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23 Feb 2009 : Column 174W—continued
Police: Stun Guns
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the cost of training provided to police officers for using the new taser stun guns in the (a) last and (b) next 12 months. [257656]
Mr. Coaker: Taser training, as with all other areas of police training, will need to be met from within force budgets. As such, the Home Office has not made an estimate of the cost of training officers to use taser.
Police: Vacancies
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officer vacancies at all ranks there were in (a) the Metropolitan Police Force and (b) all other forces in 2007-08. [256695]
Mr. Coaker: This information is not collected centrally.
Police: Wales
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many civilian staff of (a) North Wales Police, (b) Gwent Police, (c) South Wales Police and (d) Dyfed-Powys Police have unspent criminal convictions; [255884]
(2) how many serving policy community support officers with (a) North Wales Police, (b) Gwent Police, (c) South Wales Police and (d) Dyfed-Powys Police have unspent criminal convictions; [255885]
(3) how many serving officers of (a) North Wales Police, (b) Gwent Police, (c) South Wales Police and (d) Dyfed-Powys Police have unspent criminal convictions. [255887]
Mr. Coaker: This information is not held centrally.
Ports
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how often yellow boxes at small ports are cleared; and how often their contents are analysed. [255383]
Jacqui Smith: Yellow boxes (or yacht boxes) used for depositing C1331 forms are emptied by UK Border Force staff working in flexible teams. They are emptied as and when staff are deployed to those locations where boxes are present.
When the forms have been collected from the yellow boxes, they are sent to a central point for processing and analysing.
The National Yachtline advises yachtsmen to send the C1331s to a single point in Dover where the data are checked and recorded. The information is then forwarded to direct taxes to follow up as appropriate.
HMRC are in the process of updating public Notice 8 Sailing Your Pleasure craft to and from the UK to reflect this current practice.
Powers of Entry: Parliamentary Estate
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Lord West's review of powers of entry will have powers of entry into the precincts of Parliament within its scope. [250573]
Mr. Coaker: The Review of Powers of Entry focuses on collating existing statutory powers available to investigating agencies and scoping the potential for a future statutory framework for the exercise of entry powers by non-police agencies. The review will consider all types of premises to which powers of entry apply.
Proceeds of Crime
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent on managing and liquidating assets recovered by the Serious Organised Crime Agency under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in the first nine months of 2008-09. [255273]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Figures relating to costs incurred for the financial year 2008-09 are subject to internal validation within the Serious Organised Crime Agency and will be available after the end of the financial year.
Mr. Paterson:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department takes to
monitor the amount of criminal assets recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 by (a) law enforcement agencies and (b) prosecuting authorities; and how often each such agency is required to report on the recovery of criminal assets. [255274]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office monitors the overall performance of all agencies involved in the recovery of criminal assets on a monthly basis. There is no requirement on law enforcement agencies to report to the Home Office on their performance in this area. The Department has no authority to monitor the performance of the prosecution agencies.
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 was retained by her Department in the (a) 2006-07, (b) 2007-08 and (c) first nine months of the 2008-09 financial year; to which projects such money was allocated in each year; how much money was allocated to each such project; and how much of the money allocated had not been spent at the latest date for which figures are available. [255676]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The information available is as follows:
| £ million | |
| (1) First six months. | |
These sums contributed to core Home Office expenditure priorities, including policing and other asset recovery measures. Similar sums were allocated in those periods to the police and other agencies involved in the recovery of criminal assets, under the Asset Recovery Incentive Scheme. Police forces have invested most of their monies from the incentive scheme in further developing their asset recovery and financial investigation capacity, with the funding of financial investigator posts, anti-money laundering teams, and asset recovery operations. In addition some funds were used on local projects to tackle gun and knife crime. The Metropolitan Police Service also made a grant to the Safer London Foundation. Other forces supported a range of community initiatives, including youth projects, road shows, prevention of doorstep crime, over 60s club, and equipment for a faith based community centre. Other agencies have also reinvested their shares in asset recovery activity.
As at 31 August 2007, £18 million of the total sums allocated to local agencies for performance in 2006-07 had not been spent. As at 31 August 2008, £22 million of the sums allocated for performance in 2007-08 had not been spent. This is mainly due to the fact that allocations for performance in the fourth quarter of a financial year are not made to agencies until the first quarter of the following financial year. No data are available on unspent monies in 2008-09.
Mr. Paterson:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money was recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 by each law enforcement agency in the first nine months of the 2008-09 financial year; how much of the money
recovered was repaid to each such agency; and what steps she takes to monitor the purposes for which such money is allocated by law enforcement agencies. [255684]
Mr. Alan Campbell:
The information available relates to the first six months of the 2008-09 financial year and
is set out in the following table. 50 per cent. of all recovered sums are returned to front-line agencies under the Asset Recovery Incentive Scheme. All agencies are required to submit to the Home Office a certified annual return on the use made of their allocations under the scheme.
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