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Mr. O'Brien: We are committed to taking such action, and we shall do so as soon as possible. The whole way in which these rackets have been run is a scandal. All too frequently Members of Parliament are dragged into such cases, supposedly making representations that have often been made by law firms. Let me tell hon. Members that they should consider carefully before deciding to support an application from someone who has merely written to them. They should consider whether it is a good case. If it is, by all means let them put it to the Minister--but Members of Parliament should not advance cases that have been submitted to them as a way of dragging out the procedure, with requests for them to meet the Minister, so that people can stay in the United Kingdom for longer.
We need firm immigration controls. The Government are committed to such controls, and we ask hon. Members to support us.
Mr. Humfrey Malins (Woking):
I agree with the Minister that unscrupulous immigration advisers are appalling, but will he take this opportunity to remind the House of the existence of the Immigration Advisory Service, a free national charity that gives expert legal advice? It has offices throughout the country, to which applicants could and should go to get the good, free and independent advice that is often missing.
Mr. O'Brien:
The hon. Gentleman is right. The Immigration Advisory Service, the Refugee Legal Centre and other organisations have a great record in advising asylum applicants and people with immigration problems. Unfortunately, that record is not replicated among some unscrupulous advisers. In passing, I pay tribute to the hon. Gentleman's work in setting up the Immigration Advisory Service and to his record as its chairman.
20. Sir Teddy Taylor (Rochford and Southend, East):
How many persons are currently awaiting decisions on political asylum; and what was the total in each of the previous three years. [61110]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Mike O'Brien):
The number of asylum applications awaiting an initial decision at the end of October 1998 was 59,000. The corresponding figures at the end of December in 1995, 1996 and 1997 were 70,000, 57,000 and 52,000 respectively. There are also cases in the appeals backlog, although that is being reduced because we have employed more adjudicators.
Sir Teddy Taylor:
This is obviously a serious and worsening problem which makes it more difficult for genuine cases to be dealt with. Is the Minister aware that, for some of the old hands in the Commons, it is depressing to hear Ministers trying to blame the problem
Mr. O'Brien:
The previous Government had 18 years to try to sort out all these problems. They failed to do so. It is right that this Government should point out that we have inherited a shambles in the asylum system. Nevertheless, it is now our responsibility to sort it out. We propose to introduce legislation that will bring firmer, faster and fairer controls to our immigration system. Up to now, the system has not worked effectively. After we pass the legislation during this parliamentary Session, we will ensure that we have a system that works far better than that inherited from the Opposition.
Mr. Peter L. Pike (Burnley):
I know that my hon. Friend is doing everything possible to try to eliminate the appalling backlog of cases that we inherited but--recognising the problems that the backlog causes to the individuals and, in many cases, to the families--can he give any indication of when he believes he will get rid of the terrible legacy of the last Tory Government?
Mr. O'Brien:
We are proceeding to deal with the cases in the backlog. Many of them are being decided as quickly as possible. We are introducing new working methods during the period up to the end of January, which will help to make much more efficient the making of decisions in relation to the asylum backlog. We are also dealing with a number of cases that date back to 1993 and 1995, which we have inherited. We intend to proceed with dealing with those cases as quickly as we possibly can.
21. Mrs. Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest):
How many gun owners are waiting to receive compensation for handguns surrendered under the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997. [61111]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Paul Boateng):
Around 23,000 individual compensation claimants have yet to receive full payment of their claims. However, the great majority of those have received a part payment. Full or part payments totalling £62.6 million have been made to more than 50,300 claimants. Those figures were correct as at 20 November.
Mrs. Laing:
I thank the Minister for that accurate and informative answer, but does he agree that 23,000 is a very large number of debts outstanding from the Government to individuals, many of whom live in my constituency? When Parliament decided that handguns should be given up, those people willingly gave up their handguns and, therefore, the recreational use of those guns, and they are now waiting for compensation so that
Mr. Boateng:
I hope that the hon. Lady is equally concerned about the number of unlawfully held and adapted handguns in her constituency. She will realise the
Social Services
3.31 pm
The Secretary of State for Health (Mr. Frank Dobson): A year ago, I announced our plans for a modern and dependable health service. In February, I announced our proposals to tackle health inequalities. Last month, I set out for the House our plans to ensure that children in care are looked after properly. Today, I am publishing our White Paper "Modernising Social Services", which spells out our proposals to create modern and dependable social services. The White Paper is another step along the road to providing people in every part of our country with high-quality health and social services whenever they need them.
We are determined to have social services that are convenient to use, respond quickly to emergencies and provide top-quality services to those who need them. We do not have such services at present. Despite the efforts of many very dedicated staff, many services are not provided sufficiently conveniently and promptly, or to a sufficiently high standard.
The services are important to all of us. At any one time, up to 1.5 million people in England rely on the help of social services. At some point in our lives, all of us are likely to need to turn to social services for support, whether on our own behalf, or for a family member, a neighbour or a friend. The need for help often arises at a time of personal or family crisis--such as the onset of mental illness, the birth of a disabled child, a family break-up, or a death that leaves someone without the carer on whom he or she had come to rely.
Social services are provided in many and various ways, ranging from meals on wheels for elderly people, to help at home for people suffering from mental or physical illness or removing children from danger. Help may be delivered at home, in a day centre or as residential or nursing home care. It may be provided by councils, voluntary bodies or commercial companies.
As individuals or as families, it is in our personal interest to ensure that good-quality services are available. However, the matter goes wider than that. Any decent society must provide for those who need support and are unable to look after themselves. Moreover, we all benefit if services are provided for those who need them, as we can all suffer if services break down for young offenders or people with mental health problems.
It is in everyone's interest to ensure that services are available, effective and efficient. However, that objective is not being met. Although there are many top-quality services, all too often, social services are failing to provide the support that people in need are entitled to expect.
People who work in social services have a hard job. They have to deal with some very difficult people, often in difficult--sometimes in dangerous--circumstances. They and their managers are often criticised. Some of that criticism may be justified, but often it is not. However, staff have suffered from a major difficulty. Until now, no Government have spelt out what local people can expect from social services or what the staff are expected to do. The lack of clarity has meant not only that, in daily matters, social services cannot easily be held to account, but often that, when something has gone badly wrong, they get all the blame even when others have been at fault.
The Government are determined to change that. We propose to lay down the standards of service that people can expect from social services in every part of the country. Needs vary from one part of the country to another, but the quality of services should not. The new standards should apply to services for young and old, for both sexes and for all ethnic groups, whether they live in the inner cities, the suburbs, country towns or rural areas.
We aim to ensure that people who need social services help are treated with dignity and provided with what they need in a way that promotes rather than diminishes their independence. We want social services to help people to live in their own homes, to do things for themselves and to hold down a job if they can.
We intend to improve the protection provided for vulnerable people by putting in place tough and effective new inspection systems, working to national standards. The new arrangements should make sure that anyone receiving social services help--young or old; living at home or in residential accommodation--is protected from neglect, abuse or exploitation.
Our aim is to raise standards across the board, so that social services everywhere provide top-quality care and attention and are efficiently organised to meet the needs of local people promptly and conveniently.
We will lay down new standards of performance and publish annual reports on what every council has achieved or not achieved. We will set up in each English region a commission for care standards to regulate care services, whether they are provided in people's own homes, through organisations such as fostering agencies or in residential homes. The commissions will cover all services, no matter who provides them. They will have tough new powers and the Secretary of State will have new powers to step in when things need to be put right.
As a further development in our commitment to improve the protection of children, the commission for care standards in each region will include a children's rights officer. Their job will be to inspect children's services to make sure that children are properly safeguarded, that allegations of harm or abuse are thoroughly investigated and that the views of children in care are properly taken into account. They will report directly to the chief inspector of social services any significant evidence that children are not being properly safeguarded. The new children's rights officers will help to make sure that we root out abuse and deliver a better deal for children.
The new arrangements will provide real safeguards for some of the most vulnerable people in our society. Some of what we propose will require changes in the law; some will not. We are taking steps to toughen up the existing system. Councils have been warned that they must not neglect their regulatory functions between now and when the commissions for care standards are set up.
Small children's homes are not currently inspected. We shall invite them to ask to be inspected in the meantime, so that they can start to raise standards, where necessary. I shall advise councils not to place children in homes that have not been inspected.
The standard of social services varies not just between one area and another, but often between two units in the same area. Some first-rate services are provided, but too many are not up to scratch. That has been exposed by recent reports by the social services inspectorate, and in
particular by its joint reviews carried out with the Audit Commission. We propose to strengthen the role of the inspectorate and to put more resources into the joint reviews.
We also need to improve the standards of the social services work force. The present professional and training arrangements are not up to the task. We have decided to abolish the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work. We will replace it with a General Social Care Council. Its job will be to ensure the proper regulation and training of all the social care work force, not just social workers. One of its first tasks will be to develop codes of conduct and practice for all staff, which it and the commissions for care standards will then enforce. It will be given the power and resources to do its job properly.
Many of the most needy people require help from several agencies, including the NHS and other providers of social care. Sometimes the various agencies put more effort into arguing with one another than into helping the vulnerable people whom they are there to serve. We are determined to put a stop to that and we will change the law to make it easier for them to work together for the benefit of local people.
In that and many other aspects of the White Paper, we are making clear that things which are not being done very well at the moment must be done properly in future. Doing things properly does not necessarily cost more than doing things badly. Sometimes it proves to be cheaper as well as better, but the Government recognise that extra funds will be required to implement the wide range of improvements that we have in mind. Over the next three years, as a result of the comprehensive spending review, nearly £3 billion extra will be found for social services--£1.3 billion of that in the form of a modernisation fund to lead the changes that are necessary.
I have already announced that £380 million is to be invested in improving children's services. Today, I can announce that we will provide £750 million to finance the change of emphasis in social services to promote the development of dignity and independence for social services users and carers. An additional £185 million will be invested in mental health services provided by social services and we will shortly announce a more than matching increase in NHS funding for mental health. The modernisation fund will also provide an extra £20 million for staff training.
The extra funding must be spent on the improvements that I have outlined and I am putting in place arrangements to ensure that. The money is for change and improvement. It is being provided on top of general increased funding for social services and additional special grants for drugs projects and work on HIV-AIDS. Taken together, we have provided nearly £3 billion extra for social services over the next three years.
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