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2 Mar 2010 : Column 1060W—continued
Police: Information and Communications Technology
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the number of hand held ICT devices used by police officers to receive information from and transmit information to police stations. [319597]
Mr. Hanson [holding answer 1 March 2010]: The total number of hand held ICT devices in use by frontline police officers as at 26 February 2010 is 42,824.
Police: Manpower
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy to increase the number of frontline police officers in England and Wales in the next five years. [318709]
Alan Johnson: The Government's priority is to protect the frontline and maintain a focus on increasing public confidence in the police service and achieving improvements in value for money. To support this the Government made clear in the pre-Budget report last December that it will provide sufficient funding in the next comprehensive spending review to enable police authorities to maintain current numbers of police officers, police community support officers and other staff exercising police powers in the years to 2012-13.
The decision on the number and mix of frontline officers and other staff that will best serve the public is an operational matter for individual chief constables and police authorities to determine.
Police: Pay
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) median and (b) mean salary of a police constable in each police force was in (i) cash and (ii) real terms in each year since 1997. [319339]
Mr. Hanson: This information is not held centrally.
Prisoners: Deportation
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign national prisoners were removed from the UK in each of the past 10 years. [318701]
Alan Johnson: The information requested in respect of foreign nationals removed from the UK prior to 2007 is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Published figures for the UK Border Agency show that around 15,000 foreign nationals were removed or deported over the last three years.
This information is taken from Internal Management Information and is subject to change.
Sandwell
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to the borough of Sandwell, the effects on that borough of changes to his Department's policies since 1997. [316471]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office has introduced a range of policies and initiatives since 2000. However, it is not always possible to quantify their effects particularly at constituency level. The available statistical information therefore relates to the Sandwell Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership area.
In terms of police recorded crime in Sandwell, between 2002-03 and 2008-09, total recorded crime fell by 41 per cent. More specifically:
Violence against the person-down 20 per cent.
Sexual offences-down 32 per cent.
Robbery-down 23 per cent.
Burglary-down 52 per cent.
Offences against vehicles-down 54 per cent.
Other theft offences-down 31 per cent.
Criminal damage-down 31 per cent.
Drug offences-up 37 per cent. (there has been increased recording of drug offences which was mainly attributable to the increased use of police powers to issue cannabis warnings).
Data prior to 2002-03 are not directly comparable because of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002.
Sandwell comes within the West Midlands K1 and K2 Basic Command Units, which had 717 police officers as at 30 March 2009. The number of police officers has increased by 32 since 2003. Comparisons with 1997 for West Midlands K1 and K2 BCUs are not available. There were 78 police community support officers as at 30 March 2009 while there were none in existence in 1997.
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 saw positive effects with the statutory duty to create a Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP). The CDRP has enabled new ways of working in a cross cutting way with the police, council and other key stakeholders to help tackle complex issues.
The Sandwell CDRP is well established and continues with good results in terms of tackling antisocial behaviour (ASB) and reducing crime and disorder.
Before 1997 there were no bespoke powers to tackle antisocial behaviour but there are now a range of powers to deal with this issue. These include antisocial behaviour orders and designated public places orders (DPPO) from the Criminal Justice and Police Act 2001 and as a result of their good work, Sandwell has been designated as an ASB Pioneer Area. The CDRP has also been instrumental in setting up an ASB Helpline in the borough; to date this has received 31,598 calls.
In 2008, the UK's first 'no rogue trader' zone was set up Sandwell, this is a borough-wide initiative between the police and trading standards to raise awareness of rogue trader tricks and encourage residents to report all suspicious activity.
Through the CDRP an award winning domestic violence partnership (Sandwell Organisation Against Domestic Abuse) was set up in 2006 which had received 12,017 referrals in total up to March 2009.
The Neighbourhood Statistics Service provides a wide range of statistical information at parliamentary constituency level, taken from the 2001 Census and other sources. This service is available on the National Statistics website at:
Telephone Tapping: Newspaper Press
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 11 January 2010, Official Report, columns 701-02W, on telephone tapping, how many individuals have been warned by the Metropolitan Police Service about the possible illegal interception of their communications since July 2009; how many such individuals are in the (a) police, (b) military, (c) government and (d) royal category; and how many individuals were so contacted during the investigation which preceded the arrests of Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire in August 2006. [319080]
Alan Johnson [holding answer 1 March 2010]: Further to my answer to the hon. Member on 11 January 2010, Official Report, column 702W, where information exists to suggest some form of interception of an individual's phone was or may have been attempted by Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire, the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) has taken all necessary steps to ensure those individuals have been informed.
The MPS is committed to respecting and protecting the privacy of those who may have been subject to illegal interception of their communications. The MPS considers that breaking down the small number of individuals contacted would undermine this commitment.
United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff (a) have been and (b) are seconded to work in the United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre from (i) the Police, (ii) the UK Border Agency, (iii) the Prison Service, (iv) the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, (v) HM Revenue and Customs/UK Border Force, (vi) non-governmental organisations, (vii) social services and (viii) each other organisation. [319836]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 1 March 2010]: There have been 46 posts filled on secondment from the organisations listed above with 38 posts currently filled. The figures by agency are as shown in the table:
| Total secondment posts | Currently seconded staff | |
There are no staff seconded from the Prison Service.
Energy and Climate Change
British Nuclear Fuels: Pay
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what the salary was of the Chief Executive of British Nuclear Fuels plc in 2009. [319811]
Mr. Kidney: In 2009, the salary of the Chief Executive of British Nuclear Fuels Ltd was £447,185.In addition he received £44,718 to be used at his own discretion to fund pension contributions.
Climatic Research Unit
Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much funding his Department has provided to the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit in each of the last five years. [319423]
Joan Ruddock: Since the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) was formed in October 2008, it has not provided any funding to the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.
Departmental Thefts
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many thefts from his Department have been recorded since its inception. [318988]
Joan Ruddock: The Department has recorded three thefts since its inception.
Energy: Conservation
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what support the (a) Energy Savings Trust and (b) Carbon Trust has provided to the residents of Stroud constituency in each year since 2004. [318978]
Joan Ruddock: The Energy Saving Trust (EST) is currently overseeing the Pay as You Save (PAYS) trials for DECC in which Stroud district council is participating.
EST's services are available to all UK citizens. These include a free telephone advice service (the Act on CO2 Advice Line in England) which offers callers advice on energy saving behaviour, how to make our homes more energy efficient, energy efficient products, low carbon energy, sustainable travel, efficient use of water, and waste minimisation. Advice and self-help tools are also available through EST's web advice services.
The Carbon Trust (CT) provides specialist support to business and the public sector to help cut carbon emissions, save energy and commercialise low carbon technologies.
It is not possible to provide a funding breakdown at a constituency level for EST and CT support.
Environment Protection: Employment
Mr. Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the proportion of the 1.2 million green jobs the Government plans to create by 2020 which are likely to be in Scotland. [318615]
Joan Ruddock: The figure of 1.2 million green jobs in the UK is an estimate of the potential growth in employment by 2014-15 based on an analysis of the Low Carbon and Environmental Goods and Services (LCEGS) sector (Innovas, March 2009, "Low Carbon and Environmental Goods and Services: An Industry Analysis").
While the Innovas study calculates that there were 73,000 people in the LCEGS sector in Scotland in 2007-08, it does not provide estimates of employment numbers at a country level in 2014-15.
Feed-in Tariffs
Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether his Department holds information for benchmarking purposes on feed-in-tariff schemes on other EU member states. [319547]
Joan Ruddock: The 'Report on Qualitative Issues in the Design of the GB Feed in Tariffs', prepared for the Department by Element Energy and Poyry Energy Consulting, contains that information and can be found on the DECC website at:
Natural Gas :Storage
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change if he will review Lancashire County Council's recent decision to refuse planning permission for additional gas storage capacity in that area. [310933]
Mr. Kidney: Lancashire county council refused planning permission for the Canatxx gas storage project at Preesall on 27 January 2010. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change cannot review the case. The applicant may ask my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government for a determination on appeal.
Nuclear Power Stations
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent assessment he has made of the merits of pebble-bed technology in the design of new nuclear reactors. [318260]
Mr. Kidney: In line with the reactor designs currently being assessed by the regulators through the generic design assessment (GDA) process, any new nuclear reactors built over the next 10-15 years will be generation III designs. These designs are already available commercially. The pebble-bed reactor is a generation IV-plus design that is not yet available commercially and has not been considered as part of the GDA process.
Warm Front Scheme
Mr. Graham Stuart:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many complaints (a)
his Department and (b) Eaga have received in relation to (i) the installation and (ii) failure of boilers installed under the Warm Front scheme in each of the last five years. [316429]
Mr. Kidney: The level of information requested in relation to complaints received by the Department is available for the period August to November 2009. During that time 421 expressions of dissatisfaction were received about a range of issues, of these, 80 cases relate to the quality of installation. The Department does not categorise complaints about boiler failure caused by manufacturing faults.
The following table shows the number of complaints received by eaga with regard to (i) boiler installation and (ii) boiler or system failure in each year under the present phase of the scheme (since 2005). The number of upheld complaints (complaints where a clear service failure has been identified) is shown alongside these figures.
| 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10( 1) | Total | |
| (1) Data run to 4 February 2010 | ||||||
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