Thank you for your letter of 18 January 2007[88] which followed my earlier reply dated 29 December 2006. I apologise that this response has not reached you earlier.

  In relation to the further points raised:

(a) The UK position is very clear that we must work within our own legal framework and that our aim is on improving comparability of statistics rather than their harmonisation. Two initial approaches are being investigated by Eurostat which work within this framework and I hope their approach explains why the Government can support this work.

—  The use of victimisation surveys similar to our own British Crime Survey. The EC have already part funded the European Union International Crime Survey and EC/Eurostat have funded a study into how such surveys can be developed in the future.

—  Eurostat will shortly be publishing a report in their Statistics in Focus series which updates a Statistical Bulletin previously published by the Home Office (Home Office Statistical Bulletin 12/03). Except for homicides where absolute comparisons are possible the report is based on comparisons in the trends in recorded crimes for selected offences. Such trend comparisons require similar but not identical definitions.

(b) I realise it may be confusing to see how the different groups coordinated and we have tried to set out in the attached Annex the structure of these committees. This note tries to illustrate the overlap on membership between the various committees. Such overlap ensures there is no duplication in data collection and that expertise between the groups is shared. Home Office officials have been actively involved in these projects since 1992.

16 May 2007

EUROPEAN SOURCEBOOK GROUP

  Membership: Set up in 1993 under chairmanship of Professor Martin Killias of Lausanne University. Committee members are invited experts from academic and Government Institutes who organise the survey. Members also act as regional coordinators with each Council of Europe Member State having a National expert to act as data providers.

  Countries with experts on the committee are Switzerland, France, Netherlands, Iceland, Albania, Ukraine, Poland, UK (Gordon Barclay Home Office Statistician) and Germany. UNODC and Eurostat representative attend most meetings as observers. Gordon Barclay represents all parts of the UK, Ireland,Malta and Cyprus.

  Funding: Initially from Council of Europe but now funded by main committee member countries. Funders include the Home Office, Swiss Ministry of Foreign Affairs/ Lausanne University, Dutch Ministry of Justice, French Department of Justice, German Ministry of Justice and most member countries also help with their own expenses. EC (under Aegis Program) are providing funding for three future meetings.

  Frequency of meetings: Two or three times a year often during academic conferences and usually at weekends.

  Reports: The latest was in 2006 covering data up to 2003. The report is jointly written by Group Members and edited by the UK and the Dutch.

Council of Europe Penal Statistics

  Object: To provide an annual report on the prison population for each Council of Europe Member States and less regular reports on the use of non-custodial sanctions. The results are published on the Council of Europe website.

  Funding: Up to recently the Council of Europe funded an expert to collect this data. They no longer fund this work and the expert (Prof Marcelo Aebi) funds the work through his university (Lausanne).

  Links with other committees: Marcelo Aebi is a long term member of the Sourcebook group and is responsible for data processing of the Sourcebook survey data. The sourcebook uses the penal statistics he collects to prevent duplicate requests.

European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice

  Object: Funded by the Council of Europe the group has produced two reports covering the collection of data on the criminal and civil justice system. The Polish Sourcebook Member has been a major organiser of the survey.

  Errors in report: The first report contained many errors eg assuming criminal cases were also dealt with at County Courts and that DCA figures on court costs at that time included magistrates' courts. Following comments from Gordon Barclay substantial changes were made in the second report although there are still some misleading comparisons.

EU Project on Developing EU Strategy to Measure Crime and Criminal Justice

  Formulation of plans: Initial discussions were through a Working Group consisting of EU members of Sourcebook group plus a few other invitees (eg Europol). UK provided secretarial support.

  EU Action Plan: Plans agreed at a meeting of nominated representatives of Member States plus UNODC and EU monitoring agencies on drugs and racism.

  Eurostat: EC gave Eurostat funding to recruit an expert to support the Statistician responsible for this area. As a result they recruited Cynthia Tavares who was Gordon Barclay's former deputy, secretary of the Sourcebook group and author of Home Office International Statistics Bulletin. This work is steered by a small Task Force formed from statisticians from National Statistics Institutes which meets twice a year. This group includes two members of the Sourcebook Group (UK, Dutch) plus Italian. Irish, Polish, French statisticians and observers from UNODC, EU monitoring agency on drugs and racism. Three projects have been initiated:

—  Project has been set up to produce a common victimisation survey for EU countries.

—  Publication of an update of the Home Office International Statistical Bulletin now covering data up to 2004 (publication expected shortly).

—  Consideration of the availability of information on serious/organised crime in EU Member States. Report has been produced by Transcrime (Italian based criminal justice research organisation). Transcrime are observers at Sourcebook meeting.

  Future work is now to be coordinated by a Working Group with representatives from the 29 Member States and Observers. The current Task Force Members will be their country representatives on this group which will also formally include a representative of the Sourcebook Group. The first meeting is planned for 1-2 March.

  EU Action Plan: An Expert group is being set up to coordinate the policy aspects of this work with representatives from all Member States plus other organisations referred to above. The group is expected to have its first meeting on 2-3 April. The chair of the Sourcebook Group (Martin Killias) will attend this group and UK will be represented by Gordon Barclay.

  Thank you for your letter of 16 May 2007 which was considered by Sub-Committee E at its meeting of 6 June 2007.

  We are grateful for your explanation of the current approaches being investigated by Eurostat to enable collection of comparable statistics. We support such efforts and trust that they will continue to be supported by the Government.

  Your outline of the various bodies involved in the collection of crime-related statistics is most helpful. While it seems that there is little formal coordination, we note the overlap in membership and the effect of this overlap in preventing duplication. We welcome this practice and encourage the Government to ensure that it continues.

  We have decided to clear the Communication from scrutiny.

7 June 2007