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5 Jan 2010 : Column 148W—continued
Offensive Weapons: Convictions
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people charged with carrying an offensive weapon in (a) England, (b) the North East and (c) Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland constituency in 2008-09; and what sentences those convicted of such offences received. [306268]
Mr. Straw: I have been asked to reply.
The number of offenders that were charged with carrying an offensive weapon is not available. Data relating to possession of an offensive weapon are based on offences resulting in a caution or sentence.
The table shows the number of offences involving the possession of an offensive weapon resulting in a caution or sentence between Ql 2008 (January to March) to Q3 2009 (July to September) in England and Wales.
This table has been taken from the Ministry of Justice's publication "Knife Crime Sentencing: Quarterly Brief" published on 10 December 2009 and available from
Further regional breakdowns by police force area are not given as the numbers are too small for reliable interpretation.
| Offences( 1) involving possession of an offensive weapon resulting in a caution or a sentence | |||||||
| Number of offences and percentage | |||||||
| Disposal category | Q1 2008 | Q2 2008 | Q3 2008 | Q4 2008 | Q1 2009 | Q2 2009 | Q3 2009 |
| (1 )As recorded by the police on the police national computer. (2) Cautions include juveniles receiving reprimands and final warnings. Notes: 1. These figures have been drawn from the police's administrative IT system, the police national computer (PNC), which, as with any large scale recording system, is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the police. 2. PNC data has been used here rather than court data, which is the usual source of published sentencing statistics, as PNC data provides more up to date figures ahead of the finalised annual court data. | |||||||
Passports
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of replacing a (a) passport damaged by the passport holder and (b) passport containing a defective component. [305201]
Meg Hillier: The information is as follows:
(a) There is no cost to the public purse of replacing a passport damaged by the passport holder as the process requires a new application to be processed and the applicant must pay the full passport fee.
(b) The cost to the public purse of replacing defective passports is commercial in confidence information.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanisms are in place to assist those to whom passports with a faulty chip have been issued; and if he will make a statement. [305202]
Meg Hillier: In some instances, a machine reader may not recognise the passport when it is read. This could be due to a number of reasons such as a faulty passport reader, a manufacturing fault in the passport chip or because damage has been caused by the holder to the biometric chip. If a customer encounters difficulties at UK immigration, the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) can have the passport checked by the manufacturer. However, if a customer has travel requirements while the passport is being checked, IPS will issue a replacement passport, free of charge, upon production of proof of travel. This is a change to previous IPS policy, which required customers to pay for a replacement passport if they needed to travel while the passport was being tested.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passports issued in each of the last three years have been found to contain faulty chips. [305203]
Meg Hillier: The recording of statistical data relating to faulty chips in passports began in January 2007 and, as at 31 October 2009, a total of 1,342 passports were returned to the supplier with suspected faulty chips, but only 1,107 of those were confirmed as faulty.
The majority of defective chips are identified at the quality assurance stage of the passport issuing process, prior to the passports being dispatched to customers.
Police
Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police constables there were in each year since 1997 and (b) police community support officers there were in each year since 1992 in (i) England and (ii) Avon and Somerset constituency. [307367]
Mr. Hanson: The available data can be seen in the following tables.
The first police community support officers started work in September 2002, following legislation which was introduced as part of the Police Reform Act 2002. Therefore, data on police community support officers are not available prior to 31 March 2003.
| Police officer strength (FTE)( 1) for England and Avon and Somerset as at 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2009 | |||||||
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003( 3) | |
| 2004( 3) | 2005( 3) | 2006( 3) | 2007( 3) | 2008( 3) | 2009( 3) | |
| (1) Full-time equivalent. All officers less staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave (comparable with previously published figures). (2) This and other tables contain full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items. (3) Comparable strength (excludes those on career breaks, or maternity/paternity leave). the police numbers task force (2001) recommended that a clear presentation was made of the numbers of staff employed by police forces including those seconded into the force and those on any type of long or short term absence. These new calculations were first used in 2003, and are not comparable with data prior to March 2003. The data from 2003 onwards used here are termed comparable because they have been calculated on the old basis to allow comparison | ||||||
| Police community support officer strength( 1) (FTE)( 2) for England and Avon and Somerset as at 31 March 2003 to 31 March 2008( 3) | |||||||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | |
| (1) This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items. (2) Full-time equivalent include those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. (3) Police community support officers were introduced in statute in 2002, therefore data is not available prior to 2002-03. | |||||||
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much police forces have paid to release private vehicles to their owners from local authority compounds in each of the last five years. [308013]
Mr. Hanson: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
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