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Attendance and Disability Living Allowances
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will change the Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance rules which apply when someone is admitted to hospital. [82306]
Mr. Bayley:
We propose to change the rules for Attendance Allowance (AA) and Disability Living Allowance (DLA) so that the day of admission to hospital is treated as a day out of hospital, in place of the existing rules which treat such a day as a day in hospital. This will mean that people who spend frequent spells in hospital,
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eg for respite care, can gain an extra day's benefit. It will mean that the rules for AA/DLA will be brought into line with other Social Security benefits.
Regulations governing the withdrawal and downrating of benefits on admission to hospital have existed since the beginning of the National Insurance scheme in 1948. The reduction in benefit reflects the fact that, in hospital, the National Health Service is providing free care and maintenance. Regulations currently do not define what is a day in, or a day out of hospital. This leads to uncertainty. Social Security Commissioners have taken varying positions over the years. This has resulted in differing rules being developed according to the type of benefit in payment, creating difficulties for both customers and staff.
A Commissioner's decision made in 1996, which affected only AA and DLA, directed that both days of admission to, and days of discharge from hospital, should be treated as days in hospital. This means that benefit can now be lost on both the days of admission and discharge. For other Social Security benefits the current policy and practice is that the day of admission is treated as a day out of hospital and the day of discharge as a day in hospital.
We have concluded that the best way forward, to avoid further inconsistencies and confusion, would be to align the AA and DLA rules on hospital admission with the rules for other Social Security benefits. For the avoidance of doubt, we will make it explicit within the legislation that the day of admission is a day out of hospital and the day of discharge a day in hospital. Regulations will be laid at the earliest opportunity.
Mr. Coleman:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases there have been for the years (a) 1997, (b) 1998 and (c) 1999 to date of the IND offices in Croydon losing passports lodged with them. [81682]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
Statistics relating to the number of passports lost in the Immigration and Nationality Directorate are not recorded centrally. Information kept centrally is in respect of the number of compensation claims dealt with as a result of maladministration, the majority of which will have arisen as a result of lost documents. The figures for the years since 1997 are as follows:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 41 |
| 1998 | 63 |
| 1999 to date | 24 |
Prison Service
Dr. Cable:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 21 January 1999, Official Report, column 556, if the Prison Service has completed the short review on recruitment to the Prison Service; and if he will publish the conclusions. [81637]
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Mr. George Howarth:
The report of the review is nearing completion and will be submitted shortly to the Prison Service's director of personnel.
The report is not being written with a view to publication, but it will inform discussions with senior managers about possible new policy initiatives.
Fiona Mactaggart:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will consider lifting visa requirements for those leaving the Former Republic of Yugoslavia. [81900]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
No; but where United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees have arranged for medical and humanitarian evacuation for evacuees from Kosovo, the normal visa requirements will be waived.
Fiona Mactaggart:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Kosovar Albanians will be evacuated from Macedonia to the UK; what criteria will be used as to who will qualify; what protection they will receive, and for how long; and where they will be housed. [81902]
Mr. Straw:
The primary aim of the Government is to care for refugees in the region, and to facilitate their return to Kosovo. We are working together with our European Union and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners and with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
We have long made it clear that we stand ready to respond to requests from UNHCR to take vulnerable refugees from Kosovo on a temporary basis. We have agreed with UNHCR that any recommendations for evacuation from the region should be co-ordinated through the office of the UNHCR. UNHCR will assess the desirability of temporary protection in the United Kingdom, will give priority to medical cases, other vulnerable persons and in support of family unity and make recommendations to the Home Office for consideration.
I announced on 20 April that arrangements had been agreed for the admission of 120 evacuees, mainly women and children, expected in the next few days. This decision was made following advice from UNHCR that the refugees were deemed to be vulnerable and in need of temporary protection outside the region.
People arriving under the UNHCR programme will be granted permission to enter in line with close family members already settled in the United Kingdom or 12 months' exceptional leave to enter to provide for their protection as requested by UNHCR.
I have tasked the Refugee Council with putting in place a special reception service for refugees arriving under the UNHCR programme. Under the plans, people will arrive in the United Kingdom through selected airports and will be placed in reception centres across the United Kingdom. The reception centres will be staffed by the Refugee Council and will provide temporary accommodation for refugees prior to their moving into more permanent
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accommodation. The Refugee Council is liaising closely with local authorities through the Local Government Association.
Mr. Mullin:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken since 23 March to accelerate the process of establishing voluntary registers of membership of freemasonry in police forces in England and Wales; and how many police forces have now indicated that they have specific plans for introducing such registers. [81792]
Mr. Boateng:
On 1 April, the Home Office wrote at official level to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) requesting that ACPO write to each Chief Constable in England and Wales to ask them to set up voluntary, internal registers for their forces. ACPO duly wrote to each Chief Constable on 7 April. It is too early to say how many Chief Constables will set up such registers. However, an earlier ACPO survey of Chief Constables' views indicated that the overwhelming majority of Chief Constables supported in principle their creation.
Mr. Mullin:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 23 March 1999, Official Report, columns 177-78, when he now expects numerical data on freemasons within the police and other parts of the criminal justice system to be available. [81793]
Mr. Boateng:
As soon as the voluntary internal registers which all Chief Constables in England and Wales have been asked by the Association of Chief Police Officers to put in place have been established, we will be able to make available for statistical purposes such numerical data as these registers reveal, on an ongoing basis. We anticipate that the first useful information will be available by October this year.
Arrangements for other categories of occupation under Home Office responsibility, including release of data for statistical purposes, will be determined once the internal registration arrangements for the Police Service have been set up and are in operation.
Dr. Kumar:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to increase the proportion of elected representatives on police authorities in England; and if he will make a statement. [81849]
Mr. Boateng:
The Government have no plans to change the proportion of elected representatives on police authorities. The elected representatives (councillor members appointed by local councils) have a majority of one over the combined total of magistrate members and independent members. I am satisfied that these non-elected members have skills and experience which are of benefit to police authorities. Police authorities have been established in their present form only since 1995, and some of them have had to re-form themselves as a result of local government reorganisation. I do not think it would be helpful to subject them to further change at this time.
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