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Selected offences recorded by Birmingham CDRP and rate per 1,000 population, 2006-07 to 2008-09
		2006 - 07		2007 - 08		2008 - 09
Offence code	Offence description	Number of offences	Rate per 1,000 population	Number of offences	Rate per 1,000 population	Number of offences	Rate per 1,000 population
34A	Robbery of business property	356	0.36	334	0.33	382	0.38
34B	Robbery of personal property	4,679	4.67	3,579	3.56	3,540	3.50
	Total robbery offences	5,035	5.03	3,913	3.89	3,922	3.88
4.4/6/8	Causing death by dangerous or careless driving (inc. under influence of drink/drugs)(1)	11	0.01	9	0.01	-	-
4.4	Causing death by dangerous driving(1)	-	-	-	-	4	0.00
4.6	Causing death by careless driving under influence of drink or drugs(1)	-	-	-	-	1	0.00
4.8	Causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving(1)	-	-	-	-	0	0.00
(1) Data for offence codes 4.4, 4.6 and 4.8 are not available separately prior to 2008-09.

Mr. Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were recorded (a) in total and (b) per capita in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency in the last three years. [312194]

Mr. Alan Campbell: Recorded crime data are not available for the Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency. The available information relates to the Birmingham Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area and is given in the following table.

Offences recorded by the police in Birmingham and rate per 1,000 population-2006-07 to 2008-09
	Number of offences	Rate per 1,000 population
2006-07	119,361	12
2007-08	103,527	10
2008-09	95,889	9

Mr. Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the level of recorded crime was in Birmingham in (a) 1997 and (b) the latest period for which figures are available. [312777]

Mr. Alan Campbell: The information requested is not available in the form requested. Data for total recorded crime for the Birmingham Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) area are only available from 2000-01 when 153,705 offences were recorded. There were 95,889 offences recorded in the Birmingham CDRP in 2008-09. Data for these two years are not directly comparable because of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002.

Crime: Houghton-le-Spring

Mr. Kemp: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the percentage change in (a) overall recorded crime, (b) recorded violent crime, (c) burglary and (d) vehicle thefts in Houghton and Washington East constituency has been between 2000 and the most recent date for which figures are available. [313190]

Mr. Alan Campbell: Information is not available centrally for the Houghton and Washington, East constituency. The available information relates to the Sunderland Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area. However, because of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002, data for 2000-01 and 2008-09 are not directly comparable. Percentage changes between 2002-03 and 2008-09 for the requested offences have been given in the following table:

Percentage change in selected offences recorded by the police in Sunderland, 2002-03 to 2008-09
	Percentage change between 2002-03 and 2008-09
Total recorded crime	-39
Violence against the person	-28
Burglary	-54
Vehicle thefts(1)	-58
(1) Includes theft of or from a vehicle.

Crimes of Violence: Birmingham

Mr. Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders received a police caution for grievous bodily harm in Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small Heath constituency in each year since 2007. [312205]

Mr. Alan Campbell: The number of offenders cautioned for offences relating to 'grievous bodily harm' in the West Midlands police force area, 2007 (latest available data from the Ministry of Justice) can be viewed in the following table.

Cautions data cannot be broken down beyond police force area, therefore data for the West Midlands police force area have been provided.

Data for 2008 are planned for publication on 28 January 2010.

Number of offenders cautioned for offences relating to 'grievous bodily harm', West Midlands police force area, 2007( 1, 2, 3)
Offence description	Statute	Number
Wounding or inflicting grievous bodily harm, (inflicting bodily injury with or without weapon)	Offences against the Person Act 1861, section 20	11
(1) The cautions statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been cautioned for two or more offences at the same time, the principal offence is the more serious offence. (2) From 1 June 2000, the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and warnings. These figures have been included in the totals. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services: Ministry of Justice.

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Departmental Conferences

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by his Department and its agencies on conferences they organised which were subsequently cancelled in each of the last three years; and what the title was of each such conference. [308830]

Mr. Woolas: This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Departmental Internet

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department has allocated to spend on maintaining its Flickr channel in 2009-10. [312843]

Mr. Woolas: The Home Office does not have a Flickr channel.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department has allocated to maintenance of its Twitter feed in 2009-10. [312844]

Mr. Woolas: The Home Office does not have a Twitter feed at present and we have no plans to do so.

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people work on his Department's social media and networking sites; and at what cost in 2009-10. [312845]

Mr. Woolas: The Home Office has a channel on the YouTube video sharing website.

One member of staff spends approximately one day per month in administering the site.

Departmental Press Releases

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many press releases his Department has issued in the last 12 months. [312761]

Mr. Woolas: The Home Office issued 1,249 press releases in 2009 to local and national media outlets.

Departmental Telephone Services

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the latest estimate is of the level of failure demand in each call centre run by (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies. [312176]

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Mr. Woolas: The information requested is not routinely recorded at present and could therefore be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

DNA: Databases

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of recorded crimes of each type were detected using DNA profiles from the national DNA database in the latest period for which figures are available. [310120]

Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 11 January 2010]: The number and proportion of recorded crimes of each type detected in which a DNA match was available in 2008-09 is shown in Table 1. The figures held do not include crimes detected as a result of one-off speculative searches of the NDNAD or from comparing DNA profiles in a forensic laboratory. One-off speculative searches and DNA profile comparisons are used mainly in the investigation of serious crimes such as murder and rape. Therefore the figures provided in Table 1 will under-represent the overall contribution of DNA matches to the detection of serious crimes such as murder and rape.

It is important to note that detections are achieved through integrated criminal investigation, not through DNA alone. The source of the figures provided is the forensic performance data, which are collected from police forces by the Home Office.

Table 1 shows:

the number and types of crimes detected for which a DNA match was available.

additional detections, where an offender admits further offences following a detection for which a DNA match was available.

the total of these two types of detections (labelled 'DNA-related') as a proportion of recorded crime and as a proportion of sanction detections (the sanction detection rate in 2008-09 for total recorded crime was 28 per cent.).

The table shows that 17 per cent. of all detected domestic burglaries, 20 per cent. of all detected other burglaries (burglaries other than a dwelling e.g. commercial premises, garden sheds, etc.) and 10 per cent. of all detected thefts of vehicle were 'DNA-related'.

It should also be noted that most recorded crimes do not have any forensic opportunities (for example, minor assault, drugs offences, theft, fraud etc.). In 2008-09, only a small proportion of recorded crimes had a crime scene examination (17 per cent.); and only 39,795 crimes yielded DNA crime scene samples of sufficient quantity and quality for profiling and loading to the NDNAD.

The data provided are management information and have not been formally assessed for compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

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DNA-related detections 2008-09
Police forensic data-crime categories	Detections of crimes in which a DNA match was available ('DNA detections')	Additional detections arising from the DNA match	Total DNA-related detections ('DNA detections' and additional detections)	Recorded crime 2008-09	Total force detections 2008-09	Total DNA-related detections as proportion of recorded crime (percentage)	Total DNA-related detections as proportion of total force detections (percentage)
All other recorded crime	1,506	1,616	3,122	1,315,079	368,595	0.2	0.8
Criminal damage	2,886	896	3,782	936,729	131,442	0.4	2.9
Domestic burglary	3,702	4,015	7,717	284,445	46,500	2.7	16.6
Drugs offences	397	179	576	242,907	230,962	0.2	0.2
"Homicide"(1)	70	4	74	11,248	4,583	0.7	1.6
Other burglary	3,830	2,571	6,401	296,952	31,371	2.2	20.4
Other sex offences	106	34	140	38,355	12,760	0.4	1.1
Other violent offences	861	168	1,029	892,745	422,224	0.1	0.2
Rape	168	1	169	13,133	3,411	1.3	5.0
Robbery	603	148	751	80,104	16,816	0.9	4.5
Theft from vehicle	2,036	3,655	5,691	444,647	42,642	1.3	13.3
Theft of vehicle	1,298	1,165	2,463	147,470	24,471	1.7	10.1
Unknown	144	150	294	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Total of 12 crime types	17,607	14,602	32,209	4,703,814	1,335,777	0.68	2.41
(1) The forensic data "homicide" crime category covers the following recorded crime categories: Murder, Manslaughter, Infanticide-648 Attempted murder-575 Intentional destruction of viable unborn child-8 Threat or conspiracy to murder-9,559 Causing death by aggravated vehicle taking etc.-31 Causing death by dangerous, careless or inconsiderate driving-427 Total 'Homicide' crimes in 2008-09-11,248 Notes: 1. A 'DNA detection' means that the crime was cleared up and a DNA match was available. 2. 'Additional detections arising from the DNA match' occur when, for example, a suspect, on being presented with DNA evidence linking him to one offence, confesses to further offences. They arise from a crime with a DNA match; and are therefore detections where a DNA match played a part in solving the crime. 3. Total 'DNA-related detections' means 'DNA detections' plus 'additional detections arising from the DNA match'.

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