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26 Jan 2009 : Column 86W—continued
“States Parties shall ensure that all measures that relate to the exercise of legal capacity provide for appropriate and effective safeguards to prevent abuse in accordance with international human rights law. Such safeguards shall ensure that measures relating to the exercise of legal capacity respect the rights, will and preferences of the person, are free of conflict of interest and undue influence, are proportional and tailored to the person's circumstances, apply for the shortest time possible and are subject to regular review by a competent, independent and impartial authority or judicial body. The safeguards shall be proportional to the degree to which such measures affect the person's rights and interests”.
The arrangements for appointees are not at present subject to the safeguard of regular review, so we are now actively working towards a proportionate system of review. We are currently considering the terms of the specific text which will be necessary to make our position clear on this article when the UK ratifies the convention.
Winter Fuel Payments
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) which constituencies are covered by each weather station used for the calculation of cold weather payments; [245140]
(2) how many (a) payments and (b) recipients there were of cold weather payments in each constituency in each of the last five years. [245141]
Kitty Ussher: The information requested is not available.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what information pensioners are required to provide to his Department to receive winter fuel payments. [248738]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The vast majority, over 95 per cent., of winter fuel payments are made automatically, based on information already held in DWP records. In these cases there is no need for an individual to provide further information or to make a claim.
However there are a small group of people who may qualify for winter fuel payments but cannot be identified by DWP records. This is usually because they are not in receipt of a state pension or other benefit administered by the DWP. These people need to complete a claim form so that their eligibility can be assessed.
Information required by the winter fuel payment claim form includes: name, address, date of birth, national insurance number and bank/building society details so that we may make a payment direct into a person's
bank account. People are also asked to declare, for example, whether there is anyone else aged 60 or over in their household and whether they are in hospital or a care home. The claim form is available from the Pension Service website.
Winter Fuel Payments: Sight Impaired
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to the answer of 17 September 2008, Official Report, column 2226W, on sight impaired: disability living allowance, how much it would cost to extend the winter fuel payment to the same group of people with severe sight impairment. [246863]
Jonathan Shaw: Winter fuel payments are made to people aged 60 or over. The cost of such a change would depend on the precise definition used. On the same basis as used in the previous question, the estimated annual cost of extending winter fuel payments to all people under 60 with severe sight impairment is £4 million.
This estimate is based on a £200 winter fuel payment.
Working Conditions: Temperature
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many accidents at work have occurred involving individuals who have been exposed to high temperatures at work in each of the last five years. [249054]
Jonathan Shaw [holding answer 19 January 2009]: The information requested is as follows:
| Injury severity | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08( 1) | Total |
| (1) Provisional Source: Reports submitted under the Reporting of the Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR). | ||||||
Home Department
Alcoholic Drinks: Antisocial Behaviour
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many penalty notices were issued to persons who were drunk and disorderly in Essex in each of the last five years. [249647]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Data on the number of Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) issued to persons aged 16 and over for being drunk and disorderly, in the Essex police force area from 2004 to 2007 are given in the following table. Data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.
| N umber of Penalty Notices for Disorder issued to persons aged 16 and over for offences of being drunk and disorderly( 1) in the Essex police force area, 2004 to 2007( 2) | |
| Number | |
| (1) Data include the following offence descriptions and corresponding statutes: Being found drunk in a highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on licensed premises—Licensing Act 1872, section 12; Being guilty while drunk of disorderly behaviour—Criminal Justice Act 1967, section 91. (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 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. Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Evidence and Analysis Unit | |
Alcoholic Drinks: Young People
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what materials are used by her Department and its agencies to ensure young people are aware of the implications of alcohol abuse for their (a) home life, (b) health and (c) education. [247667]
Beverley Hughes: I have been asked to reply.
The 10-year Drug Strategy “Protecting families and communities”, published in February 2008, set out a series of steps to address the problems associated with young people’s misuse of drugs, alcohol and volatile substances.
The strategy committed Government to conduct a review of drug and alcohol education. This has taken place and Ministers announced their intention to make PSHE statutory in October 2008, in recognition of the key role it plays in equipping children and young people with the knowledge and skills they need to lead healthy and successful lives. At the same time, Ministers launched an independent review of how this might be achieved in the most effective and practicable way. Sir Alasdair Macdonald, head teacher of Morpeth school in Tower Hamlets, is conducting the review and will report to Ministers in April 2009. Proposals for the statutory implementation of PSHE will be the subject of a full public consultation.
Frank, the joint DCSF, Department of Health and Home Office drugs advice and information campaign for young people, continues to play a key role in helping to prevent drug use among young people (11-18) by changing their attitudes and perceptions towards drugs and drug users. A new Frank Cocaine campaign was launched in December 2008. Awareness of Frank remains very high: in the latest tracking study (report July 2008) 83 per cent. of young people were aware of the campaign. This figure is unchanged from 2007.
The Drug Strategy also committed to publish guidance to help the commissioning and delivery of treatment services with a greater focus on the needs of parents and families, and to that effect the National Treatment Agency (NTA) published carers’ guidance in October 2008. The NTA will also shortly be publishing commissioning guidance for local drug and alcohol commissioners and partnerships which will have a greater focus on the needs of families.
To meet our commitment to provide intensive support to substance misusing parents through a range of recently established family interventions, targeting families at risk, the substance misuse agenda has been included in remit letter for local parenting support advisers and in the broad remit for Parenting and Early Intervention projects. Furthermore, Family Intervention Pilots have been extended to 500 further families affected by substance misuse. The NTA is working with DCSF in the development of the Child Poverty Family Intervention Projects in 10 pilot areas during 2008-09. This will be rolled out to further areas in the next two years.
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people aged (a) under 16 and (b) between 16 and 19 years old received penalty notices for disorder for being drunk and disorderly in 2007. [248655]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Data on the number of Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) issued to persons aged between 16 and 19 for being drunk and disorderly in 2007 are given in the following table. Data on the number of PNDs issued are published for persons aged 16 and over only.
| N umber of Penalty Notices for Disorder (PNDs) issued to persons aged 16 to 19 years for offences of being drunk and disorderly( 1) , England and Wales, 2007( 2) | |
| Age | Number |
| (1) Data include the following offence descriptions and corresponding statutes: Being found drunk in a highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on licensed premises—Licensing Act 1872, section 12; Being guilty while drunk of disorderly behaviour—Criminal Justice Act 1967, section 91. (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 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. Source: Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Evidence and Analysis Unit | |
Crime: Motor Vehicles
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps the Government has taken to reduce levels of car theft in (a) England and Wales, (b) the North East, (c) Tees Valley district and (d) Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland constituency. [249579]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Reducing car theft remains a Government priority and we are seeking to maintain the reductions that were achieved in exceeding PSA1. We expect Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs ) to prioritise this crime where it is identified as a local problem as part of their work to reduce Serious Acquisitive Crime (SAC). It has been included within the definition of Serious Acquisitive Crime as part of our new set of PSAs and is included under the SAC indicator (NI 16) in the National Indicator Set for Local Area Agreements. NI 16 has been chosen as a priority indicator in the Middlesbrough Local Area Agreement. While Redcar and Cleveland have decided not to include NI16 in their Local Area Agreement indicators, the CDRP has an action plan in place and activity is under way to tackle and reduce vehicle crime.
Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) in the North East region undertake a range of activities based upon local priorities identified through strategic assessments that have contributed to this success. This work includes:
offering targeted crime prevention advice in ‘hot spot areas’ to help prevent victimisation and repeat victimisation
working to secure car park areas
targeting prolific offenders in ‘hot spot’ areas
making regular use of automatic number plate recognition operations
undertaking operations with a ‘sting’ vehicle equipped with CCTV camera at peak times in ‘hot spot’ areas.
Crimes of Violence
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) burglaries, (b) violent crimes and (c) thefts were reported in the Metropolitan Police Force area in each of the last 10 years; and what the detection rate in each such year was. [248063]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The available information relates to offences recorded by the police and is given in the following tables.
A number of changes have been made to recorded crime in response to suggestions in the two reviews of
crime statistics. One such change is that the term ‘violent crime’ is no longer used in connection with the recorded crime statistics and we now provide figures for violence against the person.
It should be noted that non-sanction detections that contribute to the percentage change in detection rates have fallen in recent years reflecting a significant shift by many police forces away from recording detections of crime where no further action is taken. For this reason overall detections over time are not fully comparable. From 1 April 2007 the rules governing recording of non-sanction detections were revised to reduce the scope within which they can be claimed to a very limited set of circumstances.
| Table 1: Number of offences recorded and detection rates for selected offences in the Metropolitan Police area—1998-99 to 2001-02( 1) | ||||||
| Burglary | Violence against the person | Theft offences( 2) | ||||
| Financial year | Number of offences | Detection rate (percentage) | Number of offences | Detection rate (percentage) | Number of offences | Detection rate (percentage) |
| (1) The data in this table are prior to the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard. These figures are not directly comparable with those for later years. (2) Includes offences against vehicles and other thefts. | ||||||
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