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Police: Manpower

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) police civilian staff are employed in Gloucester; and what the equivalent figures were in 1997. [308231]

Mr. Hanson [holding answer 6 January 2010]: Police personnel statistics are not collected by parliamentary constituency. Data for police officers have been collected by Basic Command Unit (BCU) since April 2001 and data for police staff have been collected by BCU since April 2002.

There were 292 police officers in Forest and Gloucester BCU as at 31 March 2002 and 359 police officers as at 31 March 2009.

There were 69 police staff in Forest and Gloucester BCU as at 31 March 2003 and 114 police staff as at 31 March 2009.

Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to his Department's publication, "Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: Consolidating Orders and Codes of Practice Summary of Responses", page 18, if he will place in the Library a copy of the response from (a) the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, (b) the Chartered Institution of Waste Management, (c) the British Broadcasting Corporation, (d) the Department of Communities and Local Government/Fire Services in England, (e) the National Undercover Working Group Legal Group, (f) the Chief Surveillance Commissioner and (g) Interception of Communications Commissioner. [308651]

Mr. Hanson: The Home Office intends to publish all responses on its website and will do so shortly. Copies of the responses will also be placed in the Library.

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to his Department's publication, Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000: Consolidating Orders and Codes of Practice Summary of Responses, page 16, which of the 41 respondents supported local authority use of the Act for dog fouling, littering or school enrolment checking. [308653]

Mr. Hanson: Seven were from members of the public, three identified themselves as individuals from local authorities and the remaining 31 were responses from local authorities.

Religious Buildings: Registration

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 28 October 2009, Official Report, column 474W, on "Non-domestic Rates: Religious Buildings", which organisations have had applications to be certified under the Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 rejected by the Registrar General since 1979. [308766]


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Meg Hillier: The Places of Worship Registration Act 1855 (the Act) provides for places of meeting for religious worship, excluding those belonging to the Established Church, to be certified to the Registrar General. A number of tests are applied by the Registrar General when a place of meeting for religious worship is certified to him. This includes the application of the judgment by the Court of Appeal in the Segerdal case in 1970. The main finding in the judgment is that the words 'place of meeting for religious worship' in the Act connote a place of which the principal use is for people to come together as a congregation to worship God or do reverence to a deity. A further test is whether the principal use of the building is for worship or for other matters, such as a private home or social club.

Once the Registrar General is satisfied that the place of worship certified to him is capable of recognition, he adds it to the register of such places which, under the Act, he has a duty to maintain.

The duty placed on the Registrar General does not extend to maintaining and retaining records of places or organisations that are not capable of recognition as places of worship under the Act, and the records held in this respect by the Registrar General are incomplete. However, the records that the Registrar General does hold confirm that since 1979, the following organisations have made unsuccessful applications for buildings certified as places of worship to be added to the register:


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Security: Olympic Games 2012

Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there are plans to contract private security firms for the 2012 Olympics. [308811]

Mr. Hanson: The Private Security Industry will play a role in delivering a safe and secure Olympic and Paralympic games. LOCOG, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, will require an estimated 6,000 people to protect their assets, protect the perimeters of their venues, screen people and vehicles entering the venues and also to work as safety stewards in the venues.

The Olympic and Paralympic Security Directorate (OSD) within the office for security and counter-terrorism (OSCT) of the Home Office is supporting an innovative project called 'Bridging the Gap' which aims to train up to 10,000 young adults to Security Industry Authority standards to fill these roles. The OSD is working closely with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), LOCOG and the 'Bridging the Gap' project to ensure that sufficient numbers are trained and that there is a legacy for the young people in terms of job opportunities in the Private Security Industry, and other uniform services after the games. The OSD is also engaging the Private Security Industry to ensure they are aware of the challenge ahead, not just in securing the games, but also in ensuring that levels of service to businesses elsewhere in the UK are maintained.

Terrorism Act 2000

Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many students have been (a) stopped, (b) detained and (c) arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 in the last five years. [301037]

Mr. Hanson: The Home Office does not hold statistics which are recorded in this way. However, the Home Office collates statistics on the number of terrorism arrests and these were included in a Bulletin published for the first time on 13 May 2009 (Statistics on Terrorism Arrests and Outcomes Great Britain 11 September 2001 to 31 March 2008). The first edition of the Bulletin is available at:

The second issue of the Bulletin was published on 26 November 2009 and is available via the link below:

UK Border Agency

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the budget is of the UK Border Agency Abu Dhabi hub for 2009-10. [301241]

Mr. Woolas: Abu Dhabi is the regional operations centre for the Gulf and Pakistan, dealing with visa applications from Iran, Pakistan, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Abu Dhabi will be the largest UK Border Agency operation overseas by application volume. There are 142 staff.

Abu Dhabi carries out the full range of tasks associated with visa processing, including the administration, pre-assessment and assessment of visa applications, document
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verification, post-decision work, including appeals, administrative reviews, correspondence and complaints handling, risk and airline liaison, integrity management, and regional management.

Under the finance model agreed with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, upon whose platform the Abu Dhabi hub operates, the budget is not constructed in a way that accounts for particular posts.

The costs passed to the UK Border Agency from the FCO are a combination of variable costs, such as those related to headcount, and fixed charges such as management support and depreciation. The variable costs paid by the UK Border Agency for 2009-10 are around £6.5 million. The fixed element for the Abu Dhabi hub cannot easily be disaggregated from the global total and to do so would incur disproportionate costs.

UK Border Agency: Empty Property

David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to pages 80 and 81 of his Department's Resource Accounts 2008-09, for what reasons the UK Border Agency made payments of £1.3 million to landlords for empty properties. [309310]

Mr. Woolas: A large estate such as that occupied by the UK Border Agency is likely to have some surplus property at times, especially as it is consolidating the number of properties it has to deliver better value for the taxpayer overall. Where a property is empty the Agency is required to declare the costs associated with that property while UKBA retains the lease. In 2008-09 payments for the empty properties were £1,072 million, comprising rent, rates, and a nominal amount for utilities. This represents 1 per cent. of the cost of running the UKBA estate. Overall the agency has benefited from reduced property, IT and productivity gains from rationalisation that outweigh these costs.

Vehicle Intelligence Scheme

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) objectives and (b) scope is of the Association of Chief Police Officers' Vehicle Intelligence Scheme which receives funding from his Department. [308549]

Mr. Hanson: The purpose of the ACPO Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS) is to retain a strategic overview of issues affecting the UK specifically with regard to vehicle crime and vehicle enabled crime in order to maintain reductions in vehicle crime and vehicle enabled crime in the UK; improve recovery rates of stolen vehicles; and identify emerging threats and trends, developing a range of tactical options which are effective, timely and proportionate.

In order to deliver against its purpose, all the activities of AVCIS are categorised within six aims:

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