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6 Apr 2010 : Column 1271W—continued
Offences Against Children
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if the Government will take steps to ratify the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. [325031]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 29 March 2010]: We are currently taking steps to assess the UK's compliance with its obligations under the convention.
Offensive Weapons: Shropshire
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes involving a weapon there have been in North Shropshire in each year since 1997; and what type of weapon was involved in each case. [325417]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The main police recorded crime return does not identify the use of a weapon in a given offence. Figures are collected for possession of weapon offences, but these do not include the more serious offences with which weapons are often associated, such as grievous bodily harm with intent.
Data relating to firearms offences and knife and sharp instrument offences are available, through additional special collections separate to the main recorded crime return. Figures are collected at police force level only, so data are provided for West Mercia police force area.
Data for firearms offences (excluding air weapons) are available since 1997-98 and are shown in Tables A, B and C.
There were two major changes in the way that police record crime in 1998 and 2002. In April 1998, the way in which crime was counted changed and the coverage of offences increased. In April 2002 the National Crime Recording Standard (NCRS) was introduced, which brought in a more victim-focused reporting system. This means that it is not possible to compare figures across these recording changes and this is reflected in the tables.
Data for knife/sharp instrument offences have been collected since April 2007 via a special additional data collection. Data are therefore only available for two years.
In 2007-08, the data collection covered the following offences: attempted murder, GBH and robbery. In 2008-09, the collection was expanded to include threats to kill, ABH, rape and sexual assaults. There were also changes in how both GBH with and without intent was recorded by forces following clarification of counting rules. Therefore, the figures between the two years are not comparable.
The data for knife/sharp instrument offences are shown in Tables D and E.
| Table A: Firearm offences (excluding air weapons) in West Mercia police force area, 1997-98 | |
| Total number of offences | |
| Table B: Firearm offences (excluding air weapons) in West Mercia police force area, 1998-99 to 2001-02( 1,2) | |
| Total number of offences | |
| (1) The coverage was extended and counting rules revised from 1998/99. Figures from that date are not directly comparable with those for 1997-98. (2) The data in this table are prior to the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for later years. | |
| Table C: Firearm offences (excluding air weapons) in West Mercia police force area, 2002-03 to 2008-09( 1) | |
| Total number of offences | |
| (1) The data in this table take account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years. | |
| Table D: Knife and sharp instrument offences recorded by West Mercia police for selected offences, 2007-08( 1) | |
| Offence category | Number of offences |
| (1) Other offences exist that are not shown in this table that may include the use of a knife or sharp instalment. In this table "offences involving a knife" refers to the use of a knife or sharp instrument. Total of selected serious offences only include the five offence types shown in this table. (2) Includes racially or religiously aggravated wounding or inflicting GBH. | |
| Table E: Knife and sharp instrument offences recorded by West Mercia police for selected offences, 2008-09( 1) | |
| Offence category | Number of offences |
| (1) Other offences exist that are not shown in this table that may include the use of a knife or sharp instrument In this table "offences involving a knife" refers to the use of a knife or sharp instrument. Total of selected serious offences only include the five offence types shown in this table. Collection expanded in 2008-09. (2) Includes racially or religiously aggravated wounding or inflicting GBH. | |
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) knives and (b) firearms have been recovered by police in North Shropshire in each year since 1997. [325418]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The requested data are not held centrally.
Opposition
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department has undertaken costings of the policies of the (a) Conservative Party and (b) Liberal Democrat Party at the request of Ministers or special advisers in the last 36 months. [324246]
Mr. Woolas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, my hon. Friend the Member for Portsmouth, North (Sarah McCarthy-Fry), on 30 March 2010, Official Report, column 1044W.
Police
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his most recent estimate is of the proportion of police (a) time and (b) budget spent on tackling (i) gang related crimes, (ii) robbery, (iii) criminal damage and (iv) sexual offences. [317836]
Alan Johnson: Table A contains the percentages of police officer time spent on different activities for the financial year 2007-08 for England and Wales. To reduce paperwork burdens on police officers the collection of data about time spent by officers on police activities ceased after 2007-08 in response to the recommendations by Sir David Normington in his review of data burdens placed by the Government on the police service published in February 2009. Activities are grouped according to whether they are related to crime incidents, related to non-crime incidents (e.g. road traffic accidents), or not related to specific incidents. In this last case, these activities could be related to crime (e.g. prison interviews), or to general police duties and activities (e.g. training).
The Policing Green Paper published in July 2008 introduced a robust programme to reduce bureaucracy and free-up officer time. This is enabling frontline staff to focus on dealing with the public's priorities, as measured against the confidence target-now the only top-down target on forces.
Table A indicates that, in 2007-08, the police in England spent 32.7 per cent. of their time on all crime incident-specific activities, 14.6 per cent. of their time on all non-crime incident specific activities, and 52.7 per cent. of their time on activities which were not related to specific incidents (although some of this will be crime-related).
The comparative figures for Wales are 27.9 per cent., 20.7 per cent. and 51.5 per cent. respectively.
Overall, in 2007-08, police in England and Wales spent 32.5 per cent. of their time on all crime incident-specific activities, 14.9 per cent. of their time on all non-crime incident specific activities, and 52.7 per cent. of their time on activities which were not related to specific incidents.
For the specific offence groupings of robbery, criminal damage and sexual offending, the amount of time spent by the police in England and Wales in 2007-08 on incident-specific activities, as a proportion of total police time, was 2.2 per cent., 2.1 per cent. and 2.3 per cent. respectively. As a proportion of total crime incident-specific time, the figures were 6.7 per cent., 6.3 per cent. and 7.2 per cent. respectively. There is no category of 'gang-related crimes'.
Table B contains police spend on different activities for the financial year 2007-08. As before, crime and non-crime incident-specific activities are differentiated. The categorisation of non-incident specific activities is different in Table B from Table A, however. Table B does not include costs of activities such as training, which are instead treated as overheads and included in the costs of all other activities. Further, Table B separates out some activities which are undertaken by particular staff or roles (e.g. 'intelligence analysis and research')-these are not included in Table A, as activity analysis covered only police officers working on foot, car or beat patrol, CID and traffic duties. Note that costs in Table B do not include 'sustaining overheads' such as running costs for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO).
Table B indicates that for the financial year 2007-08 the police in England and Wales spent 34.9 per cent. of its total budget (excluding sustaining overheads) on crime incident-specific activities. For the same specific offence groupings of robbery, criminal damage and sexual offending, the amount of budget spent by the police in England and Wales in 2007-08 on incident-specific activities, as a proportion of total police budget (excluding sustaining overheads), was 2.0 per cent., 2.2 per cent. and 2.6 per cent. respectively. As a proportion of total crime incident-specific budget spending, the figures were 5.7 per cent., 6.3 per cent. and 7.4 per cent. respectively. As before, there is no category of 'gang-related crimes'.
By way of context, Table C provides proportions of crime incidents of different types alongside the proportion of time and budgetary spend on crime devoted to these incident types. Thus it can be seen that, in 2007-08, robbery accounted for 1.7 per cent. of crime incidents, and 6.7 per cent. and 5.7 per cent. of police time and budgetary spend respectively. Criminal damage accounted for 21 per cent. of crime incidents, and 6.3 per cent. of both police time and budget. Sexual offences accounted for 1.1 per cent. of crime incidents, and 7.2 per cent. and 7.4 per cent. of police time and budget respectively.
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