the early dialogue between a police officer and a duty prosecutor. This consultation enables those cases that are evidentially weak, which can not be strengthened to meet the Code for Crown prosecutors, to be stopped there and then. Under previous arrangements these cases would have entered the court system. A costly and often ineffective exchange of correspondence between the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and police would follow in an attempt to obtain evidence to support the individual case. A high percentage of these cases were then discontinued later in the process, often after several court appearances and after the police had expended additional and unnecessary effort in trying to obtain evidence.
A further benefit has been the improved relationships between police and CPS from close partnership working that has enabled them to better manage other linked initiatives including the Criminal Justice Simple, Speedy Summary (CJSSS) and the Streamlined Process that have improved case management and reduced delay in the courts.
There are several other benefits to the police. Dialogue with a Duty Prosecutor enables borderline and more complex cases to be strengthened, and police officers can be directed at that point to supply only what is really required in terms of the evidence needed to support the case. The original business case for statutory charging also points to further benefits for the police through the potential to enhance the police skills base in dealing with evidential issues as a result of early dialogue with the CPS. The business case predicted that around 238,000 cases per annum would be charged by the CPS and a further 20,000 would be stopped at the point of charge. The benefits to the police in the original business case for statutory charging were estimated to be £6.5 million based on this prediction of caseload.
In practice the benefits to the police are far greater than this. With 550,000 cases now being considered by the CPS each year, the number of cases that are stopped at the point of charge which fail to meet the code test was 160,000 during 2007-08 which provides substantially more benefit to the police than was originally estimated in the business case.
The Government take all aspects of police bureaucracy very seriously and we continue to keep the implications of the charging process, in respect of the amount of paperwork involved, under close review.
I have now appointed Jan Berry as our national independent advocate for achieving reductions in police bureaucracy. I have asked her to identify and examine a number of key policing processes and to make recommendations on how these could be reformed to reduce the amount of paperwork generated for officers. The impact of statutory charging on police paperwork is within the scope of Jan Berry's work.
Police: Complaints
Mr. Amess:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will bring forward proposals to require the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to inform her Department of the
number of complaints to the IPCC which have been (a) made and (b) upheld; if she will publish such information on receipt; and if she will make a statement. [244877]
Mr. Coaker: The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is required by law to collate and publish a report presenting statistics on complaints recorded by police forces in England and Wales. Along with other statistical data, the reports contain information on complaints made and upheld. The reports are prepared by the IPCC and laid before Parliament on an annual basis. Reports from 2004-05 can be found on the IPCC website at the following link:
The Home Office has no plans to issue a statement.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 17 November 2008, Official Report, columns 155-56W, on police complaints, if she will obtain this information from the Independent Police Complaints Commission and place it in the Library; and if she will make a statement. [244878]
Mr. Coaker: Issues relating to the implementation of recommendations is a matter for the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Police: Essex
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) operational police officers per head of population there were in Essex Police on average in 2008 to date; what discussions she has had with the Chief Constable of Essex police force about this issue; and if she will make a statement. [244870]
Mr. Coaker: The available data are given in the following table.
The deployment of police officers to operational and other duties is a matter for the Chief Constable.
| Police officer strength for Essex police force, as at 31 March 2008 (FTE)( 1,2) | ||
| Police force | Total officers per 100,000 population | Total operational officers per 100,000 population |
| (1) Full-time equivalent. This figure includes those on career breaks or the nearest whole number. (2) Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items. (3) Functional group totals do not match published figures. Data quality may be an issue with this force. | ||
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers employed by Essex Police will be made (a) voluntarily and (b) compulsorily redundant in 2008-09; at what cost; and if she will make a statement. [244871]
Mr. Coaker: Police officers cannot be made redundant as they hold the Office of Constable and are not employees of the police authority.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) civilian staff of each age group and sex were employed by Essex Police and its predecessor bodies in (i) 1979, (ii) 1989, (iii) 1999 and (iv) each year since 2001. [244873]
Mr. Coaker: The available data are given in the following tables.
| Table 1: Police officer strength (FTE)( 1) for Essex police force as at 31 March | ||
| As at 31 March each year | Female officers | Male officers |
| (1) Full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of constituent items. | ||
| Table 2: Police staff strength (headcount) for Essex police force as at 31 March( 1) | ||
| As at 31 March each year | Female staff | Male staff |
| (1) Data available from 1998 onwards. | ||
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