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Intelligence Services Act (Warrants)
Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many warrants have been issued for each year under sections 5 and 6 of the Intelligence Services Act 1994 since its inception; and of those how many were authorised by the Secretary of State and how many by civil servants. [13782]
Mr. Straw: For reasons of national security, information on the number of warrants issued under sections 5 and 6 of the Intelligence Services Act 1994 is not published.
Civil Servants do not authorise the issue of warrants. However, under the emergency procedure provided at section 6(1)(b) of the Intelligence Services Act 1994, a warrant may be issued under the hand of an official of or above the rank of Assistant Under Secretary of State provided that the Secretary of State has expressly authorised its issue (typically by telephone), and a statement of that fact is endorsed on the warrant.
Any such emergency warrant must be renewed within 2 days under the hand of the Secretary of State.
Mr. Dismore:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the names, qualifications and experience of the members of the Gaming Board; and what plans he has to review the membership. [13117]
Mr. George Howarth:
The members of the Gaming Board are Lady Shirley Littler (Chairman), Lady Carolyn Trethowan JP, Mr. William Kirkpatrick, Mr. Bryan Austin and Mr. Donald Elliott CBE QPM.
The members of the Board have diverse qualifications and experience. Lady Littler's background is in public administration and regulation, Lady Trethowan is a magistrate and a former member of a betting and gaming licensing bench. Mr. Kirkpatrick and Mr. Austin both have business backgrounds and Mr. Elliott is a former chief constable.
Lady Littler and Lady Trethowan are due to retire within the next year and competitions are currently being held to fill their posts. My right hon. Friend has no wider plans to review the membership of the Board.
Miss McIntosh:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will assess the advantages of prohibiting the sale of the most dangerous and commonly abused volatile substances to those under 16 years of age. [13130]
Mr. George Howarth:
The Intoxicating Substances (Supply) Act 1985 makes it an offence for retailers to sell substances to a person under the age of 18 if they have reason to believe that the young person intends to inhale them or their fumes for the purpose of intoxication. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs undertook a study into volatile substance abuse, the results of which were published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office in 1995. A copy of their report "Volatile Substance Abuse" is in the Library. They concluded that there were no acceptable legislative changes which would do more than the Act already does to protect young people.
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Fiona Mactaggart:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will make decisions on outstanding applications from prisoners convicted of terrorist offences for repatriation to the Republic of Ireland. [14430]
Mr. Straw:
I have recently approved three applications for repatriation to the Republic of Ireland submitted by prisoners convicted of terrorist offences. These were approved on the basis that the Republic will continue to enforce the sentences imposed by the courts here in accordance with the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. Remaining repatriation applications are at various stages of consideration either here or in the Republic and will be determined as soon as possible.
Mr. Rooney:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons have been given exceptional leave to remain in the United Kingdom, broken down by category of original application for each quarter since 1 January 1994. [13880]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
The available information is for those persons initially granted exceptional leave to remain on refusal of asylum. Information for persons granted exceptional leave without originally having applied for asylum is not separately identifiable in the statistics.
In the second and third quarters of 1997 respectively, 540 and 950 grants of exceptional leave on refusal of asylum, excluding dependants, were made. Equivalent information for each quarter of 1995, 1996 and the first quarter of 1997 can be found in table 1.4 of the Home Office statistical bulletin "Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 1996", issue 15/97. Issue 9/96 of the same publication provides the same information for each quarter of 1994. Copies of both publications are available in the Library.
Mr. Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many warrants have been issued for each year under section 2 of the Interception of Communications Act 1985 since its inception to (a) police and (b) the security services; and of those how many were authorised by the Secretary of State and how many by civil servants. [13783]
Mr. Straw:
The following information is obtained from the Annual Reports of the Interception Commissioner. The Government support the policy, adopted by successive Commissioners, of not publishing a further breakdown of the figures, and of excluding numbers of warrants issued by the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, because it would be prejudicial to national security to do so.
It is only the Secretary of State who may authorise the issue of a warrant. Civil servants do not authorise the issue of interception warrants. However, under the emergency procedure provided at section 4(1)(b) of the Interception of Communications Act 1985, a warrant may be issued under the hand of an official of or above the rank of Assistant Under Secretary of State provided that the Secretary of
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State has expressly authorised its issue and a statement of that fact is endorsed on the warrant. Any such emergency warrant must be renewed within 2 days under the hand of the Secretary of State.
Mr. Corbyn:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the degree of violent hostility to Romany people in the Czech and Slovak Republics. [13490]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
We have access to a wide range of information about the situation of Roma in Eastern European countries, including information about instances of racially motivated violence and discrimination and about the response of the authorities in the countries concerned. This information is taken fully into account
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when applications for asylum are considered, and all such applications are determined in accordance with our obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees.
Mr. Beith:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what were the total number of (a) unconvicted prisoners on remand and (b) unsentenced prisoners on remand, by gender and in total, on the last day of each of the last 36 months for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [13722]
Ms Quin:
The information requested is given in the table. Information on the male and female remand populations, by month, is published in successive volumes of "Prison Statistics, England and Wales" (table 1.2 of the 1996 edition, Cm 3732). Copies are in the library.
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