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1 Sep 2009 : Column 1877W—continued
Criminal Records Bureau: Vetting
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Criminal Records Bureau checks in respect of individuals applying for posts which would require their names to be added to the list maintained under the (a) Protection of Children Act 1999 and (b) Protection of Vulnerable Adults Act 2003 were undertaken in each police force area in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [288174]
Mr. Hanson: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not maintain the lists of the Protection of Children Act 1999 (POCA) and the Protection of Vulnerable Adults Act 2003 (POVA). The POCA list is maintained by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the POVA list is maintained by the Department of Health (DOH).
Departmental Databases
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 16 March 2009, Official Report, column 918W, on departmental databases, what marketing campaigns have been targeted using ACORN data; and what ACORN codings were used in each such campaign. [288884]
Mr. Woolas: We have used the ACORN hard pressed category to inform our marketing planning to tackle youth crime and antisocial behaviour, and acquisitive crime.
Departmental Postal Services
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on Royal Mail services in each of the last two years. [288736]
Mr. Woolas: The Department's payments to Royal Mail is set out in the following table.
| £000 | ||
| 2008-09 | 2007-08 | |
Drugs
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on the implementation of drugs policies in each category in each of the last 10 years. [286735]
Alan Johnson: Total expenditure on Home Office drugs programmes was captured within the HM Treasury database on our previous strategic objective that fewer people's lives are ruined by drugs (and alcohol).
The relevant figures for (a) the Department are set out in the following table, whereas (b) Home Office agencies whose strategic and operational activities include elements of our drugs policies do not budget specifically for them but for their overarching enforcement aims and objectives.
Changes in the classification of funding in Spending Review 2000 mean that comparison with previous years is not possible.
| Total expenditure by the Home Office on drugs | ||
| £000 | ||
| Resource | Capital | |
| Note: Capital funding of £20,262,000 in 2006-07 and £19,702,000 in 2007-08 20,262 previously reported on to the HMT database erroneously included and classified Safer and Stronger Communities funding as Drugs expenditure. This is being corrected in the HMT database. Source: HMT database. | ||
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to reduce the supply of prohibited substances to problem drug users at street level. [287498]
Mr. Alan Campbell:
As part of 2008 drug strategy, we have expanded the 'street level up' (SLUA) initiative. The SLUA approach is a national, multi-agency project designed to make a sustained impact on the illicit drugs trade and drug related criminality, and harm it causes to people and communities. This approach builds on intelligence on street level dealers to identify and take out higher level dealers, thereby disrupting the entire supply chain. A number of police forces are involved in
the second phase and the Serious Organised Crime Agency are working with forces to plan and support the local roll-out.
As highlighted in the 2008 drug strategy 'Drugs: protecting families and communities', the Home Office and partners have put in place neighbourhood policing teams in every area of England and Wales to allow the police to respond more directly to any issues of concern identified by the community and to work in a more joined-up approach with local partners. Our next priority is to embed action to tackle drugs, where this is a local priority, within the neighbourhood policing and policing pledge approach to help the police and partners to be more responsive to community intelligence and concerns about drugs.
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the monetary value of the illicit drugs market in the UK. [287918]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The most recent estimate by the Home Office of the value of the UK illicit drugs market was published in 2006, it estimates the value of the UK illicit drug market at between £4 billion to £6.6 billion for the reference year 2003-04.
This estimate is based on six categories of illicit drugs: cannabis, amphetamines, ecstasy, powder cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin. The total market size is estimated at £4.6 billion in England and Wales and £5.3 billion in the UK as a whole. The margin of error for these estimates are wide; £3.5 billion to £5.8 billion for England and Wales, and £4.0 billion to £6.6 billion for the UK. In terms of total street value, crack and heroin account for the largest shares of expenditure (respectively 28 per cent. and 23 per cent.); cannabis and powder cocaine make up 20 and 18 per cent. of expenditure, while amphetamines and ecstasy have a market shares of six and five per cent.
Reference:
Pudney et al. (2006) 'Estimating the Size of the UK Illicit Drug Market' In Singleton, N. et al. (eds.) 'Measuring Different Aspects of Problem Drug Use: Methodological Developments'. Home Office Online Report 16,/06).
Drugs: Research
David Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will evaluate for comparative purposes research carried out into the effects of the policies on drugs adopted by the Portuguese government in 2001 on levels of (a) drug-taking,
(b) drug-smuggling and (c) other drug-related crime in that country. [288689]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Both British and Portuguese drugs strategies recognise the importance of a balanced approach to tackling the demand for and the supply of drugs, placing an emphasis on the needs of the individual drug user and using the criminal justice system to identify and direct drug users into treatment programmes.
There are no plans to undertake a specific comparative evaluation of the Portuguese drugs policies, although we will note with interest any emerging evidence from the Portuguese approach.
Emergency Services: Common Talk Groups
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to Baroness Neville-Jones of 13 July 2009, Official Report, House of Lords, columns WA185-86, on emergency services: common talk groups, what the intended (a) purposes and (b) users are of (i) the Sharer Hailing Group, (ii) the Dedicated Government Agency Group, (iii) the Silver Level Inter-Agency Group, (iv) the three Bronze Level Inter-Agency Groups, (v) the All-User Interoperability Group and (vi) the Multi Agency Mutual Aid Group. [288367]
Mr. Hanson [holding answer 20 July 2009]: The information is as follows:
(a) The Sharer Hailing Group enables visiting sharer agencies within a police force area to make contact with the police control room.
(b) The Dedicated Government Agency Group enables non-police enforcement agencies to carry out operations with the police.
(c) The Silver level Inter-Agency Group is intended for Silver command use at incidents where all or some blue light agencies are present.
(d) The Three Bronze level Inter-Agency Talk Groups are intended for Bronze operational use where all or some other blue light agencies are present.
(e)The All-User Interoperability Group is owned and managed by Airwave Solutions Limited, the service provider, for use by their customers where appropriate.
(f) The Multi Agency Mutual Aid Talk Group is a set of 10 talk groups owned and managed by Airwave Solutions for use as a supplement to other talk group arrangements.
Users of each Talk Group are listed in the following table.
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to Baroness Neville-Jones of 13 July 2009, Official Report, House of Lords, columns WA185-86, on emergency services: common talk groups, how many officers of (a) the Metropolitan Police, (b) the City of London Police and (c) the British Transport Police in London have been trained to use (i) the Sharer Hailing Group, (ii) the Dedicated Government Agency Group, (iii) the Silver Level Inter-Agency Group, (iv) the three Bronze Level Inter-Agency Groups, (v) the All-User Interoperability Group and (vi) the Multi-Agency Mutual Aid Group. [288404]
Mr. Hanson [holding answer 20 July 2009]: All officers in the three forces are trained on how to access and use the Airwave Talk Group facility, as part of their general radio training. Consequently they are all trained to use all of the talk groups listed.
Entry Clearances
Mr. Benyon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the time it will take for the back-log of residence applications from EEA nationals to be cleared. [287793]
Mr. Woolas: The UK Border Agency is committed to clearing the backlog of cases by the end of November 2009 and to returning to operational service standards from the beginning of December 2009.
Entry Clearances: Kosovo
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received on the processing in Pristina of applications for visas to enter the UK; and if he will make a statement. [289144]
Mr. Woolas: I have not received any representations on the processing of applications for visas to enter the UK in Pristina.
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