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Immigration Control (Illegal Workers)
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of persons subject to immigration control who have been employed in contravention of section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 in each of the last three years; how many prosecutions have been brought; what is his policy in respect of such prosecutions; and if he will make a statement. [115974]
Mrs. Roche:
No reliable estimate can be made of the number of persons subject to immigration control who have been employed in contravention of section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996. Prosecution of suspected offenders is a matter for the Crown Prosecution Service. One prosecution has been brought thus far, in 1999, when a company was found guilty on nine counts, and fined £500 on each count and ordered to pay costs. In addition, more than 40 people have been served with a
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warning of their liability to prosecution under this part of the Act. As my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. O'Brien) announced in the House last year, it is no longer our policy to issue a warning of liability to prosecution before proceeding to prosecution in appropriate cases.
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of offenders released on the Home Detention Curfew scheme have re-offended after completing the scheme; and if he will make a statement. [115967]
Mr. Boateng:
Information about offences committed by offenders who have completed a period on the Home Detention Curfew scheme is not held centrally. However, an evaluation of the Home Detention Curfew scheme is being carried out by the Research, Development and Statistics Directorate of the Home Office. It will include an analysis, based upon a sampling exercise, of reconviction of curfewees both during and after the curfew period. Results will be published later this year.
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department further to his answer of 17 March 2000, Official Report, columns 380-81W, on the Press Office, for what reason disproportionate costs would be involved in calculating the average number of persons employed in the Home Office Press Office in 1998-99 and 1999-2000; what was the cost of the calculation of the statistics for 1996-97 and 1997-98; and if he will make a statement. [115990]
Mr. Straw:
Press Office staff levels have varied considerably over the last four years, have been augmented by seconded staff, by long and short-term attachments and there have been large numbers of vacancies at different times. Detailed staff number profiles for the periods in question are not held within the Communication Directorate. Central pay records would have to be searched month by month for the periods in question and these would not include all the attachments and secondments, many of which were not funded within the Directorate. The cost would, therefore, be disproportionate. No-one currently employed in the Communication Directorate was involved in providing the statistics for the Public Administration Committee and there is no record of the cost of obtaining the data.
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 17 March 2000, Official Report, column 381W, on special advisers, if a record is kept of the contact with the Press that Mr. Ed Owen has in connection with his role to support Ministers in the presentational aspects of policy. [115989]
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 17 March 2000, Official Report, column 376W, on the Global
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Cultural Diversity Congress, what level of Government funding he understood would be discussed at the Commission for Racial Equality's meeting on 7 February; whether that actual level was discussed; and if he will make a statement. [115991]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
We understood that potential costs to public funds in the region of £1 million might be discussed and were very concerned by this. The details of what was actually discussed on 7 February is a matter for the Commission for Racial Equality.
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 17 March 2000, Official Report, column 376W, on the Global Cultural Diversity Congress, what Ministerial policy issues related to the production of the accountants' report into the financial affairs of Global Cultural Congress 2000 Ltd. [115993]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
The policy issues related to the appropriateness of injecting public funding into the Global Cultural Diversity Congress.
The report for consultants was an oral report to officials accompanied by a bullet point presentation originally on slides which was relayed to Ministers.
As the hon. Member has requested in a letter, I hope to be able to disclose shortly the substance of the report in accordance with the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, but I am awaiting advice on how that can be done.
I will place a copy in the Library, when available.
Mr. Lidington:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 17 March 2000, Official Report, column 376W, on the Global Cultural Diversity Congress, from what Government funds he understood that the potential sources of additional funding for the Global Cultural Diversity Congress to be discussed at the Commission for Racial Equality's meeting on 7 February were to be sourced; who gave authorisation for the Government funding to be discussed at the Commission's meeting; when he was informed that additional funding from Government funds would be discussed at the meeting; and if he will make a statement. [115992]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
Ministers were briefed on a request for Home Office funding of the Global Cultural Diversity Congress on 4 February but did not agree to give any then or later.
The detail of discussion at Commission meetings is a matter for the Commission for Racial Equality.
Mr. Stinchcombe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to accommodate prisoners closer to their homes. [115623]
Mr. Boateng:
In its management of the prison population, the Prison Service aims to hold prisoners in establishments which provide the degree of security that they require, are suitable to their gender, age and legal status and which are near to their homes, or for unconvicted and unsentenced prisoners near to the courts dealing with their cases.
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However, high population levels throughout the prisons and remand estate can lead to prisoners being transferred from their home area to establishments with a greater number of vacancies.
Mr. Stinchcombe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners are held in prison establishments (a) over 25 miles, (b) over 50 miles and (c) over 100 miles from their homes. [115625]
Mr. Boateng:
The Prison Service does not have home address records for every prisoner in its custody. The centrally available information is based on the distance that prisoners are held from their committal court town and is set out in the table in the nearest format to that requested. This information is based on data collected on 30 November 1999. There are in the region of 24,000 prisoners held under 25 miles from their committal court town.
| Distance from home area | Number of prisoners (35) |
|---|---|
| Between 25 and 50 miles | 16,000 |
| Between 50 and 100 miles | 14,000 |
| Over 100 miles | 11,000 |
| Total over 25 miles | 41,000 |
(35) Rounded to nearest thousand
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to implement the recommendations in "Prison Disturbances 1990: report of an Inquiry by the right hon. Lord Justice Woolf and His Honour Sir Stephen Tumim", that (a) no establishment should hold more prisoners than is provided for in its certified normal accommodation, and (b) Parliament be informed if there is a material departure from this rule. [115616]
Mr. Boateng: There are no plans to introduce a new prison rule to limit the maximum number of prisoners an establishment can hold to the level of its certified normal accommodation, also known as uncrowded capacity.
This is because there is no immediate prospect that overcrowding will be ended. However, by a combination of providing additional accommodation and the introduction of new legislation (for example Home Detention Curfew), the Government are ensuring that overcrowding is contained within the maximum safe operational capacity of establishments.
Prisoners
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average time per week spent out of cell by prisoners in the last two years for which figures are available in (a) each local prison and (b) each young offender institution. [115615]
Mr. Boateng:
The average time spent out of cell for local prisons and young offender institutions for the years 1997-98 and 1998-99 are given in the table.
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