House of Commons Hansard Debates for 5 Mar 1993

Written Answers to Questions

Friday 5 March 1993

HOME DEPARTMENT

Security Firms

Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take the necessary action to require all employees of security firms (a) to be registered by the police authority, (b) to be issued with a personal number and (c) to be required to wear their personal identification number prominently and visually ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Charles Wardle : My right hon. Friend has no plans to do so. The Government's policy is to promote self-regulation in the private security industry.

Electoral Malpractice

Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make a statement on the penalties for electoral malpractice ;

(2) what proposals he has to increase the penalties for corrupt or illegal electoral practices ;

(3) what proposals he has for the revision of the law on illegal electoral practices.

Mr. Peter Lloyd : The penalties for corrupt practices, illegal practices and other offences are set out in the Representation of the People Act 1983. We have no proposals for revising the law.

Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals he has for amendment of the legislation on the conduct of elections.

Mr. Peter Lloyd : We have set up five working groups of Home Office officials and representatives of returning officers and local authorities to consider different aspects of the electoral process. We shall consider the findings of the working groups once they have concluded their work.

Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proposals he has for extension of the time for submission of electoral expense returns.

Mr. Peter Lloyd : We have no such proposals.

Animal Experimentation

Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to investigate the value of human tissue as an alternative to both live animal experimentation and experiments with animal tissues.

Mr. Charles Wardle : The Home Office, on the advice of the Animal Procedures Committee, funds research into ways of refining, reducing and replacing the use of living animals in scientific procedures. Applications for funding are considered by the research sub-committee of the APC.

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Police Interview Notes

Mr. Mallon : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many instances in each of the past three years criminal convictions have been referred back to the Court of Appeal following re-examination of the original police interview notes.

Mr. Jack : The re-examination of original police interview notes was a factor in the reference to the Court of Appeal of one case in 1990, four cases in 1991 and three cases in 1992.

Mr. Mallon : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many requests have been made to the police in each of the past three years for the disclosure of original interview notes in cases where criminal charges have been brought ; in how many instances these requests have been denied ; and for what reasons.

Mr. Charles Wardle : This information is not available. Records are not held in a form which would identify such requests.

Prison Service (Supply and Transport)

Sir John Wheeler : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about the future arrangements for the warehousing and distribution function of the prison service's supply and transport branch.

Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Following the market testing of the warehousing and distribution function, I approved, in July 1992, the award of a contract to a private sector company, subject inter alia to the negotiation of a satisfactory contract. It has not been possible to negotiate such a contract, and the next best bid, which is the in-house bid, now becomes the preferred bid. I have instructed officials to negotiate a service level agreement with the in-house providers. I expect the outcome of this market test to reduce the present costs of this function by about a quarter over three years.

Probation Service

Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the probation service budget in England and Wales was spent on (a) research and information and (b) administration in 1981, 1991 and 1992 respectively.

Mr. Jack [holding answer 19 February 1993] : Probation service expenditure, while broken down, is not done so in such a way as to enable this information to be given.

Probation areas, taking account of both national and local plans and priorities, make their own decisions about expenditure on research and on administration. Much valuable research work as well as essential information work is conducted within probation areas. The number of personnel employed by probation committee in England and Wales as research and information officers and as clerical, secretarial and adminstrative staff was as follows (percentage of total staff in parentheses) :

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