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12 Nov 2009 : Column 909W—continued

Hearing Impaired: Compensation

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what his latest estimate is of the amount paid out for hearing loss claims by members and former members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Police Service of Northern Ireland in the last 10 years. [300109]

Paul Goggins: That is an operational matter for the Chief Constable. I have asked him to reply directly to the hon. Member, and a copy of his letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

12 Nov 2009 : Column 910W

Homophobia: Crime

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many incidents of homophobic crime were recorded in each Police Service of Northern Ireland district command unit area in each of the last 12 months; how many convictions there were in respect of such incidents; and what sentence was imposed in each case. [300087]

Paul Goggins: The information sought on convictions and sentencing is not available, as the court data record the conviction and sentence information in relation to the offence, without recording background information on motivation.

Reduction of hate crime/incidents of homophobic crime for each PSNI district is set out in the following tables.

Homophobic( 1) Incidents( 2) in Northern Ireland in the 12 Months to September 2009
Policing Area	2008			20093									Total
	Oct	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sept
Antrim	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	6
Ards	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
Armagh	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Banbridge	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	3
East Belfast	0	0	1	0	0	2	1	1	0	5	1	0	11
North Belfast	1	4	2	1	1	1	1	5	3	1	2	2	24
South Belfast	3	2	3	1	4	1	2	1	3	1	4	0	25
West Belfast	0	1	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	2	0	1	7
Ballymena	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	1	0	0	1	6
Ballymoney	0	2	1	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	0	7
Carrickfergus	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	1	1	5
Coleraine	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
Cookstown	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	4
Craigavon	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	5
Castlereagh	0	1	1	0	3	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	9
Dungannon and South Tyrone	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	3
Down	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	4
Fermanagh	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0	0	1	4
Foyle	0	1	3	0	1	0	1	1	5	0	3	0	15
Larne	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Limavady	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	2
Lisburn	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	1	2	0	0	6
Magherafelt	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	2	0	1	0	0	6
Moyle	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Newtownabbey	2	1	1	1	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	7
North Down	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Newry And Mourne	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2	5
Omagh	0	0	2	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	5
Strabane	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	3
No DCU assigned	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1
Total	10	17	22	10	12	13	13	16	28	18	15	10	184
(1) A homophobic incident/crime is defined as any incident/crime which is perceived to be homophobic by the victim or any other person. Homophobia can be defined as a fear or dislike directed towards lesbian, gay or bisexual people, or a fear or dislike directed towards their perceived lifestyle, culture or characteristics. (2) Homophobic motivated incidents cover all such occurrences, whether a crime has been committed or not. When using incident figures in conjunction with crime figures please note that homophobic motivated crimes are included in the incident figures, and that more than one crime may be recorded in a single incident. Figures from April 2009 onwards are provisional and may be subject to revision. Source: Central Statistics Unit, PSNI

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