House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 20 Mar 2008 (pt 0002)

International Development

CDC

Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will place in the Library copies of the accounts of CDC subsidiary companies. [195026]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: CDC had 79 subsidiary companies at 31 December 2007, registered throughout its target markets. Where they are required to do so by their relevant regulatory authorities, these subsidiary companies file their accounts in those countries and with those authorities. Accounts are therefore not available from CDC, but from the regulatory authorities in the countries in question.

CDC: Tax Havens

Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what reports he has received of the alleged use of tax havens by (a) CDC and its subsidiaries and (b) Actis and its subsidiaries; what assessment he has made of these reports; and if he will make a statement. [195027]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: The former Secretary of State received advice about the tax position of Globeleq, CDC’s energy subsidiary, when it was established in 2002. He was advised by the Department for International Development and CDC’s financial advisers that an onshore structure would not have attracted investors. Bermuda was chosen because its corporate law is similar to the UK’s and a Bermudan domicile may have facilitated subsequent listing of Globeleq on a US exchange. This advice was considered and accepted.

I have not received any specific reports regarding alleged use of tax havens.

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Departmental Publications

Mr. Andrew Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department’s staff handbook. [195584]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: DFID’s staff handbook has been replaced by a new web-based system available to all DFID staff on the Department’s intranet. It is not available in hard copy because of the practical difficulties of keeping the information up to date.

Middle East: Peace Negotiations

Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what financial contribution his Department made to the United Nations Development Programme Trust Fund to support the work of Quartet Special Envoy, James Wolfensohn, in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005; and if he will make a statement. [195258]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: The Department for International Development (DFID) support to Quartet Special Envoy James Wolfensohn began in 2005. DFID provided £70,000 to fund an Aid Management Specialist. A further £28,000 for that position was provided in 2006. In addition, DFID seconded a member of its own staff to the team from June 2005 to early 2006.

Sudan: Overseas Aid

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps the Government has taken to assist aid organisations with the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. [195361]

Mr. Thomas: The UK is the second largest bilateral humanitarian donor to Sudan. Since April 2004 we have given over £158 million to aid agencies delivering vital assistance to those in need in Darfur.

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent progress the Government has made in assisting UNAMID in managing the financial aspects of providing aid to the people of Darfur. [195362]

Mr. Thomas: The UK Government are supporting the efforts of the UN and African Union to deploy the UNAMID peacekeeping force in full in Darfur, including through the training and equipping of African troop-contributing countries. UNAMID co-ordinates closely with the UN agencies and non-governmental humanitarian organisations in Darfur to protect civilians and enable provision of aid in the region, and recently escorted non-governmental humanitarian organisations to deliver aid following fighting in West Darfur.

The UK has provided £158 million in humanitarian support to Darfur since 2004. My right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for International Development and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth
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Affairs, in a joint statement on 27 February, reiterated that we will continue to work closely with the UN and others in providing humanitarian assistance to Darfur.

Home Department

Alcohol Disorder Zones

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department has spent in planning and consulting on alcohol disorder zones. [187292]

Jacqui Smith: The planning and consultation work in respect of Alcohol Disorder Zones includes developing the original policy, taking forward legislation through Parliament (the provisions are now set out in the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006) and more recently developing the regulations and accompanying guidance.

This work has been undertaken by a small number of officials who have worked on this policy area, in addition to other duties. It is not possible to quantify the cost or the time that has been spent working and consulting on this policy area.

Alcoholic Drinks: Arrests

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evaluation has been carried out of the alcohol arrest referral pilots announced in October 2007. [193577]

Jacqui Smith: No evaluation has been carried out at this stage. However interim findings about re-offending will be available by December 2008, while a final report into re-offending will be available by summer 2009.

We hope to use the information gathered from the pilots to establish good practice, including what works for different cultural groups and different genders, and to identify the benefits to local areas of prioritising existing resources in their own alcohol referral schemes.

Alcoholic Drinks: Crime

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there were for alcohol-related offences in each of the last five years, broken down by (i) region and (ii) offence committed. [181804]

Jacqui Smith: The information requested covering offences of (a) Drunkenness, (b) Drunkenness with aggravation, (c) Offences against the licensing acts, (d) other offences against intoxicating liquor laws, (e) selected motoring offences is provided in the following table.

With the exception of these offences, it is not possible to separately identify whether prosecutions for other offences were alcohol related from the data reported to the Ministry of Justice.

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Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts for selected alcohol related offences, by offence class and region, England and Wales 2002-06^{( 1, 2, 3)}
		Prosecuted					Guilty
	Offence class and region	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
140	Drunkenness, simple^{( 4)}
	North East	115	101	107	117	137	106	88	94	103	110
	North West	300	174	123	138	138	262	149	106	121	121
	Yorkshire and Humberside	274	271	210	159	176	202	222	166	124	134
	East Midlands	121	88	74	43	37	107	78	64	36	29
	West Midlands	131	147	170	211	308	109	123	132	170	253
	East of England	286	327	272	210	169	264	293	242	191	153
	London	262	251	195	151	134	228	210	162	124	114
	South East	603	563	480	343	306	541	486	418	306	282
	South West	435	382	326	288	266	382	350	290	261	236
	Wales	340	336	294	272	172	309	300	274	255	150
	England and Wales	2,867	2,640	2,251	1,932	1,843	2,510	2,299	1,948	1,691	1,582
141	Drunkenness, with aggravation^{( 5)}
	North East	4,785	5,292	5,002	5,149	4,756	4,022	4,553	4,437	4,740	4,437
	North West	6,564	6,420	3,799	2,036	1,991	5,249	5,174	3,130	1,741	1,664
	Yorkshire and Humberside	4,040	4,508	2,266	1,625	2,305	2,240	2,670	1,625	1,264	1,743
	East Midlands	1,459	1,535	1,154	570	608	1,141	1,233	960	464	511
	West Midlands	1,317	1,246	1,382	1,158	1,452	1,061	1,029	1,128	980	1,242
	East of England	1,784	1,620	1,319	981	814	1,539	1,434	1,138	865	731
	London	2,577	2,586	1,284	1,010	1,216	2,103	2,141	1,055	847	1,005
	South East	4,259	4,439	3,392	1,812	1,439	3,369	3,661	2,791	1,538	1,260
	South West	2,350	2,270	1,472	913	922	2,017	1,998	1,286	760	769
	Wales	1,931	1,719	1,834	1,385	905	1,647	1,505	1,635	1,178	790
	England and Wales	31,066	31,635	22,904	16,639	16,408	24,388	25,398	19,185	14,377	14,152
142	Offences by licenced person, etc^{( 6)}
	North East	17	50	72	98	52	13	38	51	69	30
	North West	130	237	264	251	180	90	158	182	189	111
	Yorkshire and Humberside	25	23	67	49	28	18	12	49	29	17
	East Midlands	17	83	43	72	71	14	52	25	34	41
	West Midlands	22	72	100	130	54	14	62	84	103	48
	East of England	12	28	41	43	70	9	15	20	32	56
	London	27	137	182	276	184	17	89	152	223	141
	South East	21	33	72	63	68	11	23	40	37	32
	South West	9	26	45	99	34	6	18	21	40	16
	Wales	43	53	99	96	92	28	36	59	71	74
	England and Wales	323	742	985	1,177	833	220	503	683	827	566
143	Other offences against i ntoxicating l iquor l aws^{( 7)}
	North East	24	23	25	30	47	16	17	17	24	34
	North West	32	46	54	44	157	23	29	43	32	125
	Yorkshire and Humberside	9	11	11	10	109	5	8	10	8	46
	East Midlands	15	10	18	14	72	12	5	6	8	51
	West Midlands	23	30	22	14	95	12	19	14	8	71
	East of England	11	8	20	12	91	8	6	15	9	65
	London	53	54	32	40	159	41	38	21	29	118
	South East	14	13	14	26	79	8	10	10	18	50
	South West	3	9	13	23	32	2	4	8	18	20
	Wales	21	21	39	27	62	11	13	19	23	44
	England and Wales	205	225	248	240	903	138	149	163	177	624
	Causing death by careless driving when under the influence of drink or drugs^{( 8)}
406	North East	3	2	1	2	2	2	2	2	2	2
	North West	5	2	2	4	6	10	5	6	7	9
	Yorkshire and Humberside	6	2	5	6	5	6	5	7	10	7
	East Midlands	6	8	3	7	10	4	9	12	10	4
	West Midlands	5	5	5	9	9	5	6	6	8	11
	East of England	10	5	7	4	8	11	7	7	5	8
	London	1	3	4	2	2	3	4	8	6	1
	South East	9	10	10	11	11	14	9	7	11	12
	South West	5	5	6	7	4	7	7	6	5	8
	Wales	2	2	—	2	5	4	6	1	2	3
	England and Wales	52	44	43	54	62	66	60	62	66	65
803	Driving etc, after consuming alcohol or taking drugs^{( 9)}
	North East	4,323	4,552	4,665	4,377	4,275	4,032	4,177	4,366	4,138	4,069
	North West	11,676	12,048	12,530	12,060	12,043	10,923	11,327	11,822	11,425	11,414
	Yorkshire and Humberside	7,703	8,107	8,323	8,492	7,923	7,157	7,555	7,862	8,020	7,539
	East Midlands	5,329	6,523	6,949	6,631	6,677	5,005	6,138	6,621	6,216	6,330
	West Midlands	8,829	9,091	9,463	9,640	9,625	8,276	8,566	8,886	9,137	9,130
	East of England	8,264	8,709	9,122	8,672	9,061	7,800	8,178	8,605	8,234	8,679
	London	13,418	12,945	13,258	13,080	13,087	12,066	11,613	12,040	11,925	12,181
	South East	14,684	13,921	13,929	13,137	12,583	13,726	13,040	13,122	12,458	11,962
	South West	7,637	8,194	8,097	7,869	7,527	7,206	7,697	7,662	7,452	7,106
	Wales	5,592	5,913	5,986	5,904	5,882	5,242	5,491	5,611	5,535	5,565
	England and Wales	87,455	90,003	92,322	89,862	88,683	81,433	83,782	86,597	84,540	83,975
⁽¹⁾ These data are provided on the principal offence basis. ⁽²⁾ Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the police forces and courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. ⁽³⁾ The found guilty column may exceed those proceeded against, as it may be the case that the proceedings in the magistrates' court took place in the proceeding year and they were found guilty at the Crown Court in the following year or for a different offence. ⁽⁴⁾ Includes offences of being found drunk in a highway or public place, drunk in a vehicle or drunk white entering a designated sports event. ⁽⁵⁾ Includes offences of being guilty white drunk of disorderly behaviour, drunk with a loaded firearm and refusing to leave licensed premises when requested. ⁽⁶⁾ Offences by license holders only. Includes offences of the illegal sale of alcohol and failure to follow licensing regulations. ⁽⁷⁾ Offences by non-license holders: Includes offences of falsely claiming to be a licensee and illegally supplying alcohol to children. ⁽⁸⁾ Offence cannot separately identify whether drink or drugs specifically were involved. ⁽⁹⁾ Offence covers summary offences of driving eta after consuming alcohol or taking drugs (which cannot reliably be distinguished separately). Source: Court proceedings database—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice.

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