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24 Feb 2009 : Column 681W—continued


24 Feb 2009 : Column 682W

Dogs: Crime

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 in combating crime involving dogs; and if she will make a statement. [256875]

Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 23 February 2009]: There has been no recent assessment of this Act by the Home Department. This Government are determined to curb the use of dogs by criminals and, in particular, gangs. Our proposed amendments to the Police and Crime Bill 2009 will build on existing legislation, to further target the use of dogs by gangs. The amendment
24 Feb 2009 : Column 683W
will give the courts power to stop an individual taking charge of a dog in a public place if it is being used to support gang related activity.

Domestic Violence

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment her Department has made of the merits of bringing forward proposals to reduce levels of financial abuse in domestic settings; if she will review the Domestic Violence National Action Plan in respect of such proposals; and if she will make a statement. [252446]

Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government do recognise the financial and economic impact that happens within domestic violence relationships. We are working with stakeholders and the British Banker's Association to ensure that both domestic violence victims and their advisers are more fully informed of their options. We will be considering this issue when developing our Delivery Plan in the future and recently produced a leaflet including some advice on this issue. From the information received on domestic violence cases we are not able to identify the financial abuse aspect.

Driving Under Influence

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences of causing death by careless driving when under the influence of (a) drugs and (b) alcohol have been recorded by police since 2004. [257090]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested is not currently available. For the period up until 2007-08, the Home Office collected data on recorded offences of ‘Causing death by dangerous or careless driving (including while under the influence of drink or drugs)’. However, it has not been possible to determine from the information held centrally which, if any, of these offences were committed while the offender was under the influence.

However, with effect from April 2008, offences of ‘Causing death by careless driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol’ have been collected separately and figures for 2008-09 will be available in July 2009.

Drugs: Misuse

Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what qualifications the initial assessors referred to in Part 3 of the Drugs Act 2005 are required to have for the role of establishing drug misuse; whether all police stations have at least one qualified initial assessor; and what estimate she has made of the cost of maintaining and training an initial assessor in the last 12 months for which information is available. [256541]

Mr. Alan Campbell: The current specification of the qualifications for initial assessors who deliver interventions under the drug interventions programme is given in the Home Office operational guidance for implementation of testing on arrest, required assessment and restriction on bail. That guidance defines initial assessors as

In the majority of cases, CJIT workers will carry out initial assessments within custody suites. CJIT workers are employed by drug action teams and substance misuse action teams who are responsible for delivering drug interventions programme services in their areas.

There is no national estimate of the training and maintaining costs of local initial assessors.

Emergency Calls

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many full-time equivalent operators for 999 calls there were in each year since 1997; and how many such calls there were in each of those years. [254593]

Jacqui Smith: Data provided from the Home Office's collection relate to the volume of 999 calls since 2005-06, and are given in the following table. Previous data were published as part of HMIC's Annual Report and can be found at:

Data for the number of operators dealing specifically with 999 calls are not collected centrally.


24 Feb 2009 : Column 685W
Emergency calls received 2005-06 to 2007-08( 1)

2005-06 2006-07 2007-08

Avon and Somerset

266,480

344,717

290,600

Bedfordshire

89,623

97,357

99,700

Cambridgeshire

125,637

142,520

142,806

Cheshire

153,818

153,233

146,632

Cleveland

99,179

104,779

104,190

Cumbria

55,002

59,629

58,766

Derbyshire

138,626

159,363

155,505

Devon and Cornwall

252,408

268,763

261,396

Dorset

93,634

85,140

94,421

Durham

85,431

99,623

94,883

Dyfed-Powys

57,975

52,026

46,709

Essex

237,440

265,394

258,882

Gloucestershire

76,279

467,709

78,263

Greater Manchester

747,224

751,545

650,254

Gwent

97,320

109,401

104,386

Hampshire

275,073

290,987

284,982

Hertfordshire

169,080

168,388

166,416

Humberside

154,598

156,655

154,706

Kent

236,267

234,421

242,194

Lancashire

247,794

266,505

249,028

Leicestershire

155,602

151,539

148,103

Lincolnshire

83,855

88,617

86,525

London, City of

2,166,655

2,282,646

n/a

Merseyside

363,036

374,864

330,640

Metropolitan Police

2,124,000

2,278,003

2,444,417

Norfolk

102,324

104,119

102,293

Northamptonshire

129,349

117,115

116,005

Northumbria

258,920

264,349

269,816

North Wales

107,322

108,884

107,334

North Yorkshire

89,329

97,884

93,902

Nottinghamshire

260,436

265,992

264,515

South Wales

265,312

292,558

279,760

South Yorkshire

264,318

246,170

238,372

Staffordshire

157,108

167,932

166,868

Suffolk

95,663

100,351

96,836

Surrey

150,942

166,496

156,977

Sussex

255,257

272,173

258,740

Thames Valley

331,222

354,667

333,767

Warwickshire

79,476

87,490

81,869

West Mercia

n/a

n/a

136,080

West Midlands

669,615

708,764

679,005

West Yorkshire

436,169

485,859

430,250

Wiltshire

100,162

n/a

96,893

n/a = Data not available.
(1) Provisional data that have not been validated by police forces.

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