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Mr. Boateng: That certainly is more problematic, because the hours during which those people may be required to remain in the hostel can make it difficult for them to find employment or to continue with their usual work. It is certainly worth our while, as a society, seeking to ensure not only that our arrangements enable sentencers to be aware of the implications of their conditions for an individual's employability and capacity to take up benefit from a hostel place, but that the conditions are sufficiently flexible to enable the individual to take up employment. I shall certainly look into the matter raised by the right hon. Lady.
The right hon. Lady also asked me about the attitude of embassies and high commissions. My experience, which is probably similar to hers, is that attitudes vary from country to country, from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and sometimes even from official to official within a particular mission over time. Some seem more understanding and more helpful than others.
My immediate answer to the right hon. Lady's question, then, is that the attitude varies, but in the main, overseas missions take a similar view to ours. If people offend overseas, their first port of call for financial assistance ought not to be their consulate. They should use their own resources. For good and understandable reasons, although consular officials overseas endeavour to be as helpful as they can, they try to do so with a close eye on the public purse, and on the need for people to bear responsibility for their own acts.
Nevertheless, it is important that foreign nationals in that position should be able to receive authoritative advice from the probation service or through-care prison officers about the likely attitude of their consular mission. I shall pursue the matter with the probation and through-care
authorities in the Prison Service and explore the possibilities of our doing more in that area, and write to the right hon. Lady.We want to ensure that the relatively small number of foreign nationals in bail hostels and approved probation hostels should not be disadvantaged by the fact that they are foreign nationals, and that the hostels should not bear an unreasonable burden as a result of the fact that there are foreign nationals among the people for whom they are responsible. We believe that with regard to housing benefit, foreign nationals resident in such hostels will no longer experience a financial shortfall to the extent that was possible before 3 April.
I am grateful to the right hon. Lady for enabling me to clarify, as far as I can tonight, the questions that she raised. It has been a short but useful debate, and I will ensure that the Department of Social Security responds directly to her by letter on the detailed points that more properly fall to that Department. I thank her for bringing the matter before the House, and wish her a speedy recovery.
- Adjourned accordingly at two minutes to Eleven o'clock.
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