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Asylum Seekers

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consultations his Department has held with the Scottish Executive on the (a) dispersal of asylum seekers and (b) designation of reception zones. [107074]

Mrs. Roche: Officials in my Department have kept in regular contact with officials in the Scottish Executive to discuss a range of issues concerning the dispersal programme for asylum seekers.

Hunting (Committee of Inquiry)

Mr. Michael J. Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who appointed the members of the Committee of Inquiry into the Impact of Hunting with Dogs in England and Wales. [106770]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The members of the Committee of Inquiry were appointed by my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, following consultation with the noble Lord Burns, the chairman of the inquiry team.

Police Funding

Mr. Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how he plans to allocate police grant in 2000-01; and what the final funding allocations for police authorities will be for that year. [107555]

Mr. Straw: I have today, laid before the House, the Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2000-01 (HC 169). The Report sets out my determination for 2000-01 of the aggregate amount of grants that I propose to pay under section 46(2) of the Police Act 1996, and the amount to be paid to each police authority including the Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District.

Funding allocations for each police authority in England for 2000-01 are set out in the table. The table also shows allocations approved by Parliament for 1999-2000. Final funding allocations for police authorities in Wales will be

27 Jan 2000 : Column: 242W

announced shortly when the National Assembly for Wales publishes Standard Spending Assessment determinations for Welsh authorities.

Allocation (14) (£ million)

Police Authority	1999-2000	2000-01
English Shire forces
Avon and Somerset	168.4	173.7
Bedfordshire	61.4	64.1
Cambridgeshire	74.8	77.2
Cheshire	109.0	111.9
Cleveland	81.7	84.7
Cumbria	60.1	62.2
Derbyshire	102.1	105.4
Devon and Cornwall	174.3	178.9
Dorset	70.1	72.4
Durham	81.3	83.9
Essex(17)	163.0	174.8
Gloucestershire	62.4	63.5
Hampshire	194.5	202.7
Hertfordshire(17)	100.0	117.2
Humberside	113.0	116.9
Kent	183.1	191.2
Lancashire	178.2	185.3
Leicestershire	102.3	105.6
Lincolnshire	63.4	65.4
Norfolk	83.4	86.5
North Yorkshire	77.6	79.7
Northamptonshire	65.3	67.7
Nottinghamshire	126.3	130.0
Staffordshire	113.0	116.8
Suffolk	68.6	70.9
Surrey(17)	91.9	112.8
Sussex	166.4	172.4
Thames Valley	224.6	231.7
Warwickshire	52.2	54.3
West Mercia	113.0	117.2
Wiltshire	64.9	66.7
English Metropolitan forces
Greater Manchester	375.7	386.1
Merseyside	236.3	242.3
Northumbria	213.0	218.4
South Yorkshire	171.3	177.2
West Midlands	380.6	392.7
West Yorkshire	286.3	297.1
London forces
Metropolitan Police(15)(17	1,731.2
City of London(16)	55.4	56.4
English Total	6,852.8	7,045.1

(14) Rounded to the nearest £100.000. The Allocation is the sum of: Police Grant Transitional Grant, Police SSA Capital Finance SSA, SSA Reduction Grant and Central Support Protection Grant.

(15) Figure for the Metropolitan Police does not include funding allocated to the Receiver under the Environmental. Protective and Cultural Services SSA for school crossing patrols, Magistrates' Courts and the Probation Service. It does include its Special Payment.

(16) Figure for the City includes Police SSA, Grant and SSA Reduction Grant, but excludes other SSAs (e.g. Capital Financing) and Central Support Protection Grant. These are allocated to the Common Council of the City of London as a whole in respect of all its functions.

(17) These authorities will be effected by the changes to police force boundaries around London on 1 April 2000. To provide comparison, indicative 1999-2000 totals for these authorities as on the new boundaries are Essex: £169.8 million. Hertfordshire: £114.3 million, Surrey: £113.6 million and Metropolitan Police. £1,701.9 million.

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Security Services

Mr. Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will respond to the Home Affairs Committee's Third report of Session 1998-99 on the Accountability of the Security Service; and if he will make a statement. [107649]

Mr. Straw: The Government will respond tomorrow by way of a Command Paper.

Passports

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will estimate the full economic unit cost performance of the UK Passport Agency's passport unit in (a) actual and (b) real terms for (i) 1999-2000, (ii) 2000-01 and (iii) 2001-02. [107078]

Mrs. Roche: The latest estimate of the Passport Agency's actual full economic unit cost, as indicated in Annexe B of the Passport Agency's Corporate and Business Plan 1999-2002 which was published on 6 December 1990, is shown in the table. The real terms figures are at 1999-2000 prices.

£

	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Actual Terms	15.37	17.22	17.45
Real Terms(18)	15.37	16.80	16.61

(18) 1999-2000 prices

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if it is his objective that passport applications should in future be available at the Passport Agency's public counters; and what is his timetable for attaining that objective. [107073]

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Mrs. Roche: Passport applications can already be made at the public counters of individual passport offices. All the Passport Agency's public counter areas also have a stock of application forms, available to customers.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to introduce a tiered service for passport applicants of the kind outlined by the Chief Executive of the Passport Agency on pages 2 and 3 of "A Blueprint for the Future". [107071]

Mrs. Roche: Subject to the results of market research the Passport Agency plans to introduce, by early 2001, a fast track service for people applying through the Passport Agency's partners and at counters, and a premium service, for counter service callers only, to meet urgent travel requirements.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the level of productivity of the Passport Agency's PASS system will match that of the PIMIS system. [107075]

Mrs. Roche: Passport Application Support System (PASS) productivity should match that of the Passport Issuing and Management Information System (PIMIS) by this summer.

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish a version of the table showing the Passport Agency's income and expenditure printed in page 19, paragraph 5.3 of the Agency's current corporate and business plan which takes account of the income and expenditure relating to the proposed new Passport Office in Durham. [107076]

Mrs. Roche: The table showing the Passport Agency's income and expenditure which is printed in page 19, paragraph 5.3 of the Agency's Corporate and Business plans 1999-02 already takes account of the income and expenditure relating to the proposed new passport office in Durham.

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Passport services--Income and expenditure

	Turnover (£ million)	Resource expenditure (£ million)	Surplus (intended to cover FCO costs) (£ million)	Units costs (£)	Staff (FTE)
1998-99
Outturn	89.6	57.5	32.1	12.13	1,778
1999-2000
Forecast in March 1999	93.8	72.8	21.0	14.00	1,950
Current projection	98.1	86.1	12.0	15.37	2,100
2000-01
Latest projection	116.3	86.1	30.2	17.22	2,200
2001-02
Latest projection	116.3	87.3	29.0	17.45	2,200

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