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17 Jun 2009 : Column 311W—continued
Antisocial Behaviour: East of England
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will estimate the cost to the (a) economy and (b) public purse of anti-social behaviour in each local authority area in the East of England region in the latest period for which figures are available; [280227]
(2) how much has been spent by each local authority in the East of England region per head of population on tackling anti-social behaviour in each of the last five years. [280228]
Mr. Alan Campbell: In 2003, the Home Office undertook a one-day count of antisocial behaviour incidents to quantify their impact on key service providers. This estimated that the cost to Government agencies of responding to reports of antisocial behaviour in England and Wales was approximately £3.4 billion per year. This figure did not include indirect costs to local communities and businesses, nor the emotional costs to victims and witnesses. The cost of not taking action against antisocial behaviour would be much higher.
Information on the amount spent by local authorities, including those in the eastern region, on tackling antisocial behaviour is not collected centrally. Home Office funding for local authorities to tackle antisocial behaviour now forms part of the general Area Based Grant (ABG) paid by the Department of Communities and Local Government. This grant is designed to increase the funding flexibility and allow local areas much greater freedom to spend money in a way they see fit to support the delivery of local, regional and national priorities in their areas.
Other Home Office led activities also act to tackle antisocial behaviour, for example the introduction of community support officers in the eastern region, but a monetary value cannot be assigned to that contribution. Similarly, other programmes and services contribute, sometimes indirectly, to tackling antisocial behaviour, including diversionary activities for young people, neighbourhood wardens, as well as neighbourhood policing and neighbourhood management.
Antisocial Behaviour: Greater Manchester
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) anti social behaviour orders and (b) acceptable behaviour contracts have been issued in (i) Tameside and (ii) Stockport in the last 12 months; [279772]
(2) what steps are being taken to reduce levels of anti social behaviour in (a) Tameside and (b) Stockport. [279773]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The latest available data on antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) cover the period 1 April 1999 to 31 December 2006. Between 1 January 2006 and 31 December 2006, 225 ASBOs were issued at all courts in the Greater Manchester Criminal Justice System (CJS) area. Data on the number of ASBOs issued are not available below CJS area level.
The number of acceptable behaviour contracts (ABCs) is collected by the Home Office through a voluntary survey of crime and disorder reduction partnerships’ (CDRPs) use of antisocial behaviour tools and powers. The latest data published indicate that over 30,000 ABCs have been made between October 2003 and September 2007, with over 5,150 issued in the north-west region during the same period. Currently, data on the number of ABCs issued are not available below regional level.
We have provided practitioners with a toolkit to tackle antisocial behaviour, which they operate according to local priorities and a practitioner website and advice line. Specifically in Tameside and Stockport, multidisciplinary antisocial behaviour teams operate many initiatives based on prevention and enforcement that engage, educate and promote awareness among young people, engage with residents and tackle antisocial behaviour in families. Stockport operates an antisocial behaviour hotline where members of the public can call and report antisocial behaviour. These cases are then allocated to one of the four ASB caseworkers to investigate and respond. Tameside were rated as an excellent four star authority by the Audit Commission's corporate assessment of the partnership's work around tackling antisocial behaviour.
Closed Circuit Television: Greater Manchester
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which towns in Greater Manchester operate closed circuit television for the purposes of crime prevention. [279859]
Mr. Alan Campbell: This information is not held centrally.
Departmental Data Protection
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many breaches of security have been reported at the (a) Criminal Records Bureau, (b) Identity and Passport Service and (c) UK Border Agency and its predecessors in the last five years; and what procedures each agency follows when a breach of security involves the disclosure of personal data. [276952]
Mr. Woolas: Except in exceptional cases, where it is in the public interest, it has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on breaches of security. The Home Office and agencies take all breaches of security including unauthorised disclosure of personal data, very seriously. The Home Office and agencies have measures/policies in place to prevent misuse or abuse of official systems and to detect it where it does occur. Unauthorised disclosures of personal data are both a breach of security and a breach of the civil service code.
The Home Office and agencies are committed to investigating any such breaches and will deal with them in the strongest manner. Depending on the circumstances a range of sanctions are available including disciplinary action, and in extreme or persistent cases, termination of employment/services and, if appropriate, criminal proceedings.
The Security Policy Framework, the Data Handling Report and the National Information Assurance Strategy produced by the Cabinet Office provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place a set of mandatory measures which Departments must adhere to.
Departmental Written Questions
Sarah Teather:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many parliamentary questions for written answer his Department has declined to
answer in substantive form on the ground of (a) disproportionate cost and (b) the information sought not being held centrally in each of the last five years. [280716]
Mr. Alan Campbell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer from my right hon. Friend, the former Home Secretary (Jacqui Smith), on 2 June 2008, Official Report, column 729W.
DNA: Databases
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many DNA samples recovered from crime scenes produced multiple matches when checked against the national DNA database in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement. [272719]
Mr. Alan Campbell: A total of 1,004 DNA profiles taken from crime scenes and loaded to the National DNA Database (NDNAD) between 1 May 2008 and 30 April 2009 matched against more than one subject profile. This equates to an average of 83.7 multiple matches per month over this 12 month period.
The SGM Plus profiling system looks at 10 areas within the DNA molecule and derives from these a profile normally consisting of 20 numbers plus a sex marker indicating whether the person is male or female. With such a profile the likelihood of a random match to a person unconnected to the crime is a minimum of one in a billion.
Biological material found at a crime scene will degrade due to the effects of the environment, ultraviolet light, or bacteria, among other factors. There may be very little DNA in very small stains of biological material. In either case it may not be possible to produce a full DNA profile. In some cases, a partial profile may be produced by the analysis of the DNA and in some cases no DNA profile at all would be obtained. A partial profile consists of fewer than the 20 numbers of a full SGM+ DNA profile. A crime scene profile of eight numbers plus the sex marker would be sufficient to load to the DNA database.
Evidence from such a partial profile may still be crucial, not least because of its ability to conclusively eliminate people from an investigation. A match of a person to such a partial profile carries significantly less weight than a match to a full profile and it is quite possible that two or more people might have the same partial DNA profile. The evidence presented to a court will reflect this. The Crown Prosecution Service have made clear that in any case involving a DNA profile there must be appropriate supporting evidence before a prosecution is initiated.
Driving Offences: Insurance
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department has spent on tackling the offence of driving without insurance in each of the last five years. [279594]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Enforcement of the offence is an operational matter for individual chief officers of police. They will decide on what allocation of their resources is appropriate.
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were convicted of driving without insurance and one other or more offences in the last 12 months; and which were the five most common offences for which people were convicted together with driving without insurance during that period. [279595]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Data provided by the Ministry of Justice on the findings of guilt at all courts for vehicle insurance offences in England and Wales, in 2007 (latest available) can be viewed in the table.
Information on the number of people convicted of a mixture of offences is not separately published.
Data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.
| Findings of guilt at all courts for vehicle insurance offences in England and Wales 2007( 1) | |
| Offence type | Total findings of guilt |
| (1) 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 courts and 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: OCJR E&A (Office for Criminal Justice Reform, Evidence and Analysis Unit), Ministry of Justice | |
Entry Clearances: Families
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many family visitor visa applications were received from people in each of the six countries from which most applications were received in each of the last seven years; and how many such visas were granted to people from each of those countries. [267569]
Mr. Woolas: The number of family visit (a) visa applications and (b) visas issued, in each of the top six countries by volume of applications, in each of the last five calendar years, is shown in the following table. Reliable data for previous years are not held.
| Family visit visa s | ||
| Number | ||
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