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Allan Stewart MPCharles Wardle MP
Robert G. Hughes MP
There were a number of differnt reasons for these resignations.
G7 Summit
Mr. Dowd: To ask the Prime Minister when he expects to respond to the letter to him of 3 March from the Secretary of the Japanese Labour Camp Survivors Association concerning its attendance at the G7 summit in July; and what his response will be.
The Prime Minister: A reply will be sent shortly. The arrangements for the G7 summit are in the hands of the Canadian authorities, who hold the chair at the moment, but there would normally be no objection to the presence in Halifax of non-governmental groups and organisations.
Animal Protection, South Korea
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Prime Minister if he will raise the issue of the illegal cat and dog meat industry operating in South Korea when he meets the President of Korea later this month; if he will press the President of Korea to introduce stricter animal protection laws; and what action he has taken to stop the illegal cat and dog meat industry in South Korea.
The Prime Minister: I met the President of the Republic of Korea on Wednesday 8 March. We discussed bilateral trade and investment, science and technology, and other issues of mutual interest. We did not discuss the issue of animal protection but the South Korean Government are aware of the concerns of the British public on this issue.
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
International Development Association
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy, in relation to negotiations on the 11th replenishment of the International Development Association to propose that the accountability of IDA to both donor Governments and projected beneficiaries is improved, and that the 1993 94 reforms on information disclosure must be fully implemented.
Mr. Baldry: We will work with other donors during the negotiations on the 11th replenishment of IDA on the issues of strengthening IDA's accountability and implementation of its information disclosure policy.
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy, in the negotiations on the 11th replenishment of IDA, to propose that (a) the objective of poverty reduction is fully incorporated into IDA loans, (b) social impact assessments are completed for all IDA projects, assessing social outcomes of loans as well as predicted adverse social impacts and (c) the proportion of IDA lending allocated to programmes of targeted intervention should be increased to at least 50 per cent.
Mr. Baldry: Poverty reduction is IDA's central objective, and we are ready to support measures which
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will enhance IDA's effectiveness in helping borrowers to implement this objective, including expanded use of social impact assessments to improve the quality of IDA's lending. We are not persuaded, however, that global targets are an efficient way of achieving this. The composition of IDA's lending as made clear in the IDA-10 donors' report, should reflect the needs of individual countries.Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy, in relation to negotiations on the 11th replenishment of IDA, to propose that (a) stringent procedures for evaluating the World bank's compliance with replenishment conditions should be agreed and (b) annual evaluations of IDA should be undertaken.
Mr. Baldry: Donors already require IDA management to report annually on progress made in implementing policy agreed under particular replenishments.
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to agree to the 11th replenishment of IDA only if he believes that the funds will be used in line with the objectives set out in his overseas development programme.
Mr. Baldry: IDA's priority objectives of poverty reduction, sound economic management and environmentally sustainable development closely match those of the UK aid programme.
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy, in relation to the negotiations for the 11th IDA replenishment, that there should be no use of IDA funds to pay off the multilateral debt of recipient countries.
Mr. Baldry: We and other donors support continuation of IDA's fifth dimension facility, which is financed through reflows on past IDA loans and allocates additional resources to eligible IDA recipients which are on- track with their reform programmes, in proportion to interest payments due on their International Bank for Reconstruction and Development debt. We are also ready, in the context of the 11th replenishment negotiations, to consider whether there are other ways IDA might assist those few countries which have an unsustainable burden of multilateral debt, building on the suggestions made by my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the annual meetings of the IMF and World bank in Madrid last October.
Indonesian Police
Mrs. Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 3 February, Official Report , column 883 84 , what mechanisms he has put in place to ensure that no officers of the Indonesian police force who have been involved in activities relating to human rights abuses in Indonesia and East Timor receive scholarship awards in the United Kingdom or other training financed by his Department; and how many of those proposed as trainees by the Indonesian police force have been excluded from (a) scholarship awards in the United Kingdom and (b) other forms of training financed by his Department on these grounds in each year since 1990.
Mr. Baldry [holding answer 8 March 1995]: All applicants for training under the Indonesia police project provide biographical details, have their work performance
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assessed, and are interviewed before selection. No officers proposed for training have been rejected on grounds of involvement in human rights abuses.HOME DEPARTMENT
Rugby Offences
Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to seek a review of the law as it relates to offences on a rugby field.
Mr. Maclean: The Law Commission is currently considering the application of the criminal law to acts of violence committed in sport, as part of its inquiry into consent as a defence to offences against the person. The Government have no plans at present to review the law in this area.
Passport Fraud
Mr. Rooker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases of false (a) full passports and (b) British visitor's passports in the past five years it has been discovered that a living person's identity has been duplicated
Mr. Nicholas Baker: The total number of fraudulent passport applications in each of the last five years was:
|British
|Full |visitor's
|passports|passports
----------------------------------------
1990 |854 |210
1991 |1,037 |151
1992 |984 |126
1993 |1,162 |159
1994 |1,031 |116
Separate figures are not available for the number of those applicants who used false identifies posing as a living person.
Immigration Control
Mr. David Shaw: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to maintain immigration control- effectiveness at Dover.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: Immigration officers apply a document check to all passengers arriving at Dover, and examine non-EEA nationals to assess their admissibility under the immigration rules.
In addition, immigration officers conduct surveillance on car and freight traffic to combat clandestine immigration by concealment in vehicles and containers. The number of clandestine entrants detected in the Dover area increased form 256 in 1993 to 379 in 1994.
Al Fayed Brothers
Mr. Alex Carlile: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the reasons for refusing British nationality to (a) Mr. Mohammed Al-Fayed and (b) Mr. Ali Al-Fayed; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Nicholas Baker: No. It is not our practice to comment on individual applications for naturalisation.
Mr. Campbell-Savours: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of his correspondence with the hon. Member for Tatton (Mr. Hamilton) concerning the Al-Fayed's.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to his question on 7 March 1995, Official Report, column 116.
Asylum Seekers
Mrs. Barbara Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for asylum were determined in 1994; in how many cases (a) the applicant was granted asylum, (b) the applicant was refused and (c) the application was refused under paragraph 345 of the immigration rules.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: Information on decisions taken on applications for asylum in 1994, is in the table.
Decisions<1> <2> on applications received for asylum in the United
Kingdom, excluding dependants, by type, 1994
Number of applicants
|<3>1994
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Total Decisions |20,990
Recognised as a refugee and granted asylum<4> |825
Not recognised as a refugee but granted exceptional
leave to remain |3,660
Total refused |16,500
Refused asylum and exceptional leave after full
consideration |12,655
Refused on safe third country grounds<5> |865
Refused under paragraph 180F of Immigration Rules<6> |2,985
<1> Decisions do not necessarily relate to applications made in the
same period.
<2> Information is of initial determination decisions, excluding the
outcome of appeals or other subsequent decisions.
<3> Provisional figures rounded to the nearest 5.
<4> Excluding South East Asian refugees.
<5> Refusals under para 345 of the Immigration Rules since 1 October
1994.
<6> Para 340 refusals since 1 October 1994. For failure to provide
evidence to support the asylum claim within a reasonable period,
including failure to respond to invitation to interview to establish
identity.
Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers have been removed to France on safe third country grounds since 26 July 1993; and how many of those so removed have been returned to the United Kingdom by the French authorities.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: Available records show that 153 asylum seeker have been removed to France on safe third country grounds since 26 July 1993. Of these, 80 have been returned to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give a breakdown by country of origin of current applicants for asylum, of the duration of their application, the time spent in detention and the proposed action, if any, by his Department.
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Mr. Nicholas Baker: The available information on the number of applications for asylum awaiting an initial decision as at 31 December 1994, by nationality, is given in the table. Information on the length of time these applicants have been waiting for an initial decision is not available.
As at 30 January 1995, 139 persons who were awaiting an initial decision on their application for asylum were detained.
Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers have been removed to France on safe third country grounds since 26 July 1993; and how many of those so removed have been returned to the United Kingdom by the French authorities.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: Available records show that 153 asylum seekers have been removed to France on safe third country grounds since 26 July 1993. Of these, 80 have been returned to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give a breakdown by country of origin of current applicants for asylum, of the duration of their application, the time spent in detention and the proposed action, if any, by his Department.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: The available information on the number of applications for asylum awaiting an initial decision as at 31 December 1994, by nationality, is given in the table. Information on the length of time these applicants have been waiting for an initial decision is not available.
As at 30 January 1995, 139 persons who were awaiting an initial decision on their application for asylum were detained.
The number of asylum applications outstanding,
excluding
dependants, as at 31 December 1994, by nationality
|Applications
Nationality |outstanding
----------------------------------------------------
Europe including Americas
Bulgaria |550
Colombia |590
Romania |805
Turkey |3,545
Former USSR |1,155
Former Yugoslavia |5,990
Others |1,630
Total |14,265
Africa
Angola |1,815
Benin |50
Cameroon |175
Ethiopia |1,345
Ghana |5,435
Kenya |2,090
Nigeria |5,100
Somalia |1,025
Sudan |510
Togo/Ivory Coast |1,300
Uganda |1,275
Zaire |3,570
Others<1> |3,570
Total |27,270
Middle East
Iran |805
Iraq |575
Lebanon |475
Others |945
Total |2,805
Asia
China |860
India |2,630
Pakistan |2,760
Sri Lanka |3,185
Others |1,405
Total |10,840
Nationality Unknown |80
Grand Total |55,255
<1> includes Sierra Leone
Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide a breakdown by nationality of the number of asylum seekers removed from the United Kingdom on safe third country grounds in 1994.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: Information on the number of removals of asylum seekers whose applications were refused on safe third country grounds, by nationality, for 1994 is given in the table.
Information on the destination of asylum applicants refused and removed on safe third country grounds, and the number of those who were returned by the country removed to, could be obtained only at disproportionate costs.
Number<1> of asylum seekers whose applications
were refused on
safe third country grounds and who were removed,
excluding
dependants, by nationality, 1994.
|Refusals
--------------------------------------------------
Europe
Albania |3
Bulgaria |6
Czechoslovakia |11
Poland |6
Romania |11
Turkey |18
Former USSR |6
Former Yugoslavia |16
Total |77
Americas
Colombia |1
Other Americas |2
Total |3
Africa
Algeria |27
Angola |13
Ethiopia |9
Ghana |21
Ivory Coast |10
Kenya |2
Liberia |8
Morocco |1
Niger |1
Nigeria |15
Sierra Leone |12
Somalia |14
South Africa |5
Sudan |4
Tanzania |2
Uganda |5
Zaire |4
Other Africa |2
Total |155
Middle East
Iran |3
Iraq |7
Lebanon |6
Total |16
Asia
Afghanistan |3
Bangladesh |3
China |6
India |6
Pakistan |7
Sri Lanka |24
Total |49
Other and nationality not known |6
Grand Total |306
<1> Provisional information pending the analysis
of late data.
Mr. Fisher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if those seeking asylum in Britain are entitled to legal aid in order to apply for (a) a writ of habeas corpus and (b) a judicial review.
Mr. John M. Taylor: I have been asked to reply. Civil legal aid is available for both of these proceedings, subject to the statutory means and merits tests.
Mr. Fisher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who are seeking asylum in the United Kingdom have been detained in the past 12 months, in (a) Campsfield, (b) Haslar holding centre, (c) Rochester and (d) Rickmansworth.
Mr. Nicholas Baker: The information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Welsh Police
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers were employed full-time by Welsh police forces in each year since 1990; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Maclean: The total number of officers in Welsh forces is set out in the table. The available information does not distinguish officers employed on a full-time basis.
Year |Number of As at 31 December |officers ------------------------------------------------------ 1990 |6,399 1991 |6,424 1992 |6,480 1993 |6,438 1994 |6,373
Drugs (Deaths)
Mrs. Helen Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the number of recorded deaths from (a) methadone and (b) heroin overdose for each coroner's area of the United Kingdom last year.
Mr. Michael Forsyth: This information is not collected centrally. In 1992, the latest year for which information is available, 76 notified drug addicts in the United Kingdom died because of an overdose of methadone, and 129 addicts died because of an overdose of heroin, morphine or other unspecified opiate drugs.
Data Processing Contract
Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what were regarded as the relative (a) advantages and (b) disadvantages of (i) the ED5 in-house team bid and (ii) the Sema bid for the data processing contract in his Department; and on what basis he made his decision;
(2) if he will list the senior managers within his Department who were responsible for data processing work prior to the recent privatisation; and if he will indicate what has happened to them, in career terms, since the award of the contract to Sema;
(3) if his Department has paid towards the cost of redundancies of employees working on data processing at Corby who are likely to be re- employed in similar work at the site; and if he will make a statement;
(4) if he will make a statement about how the bids from (a) the ED5 in- house team and (b) Sema for the data processing contract were evaluated; what assumptions were made about each bid including assumptions about aspects not directly contained in the bids; if the cost of the redundancies to be paid for by his Department was added to the Sema bid; and if he will make a statement;
(5) if the evaluation process for the data processing contract covered all the services that were being undertaken on this work within his Department; and what adjustments were made in considering and comparing the bids for (a) the ED5 in-house team and (b) Sema to ensure an accurate comparison;
(6) what was the period of time between the submission to this Department of best and final offers for the data processing contract and the announcement of the decision; and what factors underlay the length of time of this interval.
Mr. Howard: In the market test of the Home Office administrative information technology services division--ED5--the final competition was between Sema Group plc and an in-house team, in association with a private sector partner. Other bidders had been eliminated at earlier stages of the market test. Following detailed negotiations with Sema Group plc and the in -house team, both submitted "best and final offer" bids which were received on 9 June 1994. Both these bidders were considered technically capable of providing the required services and their bids were compared on the basis of a final evaluation which showed that the Sema bid represented better value for money offering estimated annual savings of about £4.8 million. The evaluation was undertaken on the basis of information put forward by the bidders in submitting their best and final offers. The evaluation covered all the
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services in the contract; other information technology supplies and services provided to the Home Office which are outside the scope of the contract are purchased separately.In evaluating the offers, a number of adjustments were made to both bids to ensure that the total costs to the Home Office were being compared. The replies given to the hon. Member on 13 February, Official Report, columns 491-92 , explained that details of bids and related evaluation arrangements are commercially confidential but the maximum potential costs to the Home Office of the transitional and restructuring costs in the Sema Group bid were used in the evaluation.
It took 40 days to evaluate the bids, including consideration by Ministers and officials, and arrange the announcement which was made on 19 July 1994.
The reply given to the hon. Member on 23 January at column 50 explained that with some limited exceptions staff in the undertaking were transferred to the Sema group. Subsequent redundancies are a matter for Sema plc who will meet the associated costs. Those staff in the undertaking who were redeployed before the transfer were found posts in the same grade elsewhere in the Department or in other Government Departments.
Prisoners (Mental Illness)
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements generally obtain in respect of prisoners for the treatment of a prisoner for mental illness who lived in one district health authority but is imprisoned in a prison covered by another district health authority; and if he will make a statement.
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. Graham Allen, dated 13 March 1995.
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about arrangements for the treatment for mental illness of prisoners who are detained in establishments away from their usual districts of residence.
The general rule under which the Prison Service has operated for many years is that it meets the costs of a prisoner's health care inside prison walls itself. That would include any treatment for mental illness. If a prisoner needs to be taken to an outside hospital for treatment for mental illness, the decision as to which hospital he/she is referred to is one for the clinicians involved in his/her care. The costs of treatment are a matter for his/her usual district of residence, except where the transfer to one of the special hospitals is concerned, as they are funded centrally by the Department of Health.
Guidance issued by the NHS Management Executive states that the health authority responsible for funding the treatment of a prisoner/patient is determined by the address at which he or she was resident immediately before detention. Where that cannot be determined satisfactorily, responsibility falls on the district in which the offence, or alleged offence, in respect of which the prisoner is detained was committed.
Crime Victims Hotline
Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many calls the telephone hotline for crime victims has received; how many of those calls have led to action being taken; and if he will specify the action.
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Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 10 February 1995]: 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 Mrs. Barbara Roche, dated 13 March 1995:
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the Victim Helpline.
Up to 8 March this year, the Helpline had received 86 calls since its inception on 5 December 1994. The work of the Helpline is confidential and it is not possible to give details of individual calls. Of the 86 calls, sixty have been passed to prison governors for any necessary further action, such as the investigation of alleged unwanted contact from a prisoner. A further 26 calls were asking for advice on how the helpline operated.
Parole
Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many prisoners in the last year for which figures are available experienced a delay in their parole; what was (a) the average delay and, (b) the delay for each prisoner; and what has been (i) the total cost to public funds of these delays and, (ii) the cost for each prisoner;
(2) how many prisoners are currently experiencing a delay in their parole; and what is the cost to public funds of keeping those people in prison.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 13 February 1995]: The Parole Board and parole unit are currently dealing with 569 cases involving prisoners where decisions on parole have been delayed beyond parole eligibility date or its anniversary. It is not possible to estimate the cost to public funds until these cases have been dealt with, and it is clear (a) in which cases parole will be granted, and (b) how long after the parole eligibility date a decision is notified to the prisoner.
I regret that the information requested in relation to delays in parole during a complete year is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Chechnya
Mr. Galbraith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Russian Government concerning the war in Chechnya; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary raised our concerns with the Russian Prime Minister in London on 2 March.
My right hon. Friend told him that Chechnya had been a setback to Russia's relations with the west, stressed the importance of ending the fighting and reaching a negotiated settlement and urged the Russians to guarantee free access for humanitarian aid.
Mr. Elletson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the cost to the Russian Government of the campaign in Chechnya; what assessment he has made of the estimate of the economist Andrei Illarionov; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Douglas Hogg: It is very difficult to make an accurate estimate of the costs of the Chechnya campaign.
We are aware of Illarionov's estimate of $5 billion. It is one of a number of widely varying estimates and is based on extrapolation from a limited amount of data.
Mr. Elletson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement about the Russian Defence Minister General Pavel Grachev's call for a new offensive in Chechnya.
Mr. Douglas Hogg: We continue to urge the Russians to end the fighting in Chechnya and pursue a negotiated settlement. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary made these points most recently when he saw the Russian Prime Minister on 2 March.
St. Helena
Mr. Mike O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his policy in respect of discrimination on wage rates for employment in Government services on St. Helena between ex- patriates from the United Kingdom and St. Helenians; in what instances in the last 10 years different wage rates were paid to each category of person for the same work; what were the wage rates; and if he will put in the Library documents which are used in the application of such a policy in St. Helena.
Mr. David Davis: There is no such policy. Pay scales offered by the Government of St. Helena to its employees do not discriminate between those recruited in the United Kingdom and St. Helenians recruited locally. An expatriate may be paid a supplement by us in addition to the local salary to bring him or her into line with UK salary levels if he or she is recruited as part of the UK's aid effort at the request of the St. Helena Government in order to fill a post for which no suitably qualified St. Helenian is available.
Mr. Mike O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many St. Helenian males leave their families on St. Helena to work for over one year elsewhere.
Mr. David Davis: The total number of unaccompanied St. Helenian males working away from St. Helena on contracts of more than 12 months is 90, the vast majority being on Ascension island.
Mr. Mike O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his policy in respect of censorship of radio stations in St. Helena; and if he will place the documentation which sets out that policy in the Library.
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