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Written Answers

Tuesday, 18th June 2002.

Police Authorities: Objectives

Lord Dixon-Smith asked Her Majesty's Government:

What criteria they use to determine any objectives they set for police authorities under Section 37 of the Police Act 1996; and [HL4528]

How they measure the cost of any objectives they set for police authorities under Section 37 of the Police Act 1996; and[HL4529]

What criteria they use to determine any performance targets they set for police authorities under Section 38 of the Police Act 1996; and[HL4530]

How they measure the cost of any performance targets they set for police authorities under Section 38 of the Police Act 1996.[HL4531]

The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Falconer of Thoroton): The criteria for setting the Government's objectives for policing under Section 37 of the Police Act 1996 are that they should focus police authorities' resources on those areas of policing which the Home Secretary considers to be a priority for the forthcoming year. This year's objectives are:

To help create safe communities by reducing crime, anti-social behaviour and disorder through effective partnership working, including reducing the availability of Class A drugs;

To reduce the fear of crime in all sections of the community and in particular to increase the trust and confidence in policing among minority ethnic communities;

To increase the number of offences for which offenders, and particularly persistent offenders, are caught and brought to justice, in partnership with other criminal justice agencies.

The objectives are set at a strategic level and do not lend themselves to specific cost analysis. It is for each police authority to decide how best to manage its resources to meet the objectives.

To date, no performance targets for police authorites have been set under Section 38 of the Police Act 1996. However, targets have been set for reductions in domestic burglary, vehicle crime and, in five major cities, robbery under Section 5 of the Local Government Act 1999.

Trafficking in Human Beings

Lord Beaumont of Whitley asked Her Majesty's Government:

What sum of money has been recovered for each of the last five years by way of confiscation from

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those prosecuted for involvement in trafficking in women.[HL4555]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin): At present there is no specific offence of trafficking in human beings and so no data exist about the confiscation of assets of those engaged in this practice. The Government are committed to introducing a specific offence of trafficking in prostitution in the current Nationality Immigration and Asylum Bill. Confiscation figures in England and Wales for all offences other than drug trafficking, as set out below, illustrate the current use of confiscation powers.

Confiscation orders made under the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

1997–98

Number of orders made 170,

Value of orders made £17.2 million,

Amounts remitted to Secretary of State £3.5 million.

1998–99

Number of orders made 175,

Value of orders made £12.7 million,

Amounts remitted to Secretary of State £6 million.

1999–2000

Number of orders made 215,

Value of orders made £28.6 million,

Amounts remitted £15.7 million,

2000–01

Number of orders made 191,

Value of orders made £20.7 million,

Amounts remitted £8.1 million.

The Government have initiated a programme of work to strengthen the effectiveness of the criminal justice system in depriving criminals of their benefit from crime with a view to doubling the amounts recovered from drug traffickers and other serious criminals. The components of the programme are new powers under the Proceeds of Crime Bill, currently going through Parliament, the planned creation under the Bill of an assets recovery agency, the asset recovery strategy which the Government agreed with law enforcement, prosecution and other agencies last autumn; and a grant scheme to help police forces appoint additional financial investigators. The Government have also established the Recovered Assets Fund under which up to half of receipts from recovered criminal assets are available to be recycled into projects under five headings, including the asset recovery strategy.ralph

Lord Beaumont of Whitley asked Her Majesty's Government:

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What sums of money have been set aside to help victims of trafficking or sexual exploitation.[HL4557]

Lord Filkin: As we set out in the White Paper, Secure Boarders, Safe Haven: Integration with Diversity in Modern Britain, the Home Office is considering what kind of support and advice can be provided to the victims of trafficking and also how we might improve the way in which victims are identified and dealt with by the police and Immigration Service.

The Government are working with the voluntary sector on the provision of services to victims of trafficking for sexual and labour exploitation and to identify the cost implications of such services. The Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are running a number of prevention projects aimed primarily at raising awareness and educating potential victims (mostly women and children) in the dangers of being trafficked: £3 millon has been given for the International Labour Organisation's International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC) programme in the Greater Mekong region (parts of Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam). This involves a number of interlinked interventions to raise awareness and prevent trafficking and to withdraw women and children from exploitation and reintegrate them back into their own or new communities.

Asylum Seekers

Lord Dixon-Smith asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many different support arrangements, including transitional support arrangements under the welfare provisions, are in current use for the support of asylum seekers.[HL4587]

Lord Filkin: The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) assumed responsibility for the support of asylum seekers who are destitute on 3 April 2000. The vast majority of new asylum seekers who are destitute are supported directly by NASS. The only exception would be where a newly arrived asylum seeker sought to join the household of a pre-existing asylum seeker who was in receipt of support under the interim scheme by either a local authority or of benefits from the Benefits Agency.

Some asylum seekers remain supported by local authorities under the interim scheme. This group includes those who applied in country before the NASS system of support was rolled out in their area and port applicants who applied prior to 3 April 2000 who had a negative claim recorded on their application prior to 25 September 2000. Asylum seekers who applied for asylum on arrival prior to 3 April 2000 and who have not received an initial decision on their claim are supported under income support arrangements.

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Unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASCs) are suported by local social services departments in the same way as they do for any other child in need of care.

The Home Office pays grant, within unit cost limits, to local authorities to meet the direct costs associated with supporting asylum seekers under the interim scheme and of supporting UASCs.

There are no plans to subsume the number of asylum seekers supported under income support arrangements into the NASS system of support. As these cases receive an initial decision they transfer either directly to the NASS system of support or to the interim scheme. The regulations governing the interim scheme are due to end on 5 April 2004.

Appellate Committee of the House of Lords

Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Chancellor on 10 June (WA 3), what are their reasons for concluding that the present arrangements for the hearing of appeals by the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, and in devolution cases by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, are preferable to the creation of a supreme court for the United Kingdom independent of the House of Lords.[HL4701]

The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg): Our present arrangements work well. I am not aware of any case where the Law Lords' membership of this House has inhibited them from carrying out their judicial functions. That being the case, the Government are not presently persuaded that there is a sufficient case for changing the existing arrangements.

Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Chancellor on 10 June (WA 3), whether they have consulted the senior judiciary and legal profession of each country of the United Kingdom before reaching the view that a sufficient case has not been made out for the abolition of the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords and its replacement by a separate new supreme court; if so, what were the views obtained in the course of such consultation; and, if not, whether they will now do so.[HL4702]

The Lord Chancellor: It is for those advocating change to make out the case for it. So far, the Government remain unpersuaded. In the circumstances, they do not feel that a consultation exercise is necessary or desirable. Those advocating both sides of the argument are well able to put their views forward without formal consultation.

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