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11 Mar 2010 : Column 446W—continued
Animal Experiments: Primates
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department takes steps to ensure that monkeys imported for scientific research from (a) China and (b) Vietnam have been bred in that country and not re-exported from a third country. [321326]
Meg Hillier: Appraisal of the breeding centres in China and Vietnam currently regarded as acceptable by the Home Office has not revealed any evidence that animals consigned to the United Kingdom have been bred other than at the Chinese or Vietnamese centre in question.
Following each shipment of non-human primates to the United Kingdom, the Inspectorate has access to the full-lifetime records of the individual animals to be used under project licence authority including details of their origin. Second and subsequent Inspectorate visits to overseas sources allow supplementary checks to be made of the reliability of the records provided to the United Kingdom users.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many companies in (a) China and (b) Vietnam are designated as breeding and supply establishments to supply non-human primates to the UK for the purposes of scientific research. [321341]
Meg Hillier: The Home Office has no authority to designate primate breeders or suppliers outside Great Britain. However, the use of any non-human primate from an overseas source under the authority of a project licence issued under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 requires prior approval which is given only if the conditions at the supplying centre, and at the breeding centre where the animals originate, if different, are acceptable to the Home Office at the time of the supply. There are three centres in China currently considered acceptable to provide non-human primates to UK designated user establishments and one in Vietnam.
Antisocial Behaviour
Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many reports of antisocial behaviour police forces in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) England and Wales have received in each year since 1997. [313498]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The total number of incidents classified as antisocial behaviour as defined within the National Incident Category List (NICL) in 2007-08 and 2008-09 are set out in the table. Data are not available by constituency and were only collected in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
These data are normally used for management information only and are not subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications.
| Force area | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| (1) For policing purposes the Home Office defines the North East region as consisting of three police forces: Cleveland, Durham, and Northumbria. (2) This figure has increased by 7,602 compared to the figure in PQ ref: 289587 owing to a correction to Wiltshire's figure. Note: The data represent calls for service as recorded by police forces under the ASB categories and may be subject to local variation in reporting and classifying. | ||
Arrest Warrants: Operating Costs
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost to the public purse has been of enforcing European arrest warrants issued in each other EU member state in each year since 2003; and what the average cost to the public purse was of enforcing such a warrant in each of those years. [321191]
Meg Hillier [holding answer 8 March 2010]: The European arrest warrant has been in operation since 1 January 2004. The Home Office does not hold these data. They could not be accessed without incurring disproportionate cost.
Departmental Translation Services
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what expenditure (a) his Department and (b) each of its agencies incurred on translators in each year since 1998. [317982]
Alan Johnson: The Department's expenditure on translation and interpretation services from 2003-04 to 2008-09, being the most recent period for which audited figures are available, is as follows:
| £000 | ||||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | |
| (1)The Identity and Passport Service introduced compulsory face-to-face interviews for first time applicants in 2007-08. The first compulsory interview making use of an interpreter took place on 11 May 2007. | ||||||
The Home Office figures in the table, for the financial years 2004-05 to 2007-08, do not include those for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and the Office of Criminal Justice and Reform (OCJR), which transferred to Ministry of Justice on 1 April 2007: figures for NOMS and OCJR for 2003-04 could not be deducted from the Home Office total without incurring disproportionate cost.
Data prior to 2003-04 can only be extracted at disproportionate cost.
Firearms: Arrests
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) arrests for possession of a firearm and (b) gun-related incidents were recorded in each year since 1997. [320893]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The relevant Home Office data collection includes information on the number of arrests for possession of firearms resulting from searches under the Firearms Act 1968 Section 47 and other legislation. Data on the number of arrests under these powers from 1997-98 to 2007-08 (latest available) are provided in Table (A). The information provided only covers arrests under these powers and does not cover other arrests for firearms.
Information on the number of arrests for possession of firearms not resulting from these searches is not available centrally.
Data on offences in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used from 1997-98 to 2008-09 are given in Tables (B) and (C). Statistics for 2009-10 are scheduled to be published in January 2011.
Firearms are taken to be involved in a crime if they are fired, used as a blunt instrument or used as a threat against a person.
The National Crime Recording Standard was introduced in April 2002. Firearm offences before and after that date are not directly comparable.
| Table A: Number of arrests for possession of firearms following stops and searches under Section 47 of the firearms act 1968 and other legislation, England and Wales 1997-98 to 2007-08 | |
| Number | |
| Table B: Firearm offences( 1) (excluding air weapons), England and Wales, 1997 to 2001-02 | |
| Number of offences | |
| (1) Firearms are taken to be involved in a crime if they are fired, used as a blunt instrument or used as a threat (2) There was a change in the counting rules for recorded crime on 1 April 1998. (3) Figures may have been inflated by some police forces implementing the principles of the National Crime Recording Standard before 1 April 2002. | |
Intelligence Services
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the guidelines issued by his Department to officers of those intelligence services which fall within his responsibilities on interviewing prisoners abroad have been (a) seen and (b) agreed by him; and if he will make a statement. [321502]
Mr. Hanson: The draft consolidated guidance is being seen and agreed by the relevant Ministers, which includes myself, and, as the Prime Minister has made clear, will be published shortly.
Post Office
Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has discussed with Post Office Ltd. the award of the contract set out in tender notice 2009/S 247-354963. [319963]
Meg Hillier: The Secretary of State for the Home Department has not discussed with Post Office Ltd. the award of the contract set out in tender notice 2009/S 247-354963.
Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he made an assessment of awarding the contract set out in tender notice 2009/S 247-354963 to Post Office Ltd outside the competitive process. [319964]
Meg Hillier: The National Identity Scheme Management Board and its professional advisers concluded that a competition was required to find partners to help provide the services set out in tender notice 2009/S 247-354963. They advised the Secretary of State for the Home Department accordingly.
Prisoners: Health
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the number and proportion of (a) youths, (b) adult males and (c) adult females in custody following sentencing who experienced (i) drug dependency health problems, (ii) alcohol dependency health problems and (iii) serious mental health problems in the last 12 months. [321122]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The Department does not collect information on the number and proportion of sentenced prisoners (including young offenders (18 to 20 years), adult males and adult females) who experienced drug dependency and alcohol dependency health problems.
A source of information regarding prevalence of substance misuse among sentenced prisoners is "The problems and needs of newly sentenced prisoners: results from a national survey" published by the Ministry of Justice in October 2008. This reviewed 1,457 newly sentenced prisoners from 49 prisons.
In 2008, 703 sentenced prisoners were transferred from prison because of a mental illness severe enough to warrant treatment in a mental in-patient facility commissioned by the national health service.
UK Border Agency: Manpower
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many UK Border Agency staff were based in each overseas country on 1 December 2009. [313504]
Mr. Woolas: 661 UK-based UK Border Agency staff are posted or are working overseas.
Another 1,510 staff locally engaged by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office also work for the UK Border Agency are based abroad.
The following tables give the breakdown by each country:
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