§ Mr. Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the conferences held by his Department since 1 May 1997, giving in each case the(a) purpose and (b) estimated cost. [27789]
§ Mr. Straw[holding answer 5 February 1998]: The conferences held by my Department since 1 May 1997, with purpose and estimated costs, are as follows:
Ferrers Trophy Award (28 May 1997)
Purpose: An annual event at which special constables are awarded for their achievements in carrying out their duties.Cost: £633.09Launch of Management and Assessment of Risk Resource Pack and training materials (30 June 1997)Purpose: To launch new pack for use by probation services.Cost: £2,347.00Home Office/Probation Chairs and Chiefs conferences-review and planning (8–9 September 1997, 3–4 November 1997, 17–18 November 1997,1–2 December 1997)Purpose: Review and planning of work of Probation Service and opportunity for exchange of ideas.Cost: £22,061.00National training conference (8–10 October 1997)
Purpose: To improve training for probation staff, attended by training providers, Probation Unit, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation and probation services.Cost: £1,600.00Speeding up Youth Justice (15 October 1997)
Purpose: To discuss faster and more efficient youth offender proceedings.Cost: £8,490.25"The Home Office—The Future"—Senior Management Conference (24 October 1997)Purpose: To introduce the revised Departmental Aims and Home Office Statement of Purpose and to discuss their implications for the management of the Department.Cost: £10,463.90Prisons—Probation Review brainstorming conference (28 October 1997)
Purpose: Exchange of ideas to assist newly established review team-chaired by the Minister of State, Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Gateshead, East and Washington, West (Ms Quin), and attended by interoseed parties from prisons, probation, the academic world and voluntary organizations.Cost: £3,980.00Community Fire Safety Task Force Report (3 November 1997)
Purpose: To launch the consultation period of the Community Safety Task Force Report.Cost: £2,144.38Parenting Seminar (10 November 1997)
Purpose: To consider what might be the right aims and means for Government in promoting successful parenting.Cost: £3,967.00The Philip Lawrence Awards (12 December 1997)
211WPurpose: To mark outstanding achievement in citizenship by young people with their involvement in activities in crime prevention, combating lawlessness and violence, drug prevention. community safety and racial harmony.Cost: £54,000.00 (includes some costs for promoting the Awards over the next year).New probation officer recruitment and training scheme (14 January 1998)
Purpose: To consider new scheme, expected to be put in place by autumn 1998.Cost: £18,000.00Home Office/Association of Chief Officers of Probation Conference on inter-agency work with potentially dangerous offenders and risk/needs assessment tools (20–21 January 1998)Purpose: To share knowledge and best practice and provide information on different types of tools.Cost: £18,000.00Informal Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers of the European Union (29–30 January 1998)
Purpose: The first of nine such meetings to be hosted by Government Departments during the United Kingdom Presidency of the European Union.Cost £382,176.00Criminal Justice Conferences
Overall Purpose: Inter-agency criminal justice conferences to stimulate and support co-operation and understanding in order to maximise the quality and efficiency of the criminal justice system.Fairness for Ethnic Minority Groups West Midlands/ Warwickshire Area Committee (10 June 1997)
Cost: £6,050.00Criminal Justice Consultative Council members and Area Committee Chairmen (20–21 June 1997)
Cost: £7,400.00Mentally Disordered Offenders: the case for better inter-agency strategies Thames Valley Area Committee (22 July 1997)
Cost: £5,800.00Inter-agency work with Dangerous Offenders (10–12 September 1997)
Cost: £16,630.00Serious and Persistent Young Offenders Humberside/South Yorkshire Area Committee (14 October 1997)
Cost: £4,880.00
Relationship between the Area Committee and Local User Groups Gloucestershire/Wiltshire Area Committee (27 October 1997)Cost: £4,157.00Meeting the Needs of Victims and Witnesses (National) (18–19 November 1997)
Cost: £7,630.00Meeting the Needs of Victims and Witnesses (National) (1–2 December 1997)
Cost: £10,500.00Reducing Young Offending Merseyside Area Committee (10 December 1997)
Cost: £6,646.00The Response to Rape Victims Northumbria/Durham Area Committee (13–14 January 1998)
Cost: £10,580.00Drugs and Criminal Justice (28–30 January 1998)
Cost: £15,500.00.