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25 Nov 2009 : Column 210W—continued
The total expenditure to date includes payments made up to the end of September 2009. Where no expenditure to date has occurred, this will be due to a variety of reasons, including:
1. Grant stream recently agreed, therefore no payments have yet been made
2. Grant recipient has not provided evidence of expenditure incurred, therefore no payments to date occurred
The Home Office has not yet finalised expected provision (by programme, funding stream, or grant) for 2010-11 to this level of detail. However, the Home Office has announced funding for area based grant across the entire spending review, comprising:
| £ | |
The Home Office adopts a variety of mechanisms by which to determine the allocation to each local authority. In relation to grants, there are the following mechanisms:
Formula based (e.g. Safer Stronger Communities Fund)-each local authority has a pre-determined allocation based upon a formula that ensures a commensurate allocation throughout the country
Bid based-all local authorities are entitled to bid for funding as per the business plan that they provide. These bids are then considered, and assessed against criteria such as value for money and allocations determined accordingly.
Funding pot availability-a specific maximum amount per grant is set, and each local authority may submit a bid within that maximum ceiling.
Fixed rate basis (e.g. UASC-Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers Children)-the grant payable to local authorities is on a fixed rate (e.g. per UASC per night), with many authorities having different grant rates, according to their numbers of UASC and individual circumstances.
Fixed rate once specified thresholds exceeded (e.g. Leaving Care grant)-paid to local authorities, at a rate of £100 per week per former UASC aged over 18, after the first 25 cases have been discounted.
National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse: Finance
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding his Department has provided to the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse in 2009-10; and what funding it expects to provide in 2010-11. [300297]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office has provided total funding allocations of £3,132,000 to the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse (NTA) for 2009-10.
The total amount consists of £2,132,000 core funding to the NTA for the delivery of the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP), and project management funding of £1,000,000 to support pilot areas within the Drug System Change Pilots programme.
Decisions about 2010-11 allocations will be made later in the year.
Source:
Home Office Accounting System
Overseas Students
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he plans to undertake a review of the accreditation arrangements for institutions wishing to bring international students to the UK. [301083]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 24 November 2009]: Each of our approved accreditation bodies was initially approved for a period of two years. Accreditation UK, British Accreditation Council (BAC) and Accreditation Service for International Colleges (ASIC) are now due for re-approval. All accreditation bodies are subject to ongoing monitoring to ensure that they meet our requirements throughout the period of approval.
We have been reviewing, with Ofsted, our approval criteria. While we finalise the framework against which the three accreditation bodies will be re-assessed for approval, UKBA continues to work with each of its approved accreditation bodies to ensure standards are maintained.
Police
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent consideration he has given to the use of private policing services by local authorities and residents. [300320]
Mr. Hanson: There are no official private policing services. Communities should have the confidence that the police will be there for them when they need it. Public confidence that the police and local council are dealing with the crime and antisocial behaviour that matters locally is improving (from 45 per cent in March 2008 to 50 per cent in the latest figures to June 2009).
In December 2008 we introduced the Policing Pledge in England and Wales which sets out the minimum standards of service that the public can expect to receive from the police including for response times, visibility, and access. We have also invested heavily to ensure that all neighbourhoods now have a dedicated and named Neighbourhood Policing team.
It is up to the public and local authorities to decide if they wish to spend money on private security. Private security guards have no more powers than any other citizen except when they are accredited under Community Safety Accreditation Schemes (CSAS). CSAS is a scheme which allows Chief Officers to designate limited powers to employees of organisations which contribute towards community safety and tackling antisocial behaviour
(ASB) such as park wardens, train operators and private security guards. These powers enhance the contribution of people in roles that are already concerned with keeping communities safe, and mean that there are more people on the streets with powers to tackle and not tolerate ASB.
Police: Pay
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of (a) police officers and (b) civilian police force staff earn more than £50,000 per annum. [300814]
Mr. Hanson: This information is not held centrally. Information on remuneration disclosure is provided by police authorities in their annual statements of accounts.
Police: Performance Standards
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his latest estimate is of the average (a) target and (b) actual police response time to violent crime in (i) urban and (ii) rural areas; and if he will make a statement. [300289]
Mr. Hanson: The Policing Pledge, which was introduced across all police forces in England and Wales at the end of 2008, sets out the minimum standards of service that the public can expect to receive from the police including for response times. Through the Pledge, the police have committed to aim to answer 999 calls within 10 seconds, deploying to emergencies immediately, giving an estimated time of arrival and reaching the incident as safely and as quickly as possible. In urban areas, they aim to arrive within 15 minutes and in rural areas within 20 minutes.
The Home Office does not collect data centrally on average response times to specific crime types. However, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary recently published their report on the current standard of pledge delivery across all police forces. The report notes that
"in responding to calls, forces generally achieve good performance but, in some very rural areas, responding in 20 minutes is challenging".
It is for individual police forces and authorities to ensure delivery of the Policing Pledge in their area. The Government will hold forces to account for progress through the single top-down target we have set them to improve public confidence that crime and anti-social behaviour are being tackled locally, and in the light of inspection work by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Police: Public Order Units
David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police forces have public order units or branches; and how many staff are working in each such unit or branch. [300230]
Mr. Hanson: All police forces in England and Wales have a resource to deal with incidents involving public order. The staffing of such units would be the responsibility of the chief officer concerned for each force.
Police: Sussex
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers there were in Sussex in each of the last five years. [301272]
Mr. Hanson: The available data are provided in the table.
This and other related data are published annually as part of the annual Police Service Strength Home Office Statistical Bulletin. The latest bulletin can be found at:
and bulletins for this and previous years are deposited in the Library of the House.
| Police officer and PCSO strength( 1) in Sussex, as at 31 March, 2005 to 2009 | ||
| Full-time equivalent | ||
| Police officer | PCSO | |
| (1) Figures include police officers and PCSOs on career break or maternity/paternity leave. | ||
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