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7 May 2009 : Column WA127

Written Answers

Thursday 7 May 2009

Arson

Question

Asked by Lord Laird

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the practice of the Police Service of Northern Ireland of obtaining details of primary and secondary fires involving suspected arson from the Fire and Rescue Service is working effectively; and how many such cases were reported in the past three years. [HL3090]

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: That is an operational matter for the chief constable. I have asked him to reply directly to the noble Lord, and a copy of his letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

7 May 2009 : Column WA128

Association of Chief Police Officers

Questions

Asked by Baroness Warsi

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much they have paid the Association of Chief Police Officers for project work in each of the past three years. [HL2911]

To ask Her Majesty's Government for what projects they have paid the Association of Chief Police Officers in each of the past three years. [HL2912]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The Home Office has provided funding for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) since 1997.

In addition to an annual grant in aid payment, the Home Office has made regular payments to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to fund a number of specific projects or in support of initiatives that are best delivered by those with professional police experience. All the grants are prescribed only for the project or use specified. From the information currently held by the department, the payments made to ACPO since 2006-07 have been listed as an annexe to this response.

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7 May 2009 : Column WA130

Home Office Payments to ACPO
	Financial year
	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09	Detail
Project	£	£	£	Funding allocated only for these purposes
Grant Aid	836,232	836,232	836,232	To meet the costs of the ACPO President and part of the ACPO office costs
ACIST	2,988,115			To fund the ACPO Change & Implementation Support Team
Criminal Records project	110,000	110,000	110,000	UK Central Authority for exchange of criminal records
Operation Sycamore	700,000			Investigation into prostitution project
Community Tensions project	60,000	60,000	82,172	To fund the ACPO National Community Tensions Team
Domestic Extremism project	2,000,000	2,000,000	2,000,000	To fund the ACPO Domestic Extremism Team
Disaster Victims Identification	253,128	314,296	216,060	To fund the ACPO UK DIVI Management Team
Stockwell project		230,000		Learning lessons of the Stockwell incident
Drugs Conference			10,000	Contribution to ACPO conference
Cannabis cultivation			40,000	Funding part of the costs of a co-ordinator
Wildlife crime	15,367	15,367	150,000	Funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit
Vehicle Intelligence			100,000	Funding for ACPO Vehicle Intelligence Service
Car Parking	200,000	185,000	130,000	Funding for ACPO Safer Car parking Scheme
Co-ordination of Counter-Terrorism policing		5,300,664	4,000,000	Funds the national co-ordination functions: the National Co-ordinator of Special Branch, media liaison work, CT training needs analysis and the police contribution to the Border Management programme.
Prevent		355,586	1,159,500	Prevent Channel project
Prevent			4,705,810	Prevent policing
Protective Services		60,600	189,400	Co-ordination costs
Level 2		2,000,000		Level 2 project
Operation Overt		268,581		PNICC work on the air terrorist action
RIUs	8,000,000	8,000,000		Setting up Regional Intelligence Units
Policing the Olympics			220,000	Co-ordinating work
Prisoner Intelligence Network	948,665	3,841,899	4,598,961	Support funding for programme
AVCIS (ACPO vehicle crime intelligence service)		420,000		Organised vehicle crime investigation
AVCIS—TruckPol		50,000		Freight crime intelligence service
ACPO Drugs CBA	10,000	10,000		Contribution to ACPO organised drugs conference
Operation Cube (ACRO)	450,000	0	0	DNA analysis
Operation Element (National Community Tension Team)		200,000	170,000	NCTT—Operation Element (2007-08 funding)
Knife Crime	0	0	81,250	Knife Crime £100,000 funding approx agreed for 8 mth (mid Sep 08 to mid May 09)
Domestic violence posters	0	0	4,690	Domestic violence awareness campaign. Grant agreement signed—funding awaited
Totals	14,571,507	22,258,225	16,804,075

Asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the role of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) in the organisation and operations of police forces in the United Kingdom; what is its role in the formation of Government policy on policing and security; what is the annual cost of the ACPO; and how and by whom it is financed. [HL2942]

Lord West of Spithead: The Association of Chief Police Officers is an independent organisation made up of representatives of forces in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which works in partnership with both the Government and the Association of Police Authorities to co-ordinate the direction and development of the police service.

ACPO plays a key role advising the Government on behalf of the police service as a whole on major national projects aimed at developing the capacity of the service. It also advises on how to tackle serious and ongoing strategic threats that might put the public at risk. In times of national need, ACPO is specifically tasked with co-ordinating the strategic policing response on behalf of all chief officers.

ACPO is funded by a combination of Home Office grant, contributions from each police authority, membership subscriptions and the proceeds of its annual exhibition.

The Home Office annual grant in aid payment for 2008-09 was £836,232.

The grant in aid contribution is used to cover the cost of the ACPO president's role and their office. The department also provides specific project-related funding.

7 May 2009 : Column WA131

Badgers and Bovine Tuberculosis

Question

Asked by The Duke of Montrose

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to record the incidence of tuberculosis infection in the badgers that they intend to vaccinate with the BCG vaccine. [HL3235]

The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): There are no plans to record the incidence of tuberculosis infection in the badgers that are vaccinated with the BCG vaccine as part of the badger vaccine deployment project. To meet the aim of deploying injectable badger vaccines in a way which supports the long-term goal of oral vaccination, resources need to be concentrated on vaccinating as many badgers as possible. Carrying out diagnostic work would be expensive and would divert resources away from badger vaccination. This would not demonstrate a practical long-term method for vaccination.

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