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HOME DEPARTMENT
Departmental Staff
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many senior civil servants from an ethnic minority background are employed in his Department; and how many of them are (a) men and (b) women. [110680]
Mr. Straw:
As at 1 April 1999, five members of the senior civil service were from an ethnic minority background (3 per cent). These staff were all men. I am committed to increasing the level of representation and, as part of the Modernisation of Government agenda, targets have been published to cover recruitment, progression and retention of ethnic minority staff at all
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grades within the Home Office. There are also separate senior civil service targets for women. The Government are committed to meeting these targets.
Ms Walley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the steps he is taking further to regulate wheelclamping. [111613]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
In the White Paper, "The Government's Proposals for Regulating the Private Security Industry in England and Wales", issued last year, we announced proposals to regulate wheelclampers as part of a package of statutory measures for the private security industry as a whole. We are currently analysing the responses we received to the White Paper and will introduce legislation as soon as Parliamentary time allows.
Mr. Cox:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisons in England and Wales have a foreign national liaison officer available to work with prison inmates. [111936]
Mr. Boateng:
All prisons have a race relations liaison officer and a race relations management team which are responsible for the local implementation of the Prison Service race relations policies set out in Prison Service Order 2800, a copy of which is in the Library. This Order seeks to ensure the fair treatment of ethnic minority and foreign national prisoners. Some establishments with larger numbers of foreign national prisoners have appointed a member of staff to work specifically with foreign national prisoners. Information on these is not held centrally.
Mr. Cox:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if a questionnaire is issued to all prison inmates before they are discharged from prisons in England and Wales. [111939]
Mr. Boateng:
The issuing of questionnaires to prisoners before discharge is not a standard procedure within the discharge process.
Individual prison establishments may use questionnaires as a means of gathering feedback and information locally, and questionnaires may be used from time to time as a means of gathering information relating to specific initiatives on a national basis.
Mr. Cox:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals were being held in prisons in England and Wales on 1 February. [111937]
Mr. Boateng:
The latest available information is for the last day of December 1999. On that date, there were 5,323 foreign nationals in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales.
Mr. Cox:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prison induction booklets that are in a foreign language in prisons in England and Wales; and what those languages are. [111935]
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Mr. Boateng:
The prison induction booklets available in foreign languages and issued centrally are: the prisoners' information book for life sentenced prisoners; the prisoners' information book for male prisoners and young offenders; the prisoners' information book for women prisoners and female young offenders; and the prisoners' information book about visiting and keeping in touch.
These provide information on prison life relevant to all prisoners and have been translated into the following 20 languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Welsh, Turkish, Greek, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Bengali, Gujerati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Urdu. Copies are being sent to prison libraries.
The foreign prisoners' resource pack has been produced in the following 12 languages: English, Arabic, Bengali, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Gujerati, Hindi, Italian, Spanish and Urdu.
Other foreign language induction material may also have been produced locally by establishments or by other agencies. Details of these are not held centrally.
Mr. Cox:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the rules followed by prisons in England and Wales as to how often an inmate should be allowed to shower; and if he will make a statement. [111933]
Mr. Boateng:
Rule 28 of the Prison Rules 1999 states that
Mr. Wigley:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason Dylan Wyn Roberts, Prisoner No. CB. 8719 at Preston Prison, was held for several weeks in his cell for 23 hours per day; if he is still being so held; if this is standard treatment for Category C prisoners; and what aspects of the situation at Preston Prison make such treatment necessary. [111716]
Mr. Boateng:
Throughout his time at Preston, Mr. Roberts had access to the normal regime for prisoners on normal location. This included the opportunity to go to work or education for half a day each working day, an hour's exercise every day, and two and half hours association on alternate days. Mr. Roberts chose not to go to work or education and, therefore, spent most of these periods in his cell. Mr. Roberts is now at Wymott prison.
Laura Moffatt:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he is taking to address delays in the asylum decision-making process. [112634]
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Mr. Straw:
The Government are devoting great effort and substantial additional resources into the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) in Croydon to reduce the backlogs there and to deliver faster decisions as part of the commitment to delivering a fairer, faster and firmer immigration and asylum system. The asylum system we inherited required a radical overhaul to the processes used in making asylum decisions and the legislative basis for appeals to deliver these faster.
The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, now on the Statute Book, will help achieve this. Its provision will progressively be introduced, but a fairer and faster system cannot be delivered by legislation alone.
One of our actions was to undertake a thorough review of the asylum decision-making processes. Vantagepoint was commissioned by the IND to help with its review of the asylum decision process. The aim of the review was to identify where there were delays in the procedures which might affect the ability of IND and the Lord Chancellor's Department to achieve the White Paper targets, and to make recommendations for change.
A number of ways in which IND could improve its procedures and introduce more flexibility into the asylum decision-making process were identified and are being implemented as part of a systematic overhaul of the asylum business.
Changes that have already been made include the following:
We are taking radical measures to reduce the backlog of cases in IND dating from 1996 onwards. The rate at which we do this will be dependent on a wide range of variables, not least of which will be future application rates, but we remain committed to the White Paper target
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of reducing the backlog of initial asylum decisions to fractional levels by April 2001. We expect to make major inroads into this backlog by the end of the year.
every prisoner shall be required to wash at proper times, have a hot bath or shower on reception and thereafter at least once a week.
No exact information is available, but it is understood that most prisoners have the opportunity to shower at least two or three times a week. Many prisoners take a shower on a daily or almost daily basis.
In this year and the next two years, we are investing a minimum of £120 million in IND, including an extra £60 million on speeding up casework. Hundreds more staff are being deployed as caseworkers. Output in the Integrated Casework Directorate (ICD) is improving and staffing levels remain under review to ensure that output targets are met. There has already been a significant increase in asylum productivity as our new recruits to asylum decision making gain experience and we expect this to continue.
We are also committed to achieving the targets set out in the White Paper published in July 1998 to deliver most initial asylum decisions within two months and most appeals within a further four months. The White Paper target is to do this by April 2001. For families with children, we are already meeting the targets.
Ports and the ICD are jointly taking forward the implementation of streamlined processes aimed at ensuring as far as possible consistency in the processes for handling asylum casework. A new Statement of Evidence Form has been introduced for use by both the ports and the ICD, where appropriate.
Outside consultants are currently training existing staff and new staff in effective and efficient interview skills.
All health and safety issues concerning interview rooms have been addressed and resolved. Safety alarms have been issued to all interviewing staff and guards are readily available.
Country policy advice is being systematically reviewed. There is a full library of country information available for the top asylum producing countries and short country background briefs are, additionally, being provided in a consistent format. A chief caseworker post has been created with particular focus on co-ordinating needs of asylum caseworkers for country policy advice.
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