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Written Question
Direct Selling
Wednesday 15th March 2017

Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on trends in the level of doorstep crime in each of the last five years.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The Home Office does not hold specific information on the number of ‘doorstep crimes’. These crimes will be recorded by police under the relevant offence that has been committed, for example burglary or theft.

If the crime is a fraud, then this will be recorded by Action Fraud rather than the police. Information on the number of door to door sales and bogus tradespeople frauds recorded by Action Fraud is published in the Office for National Statistics Publication ‘Crime in England and Wales: year ending September 2016’ at the link below (Table A5):

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/datasets/crimeinenglandandwalesappendixtables


Written Question
Social Media: Criminal Investigation
Friday 9th December 2016

Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with social media companies on improving their cooperation with police investigations.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The Home Secretary engages regularly with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that our law enforcement agencies are able to undertake effectively their core function of protecting the public. As more and more communications take place online, this of course includes providers of telecommunications services such as social media companies.


Written Question
Fire and Rescue Services
Tuesday 1st November 2016

Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average Fire and Rescue response times were to incidents in (a) England, (b) the North East, (c) Redcar and Cleveland and (d) Middlesbrough in each of the last five years.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

National Statistics on Fire and Rescue response times are published annually, including response times for other types of fire incident. The most recent publication, for 2014/15, was published in 2015 and can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-incidents-response-times-england-2014-to-2015

Accompanying data tables can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables

The next publication on fire and rescue response times for 2015/16 is due for release in late 2016.


Written Question
Sexual Offences: Cleveland
Monday 5th September 2016

Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many reports of sexual offences Cleveland Police received in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those reports led to prosecutions.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The number of sexual and violence against the person offences recorded by Cleveland police from 2011/12 to 2015/16 are given in the table.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of prosecutions resulting from offences recorded by the police. Information on crimes assigned a charge or summons outcome is available from April 2014, when data on outcomes were first collected linked specifically to their associated crimes. Previously, outcomes data supplied by forces related to the volume recorded regardless of when the crime was committed. The new method of collection was implemented to provide greater transparency and highlight how each crime recorded in any period is resolved by the police.

The table shows the proportion of sexual and violent offences that resulted in a police charge or summons in 2014/15 and 2015/16. In addition, it shows the proportion of each offence group that has not been assigned an outcome. This is important to note, in particular for sexual offences, because length of investigations mean that the most recent year has more crimes that have yet to be assigned an outcome than the previous year.

Not all charges or summonses will lead to a prosecution, the Ministry of Justice hold and publish data on prosecutions.


Written Question
Crimes of Violence: Cleveland
Monday 5th September 2016

Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many reports of offences of violence against the person were reported to Cleveland Police in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those reports led to prosecutions.

Answered by Brandon Lewis

The number of sexual and violence against the person offences recorded by Cleveland police from 2011/12 to 2015/16 are given in the table.

The Home Office does not hold data on the number of prosecutions resulting from offences recorded by the police. Information on crimes assigned a charge or summons outcome is available from April 2014, when data on outcomes were first collected linked specifically to their associated crimes. Previously, outcomes data supplied by forces related to the volume recorded regardless of when the crime was committed. The new method of collection was implemented to provide greater transparency and highlight how each crime recorded in any period is resolved by the police.

The table shows the proportion of sexual and violent offences that resulted in a police charge or summons in 2014/15 and 2015/16. In addition, it shows the proportion of each offence group that has not been assigned an outcome. This is important to note, in particular for sexual offences, because length of investigations mean that the most recent year has more crimes that have yet to be assigned an outcome than the previous year.

Not all charges or summonses will lead to a prosecution, the Ministry of Justice hold and publish data on prosecutions.


Written Question
Sexual Offences: Tees Valley
Tuesday 2nd February 2016

Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to tackle the increase in sexual offences on Teesside.

Answered by Karen Bradley

Rape and sexual violence are devastating crimes and the Government has made protecting women and girls from violence and supporting victims and survivors of sexual violence a key priority. We want victims to have the confidence to report these crimes, knowing they will get the support they need and that everything will be done to bring offenders to justice.

These are under-reported crimes, and the Office for National Statistics report that recent increases in police recorded crime are likely due to improved recording by the police and an increase in the willingness of victims to come forward and report to the police. The number of prosecutions and convictions for sexual offences are at their highest ever levels.

The Government continues to support improvements to the criminal justice system’s response to victims of sexual violence. We have supported the publication of data on rape for every police force in the country as a basis for improving recording and investigations of rape and ensure that guidance on investigating and prosecuting rape is implemented in every police force area. The Rape Action Plan, led by the Crown Prosecution Service and the police, is helping to ensure that every report of rape is treated seriously and every victim is given the help they deserve.


Written Question
Cleveland Police
Wednesday 27th January 2016

Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) police officers, (b) police and staff, (c) police community support officers were in post in Cleveland in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012, (iv) 2013, (v) 2014 and (vi) 2015.

Answered by Mike Penning

Data on the number of full time equivalent (FTE) police officers, police staff and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in Cleveland police force area, as at 31 March in each of the requested years, are provided in the following table.

Number of Full Time Equivalent (FTE) police officers, police staff and PCSOs as at 31 March 2010 to 31 March 2015, Cleveland Constabulary1

Situation as at:

Police
officers

Police
staff

PCSOs

31 March 2010

1,724

711

193

31 March 2011

1,655

235

178

31 March 2012

1,529

223

167

31 March 2013

1,463

216

161

31 March 2014

1,382

201

150

31 March 2015

1,326

197

123

1. Police officer strength statistics are published in the data tables of the annual Police Workforce, England and Wales, statistical publication (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/police-workforce-england-and-wales).


As HM Inspectorate of Constabulary has made clear, there is no simple link between police numbers and crime levels, between numbers and the visibility of police in the community, or between numbers and the quality of service provided.