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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 13 March 1989
HOME DEPARTMENT
Court Service (Clerks)
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the salary structure for justices' clerks, their deputies and court clerks.
Mr. John Patten : The salary structure and scales are as determined by the joint negotiating committees for justices' clerks and magistrates' courts staff, and are subject to review by those bodies.
D Notices
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any plans to submit any new D notices to the defence, press and broadcasting committee.
Attitudes to Crime Survey
Ms. Richardson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department consulted women's organisations and others with expertise in rape, sexual assault and domestic violence before deciding to include questions on rape, sexual assault and domestic violence in his Department's survey on attitudes to crime ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John Patten : The questionnaire for the survey was devised by a team of international experts on victimisation surveys. The survey in England and Wales was supervised by the Home Office research and planning unit the members of which have had considerable experience of victimisation surveys and research.
Ms. Richardson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the interviewers who conducted his Department's survey on attitudes to crime and who telephoned women at random to ask questions about rape, and other sexual and domestic violence, were women ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John Patten : About half of the interviewers used by Burke Marketing Research Ltd, who conducted the telephone survey of experience of crime for the Home Office, were women.
Ms. Richardson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether women's organisations, or others with expertise on rape, sexual assault and domestic violence, were consulted or asked to contribute to the training programme for interviewers who conducted his Department's survey on attitudes to crime ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John Patten : Interviewers underwent a full training programme for telephone interviewing and operated under
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the Market Research Society's code of conduct. There was also a full briefing for inerviewers by a female Home Office survey expert.Information (Unauthorised Access)
Miss Emma Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the potential deleterious effects of information obtained by unauthorised means about current Home Department casework on (a) police matters, (b)
passport/immigration, (c) deregulation and (d) criminal justice.
Mr. Hurd : The potential effects are indicated by the security classification or privacy marking given to the material.
Police (Leicestershire)
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will name the police officers interviewed by the inspectorate on their visit to Leicestershire in February.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : In the course of its inspections of police forces under the Police Act 1964 Her Majesty's inspectorate of constabulary may interview such police officers as it considers necessary in connection with its duties. It would not be right to disclose the names of those interviewed.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the duration and date of the visit from the inspectorate to Leicestershire in February.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : Her Majesty's inspectorate of constabulary carried out the formal annual inspection of the Leicestershire constabulary under the Police Act 1964 from 27 February to 2 March 1989.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has received any representations concerning the investigations which are currently being conducted by the assistant chief constable of Derbyshire into the activities of the Leicestershire constabulary.
Criminal Injuries Compensation Board
Mr. Ashley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the longest waiting time for any applicant to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board to have waited for their case to be resolved and for an appeal to be decided.
Mr. John Patten : The board does not keep information about waiting times in cases now disposed of. The oldest application still outstanding was received on 22 March 1974, and was the subject of a hearing in 1978. The case concerns injury to a young child who is still a minor. It is kept under review and a number of interim payments have been made.
Mr. Ashley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many applications to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board in the last five years were rejected because a battered wife did not inform the police of the assault ;
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(2) how many applications to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board in each of the last five years relate to domestic violence ; and what proportion were successful.Mr. John Patten : Collation by the board of information on applications arising from violence within the family was discontinued in 1985. The information given in the
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following table is taken from the board's annual reports for the years 1982-83, 1983-84 and 1984-85. In these years, 10, 32 and 22 cases were rejected on the basis that the circumstances of the injury had not been reported without delay. It is not known how many of these applications were from wives.Column 3
Number of applications
determined
Year |Awards made |Applications rejected|Withdrawn/abandoned
|Male |Female |Children |Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1984-85 |39 |188 |12 |239 |151 |87 |1
1983-84 |50 |161 |15 |226 |104 |120 |2
1982-83 |46 |114 |5 |165 |95 |67 |3
Mr. Ashley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications have been made to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board in each of the last five years ; how many and what proportion of these were successful ; how many of the unsuccessful ones appealed ; and what proportion of appeals was successful.
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Mr. John Patten : The following tables give the information which is kept by the board and published in its annual reports. Decisions made within the year concerned relate in many cases to applications made in previous years.
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|c|Table 1|c|
1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88
|Number |Per cent.|Number |Per cent.|Number |Per cent.|Number |Per cent.|Number |Per cent.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Applications received |31,939 |- |34,890 |- |39,697 |- |42,301 |- |43,054 |-
Total decisions accepted |25,963 |- |23,636 |- |26,299 |- |25,236 |- |24,175 |-
Breakdown of decisions accepted
Full awards |18,618 |61 |17,089 |61 |19,906 |64 |19,147 |64 |18,186 |63
Reduced awards |591 |2 |510 |2 |590 |2 |579 |2 |570 |2
Nil awards |6,754 |22 |6,037 |22 |5,803 |19 |5,510 |19 |5,419 |19
Requests for hearings |4,339 |15 |4,244 |15 |4,677 |15 |4,510 |15 |4,583 |16
|------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |-------
Total of decisions accepted |30,302 |100 |27,880 |100 |30,976 |100 |29,746 |100 |28,758 |100
and requests for hearings