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High Security Prisons (Costs)
Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the annual cost at current prices of keeping a man in a high security prison.
Mr. Michael Forsyth: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
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Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. David Nicholson, dated 25 January 1995:The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the annual cost of keeping a prisoner in a high security prison.
The annual average net operating cost per prisoner place in dispersal prisons in 1993 4 was £26,671.
Blakenhurst Prison
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to publish Her Majesty's chief inspector's report into Her Majesty's prison, Blakenhurst; and what are the reasons for the delay in its publication.
Mr. Michael Forsyth: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Doug Hoyle, dated 25 January 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the publication of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector's report into Blakenhurst.
It is expected that the report will be published on 1 February. Publication has not been unduly delayed. The report was received from the Inspector on 10 October 1994. Careful consideration is given to all such reports before publication and this has been so for the Blakenhurst report.
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Pucklechurch Remand Centre
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison officers have been on detached duty to Pucklechurch remand centre to cover 24-hour surveillance duty since 2 January; and from which prisons.
Mr. Michael Forsyth: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Doug Hoyle, dated 25 January 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question abut the number of prison officers on detached duty at Pucklechurch Remand Centre to cover 24 hour surveillance duty since 2 January and from which prisons they have been sent.
A total of seventeen offices have been used on detached duty from Swansea, Leyhill, Winchester, Stoke Heath, Portland, Usk, Guy's Marsh, Wandsworth and Bristol prisons.
Electro-shock Equipment
Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the commissioning of medical studies regarding the safety and effectiveness of vehicle mounted or fence or perimeter mounted electro-shock devices.
Mr. Maclean: The Home Office has no plans to commission such studies.
Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what arrangements are made between his Department and private companies or individuals to lease or rent electro-shock equipment;
(2) if he will make a statement on the holding of stocks of electro-shock devices by his Department;
(3) how many United Kingdom police forces hold supplies of electro-shock shields of electro-shock batons;
(4) what information he has of fatalities attributable to the use of electro-shock devices;
(5) how many United Kingdom, military, security or police personnel have attended training or instruction courses in the use of electro-shock devices with overseas manufacturers or suppliers.
Mr. Maclean: The Home Office does not hold stocks of this equipment nor is it party to any leasing or rental agreements with third parties. Information concerning the number of police forces holding supplies of electro-shock shields or batons is not held centrally. As I made clear in my written answer of 17 January, Official Report, column 383 , some forces have obtained electro-shock equipment only to protect officers against ferocious dogs in pre-planned operations. The Home Office has no details of fatalities from the use of electro-shock devices. I have no knowledge of any staff in Home Office areas of responsibility attending manufacturers' or suppliers' training courses in the use of such equipment.
Noise Pollution
Sir Terence Higgins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what instructions have now been issued to officers of the Metropolitan police to reduce unnecessary noise pollution by the use of police car sirens following the review mentioned in his answer of 23 June 1994, Official Report , column 258 .
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Mr. Maclean: A copy of the Metropolitan police notice announcing an amendment to the Metropolitan police instruction manual has now been approved and a copy of the notice will be placed in the Library as soon as possible.
Motorists (Retesting)
Mr. Robert Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many motorists have been obliged to undergo compulsory retesting in the last two years for which figures are available.
Mr. Maclean: The information available to me suggests that some 1, 000 disqualifications were imposed in 1992 in England and Wales which also included a driving test requirement. The figure for 1993 was 2, 700.
Electoral Fraud
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what new proposals he intends to make to eliminate electoral fraud caused by the depositing of fraudulent votes in ballot boxes.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: None. The Representation of the People Act 1983 contains provisions for the prevention and detection of fraudulent votes. The Act also provides for sanction in respect of illegal practices, corrupt practices and other offences. We have no proposals for any change.
Commercial Lobbying
Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) on how many occasions in the last four months of which he has knowledge any civil servants in his Department have been approached by commercial lobbying organisations on behalf of their clients at informal or unofficial engagements;
(2) on how many occasions in the last four months he or any of his Ministers have been approached by commercial lobbying organisations on behalf of their clients at informal or unofficial engagements.
Mr. Michael Forsyth: I refer the hon. Member to the replies given by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster today.
Visa Refusals
Mr. Dafis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has on the rate of refusals of visas for entry into the United Kingdom from (a) Thailand, (b) New Zealand, (c) Australia, (d) Canada and (e) India for each year since 1990.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: The available information is given in the table.
Table 1: Refusal Rates for entry clearance
applications made in
Thailand, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and India,
1990-1993
Percentages
|1990|1991|1992|1993
------------------------------------------------------
Entry clearance made for
temporary purposes<2>
Thailand |2 |4 |3 |3
New Zealand |1 |- |1 |1
Australia |- |1 |- |-
Canada |1 |1 |1 |-
India<3> |12 |10 |8 |7
Entry clearance applications
made for settlement<4>
Thailand |5 |16 |19 |21
New Zealand |- |2 |- |-
Australia |- |1 |- |-
Canada |- |- |- |-
India<3> |19 |22 |20 |21
Source:
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (for Thailand, New
Zealand, Australia and Canada) and Home Office (for
India).
Notes:
<1> Calculated as applications refused initially, as
a percentage of applications granted (in total) and
refused.
<2> Some applications will have been made by
nationals of other countries.
<3> Ultimate refusal rate calculated as applications
initially refused, minus applications subsequently
granted on appeal, as a percentage of applications
decided.
<4> Includes applications for a certificate of
entitlement to the right of abode.
-=less than 0.5 per cent.
Football Pools
Sir Ivan Lawrence: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans there are to change the Government's policy in relation to broadcast advertising of the football pools.
Mr. Howard: The Government have been reviewing the restrictions on the ban on broadcast advertising by the football pools as part of the deregulation initiative and have decided that it is not necessary in the public interest for the ban to be maintained.
The Government have today invited the Independent Television Commission and the Radio Authority to consider amending their advertising codes. The ITC and the Radio Authority are required to consult with all interested parties.
Immigration Detainees
Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were detained under Immigration Act powers in each month in 1993 and 1994.
Mr. Nicholas Baker [holding answer 18 January 1995]: The information requested is given in the table.
Persons<1> detained under Immigration
Act powers
Month<2> |1993 |1994<3>
----------------------------------------
January |852 |1,090
February |927 |1,000
March |878 |1,050
April |871 |850
May |881 |830
June |721 |820
July |927 |950
August |772 |1,080
September |799 |1,100
October |756 |1,100
November |771 |<4>360
December |966 |<4>250
Year |10,121 |<4>10,470
Notes:
<1> Passengers at ports detained
overnight or longer, and persons
detained as illegal entrants or under
deportation powers (excluding persons
detained pending deportation following
completion of a custodial sentence).
<2> For persons detained as illegal
entrants or under deportation powers,
the month relates to when the illegal
entrant was detected or when the notice
of intention to deport was served, not
when the person was detained.
<3> Data for 1994 are provisional and
have been rounded to the nearest 10.
<4> Excluding passengers at ports
detained in November and December 1994,
the data on whom are not yet available.
Drownings
Mr. Hinchcliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons died as a result of drowning on bathing beaches, in each year since 1980 and (a) in England and (b) in each English coastal resort; and how many of these were under the age of 18 years.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: Statistics that would identify drownings off beaches in Britain are not collected centrally, but since 1983 the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents has produced and published annual statistics on drownings in the United Kingdom based on collation of press reports. I understand that they may hold information which could assist in answering the hon. Member's question.
Scanners
Mr. Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the use of scanners to detect offensive weapons in places of public entertainment.
Mr. Maclean: A number of products are available commercially which are capable of detecting concealed metal objects, including offensive weapons. These are evaluated regularly by the Home Office police scientific development branch. Its evaluations are made available to the police and persons wishing to acquire such equipment may obtain appropriate advice from their local crime prevention officer. It is open to he owners of private premises used for public entertainment to make it a condition of entry that persons wishing to enter their premises submit themselves to a search. Such searches may be conducted by means of hand-held scanners.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Dairy Farmers
Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what were the approximate average net profits for dairy farmers in each year since 1985.
Mr. Ancram: The net profits of dairy farmers is not determined each year as net profits is not one of the measures used to assess farm profitability in the United
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Kingdom. Information on incomes of full-time dairy farms and other farm types is collected in the farm business survey and published each year in "Farm Incomes in the United Kingdom". The latest edition, "Farm Incomes in the United Kingdom 1992/93", shows estimates of several different measures of income for dairy farms in 1991 92 and 1992 93.To illustrate longer-term trends in incomes, index series are also given for net farm income, occupier's net income and cash income back to 1986 87- -table 1.1 and appendix 1, tables 1 and 2--the earliest year for which data are available on a consistent basis.
"Farm Incomes in the United Kingdom 1993 94" will be published in March 1995.
Dourine
Mr. Morley: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many cases of Dourine were reported in each year since 1985.
Mr. Ancram: Dourine has never been recorded in Northern Ireland.
Repossessions
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the figures for house repossessions have been in each of the last three years.
Mr. Moss: Repossessions statistics are not provided by the mortgage- lending institutions on a regional basis and therefore are not available for Northern Ireland.
However, I understand that the enforcement of judgments office issued 683 orders for repossessions in 1992, 492 in 1993 and 468 in 1994.
Commercial Lobbying
Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) on how many occasions in the last four months of which he has knowledge any civil servants in his Department have been approached by commercial lobbying organisations on behalf of their clients at informal or unofficial engagements;
(2) on how many occasions in the last four months he or any of his Ministers have been approached by commercial lobbying organisations on behalf of their clients at informal or unofficial engagements.
Sir John Wheeler: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given him by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster earlier today.
TREASURY
Exchange Rate Mechanism
Sir Thomas Arnold: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 16 January 1995, Official Report , column 289, if he will outline the common procedure mentioned in paragraph 1 of the communique and the steps therein.
Mr. Nelson: Article 3 of the resolution of the European Council of Brussels of 5 December 1978 provides that
"adjustments of central rates will be subject to mutual agreement by a common procedure which will comprise all countries participating in the exchange rate mechanism and the Commission. There will be
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reciprocal consultation in the Community framework about important decisions concerning exchange rate policy between countries participating and any country not participating in the system" Any member state intending to change, establish or re establish the parity, central rate or intervention points of its currency within the ERM is required to initiate a prior consultation procedure by informing the relevant authorities of member states.ECOFIN
Mr. Matthew Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the most recent meeting of the Economic and Finance Council.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke: I represented the United Kingdom at the Economic and Finance Council of the European Union in Brussels on 16 January.
The French presidency outlined its work programme for the coming Economic and Finance Councils, based on the three priorities: sustainable growth and the creation of employment; the enhancement of the credibility of European policies; and the completion of the single market.
In reply, I welcomed the presidency's work programme, particularly its stress on improvements in the fight against fraud. I stressed that economic conditions in member states were now the best for several years and that it was vital to use this opportunity to tackle long term unemployment and other structural problems through more flexible labour markets. I underlined the need to respect the convergence criteria on low inflation and reduced public deficits set out in the Maastricht treaty and stressed the need for a systematic review of the Community's balance of payments support outside the EU.
The Council agreed to the presidency's procedural proposals for dealing with the follow up to the Essen European Council on: the financing of trans European networks; the parameters within which member states wishing to do so could introduce a CO2-energy tax; fraud and financial management; and the employment situation. No formal votes were taken at the Council meeting.
Insider-Dealing
Mr. Cummings: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will be meeting the chairman of the stock exchange to discuss the rules on insider dealing and disclosure of marketing stakes.
Mr. Nelson: My right hon. and learned Friend meets the chairman of the stock exchange from time to time to discuss matters of mutual interest.
Next Steps Agencies
Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out for each of the next steps agencies in his Department, whether they have acquired their own headquarters buildings and, if so, at what purchase cost or annual rental; how many support staff they have required which were not required when their operations were within his Department; how many of them publish periodical journals and at what annual cost; how many have fleets of executive cars or single executive cars and at what annual cost; how many have specially designed logos and at what cost; how many have corporate clothing
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and at what cost; and what is the cost of specially designed and printed corporate stationery.Mr. Nelson: The information sought falls within the operational responsibilities of the chief executives of the Royal Mint, Central Statistical Office, Paymaster and Valuation Office executive agencies and I have asked each of them to arrange for a reply to be given. The four agencies did not form part of the Treasury prior to becoming agencies.
Letter from Mr. R. Holmes to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 24 January 1995:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to provide, in relation to the Royal Mint, the information sought in your Question concerning Agency expenditure on a number of specific matters. I will respond to each of these as they appear in your Question:
1. The Royal Mint is a Government Department which has been a Trading Fund since 1975 and an Agency since 1990. The change to Agency status did not result in any additional expenditure on buildings or staff.
2. The Royal Mint issues a monthly staff newsletter at an annual cost of £4,000.
3. The Royal Mint has no personally allocated executive cars. 4. Coincidental with our new Agency status in 1990, the Royal Mint commissioned a new Corporate identity--for commercial reasons and totally unrelated to our new status. The total cost of this was £32, 000.
5. The Royal Mint provides clothing where there is an occupational or safety requirement eg protective clothing in the factory. The annual cost is approximately £95,000.
6. The Royal Mint has incurred no costs in specially designed and printed corporate stationery since our logo was changed in 1990. I hope this information is helpful.
Letter from W. McLennan to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 25 January 1995:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply to your Question of 20 January about Next Steps agencies.
2. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) became an Executive Agency on 19 November 1991. The following are the answers to the specific points raised in your Question:
The CSO has not acquired its own headquarters buildings. No additional support staff were required when the CSO became an agency, because it was a separate department then and has remained one since.
CSO has continued to publish statistics on a regular basis and the full costs of the agency are set out in its Annual Report and Accounts (copy attached).
The CSO has no executive cars.
The CSO introduced a new logo in 1993, which was designed in house.
No extra cost was incurred in printing corporate stationery for the agency compared with previous stationery costs.
Letter from Keith Sullens to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 24 January 1995:
I am writing as Chief Executive of PAYMASTER in response to your written question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer about costs of the Next Steps Agencies in his Department.
PAYMASTER continues to occupy the premises it was in prior to becoming an Executive Agency. Sutherland House, Crawley is a Crown building for which Property Holdings is paid a current rent of £1,327,000 pa. Due to restructuring of the Agency the space occupied will be reduced considerably by 31 March 1996, the rental will be £862,000--a saving of 36%.
Historically the Office of the Paymaster General had been an autonomous unit within HM Treasury and therefore no significant additional numbers of support staff were required.
PAYMASTER does not issue periodic journals, other than the Annual Report and Statement of Accounts as required by statute. There are no personally allocated executive cars in PAYMASTER. Two cars are hired for official business on a first
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come first served basis and they are available for all staff. The annual cost of hire is £5,856 pa, excluding petrol and oil. PAYMASTER commissioned a design for a new corporate identity with new logo for the Agency launch, the cost of which was £12,500 excluding VAT.A very small sum, (less than £200) has been spent on corporate clothing for messengerial staff.
A limited amount of new corporate stationery was produced at a cost of £15,000, excluding VAT. Design costs were included in the overall figure quoted.
I hope that this answers your queries satisfactorily but if you need any further information, please do not hesitate to contact me. Letter from A. J. Langford to Mr. Gerald Kaufman, dated 25 January 1995:
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply to your Question about the cost of certain operational functions since becoming an Executive Agency under the Next Steps programme. Headquarters buildings
The Valuation Office's head office continues to be based in the same building as before. No additional accommodation has been taken for headquarters buildings.
Support staff
No additional support staff have been taken on by the Valuation Office in consequence of its move to Executive Agency status. Periodical journals
The Valuation Office continues to produce a Property Market Report on a twice yearly basis. This is on sale to the public and is priced on a cost recovery basis.
Executive cars
The Valuation Office does not have any executive cars.
Agency logo
The Valuation Office's logo was designed in-house at no additional cost.
Corporate clothing
The Valuation Office provides uniforms incorporating the Agency logo for its messengerial and security staff in its head office. Uniforms were provided to this group of staff pre Agency status and the additional cost of incorporating the Agency logo was minimal. The annual running cost of uniforms is in the order of £1,950. There is no other form of corporate clothing.
Corporate stationery
As the move to Agency status developed, opportunities were taken to run down existing stocks of stationery and reprinting with the Agency title gradually introduced and no additional costs arose. Please let me know if I can assist further.
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