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Serious Crime Prevention Orders
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the estimated cost is of the new serious crime prevention orders. [88719]
Mr. Coaker: The regulatory impact assessment accompanying the consultation document new powers against organised and financial crime estimates the average cost of obtaining one order in a contested hearing will be around £40,000 to the applicant, and, if the proposed subject of the order is on legal aid, at most another £40,000 in legal aid bills. Any appeal hearing against the granting of an order is likely to cost approximately the same again to both the applicant and the legal aid budget.
We have not estimated the total cost of the new orders, as this will depend on the number applied for.
Serious Organised Crime/Terrorism
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to the answer of 13 July 2006, Official Report, column 2020W, on Colombia, what the Freedom of Information Act 2000 grounds are for his refusal to provide details of (a) the duties carried out by UK police officers in Colombia, (b) the number of police officers based in Colombia and (c) with which Colombian agencies officers of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency work; [88233]
(2) for what reasons the operational deployment of police officers and Serious and Organised Crime Agency staff cannot be commented upon by Ministers in his Department; and when that became policy. [88344]
Mr. Coaker: It would not be appropriate to comment on the operational deployment of SOCA staff in Colombia due to the discreet and often covert nature of their role. This has been the agreed policy since SOCA came into being on 1 April 2006.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) arrested, (b) charged and await trial and (c) convicted following an investigation by the Serious Organised Crime Agency since its inception. [88449]
Mr.
Coaker: Since it assumed its functions on 1 April 2006,
SOCA has run a number of investigations, some of which it has inherited
from pre-cursor agencies and some of which it has initiated itself. It
has also assisted others, at home and abroad, in their enforcement
activities. In accordance with section 7(1) of the Serious Organised
Crime and Police Act 2005, SOCA
will issue a report on the exercise of its functions during the year as
soon as possible after the end of the financial
year.
Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans his Department has to improve the ability of police forces to co-ordinate activities to combat serious organised crime and terrorism. [87263]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 24 July 2006]: Schedule 10 to the Police and Justice Bill will enable the Secretary of State to confer new a function on police authorities ‘to secure that arrangements are made for (their) force to co-operate with other police forces whenever necessary of expedient’.
In addition, I will shortly be writing to police forces and police authorities setting out the next steps in the light of the decision not to proceed with enforced police force mergers. I will be inviting forces and authorities to consider how improvements in protective services might be achieved through greater collaboration and co-operation.
I have also dedicated an extra £33 million extra this year and £65 million the year after to expand the police specialist counter terrorism capacity outside London. This is in addition to an extra £30 million this year and £45 million next year for the Metropolitan police. This will help strengthen the police service's intelligence and investigative capability and capacity and complements the additional funding awarded to the security and intelligence services.
Sex Offenders
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many sex offenders are (a) required to register with the police and (b) registered with the police; and if he will make a statement. [80406]
John Reid: All sex offenders who meet the notification requirements of The Sex Offender Act 1997, as updated by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, are required to notify certain personal information, for example their address, to the police.
Following conviction for a relevant offence, a certificate of conviction recording the notification requirement is forwarded to the police by the court. The police will note the requirement on the Violent and Sex Offenders Register (ViSOR). The offender's Violent and Sex Offenders Register entry will be updated when he actually registers and, if he fails to do so as required, he will be flagged on the Police National Computer and followed up accordingly.
Since 2002
and the introduction of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements
(MAPPA), details of the number of registered sex offenders in the
community has been routinely incorporated into the MAPPA Annual Report
for each area of England and Wales. In 2004-05 MAPPA reports, the
latest year of publication, recorded 28,994 registered sex offenders
living in the community across England and Wales as at 31 March 2005.
Further information by area is summarised in individual MAPPA reports
which are published annually. The following table sets out the
national figure for the number of convictions and cautions received for
breach of the notification requirements. The maximum penalty for breach
of the notification requirements is five years' imprisonment. Data on
the penalties imposed in each case of conviction are not recorded
centrally.
| RSOs cautioned or convicted for breach of registration requirements, 2001-05 | |
| Number | |
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many sex offenders have breached their registration requirements in each of the last five years; and what penalties were imposed in each case. [80407]
John Reid: All sex offenders who meet the notification requirements of the Sex Offender Act 1997, as updated by the Sexual Offences Act 2003, are required to notify certain personal information, for example their address, to the police.
Following conviction for a relevant offence, a certificate of conviction recording the notification requirement is forwarded to the police by the court. The police will note the requirement on the Violent and Sex Offenders Register (ViSOR. The offender’s Violent and Sex Offenders Register entry will be updated when he actually registers and, if he fails to do so as required, he will be flagged on the Police National Computer and followed up accordingly.
Since 2002 and the introduction of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), details of the number of registered sex offenders in the community has been routinely incorporated into the MAPPA Annual Report for each area of England and Wales. In 2004-05 MAPPA reports, the latest year of publication, recorded 28,994 registered sex offenders living in the community across England and Wales as at 31 March 2005. Further information by area is summarised in individual MAPPA reports which are published annually. The following table sets out the national figure for the number of convictions and cautions received for breach of the notification requirements. The maximum penalty for breach of the notification requirements is five years’ imprisonment. Data on the penalties imposed in each case of conviction is not recorded centrally.
| RSOs cautioned or convicted for breach of registration requirements 2001-05 | |
| RSOs cautioned or convicted for breach of registration requirements | |
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many registered (a) sex offenders and (b) paedophiles are resident in each police authority area. [85935]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Since 2002 and the introduction of the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA), details of the number of registered sex offenders in the community has been routinely incorporated into the MAPPA Annual Report for each police/probation area of England and Wales. The data are not broken down by victim age. The following table gives the total number of registered sex offenders living in each area as at 31 March 2005 as published in the MAPPA reports. Data from the City of London and the Metropolitan police are pooled under "London".
| Area | Registered sex offenders in the community as at 31 March 2005 |
Judy Mallaber: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce procedures for checking whether candidates for public office as councillors and hon. Members are on the Sex Offenders Register. [86077]
Mr. Coaker: There are no plans to introduce procedures to check whether candidates for public office are subject to the notification requirements of part 2 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which are often known as the sex offenders register.
The notification requirements serve a specific purpose: to ensure that the police are kept informed of convicted and cautioned sex offenders’ personal details by obliging offenders to notify information to the police, notify the police of any changes to that information and re-confirm their details at least once a year. This is to assist the police and probation services in the management of any risks offenders may pose and in the detection of sexual crime. They do not exist to punish offenders or bar them from certain occupations or posts.
Under the Local Government Act 1972, however, an individual will be disqualified from being a local councillor if he receives a conviction carrying a prison sentence of over three months (suspended or not) if convicted of an offence within five years before election. Similarly, under the Representation of the People Act 1981, a person found guilty and sentenced or ordered to be imprisoned or detained for more than one year is disqualified from membership of the House of Commons while detained in pursuance of the sentence.
Moreover, the fact that a sex offender is a councillor or MP would not relieve the police and probation services responsibility to manage any risks the individual may pose. They would include in their risk assessments any details of the individual’s duties and if it was thought that they posed a risk of serious sexual harm, then the police could apply for a sexual offences prevention order (SOPO) to impose prohibitions on the individual’s behaviour.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to ensure that there are sufficient approved places available to the Probation Service to house sex offenders upon their release. [87580]
Mr. Sutcliffe: We are considering a range of options on how the Approved Premises Estate may best meet the demand for places for those offenders who, on public protection grounds, are best supervised in Approved Premises on release from custody.
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