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Police
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion and total amount of (a) total Government spending and (b) gross domestic product was spent on policing in each of the last five years; and what the planned proportion is of total Government spending in each of the next two years. [141710]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The information is set out in the table.
Notes:
1. Police provision is total Government provision (police grant, special grant, capital grant, credit approvals and central Home Office spend and police Standard Sending Assessment).
2. Figures for 2000-01 to 2002-03 are estimates.
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11 Dec 2000 : Column: 59W
Mr. Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were in each police force and in total at the end of September; what the total was in March 1997; and if he will make a statement. [141711]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Information about the number of police officers at the end of September 2000 is being prepared and will be published shortly in a Home Office Statistical Bulletin.
Appeals
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the people whose cases have been referred to date by the Criminal Cases Review Commission to the Court of Appeal, indicating the amount of time elapsed between referral and the individual concerned being released on bail. [141675]
Mr. Boateng: The Criminal Cases Review Commission has to date referred the cases of 106 people to an appellate court. Their names, and the date on which their case was referred, are set out in the table. Some of these individuals were dead, and others were not in custody, when their case was referred. The referral by the Commission of the conviction or sentence of someone who is in custody brings no automatic entitlement to bail. If an application for bail is made, it is for the court to decide whether or not it should be granted. No central record is kept of whether bail was applied for, and if so when, and whether it was granted, in these cases, and this information is not readily available.
11 Dec 2000 : Column: 61W
Child Labour
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many companies were prosecuted for illegally employing children in each of the last 20 years. [141682]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Limited available information, taken from the Home Office Court Proceedings Database, on the number of prosecutions for offences under the Employment of Children Acts, is given in the table.
Selected years only are given to reduce the cost of this answer below the level of disproportionate costs.
| Males | Females | Others(16) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | 22 | 2 | 12 | 36 |
| 1984 | 20 | 3 | 5 | 28 |
| 1989 | 30 | 4 | 1 | 35 |
| 1994 | 15 | 11 | 1 | 27 |
| 1995 | 43 | 31 | (17)-- | 74 |
| 1996 | 7 | 30 | (17)-- | 37 |
| 1997 | 13 | 26 | 2 | 41 |
| 1998 | 16 | 53 | (17)-- | 69 |
| 1999 | 34 | 115 | (17)-- | 149 |
(15) Offences under Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Sections 4, 18-21 (Section 18 amended by the Children Act 1972), 25, 26, 28, Children and Young Persons Act 1963 Sections 40(1)(a), the Education Act 1996 Sections 558 and 559 and similar provisions in Local Acts.
(16) Includes prosecutions of companies and other bodies.
(17) Nil return.
11 Dec 2000 : Column: 62W
Missing Children
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children have been reported as missing in each of the last 20 years. [141678]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Figures are not available to confirm the precise numbers of children reported missing each year since this information is not routinely collected in many forces. However, indications of the total number of children reported missing are available from a number of separate research studies, and estimates can be made on this basis. One study, published in 1992, estimated that 43,000 persons under the age of 18 were reported missing in England and Scotland in 1990. This would equate to a total number of missing children 'incidents' of 102,000, since some missing children disappear on more than one occasion. Repeat missing children is a significant problem. The vast majority of missing children reported to the police return home safely within 24 hours.
On-going Home Office research indicates that between 65 and 80 per cent. of all missing persons reported to the police will involve individuals under the age of 18. This would suggest that in 1999, there were between 150,000 and 190,000 cases of reported disappearances of children throughout the United Kingdom.
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