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2 Jun 2010 : Column 12W—continued
Police
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she plans to take steps to increase the level of public accountability of police constables; and if she will make a statement. [185]
Nick Herbert: The Government are committed to replacing bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability. We will introduce directly-elected individuals to replace police authorities and hold the Chief Constable to account on behalf of the public. We will also ensure that police officers attend regular beat meetings with their communities and enhance local crime mapping so that communities have the information to hold the police to account.
Rape
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of unreported incidents of rape in the last 12 months; and what recent research her Department has commissioned on the issue. [619]
James Brokenshire: According to the latest data available, the British Crime Survey 2007-08 shows that 89% of victims of serious sexual assault did not report this to the police. It is not possible to break this down into specific types of sexual assault as this data is not collated.
Data for 2010-11 will be published by the British Crime Survey in January 2011.
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent evidence her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on (i) the number of reported rapes where a false allegation of rape was or may have been made which did not result in (A) a prosecution and (B) a conviction and (ii) the comparative rate of (1) false allegations of rape and (2) reported rapes. [620]
James Brokenshire: Statistical information held centrally by the Ministry of Justice on rape cases on the Court Proceedings Database for England and Wales does not identify the circumstances of the offence. Therefore it is not possible to separately identify those cases resulting in court proceedings that have arisen solely from persons making false accusations.
The Home Office and Government Equalities Office jointly commissioned Baroness Stern in 2009 to investigate how rape complaints are handled by public authorities in England and Wales. As part of the report, Baroness Stern reviewed evidence of false allegations and recommended that research be undertaken to establish their frequency. This can be accessed at:
Special Constables: Recruitment
Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many special constable applications are awaiting processing in each police authority area. [329]
Nick Herbert: This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Work Permits
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many work permits under the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (a) have been allocated and (b) are planned to be allocated to each (i) county and (ii) region in 2010. [50]
Damian Green: Work permits are no longer in use and were replaced in November 2008 by Tier 2 of the Points Based System.
Justice
Departmental Public Expenditure
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what mechanism was used to calculate the £325 million in-year reduction in his Department's budget; which of his Department's programmes will be affected; and by how much in each case. [575]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: Over the past three weeks the Ministry of Justice directors general and their staff have reviewed all current spending plans in line with priorities. Each area of the Department is contributing to the delivery of these savings (including arm's length bodies). These savings will be achieved by reducing discretionary spend, reducing capital and IT spend and stopping or deferring planned change programmes. When identifying these savings we have sought to ensure that they will not adversely affect services.
We will be in a position to announce full details of the savings plans at the time of the Budget on 22 June 2010.
Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how the £325 million reduction in his Department's budget announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury is to be implemented; and if he will publish revised allocations for (a) the National Offender Management Service, (b) the Probation Service and (c) each probation trust; [583]
(2) whether the £325 million in-year budget reductions announced by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will be met by a reduction in the Probation Service budget; [584]
(3) what estimate he has made of the number of additional prison places required as a result of an increase in the short-sentenced prison population following a reduction of £325 million in the Probation Service budget; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such provision per place assuming (a) no recourse to Operation Safeguard and (b) the activation of Operation Safeguard; [592]
(4) how many jobs will be redundant as a result of the £325 million of in-year budget reductions by (a) his Department's corporate centre, (b) the National Offender Management Service and (c) probation trusts; and what estimate he has made of the monetary cost to his Department of such redundancies. [593]
Mr Kenneth Clarke: Over the past three weeks the Ministry of Justice director generals and their staff have reviewed all current spending plans in line with priorities. Each area of the Department is contributing to the delivery of these savings (including arm's length bodies). When identifying these savings we have sought to ensure that they will not adversely affect services.
As with the rest of the Department, savings for National Offender Management Service (including probations services and probation trusts) will be achieved by reducing discretionary spend, reducing capital and IT spend and stopping or deferring planned change programmes.
On 28 May I announced that we would not be pursuing plans to build a new 360 place juvenile prison on the site of HMYOI Glen Parva. A cheaper, equivalent number of adult prison places will instead be provided on existing prison sites in a move that reflects the falling population of juveniles in custody.
Further details of the specific budget implications of these savings are still being finalised. Once this has been completed (at the time of the Budget) I will make further announcements of the implications of this on specific budgets.
Electoral Register
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much funding was provided to local authorities for the purposes of electoral registration in the latest period for which figures are available; and how much of that funding was spent. [162]
Robert Neill: I have been asked to reply.
Government funding for electoral registration is provided mainly through formula grant, which comprises Revenue Support Grant and redistributed business rates which this Department pays on behalf of Government as a whole. This is an unhypothecated block grant and councils are free to spend it on any service provided that they meet their statutory duties. For this reason, and due to the method of calculating formula grant, particularly floor damping, it is not possible to say how much grant has been allocated for any particular service.
Net current expenditure on the 'registration of electors' by local authorities in England was £67.6 million in 2008-09.
Source:
Revenue Outturn Statistics 2008-09
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will consider the merits of collating information on (a) the sums spent by local authorities on electoral registration, (b) the number of staff employed by local authorities on electoral registration and (c) the local authorities with the (i) best and (ii) worst performance in electoral registration. [696]
Mr Harper: I have been asked to reply.
The Electoral Commission has informed me that they will be publishing their report into the cost of electoral administration covering the 2007-08 and 2008-09 financial years in early June 2010. It will contain the information referred to at (a), (b) and (c), and the findings are to be published shortly. The information will be placed on the Commission's website when it is published.
Information on performance by electoral registration officers is collected by the Electoral Commission as part of their work on monitoring performance standards. Their second Report on Performance Standards for Electoral Registration Officers in Great Britain was published in March 2010.
Pleural Plaques: Compensation
Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice whether (a) those affected by asbestos poisoning, (b) those affected by pleural plaques and (c) the families of people affected by those conditions will receive compensation under the compensation scheme recently announced by his Department; and when he expects compensation payments under that scheme to begin. [64]
Mr Djanogly: The extra-statutory payments scheme will provide one-off payments to individuals who had begun, but not resolved, a legal claim for compensation for pleural plaques at the time of the House of Lords 2007 judgment. We hope that the extra-statutory scheme will be in a position to start accepting claims from the end of June 2010. The compensation will not extend more widely and people who have suffered actionable and compensatable damage as a result of exposure to asbestos are able to bring a claim for compensation under the civil law.
Prisons: Education
George Hollingbery: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what account is taken of the offences for which those prisoners applying for computing training courses have been convicted in determining the outcome of their applications. [578]
Mr Blunt:
Decisions on the training courses that prisoners attend, including computing training and higher education, are made in prisons by Prison Service staff based on individual prisoner assessments. These will take into account both rehabilitation requirements as well as risk assessments that take into account previous
offending and current behaviour. Some courses will not be appropriate because of the prisoner's previous offences while others will be inappropriate because they would lead to a vocational qualification that the prisoner would be unable to use. Prisoner's access to computers is tightly controlled and underpinned by rigorous IT security measures.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
China: Human Rights
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the outcome was of the recent formal meeting between the UK and China on human rights; and if he will make a statement. [43]
Mr Jeremy Browne: The latest round of the UK/China Human Rights Dialogue took place on 18 March in Beijing. The UK side raised a series of important issues including freedom of expression and the rule of law. The agenda also included discussion of the role and regulation of lawyers in human rights protection and co-operation with international human rights mechanisms. The UK side expressed concern over the human rights situation in Tibet. Before the dialogue a list of individual cases of concern was handed over. The Chinese are yet to respond on any of the cases.
Government Hospitality: Wines
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs at which events held between 11 May and 25 May 2010 wine from the Government wine cellar was served. [31]
Mr Bellingham: Government Hospitality managed one function during the period 11 May to 25 May 2010 at which wine from the Government Hospitality wine cellar was used. It was a dinner for the British-American Business Council on 13 May 2010.
Iran: Nuclear Power
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his most recent assessment is of the state of development of Iran's nuclear programme; and if he will make a statement. [72]
Alistair Burt: The Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will issue his report on Iran on 7 June. Iran has shown no sign of suspending its enrichment programme as required by numerous UN Security Council Resolutions, and continues to stockpile enriched uranium. Iran has also announced its intention to build more enrichment plants and has started enriching uranium to 20 per cent. a significant step towards weapons grade enrichment, despite having no credible civilian purpose for the fuel. We continue to share the IAEA's concerns about the possible existence in Iran of activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile. The UN Security Council is currently considering a new sanctions resolution in order to urge Iran to cooperate fully with the IAEA.
Iran: Sanctions
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he plans to take at the United Nations in the next six months on allegations of (a) arming of and (b) funding of Hamas by Iran; and if he will make a statement. [71]
Alistair Burt: The situation in the middle east is discussed regularly by the UN Security Council on a monthly basis. The UK will push for the full implementation of UNSCR 1860 which aims to prevent the illicit trafficking of arms into Gaza. We will give our full support to the UN Sanctions Committee in pursuing and investigating sanctions violations.
Israel: UN Resolutions
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to bring pressure on Israel to comply with all relevant UN resolutions. [255]
Alistair Burt: The situation in the Middle East is discussed by the UN Security Council on a monthly basis. The UK will continue to urge Israel to ensure full implementation of all relevant UN resolutions.
Middle East
Mr Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he plans to visit the Middle East; and if he will make a statement. [92]
Alistair Burt: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary and I both look forward to visiting the region in due course. We are not able to provide further details for security reasons.
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the UK's objectives are for the outcome of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in New York in May 2010. [146]
Alistair Burt: I am delighted that we achieved our objective of a politically-binding action plan to strengthen the Treaty's three pillars. We pushed hard for success: on 26 May 2010 my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary made public the maximum number of nuclear warheads the UK holds and announced a review of our declaratory policy. I attended the Conference to meet delegations to help promote a positive outcome. This conference was an important milestone in our long-term vision for a world without nuclear weapons.
South China Sea
Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the position of the Government is on the ownership of the Spratlys, the Macclesfield Bank and the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea. [464]
Mr Jeremy Browne: The status of disputed territory in the South China Sea is an issue for the countries disputing sovereignty to resolve. We welcome regional confidence building measures and commitments to find a peaceful resolution.
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