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24 Feb 2009 : Column 685W—continued
Freedom of Information
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how long on average it took her Department to respond to the requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in 2008. [251763]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The available statistics on the timeliness of FOI requests received by the Home Office up to the third quarter of 2008 are published on the Ministry of Justice website at:
Members: Correspondence
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she will reply to the letter to her of 20 October from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Ms A Mlay. [241694]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 16 December 2008.
National Security
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the appropriateness of the current official threat level. [248350]
Mr. Coaker: The current threat level for international terrorism is set at SEVERE.
The Home Office do not make any assessments into the threat level. The threat level for international terrorism is assessed and set by the joint terrorism analysis centre (JTAC). The Security Service is responsible for assessing the level and nature of the threat arising from domestic terrorism, principally the Irish-related terrorist threat.
More information on how the threat level is assessed can be found on the JTAC website at:
Offences Against Children: Internet
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of progress in securing the co-operation of internet service providers in deploying the blocking list of known child pornography web sites by the Internet Watch Foundation. [257036]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government warmly welcome the work done by industry to block images of child sexual abuse, resulting in 95 per cent. of consumer broadband lines being covered by blocking. The Government would like to thank the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) for their work to manage the creation of their list of sites that should be blocked. The UK now hosts less than 1 per cent. of the total number of child abuse image sites on the internet, and when one is identified it is quickly closed down.
Offensive Weapons: Greater Manchester
Mark Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal weapons were confiscated by the Greater Manchester police force in each year since 1997. [244798]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 18 December 2008]: This information is not held centrally.
Police: Enfield
Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made towards delivering the policing pledge in Enfield. [256780]
Mr. Coaker: All police forces across England and Wales, including the Metropolitan police, have now implemented the national Policing Pledge. This means that every citizen in Enfield and throughout England and Wales has a clear minimum standard of what to expect from their police force. The focus for forces now is ensuring that local pledges are in place and that the public know what they are entitled to.
The Policing Green Paper made it clear that the Home Office will now adopt a more strategic role, strengthening grassroots accountability and enhancing the role of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) in providing public assurance about the quality of policing in all forces. Locally, if the public do not feel the commitments embodied in the pledge are being met they can raise this with the police themselves or through their police authority.
Police: ICT
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police forces (a) have adopted fully and (b) are piloting ExISS release 1; how much was spent on the programme in 2007-08; and if she will make a statement. [256683]
Maria Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
ExISS release 1 consists of the police to magistrates court and the police to Crown Prosecution Service links.
As of 18 February 2009, out of 43 police forces, 39 had completed deployment of the police to magistrates court link. 34 police forces had completed deployment of the police to Crown Prosecution Service link with a further eight police forces partially deployed. One police force was in the advanced stages of deployment planning for both release 1 links. No police force is piloting the link, all are either deployed or in the deployment phase.
In the year 2007-08 there was a capital spend of £9 million on the programme.
It should be noted that in addition to the programme to deploy ExISS release 1 to the 43 ‘Home Office’ police forces, a further project is under way to deploy to the British Transport police, managed by the British Transport police themselves, with a target for deployment later in 2009.
The primary aim of ExISS release 1 is to ensure that the links between the applications are being fully utilised in order for police, magistrates court and CPS staff to reduce the amount of re-keying of information that has already been entered into a partner organisation’s application. By the end of the financial year 2008-09 it is expected that 40 police forces will have fully deployed ExISS release 1, and by the end of calendar 2009 all 43 forces will have fully deployed ExISS release 1. By the end of calendar 2008 ExISS release 1 had delivered £2.7 million of benefit to the agencies.
Police: Internet
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of the police portal has been to date, including any costs associated with the termination of the contract for the creation of the portal. [256095]
Mr. Coaker: The police portal provided a national communications channel for the Police Service. It was procured in January 2001 and the total annual cost of running this service was just under £2 million per annum up to 31 March 2007 when the contract with the service provider expired. A replacement portal service was planned but owing to a number of issues the contract was terminated.
Legal costs of £1,352,000 (inclusive of solicitors, barristers, experts, mediation costs and court fees) were incurred by the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) in connection with legal proceedings associated with the termination of the contract for a replacement portal service.
The proceedings were settled out of court towards the end of 2008 to the mutual satisfaction of both parties. The issues being debated between NPIA and its supplier were set out in publicly available court documents. The terms of the settlement are confidential.
Police: Pay
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the salary range is of the chief constable of each constabulary for each year since 1997. [252942]
Mr. Coaker: Until September 2003, chief constables were paid according to a series of pay scales based on the population of the force area. Information on salaries paid to each chief constable from 1997 to September 2003 is not available centrally. From September 2003, the salaries for each chief constable post in England and Wales is contained in Home Office Circulars, which can be found on the Home Office website at:
I am also placing copies of the relevant Home Circulars in the House of Commons Library.
Police: Per Capita Costs
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average total (a) direct staff cost, (b) operational support cost, (c) business support cost and (d) cost excluding sustaining overhead for providing police assistance was for (i) a road traffic accident, (ii) public disorder, (iii) a missing person incident, (iv) a sudden or suspicious death and (v) other activities not related to crime was under the activity-based costs model in 2007-08. [256690]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Information on the average cost of providing policing assistance in 2007-08 for road traffic accidents, missing person incidents, and sudden or suspicious deaths is set out in the following table:
| Average costs of dealing with non-crime incidents | ||||
| £ | ||||
| Total Direct Staff Cost (a) | Total Operational Support Cost (b) | Total Business Support Cost (c) | Total Cost Excluding Overheads (d) | |
| (1)( )These figures exclude Dorset, Essex, the Metropolitan Police, Staffordshire, Suffolk and Thames Valley, from whom data were not available. Notes: 1. Sudden deaths will only be those reported and later deemed to be non suspicious. All confirmed suspicious deaths amount to crime and would fall within crime data. 2. Consistent costing information is not available for (ii) public disorder and for (v) other non-crime incidents. 3. Unit costs are rounded. | ||||
Police: Surveillance
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 20 November 2008, Official Report, column 729W, on police: surveillance, if she will place in the Library a redacted copy of the Guidance on the Lawful and Effective Use of Covert Techniques, removing restricted text. [256773]
Mr. Coaker: We are currently considering the publication of a non-restricted version of the guidance for other public authorities. If this proves practicable than I will be happy to place a copy of this guidance in the Library of the House.
Prostitution
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of women convicted of loitering and soliciting who will be ordered to attend meetings under the provisions of clause 16 of the Policing and Crime Bill in the first year of operation of the legislation. [257282]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office has published an impact assessment on this measure, which is available at:
This estimates that up to 321 orders will be made in the year following implementation of this legislation.
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what resources she plans to make available to implement orders requiring attendance at meetings in clause 16 of the Policing and Crime Bill in the first year of its operation; and who will be responsible for the supervision of women convicted of loitering or soliciting under the terms of the proposed legislation. [257293]
Mr. Alan Campbell: We are currently considering this issue and will outline our plans in due course.
Clause 16 provides for the court to appoint a supervisor in relation to an offender subject to an order. The intention is that the supervisor will normally be based in a dedicated support project for those involved in prostitution, where such a project exists in a local area.
However, the role of the supervisor has not been defined in order to allow flexibility in how the order is delivered, and allow courts to appoint the most appropriate person.
Public Order
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements are in place for regular assessments of threats to public order; how frequently such assessments are carried out; when the last such assessment was made; and what consideration she has given to assessing the threat to public order arising from the current economic situation. [251623]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 29 January 2009]: The police are very experienced at public order policing and look at all information available to them, including economic factors, at a local and national level, continually, to ensure the police response is the best it can be. The police at the current time possess no information relating to a wave of potentially violent mass protests.
Rape: Convictions
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps she has taken to increase the conviction rate in rape cases; and what assessment she has made of effectiveness of those steps. [255433]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government are committed to increasing the conviction rate for rape. In order to do so the Government have focused their effort on improving the response of the criminal justice system by implementing changes to the ways in which the Police and Crown Prosecution Service investigate and prosecute such cases and by providing special measures in court to ensure that victims are confident to come forward and report an offence, and see it through to conviction. The Government have also provided support for victims through services such as sexual assault referral centres and independent sexual violence advisors.
There are a number of different ways of calculating conviction rates. In respect of cases that are prosecuted as rape that result in a conviction for rape, the conviction rate in 2007 was 37 per cent. This is the highest it has been for 10 years.
Rape: Victim Support Schemes
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of (a) the ratio of rape crisis centres to the female population and (b) the average waiting list of rape crisis centres in (i) London, (ii) Birmingham, (iii) Manchester, (iv) Newcastle upon Tyne and (v) Norwich; and if she will make a statement. [255615]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government do not collect this information.
Security Guards: Licensing
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of appeals against the suspension or revocation of a licence by the Security Industry Authority have been upheld by the courts in each of the last five years. [257051]
Jacqui Smith: Information on the outcome of appeals against the suspension or revocation of a licence has only been collected since April 2008. Data on previous years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Between 1 April 2008 and 31 January 2009, 57 appeals against revocation were lodged, of which six of those that went to a hearing were upheld by the courts.
In the same period seven appeals against suspension were lodged against revocation, of which two of those that went to a hearing were upheld by the courts.
In addition, information about appeals lodged in relation to revocations on the basis of Right to Work checks which have taken place since late 2007 has been recorded separately. In 2007-08, there were 86 appeals lodged against revocation on the basis of Right to Work, of which one of those that went to a hearing was upheld by the courts. Between 1 April 2008 and 31 January 2009, 242 appeals were lodged against revocation on the basis of Right to Work, of which three of those that went to a hearing were upheld by the courts.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many private security licences have been revoked by the Security Industry Authority; [257052]
(2) how many people are listed on the Security Industry Authority’s register of licence holders as having a valid licence. [257053]
Jacqui Smith: As at 16 February 2009 the total number of licences revoked by the Security Industry Authority (SIA) was 11,676. The number of valid licences was 299,171.
Statistics for valid and revoked licences are shown on the SIA’s website at:
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