HC Deb 23 July 1998 vol 316 cc620-1W
Mr. Allan

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons are currently held at HMP Wormwood Scrubs following their conviction for offences contrary to(a) Section 1 of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 and (b) Section 3 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981. [51604]

Ms Quin

The information requested could be obtained only by examining individual prisoners records at the prison, which would involve disproportionate cost.

Mr. Allan

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons were arrested at(a) Heathrow airport and (b) other United Kingdom airports for offences contrary to (i) Section 1 of the Criminal Attempts Act 1981 or (ii) Section 3 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981, in (1) 1995–96, (2) 1996–97 and (3) 1997–98. [51603]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

This information is not normally collected centrally. However the Metropolitan police have been able to provide information on persons accused—that is, a count of persons arrested and subsequently proceeded against. The information relates to persons accused in the Heathrow division of attempting to commit a notifiable offence and those accused under sections 3 and 4 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981. The information is given in the table.

To obtain similar information from all police forces which have an airport located in their area would incur disproportionate cost, since manual searches through individual records would be required.

Persons accused at Heathrow airport 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98
Accused of attempting to commit a notifiable offence 201 232 206
Accused of offences under sections 3 and 4 of the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 50 43 66