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Rural Police Grant

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many recruits to the North Yorkshire police will be made possible by the Rural Police Grant; how long the Rural Police Grant will be in force; and how police salaries will be financed once the Rural Police Grant expires. [2348]

Mr. Denham: Police Authorities and Chief Constables may use their rural policing fund allocations as they judge best to improve policing in sparsely populated areas. The Chief Constable of North Yorkshire plans to recruit 60 officers.

£15 million was made available to forces for rural policing in 2000–01. The allocation will be £30 million this year and in each of the next two years. Provision thereafter is one of the matters which will be considered during the next spending review.

Mentor Financial Consultants

Mr. Mullin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will call for a report from the Chief Constable of Northumberland on the progress of the investigation into Mentor Financial Consultants; and if he will make a statement. [2472]

Mr. Denham: I am informed by the Chief Constable that the investigation by Northumbria Police into Mentor Financial Consultants is a continuing criminal investigation. It would not be right to disclose details of the investigation.

Young Offenders

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many juveniles aged 15 and 16 years have been remanded (a) in adult prisons and (b) in total in each of the last 10 years; and what has been the average period of their detention. [1681]

Beverley Hughes: Data are available only for the years shown in the tables. Table 1 shows provisional information on how many juveniles there were remanded in custody on 30 June from 1995 to 1999 inclusive.

9 Jul 2001 : Column: 420W

Table 1

Year	Total	Aged 15	Aged 16
1995	42	11	31
1996	36	9	27
1997	6	2	4
1998	1	—	1
1999	2	1	1
2000	0	0	0
2001(16)	0	0	0

⁽¹⁶⁾ Data for 31 May

Table 2 shows provisional information on how many juveniles in total have been remanded in prison service custody on 30 June in each of those years.

Table 2

Year	Total	Aged 15	Aged 16
1995	209	54	155
1996	254	71	183
1997	264	75	189
1998	248	79	169
1999	184	43	141
2000	161	50	111
2001(17)	148	39	109

⁽¹⁷⁾ Data for 31 May

A further 66 15 and 16-year-olds were being held on remand in Local Authority Secure Units at the end of June 2000. At the end of June 2001 this figure had fallen to 50.

Table 3 shows provisional information on the average length of detention in days that juvenile offenders have spent remanded in custody in prison for the last two years.

Table 3

Year	Average days spent remanded in custody
1999	79
2000	65

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many secure unit places for juvenile offenders there are in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement. [2114]

Beverley Hughes: Currently there are 128 places in Secure Training Centres and 2,706 in juvenile Young Offender Institutions, and 268 juvenile offenders are placed in Local Authority Secure Units. The Youth Justice Board for England and Wales commissions and purchases places. Over the next four years it plans to provide an additional 400 independent sector Secure Training Centre (STC) places to replace Prison Service accommodation.

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what private sector criminal justice initiatives his Department supports for (a) juvenile offenders and (b) young offenders; and if he will make a statement [2117]

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Beverley Hughes: We support the appropriate use of private sector skills and expertise in delivering the public sector youth justice objectives. The private sector main contributions are the management of the three Secure Training Centres, and the electronic monitoring of offenders (including juveniles) sentenced to curfew orders with an electronic monitoring requirement.

The voluntary sector also play an important role, providing services and helping with the delivery of a wide range of programmes for juveniles and young offenders.

Holocaust Memorial Day

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on preparations for Holocaust Memorial Day 2002. [2702]

Angela Eagle: A Home Office-led Strategic Group has been developing guidance and plans for next year's commemoration, building on the successful foundations of the first United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Day last January. The Strategic Group includes representatives from a wide range of Government Departments and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

A working group chaired by the Home Office is taking forward the planning and delivery of the 2002 national event, liaising with the BBC who produced and televised the first national ceremony last January.

Updated guidance for local authorities and a wide range of voluntary and community groups on ways they can mark the day is being produced by a working group chaired by the Holocaust Adviser to the Local Government Association and involving a number of representatives of NGOs with experience and expertise in Holocaust remembrance and wider diversity issues.

The Holocaust education resource pack launched last November and intended for use by schools and others is currently being reviewed by a Department for Education and Skills led working group, consisting of NGOs with experience and expertise in Holocaust education and research. Around 30,000 of these well received packs have already been issued to about 23,000 schools.

The Strategic Group is devising a communication strategy for the promotion and delivery of the 2002 commemoration. It is envisaged that there will be a single launch date in September for all Holocaust Memorial Day promotional material. Details of relevant activities and supporting guidance will be placed onto the dedicated website www.holocaustmemorialday.gov.uk.

I would like to encourage all hon. Members to support and encourage activities in their constituencies to mark the 2nd United Kingdom Holocaust Memorial Day. The day is relevant to all of us. Its focus is on learning the lessons of the Holocaust and other more recent atrocities that raise similar issues.

A key aim of the day is to convey the commemoration's relevance to contemporary issues of racism and victimisation and promote a democratic and tolerant society that respects and celebrates diversity and is free of the evils of prejudice. This will be reflected in all of the related guidance and plans to mark Holocaust Memorial Day next January.

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Oakington Reception Centre

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of new asylum seekers, by nationality, were sent to Oakington Reception Centre in the last three months for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [1508]

Angela Eagle [holding answer 5 July 2001]: The information requested is as follows:

Proportions of applications for asylum in the UK sent to Oakington Reception centre, March-May 2001, by nationality^{(18),(19),(20)}

Nationality	Total applications	Sent to Oakington	Proportion of applicants sent to Oakington (percentage)
Albania	260	110	43
Bangladesh	105	45	43
Bolivia	10	5	56
Brazil	5	5	43
Cameroon	65	30	48
China	505	325	65
Cote D'Ivoire	75	5	4
Czech Republic	345	235	68
Estonia	10	5	33
Ghana	35	25	68
Hungary	5	*	67
India	450	205	45
Iraq	1,060	210	20
Kenya	80	30	37
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia	905	105	12
Latvia	20	15	62
Lithuania	65	35	54
Nigeria	155	80	53
Pakistan	580	155	26
Poland	190	100	53
Romania	480	90	18
Slovakia	20	15	94
Tanzania	15	5	35
Uganda	110	50	45
Ukraine	120	50	44
Zimbabwe	380	250	66
Total	6,050	2,185	36

⁽¹⁸⁾ All data except percentages have been rounded, where * is 1 or 2. Percentages may not reflect rounded data exactly, but are correct

⁽¹⁹⁾ Data on applicants sent to Oakington do not necessarily relate exactly to total applications received within the period.

⁽²⁰⁾ All data exclude dependants.

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of asylum seekers sent to Oakington Reception Centre have had their case dismissed, broken down by nationality; and if he will make a statement. [1509]

Angela Eagle [holding answer 5 July 2001]: Of those applicants whose appeal has been decided, the proportion dismissed, up to 22 June, is as follows.

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Country	Percentage of dismissed appeals
Albania	75
Bangladesh	93
Cameroon	50
China	93
Cote d'Ivoire	75
Czech Republic	75
Estonia	85
Ghana	97
India	84
Iraq	83
Kenya	100
Kosovo	78
Lithuania	69
Latvia	82
Nigeria	83
Pakistan	80
Poland	68
Romania	78
Slovakia	81
Tanzania	75
Uganda	64
Ukraine	30
Yugoslavia	67
Zimbabwe	78
Total	80

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