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3 Feb 2009 : Column 1040W—continued
Antisocial Behaviour Orders: Hampshire
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many anti-social behaviour orders were (a) issued and (b) breached in (i) Southampton, (ii) Test Valley borough and (iii) the ceremonial county of Hampshire in each of the last three years. [251098]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Centrally collected data on the number of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) issued and breached are currently available up to 31 December 2006 and are not compiled below CJS area level.
The number of ASBOs issued at all courts in the Hampshire Criminal Justice System (CJS) area in 2004 was 100 and the number proven in court to have been breached for the first time during 2004 was 46. Equivalent data for 2005 and 2006 are: 112 issued, 56 breached and 66 issued, 67 breached respectively.
ASBOs became available from April 1999. Many ASBOs which are breached in a particular year will have been issued in a previous year.
Antisocial Behaviour: Crime Prevention
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the anti-social behaviour units within police authorities. [251346]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Each local area is responsible for setting up and managing its own multi-agency team to tackle antisocial behaviour (ASB). In doing so, it establishes its own priorities according to local needs. In some areas the lead agency is the police while in others it is the local authority. But all local agencies need to work together if anti-social-behaviour is to be tackled effectively and the police service has a key role to play.
The Government have provided practitioners with a toolkit of enforcement and support tools to tackle antisocial behaviour which they operate according to local priorities. And we know that they are using them. The latest Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) survey of tools and powers shows that between October 2003 and September 2007, CDRPs have:
Issued more than 30,000 Acceptable Behaviour Contracts,
Issued over 1,100 crack house closures,
Issued more than 2,000 parenting orders and 8,600 contracts
Made 12,675 antisocial behaviour orders (between October 2003 and December 2006; court data)
Three independent reports including the Home Affairs Select Committee report (2005), the Audit Commission report (May 2006) and the NAO report (December 2006) confirmed that our approach to tackling antisocial behaviour is working.
Perceptions of levels of antisocial behaviour have fallen—16per cent. of people felt that levels of antisocial behaviour were high in 2006-07 compared to 21 per cent. in 2002-03.
Asylum
Dr. Starkey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) Iraqi and (b) Syrian refugees were included in the resettlement quota agreed with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for (i) 2008 and (ii) 2009; and how many candidates had been identified at the latest date for which figures are available. [252450]
Meg Hillier: Under the UK's agreement with UNHCR for the Gateway Protection programme, 500 Iraqi refugees will be resettled during the financial year 2008-09 and 500 during financial year 2009-10.
500 Iraqi refugees have been identified for resettlement under Gateway during 2008-09. No Iraqi refugees have been yet been identified for resettlement under Gateway during 2009-10.
The UK has no plans to resettle Syrian nationals under the resettlement quotas in either of the financial years 2008-09 or 2009-10.
Borders: Personal Records
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of travellers through UK ports and airports she estimates will be covered by the e-Borders scheme by August 2012. [251685]
Mr. Woolas: e-Borders will capture 95 per cent. of passenger and crew movements in and out of the UK by December 2010, with further development of that capability throughout 2011-12 until full operating capability is reached in 2014.
Burglary: Merseyside
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of property crime was attributable to the misuse of class A drugs in Merseyside in each year since 1997. [251345]
Mr. Alan Campbell: No annual estimates are made of the levels of property crime attributable to the misuse of class A drugs in Merseyside.
Research evidence does indicate that a large proportion of acquisitive crime is related to drug use. Published research shows that arrestees who regularly use heroin or crack cocaine are far more likely to have committed acquisitive crimes in the last 12 months than those who do not.
Source:
Table 5.4 Home Office Statistical Bulletin 12/07.
The estimated number of problem drug users (heroin and/or crack cocaine) for areas in Merseyside is in the range of:
| Number | |
The following tables provide the figures for the number of property crimes recorded by Merseyside police from 1997 to 2007-08.
| Table 1: Property offences recorded by Merseyside police 1997 | |
| Number | |
| Table 2: Property offences recorded by Merseyside police 1998-99 to 2001-02 | |
| Number | |
| Table 3: Property offences recorded by Merseyside police 2002-03 to 2007-08 | |
| Number | |
| Notes: 1. ‘Property crime’ comprises the following main offence groups: burglary; offences against vehicles; other theft offences; fraud and forgery; criminal damage. 2. Figures in table 2 are not directly comparable with that in table 1 as the offence coverage was extended and counting rules revised from 1998-99. 3. The data in table 3 takes account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years. Sources: Estimates of the prevalence of heroin and/ or crack cocaine use—North West region: http://www.nta.nhs.uk/areas/facts_and_figures/prevalence_data/docs/0607/North_West_Prevalence_data_0607doc.pdf The Arrestee Survey 2003-06: http://www. homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs07/hosb1207.pdf | |
Civil Servants: Secondment
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which external organisations her Department has engaged to provide training for fast stream civil service staff in the last three years; and how many civil servants in her Department have participated in provision of training for external organisations in that period. [252233]
Mr. Woolas: The majority of training that fast stream civil service staff received is provided by the National School of Government. Detailed information on this, and the extent to which we have participated in provision of training for external organisations, is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Crime Prevention
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken to seek to achieve reductions in levels of (a) burglary, (b) vehicle crime and (c) violent crime since 2004. [251343]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government’s Crime Strategy “Cutting Crime: A New Partnership 2008-11” published in 2007 outlines a refreshed approach to tackling crime which ensures that crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs)/community safety partnerships (CSPs), including the police, identify and tackle issues of local concern. This approach was further strengthened by the CDRP/CSP reform programme which requires these local partnerships to identify crime types and give sufficient weight to tackling them.
The Government have exceeded their PSA target 1 “To reduce crime by 15 per cent. and further in high crime areas by 2007-08” as measured by the British crime survey with a reduction of 18 per cent. from the 2002-03 baseline year.
With regards to the specific categories of crime:
We have taken forward work on priority concerns including work with prolific and other priority offenders; developing partnerships between the police and local authorities to improve the security of homes and businesses;
and raising awareness of security measures through campaigns such as the “Let’s Keep Crime Down”. The Home Secretary is also planning to chair a summit meeting of national organisations on 4 February 2009 to take forward new measures and support people in hard times.
Along with domestic burglary, vehicle crime has been included within the definition of serious acquisitive crime, as part of our new set of PSAs and is included under national indicator 16 in the national indicator set for local area agreements and in PSA23 strand 2. ACPO’s Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service has worked with police and other practitioners to address vehicle crime. Recorded crime statistics for offences against vehicles have fallen 39 per cent. since 2002-03 (which is the baseline year) compared with 2007-08.
The Government’s approach to tackling violent crime is outlined in the publication “An Action Plan for Tackling Violence” which details the Home Office’s priorities with respect to serious violence including work on guns, gangs, knives, domestic and sexual violence. We have also taken forward the Tackling Violent Crime Programme, the Tackling Gangs Action Programme and the Tackling Knives Action Programme. New measures to tackle violent crime have also been enacted in the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act and the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006.
Departmental Data Protection
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many electronic and computer files her Department and its agencies lost in transit in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement. [243125]
Mr. Woolas: Incidents of personal data losses are recorded centrally but the numbers of electronic and computer files contained within lost data is not recorded. To answer this question would fall into the disproportionate cost threshold.
The Home Office has publicised details of personal data related incidents notified to the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2007-08 in its Resource Accounts published in August 2008. In the first half of 2008-09 a notification was made to the Information Commissioner regarding the PA Consulting data loss incident.
Departmental ICT
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which ICT projects her Department initiated and abandoned before completion in each year since 1997; what costs were incurred in each project; who the contractors for each were; on what date each was (a) commenced and (b) abandoned; and if she will make a statement. [251395]
Mr. Woolas: No ICT projects initiated in this Department have been abandoned by this Department before completion since 1997.
Departmental Working Hours
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the policy of her Department and its agencies is on granting staff time off in lieu for working (a) in lunch breaks, (b) in evenings and (c) at other times outside contracted working hours; and if she will make a statement. [252023]
Mr. Woolas: Flexible working hours (FWH) or flexitime schemes operate widely in the Home Office where the nature of the work allows for it. The schemes give members of staff flexibility over the pattern of their working day. Most Home Office staff take advantage of these schemes which enable them to vary their lunch break.
The requirements of the Working Time Regulations in relation to excess hours worked should ensure that staff take at least the minimum lunch break each day and do not regularly work long hours.
Where members of staff who do not use flexible working schemes work outside of their normal contractual hours they may also take any excess hours worked as time off in lieu, or, where it is applicable and appropriate, and dependent on their grade, authorised overtime may be payable or a discretionary payment made.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many days off in lieu were granted to staff in (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its non-departmental public bodies for working (i) in lunch breaks and (ii) at other times outside contracted hours, in the last year for which figures are available. [252024]
Mr. Woolas: Responsibility for granting days off in lieu is delegated to local line management and information on the total number of days in lieu taken by staff in the Home Office and its agencies and NDPBs is therefore not held centrally. For this reason this information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Driving Under Influence
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many breath tests were taken in each year since 1997; and how many accidents were caused by drunk drivers in each police authority in each of those years. [251340]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The information requested on breath tests conducted, broken down by police force area for the years 1997 to 2006 (latest available) are provided in the following table.
Data for 2007 are due to be published in spring 2009.
The Department for Transport publishes estimates on the number of drink-drive accidents where one or more of the motor vehicle drivers or riders involved were over the legal limit. These estimates are calculated on a national basis. Police force area estimates are not available.
The estimates are published as an article 3, entitled “Drinking and driving” in “Road Casualties Great Britain - Annual report 2007”. Copies of the report have been deposited in the Library of the House and is also available at the following web address:
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