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Immigration

Dr. Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 30 June, Official Report, column 4, how many persons who had been detained under Immigration Act powers were granted (a) asylum, (b) exceptional leave to remain and (c) leave to enter or remain on another basis in (i) 1995, (ii) 1996 and (iii) 1997 to date. [8925]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: Further analysis of the information given in the reply of 30 June has shown that the number of people who were held in detention, solely under Immigration Act powers, and then subsequently granted leave to enter or remain was previously overestimated. The revised totals, with the breakdown requested, are given in the table. I apologise if this has caused any inconvenience.

23 Jul 1997 : Column: 642

Number(9) of persons granted leave to enter or remain who had been detained under Immigration Act powers(10) (11) by date of outcome, 1995, 1996 and January to June 1997

	1995	1996	1997 (12)
Granted asylum	30	90	115
Granted exceptional leave to remain/enter	60	110	55
Granted other leave to enter or remain(13)	95	95	65
Total	185	295	235

(9) Estimated and rounded to nearest 5.

(10) Persons detained solely under the powers contained in Schedule 2 or 3 of the Immigration Act 1971.

(11) Information relates to year of outcome, which does not necessarily correspond with detention period.

(12) For January to 30 June 1997.

(13) Includes--leave to enter as a spouse, leave to enter--other, indefinite leave to remain, limited leave to remain, cases conceded, Court recommendation over-turned, entry regarded as lawful.

Ethnic Minorities

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of employees in his private office are (a) of Asian origin and (b) of Afro-Caribbean origin. [8949]

Mr. Straw: A voluntary self-classification system is used to record the ethnic origin of staff in the Home Office. Of the staff serving in the Home Office ministerial secretariat on 6 July 1997 (a) 7.4 per cent. had classified themselves as being of Asian origin and (b) 2.9 per cent. had classified themselves as being of Afro-Caribbean origin. The ministerial secretariat consists of staff serving all the Home Office Ministers and the permanent secretary. Given the small size of the ministerial secretariat, the information requested on numbers cannot be provided as this might result in the identification of individuals. This would be contrary to the Home Office code of practice on the use and disclosure of ethnic data, which has been agreed with the trade union side.

In connection with this question, I regret that some of the information provided in my reply to the hon. Member on 22 May 1997, Official Report, column 110, was incorrect in that the figures given were those for black staff and not for staff of Asian origin. The correct figures are as follows:

Grade level	Asian staff	Afro-caribbean staff
Administrative Assistants	175	109
Administrative Officers	314	142
Executive Officers	175	67
Higher Executive Officers	17	14
Senior Executive Officer and above	11	7
Total	692	339

Immigration (Same-sex Partnerships)

Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to review immigration policy in respect of same-sex partnerships. [9598]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: We are examining how we wish to develop all aspects of immigration policy, including such issues.

23 Jul 1997 : Column: 643

Tote Direct

Mr. Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many outlets there are for the Tote Direct; and if he will compare the number of such outlets with those for the national lottery. [9902]

Mr. George Howarth: Approximately 3,400 betting shops currently have Tote Direct terminals. The Tote expects there to be 4,500 by the end of the coming year.

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There are about 35,000 retail outlets for national lottery products--24,000 for the on-line game and 10,800 for instant games.

Police (Ethnic Origin)

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide a breakdown of the ethnic origin of police officers in each rank in England and Wales. [9888]

Mr. Michael: The latest available information is given in the table.

23 Jul 1997 : Column: 643

Police strength, England and Wales, 31 March 1996 (excluding secondments)

Rank	White	Black	Asian	Other	Total
Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Ranks	194	0	0	0	194
Superintendent	1,308	1	0	1	1,310
Chief Inspector	1,711	3	2	4	1,720
Inspector	6,251	8	14	7	6,280
Sergeant	18,610	60	77	29	18,776
Constable	94,513	977	--	333	96,532
Total	122,587	1,049	802	374	124,812

Although we do not yet have firm information for 1997, we do know that there is one ethnic minority officer (Asian) at ACPO rank.

23 Jul 1997 : Column: 643

Racehorses

Mr. Peter Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has evaluated in respect of the overall returns to racehorse owners in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) Ireland, (c) France, (d) German, (e) Japan and (f) Australia. [9898]

Mr. George Howarth: The most recent figures are for 1995.

Country	Total prize money £	Percentage of training expenses covered
United Kingdom	58,160,788	21
Ireland	13,548,480	20
France	92,312,632	49
Germany	23,151,375	45
Japan	655,428,126	95
Australia	112,848,577	34

Mr. Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the overall returns to racehorse owners for each year since 1986. [9897]

Mr. Howarth: The only available information is as follows:

	Percentage of training expenses covered by prize money
United Kingdom
1993	21
1994	22
1995	21

Mr. Bottomley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which EU member states provide extra prize money to winning racehorses trained or bred in the member state. [9899]

Mr. Howarth: We understand that some prize money comes from public sources in all European Union member states except Luxembourg.

23 Jul 1997 : Column: 644

Prisoners' Families (Travel Costs)

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the cost to public funds of reimbursing travel costs and providing travel for prisoners' families to visit their incarcerated relatives (a) nationally and (b) in Channings Wood; and what percentage in each case is represented by (i) taxi costs and (ii) overnight accommodation. [9857]

Ms Quin: The most recent figures are for 1996-97.

The total travel cost plus overnight accommodation for visits to prisons in England and Wales was £2,540,578 and to Channings Wood prison, £65,833. Overnight accommodation represents 4.35 per cent. nationally and 3.94 per cent. for Channings Wood.

It is not possible to specify as a percentage the cost of taxis against total travel cost, either nationally or for Channings Wood prison, as the assisted prison visits unit computer system does not differentiate between different modes of travel such as taxi, private motor vehicle, bus, etc.

Drivers (Drug Tests)

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress is being made by the police scientific development branch on developing reliable equipment to test for drugs in relation to driving ability. [9845]

Mr. Michael: The project is progressing on time and I was able to discuss the project when I visited the police scientific development branch on 22 July. Prototype equipment is planned for March to April 1998. A methodology for testing prototypes is being developed in parallel.

Passports

Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many British passports were applied for in (a) the year beginning January 1993,

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(b) the year beginning January 1994, (c) the year beginning January 1995, (d) the year beginning January 1996, (e) the third quarter of 1996, (f) the last quarter of 1996, (g) the first quarter of 1997 and (h) the second quarter of 1997. [9778]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information requested on the numbers of passports applied for is as follows:

Year/months	Number of British passports applied for
1993	3,251,596
1994	3,707,162
1995	4,235,737
1996	5,306,723
July-September 1996	1,333,086
October-December 1996	724,602
January-March 1997	1,337,769
April--June 1997	1,467,841

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