| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
19 Jan 2009 : Column 1224W—continued
| Table 2: Proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds reporting use of cocaine and ecstasy, 2001-07: Survey of smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England | |||||||
| Percentage | |||||||
| 200 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Source: Survey of Smoking, Drinking and Drug use among young people in England, 2001 to 2007 | |||||||
Entry Clearances: Macedonia
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many visa applications the UK has (a) received and (b) granted from Macedonian nationals in each of the last five years. [247731]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 15 January 2009]: The information requested is set out in the following table.
| Nationality: Macedonia | ||
| Applications | Issued | |
| Note: Data is unpublished and should be treated as provisional. | ||
Extradition: Human Rights
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how often the Government review its bilateral extradition treaties to take into account changing human rights situations in the countries with which the treaties have been agreed. [248616]
Meg Hillier: The Extradition Act 2003 contains robust human rights safeguards. If the district judge in the UK decides that to order a person's extradition would result in a flagrant breach of the person's convention rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998, the judge must order the person's discharge from extradition proceedings.
Fixed Penalties
Mr. Timpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for which criminal offences (a) a fixed penalty notice and (b) a penalty notice for disorder can be given; and in respect of which offences such notices were not available before 1997. [248100]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 15 January 2009]: Road traffic offences committed in England, Wales and Scotland for which a fixed penalty may be offered are listed in Schedule 3 to the Road Traffic Offenders Act 2008. Other fixed penalty offences are created under several different Acts of Parliament and in respect of a diverse range of offences which are not the responsibility of the Home Office.
Offences for which a penalty notice for disorder (pnd) is available in England and Wales are listed in the Table in Section 1 (1) of the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001, as amended. PNDs were not available before 1997.
The following road traffic offences have been added to the fixed penalty system since 1997:
Overtaking a moving or stationary vehicle on a zebra, pelican or puffin crossing contrary to regulation 24 of the Zebra, Pelican and Puffin Pedestrian Crossings Regulations and General Directions 1997 (three offences)
Failure to fix a registration mark to a vehicle in accordance with the requirements of regulation 17 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations 1971
Driving on the footway contrary to section 72 of the Highways Act 1835 or section 129 (5) of the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984
Carrying more than one person on a pedal cycle contrary to section 24 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 (RTA)(1)
Cycling on the pavement contrary to section 72 of the Highways Act 1835(1)
Using a hand held phone while driving contrary to regulation 110 of the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No4) Regulations 2003
Failing to supply details necessary to identify an offending driver contrary to section 172, RTA
Having no MOT certificate contrary to section 47,RTA
Having no insurance contrary to section 43 ,RTA
Overtaking a stationary or moving vehicle in the controlled area of a toucan crossing, contrary to regulations 27 and 28 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions 2002
Failure to comply with the Motor Cycles (Eye Protectors) Regulations 1999
(1) These two offences were not added to the fixed penalty system in Scotland.
Genetics: Databases
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the prison population in England and Wales has a profile on the national DNA database. [241664]
Jacqui Smith: The purpose of the national DNA database (NDNAD) is to match DNA profiles taken from individuals with those taken from crime scenes. It therefore holds only the information necessary for this function, and does not contain criminal records or information on whether those on it are in prison.
There are good reasons for believing that the great majority of the prison population has a profile on the NDNAD. Police forces have had the power to retain DNA taken from those convicted of recordable offences since the establishment of the DNA database in 1995. For the first few years this power was exercised in relation to more serious offenders, but from 2000 onwards additional funding was made available under the DNA expansion programme to make it standard practice to take samples from all offenders. In April 2004, an
amendment to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 2003 came into effect which extended powers to take DNA samples to all those arrested for recordable offences. Following this, taking a DNA sample in the custody suite has become routine procedure. In addition, two prisoner sampling projects have been undertaken, most recently in 2003, to take DNA from any prisoner who had not already been sampled, for example because they had been imprisoned before DNA sampling was widely practiced.
Nevertheless, we are determined to ensure that the most serious offenders are on the NDNAD. On 16 December 2008 I announced that we will work with the police to continue to increase the number of convicted offenders on the NDNAD. This will focus on those convicted of serious offences and will include taking DNA from offenders in prison for rape and murder not already on the NDNAD.
Human Trafficking
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Government have spent on raising awareness of human trafficking in each of the last five years. [243317]
Jacqui Smith: Raising awareness of human trafficking is central to our approach to combating human trafficking. This is an issue that is being led by the UK Human Trafficking Centre through the development of its Blue Blindfold campaign and its work to increase awareness among law enforcement agencies. Any costs associated with this work has been met from within the overall budget of the UKHTC. Additionally, much work has been undertaken to raise awareness within the relevant law enforcement and other agencies which are likely to come into contact with victims of human trafficking. The costs associated with this work have been met from within existing budgets.
In addition to these costs we have spent £136,000 on raising awareness through a project run in conjunction with the International Organisation for Migration in Romania and Bulgaria and on the “Walk in a Punter” poster campaign in Nottingham and London in 2008.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many non-British citizens convicted of human trafficking offences have been deported from Britain in each of the last five years. [243318]
Jacqui Smith: Records of deportation of those who have been convicted of crime are held on a generic offences database. It is not possible to disaggregate those convicted of human trafficking from a range of other offences.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department has provided for funding human trafficking investigations in each of the last five years. [243329]
Jacqui Smith:
Since 2006 we have invested a total of £4.646 million in the law enforcement response to human trafficking. This includes the doubling of the budget for the UK Human Trafficking Centre from £843,000 to
£1.7 million for this year, £1.7 million to the Metropolitan police for Operation Maxim, including their human trafficking team in 2007-08, the fund of £1.678 million this year which is administered by ACPO—the Association of Chief Police Officers—and the £435,000 for the Metropolitan Police Service to assist them in the their effort to mainstream the work of the trafficking into their existing budget.
The Serous Organised Crime Agency receive a total of £400 million in order to combat organised crime including that focused on immigration related matters such as human trafficking. This work is being taken forward through the co-ordination of two inter-agency programmes of activity to reduce such crime at source and key points overseas and to reduce the exploitation of migrants within the UK. Additionally, we provided a total of £60 million under Reflex for time limited projects to tackle organised immigration crime under the 2002 spending review period.
Human trafficking is core police business and as such forces are expected to meet operational costs of undertaking this work from within existing budgets. Historically, we provided a central funding stream to encourage forces to increase their efforts on organised immigration crime, including human trafficking.
It is not possible to disaggregate this funding to give an accurate figure for the amount dedicated to human trafficking work for the period 2004 to 2006.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions she has had on policy to combat human trafficking. [247693]
Mr. Alan Campbell: We have a regular dialogue with a range of interested groups from all sectors and with our partner organisations both nationally and internationally and on 17 December we ratified the Council of Europe convention on action against trafficking in human beings.
Our victim-centred policy on human trafficking is set out in the UK Action Plan and progress on the action points contained within it continues to be overseen by the Inter-Departmental Ministerial Group.
Human Trafficking: Sentencing
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will provide a breakdown of the sentences issued to those convicted of human trafficking offences in each of the last five years by category and length of sentence. [243299]
Jacqui Smith: Of the 92 convictions for human trafficking recorded by the UK Human Trafficking Centre all of which are under sections 57-59 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 the sentences passed by year are as follows:
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
In addition in 2008 there have been four convictions for trafficking for the purpose of forced labour for which we are awaiting confirmation of the sentences received.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average sentence was for those convicted of human trafficking offences as a result of (a) Operation Pentameter 1 and (b) Operation Pentameter 2. [243301]
Jacqui Smith: It is not possible to disaggregate the sentences arising from the named operations from those sentences passed on those convicted of human trafficking as part of other operations.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |