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28 Jan 2010 : Column 1042W—continued
Crime: Urban Areas
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his policy is on the provision of SOS night-time emergency buses in urban centres; and how much he plans to allocate to (a) revenue expenditure and (b) capital expenditure on vehicles for such services in 2010-11. [313191]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office does not have a policy for providing night-time emergency busses in urban areas and does not have plans for directly funding them. However we are aware that a small number of local areas (including Bournemouth, Torbay, Brighton and Hove and Thanet) have used part of their 2009-10 Home Office alcohol partnership funding for safebus/safe space initiatives. This £1.5million programme is targeted at our 50 alcohol priority areas. These local areas can bid for funding for initiatives after identifying how to tackle alcohol related harm in the means most appropriate to the area and the problem.
Departmental Internet
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department has a YouTube channel. [313524]
Alan Johnson: The Home Office has a channel on the YouTube video sharing website:
Drugs: Rehabilitation
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people on the drug rehabilitation requirements scheme have been imprisoned for breaching the conditions of the scheme; and how many people have remained addicted to drugs after participating in the scheme. [311950]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2008 records that 4,429 offenders were received into prison in 2008 following breach of a community order and 5,769 following breach of a suspended sentence order. However, these data cannot be broken down by type of requirement to identify the number of offenders imprisoned following breach of a drug rehabilitation requirement (DRR).(1)
The imposition of a custodial sentence is one of a range of options available to the courts if they are satisfied that an offender has failed to comply with any requirements of a community order or a suspended sentence order without a reasonable excuse. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 specifies that a court may only impose a custodial sentence following breach of a community order with a DRR where the offender has wilfully and persistently failed to comply with the requirements of the order.
The National Offender Management Service does not collect data on the offenders who have been imprisoned following breach of a DRR. However, the proportion of offenders successfully completing these orders has risen significantly from 28 per cent. in 2003 to 47 per cent. in 2008-09.
While all drug treatment delivered through the criminal justice system aims ultimately for abstinence, drug misuse can lead to chronic relapsing behaviour which may take years to address successfully and often beyond the duration of a sentence or order. No central record is kept of the number of those completing DRRs free from drug misuse. A recent research study(2) carried out in the community showed that sustaining heroin and crack cocaine users in treatment is effective at reducing misuse and in a significant proportion of cases leads to abstinence.
Figures from 2007-08 show 85 per cent. of offenders on a DRR being retained in treatment for more than 12 weeks, which is the minimum treatment period reported by the National Treatment Agency and the Drug Interventions Programme as having some impact on drug use and offending.
(1) These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system.
(2) Marsden, J., et al. (2009) Effectiveness of community treatments for heroin and crack cocaine addiction in England: a prospective, in-treatment cohort study. The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9697, Pages 1262-1270.
Firearms
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many guns were seized by the police in each year since 1997. [312762]
Mr. Alan Campbell: These data are not collected centrally.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department is taking to reduce the availability of guns. [312763]
Mr. Alan Campbell:
The Home Office and ACPO have jointly funded the establishment of the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) with an investment
of £5.5 million. NABIS has made significant contributions to police and UKBA operations disrupting firearms supply, linking over 350 incidents in which firearms have been discharged and receiving over 1,000 items for analysis.
Through the Tackling Knives Action Programme the Home Office is also working with local partners to tackle gun and gang crime. This programme has included a consultation on strengthening controls on deactivated firearms in order to reduce their availability to criminals for use in crime. We are now analysing responses.
The Home Office has implemented a range of strict controls on the lawful possession of firearms, including a ban on handguns. Chief officers of police must be satisfied that an applicant has a good reason for wanting a particular firearm and is fit to be entrusted with it before issuing a certificate.
Human Trafficking
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases in respect of potential victims of trafficking who have been referred to the National Referral Mechanism since 1 April 2009 no decision on (a) reasonable and (b) conclusive grounds has been made. [309668]
Mr. Alan Campbell: From the cases referred into the National Referral Mechanism between 1 April 2009 and 31 December 2009, as of the latter date 70 were awaiting the Reasonable Grounds Decision and 245 were awaiting the Conclusive Grounds Decision.
Human Trafficking: Children
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children have been referred to the human trafficking national referral mechanism by (a) police and (b) the UK Border Agency since 1 April 2009. [313009]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 25 January 2010]: The police have referred 49 children and the UK Border Agency referred 39 children in the period, 1 April to 31 December 2009.
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which local authorities have referred children to the human trafficking national referral mechanism since its inception. [313010]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 25 January 2010]: The names of local authorities who have made referrals of children to the UK Human Trafficking Centre from the period 1 April to 31 December 2009 are listed as follows.
Local authorities referring children to the competent authority from 1 April 2009 to 31 December 2009
Birmingham City Council
Brent Council
Cardiff Council
Conwy Social Services
Doncaster Council
Glasgow City Council
Hampshire County Council
Haringey Social Services
Harrow Children Services
Hertfordshire County Council
Hillingdon Local Authority
Islington Social Services
Kent Social Services
Leicester City Council
London Borough of Camden
Manchester City Council
Moray Council
Newham Youth Offending Team
Newport Local Authority
Norfolk County Council
Nottingham City Council
Portsmouth City Council
Sheffield City Council
Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council
Suffolk County Council
Surrey County Council
Wakefield Council
West Sussex County Council
Knives: Crime
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to reduce the numbers of knives used in street crime. [312766]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Since June 2008, the Government have committed over £12 million to the Tackling Knives Action Programme, initially to tackle teenage knife crime, and since, March 2009, to tackle knife crime and tackle the minority of young people who commit serious violence, regardless of the weapon involved. Our comprehensive approach to tackling serious youth violence ranges from enforcement action, which shows young people that there are clear consequences to violent behaviour, through to prevention work, which brings about long-term change. One aspect of this has been to provide police forces with additional search equipment. We have provided 1,150 extra search arches and wands to police forces to take knives off the streets and reassure the public. As a result of on-going activity, police forces tell us that there are encouraging signs that knife carrying is reducing among young people.
Knives: Retail Trade
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions he has had with representatives of retail businesses on the sale of knives. [312771]
Mr. Alan Campbell: On 17 November 2008, I chaired a roundtable with retailers (Sainsbury's, Tesco, Asda, Lidl, Aldi, Morrisons, Co-op, Woolworths, Marks & Spencer, Argos/Homebase, TK Maxx, Next, Poundstretcher, Wilkinsons, Matalan, House of Fraser, John Lewis, Debenhams, BHS, B&Q and Ikea) to agree a six point commitment to limit the sale of knives to under 18s.
This included the following commitments:
1. To provide training and support to staff on the sale of knives, and keep a register of completion of training;
2. To clearly display to the public signs stating that knives are not for sale to under-18's;
3. To ensure that display and storage of knives minimises the risk of theft;
4. To ensure till prompts are in place to remind staff at point of sale;
5. To enhance safeguards on internet sales to address attempted underage sale of knives;
6. To monitor attempted underage sales and share information with local police and other partners.
The six point commitment, agreed with 21 retailers, was launched by the previous Home Secretary, my right hon. Friend the Member for Redditch (Jacqui Smith), on 5 February 2009. We continue to monitor the impact of this agreement as part of the broader TKAP programme.
National Identity Register
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer to Lord Stoddart of Swindon of 14 October 2009, Official Report, House of Lords, columns 26-27WA, on the National Identity Register, what estimate has been made of the number of citizens who will have their fingerprints stored on the National Identity Register by 2022. [312441]
Meg Hillier: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given on 25 January 2010, Official Report, column 648W.
Nosratollah Tajik
Andrew Mackinlay:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions his Department has had with representatives of banking and financial institutions in respect of the request from the United
States for the extradition of Nosratollah Tajik; and if he will make a statement. [308281]
Meg Hillier: There have been no such discussions.
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what occasions there have been discussions with representatives of other Government departments on the request from the United States for the extradition of Nosratollah Tajik; and if he will make a statement. [308282]
Meg Hillier: Officials have discussed this case on a number of occasions with representatives of other Government Departments.
Mr. Tajik has exhausted all avenues of appeal against extradition under the Extradition Act 2003. He has made further representations in relation to his health; the Home Secretary has no general discretion in relation to the case and accordingly the sole issue which falls to be considered is whether it would be a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights to extradite.
Powers of Entry
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) for what reason the Government have not introduced a new liberty test on powers of entry; [308373]
(2) how many (a) new and (b) amended powers of entry have been created by legislation sponsored by his Department since 1997. [308736]
Mr. Hanson: All powers of entry are enacted through legislation and subject to parliamentary scrutiny. The following table sets out new or amended powers of entry introduced by the Home Department and enacted by Parliament since 1997. We will be publishing proposals later this year on raising public awareness and accountability on the exercise of entry powers by those other than the police or security services.
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