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Prison Service

Mr. Plaskitt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress the Prison Service has made towards improving its environmental performance; and if he will make a statement. [4474]

Beverley Hughes: The Prison Service is making good progress in this area. A formal greening operations policy was introduced in March 2000, the implementation of which is being overseen by a headquarters working group chaired by a member of the Prison Service management board.

During the last year, there have been many developments in areas such as biodiversity, energy efficiency, procurement, transport and waste management. These are described in the service's first annual environmental report which is published today, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.

The Director General of the Prison Service has made clear his own personal commitment to improving the environmental performance of the service and a challenging programme of further work—detailed in the report—has been set for the current year.

Commission for Racial Equality

Dr. Desmond Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the Commission for Racial Equality's annual report for 2000. [4557]

Mr. Blunkett: The Commission for Racial Equality's annual report 2000 is published today.

I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Library and for copies to be sent to the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.

Stops and Searches

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the effect

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on the level of police paperwork of the requirement to record all stops and searches; and if he will make a statement. [1249]

Mr. Denham: Since the introduction of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, code of practice (A) on stop and search, all stops and searches carried out under any legislative provision have been recorded. In 1999–2000, 818,203 such stops and searches were recorded.

Stops and searches under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 are not included in the above figure and are recorded separately. There were 7,153 such searches in 1999–2000.

Since code of practice (A) was last revised in 1999, the Lawrence steering group set up to take forward the Home Secretary's action plan in response to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry report, has agreed that all persons searched should be given a copy of the record at the time of the search together with information on police powers and public rights. This does not represent an extra recording requirement and simply means that the record is routinely made available at the time of the search rather than within 12 months as was previously the practice. The group agreed that this should also apply where stops are carried out without there being any subsequent search because grounds for suspicion are eliminated as a result of questioning the person detained. It is not possible to predict exactly how many extra records this might entail, but it is not likely to be significant in terms of the overall number of records. Chief constables were requested to implement those new arrangements from 1 April 2001.

We are also considering whether to accept recommendation 61 of the Lawrence inquiry that all stops should be recorded, whether or not a search takes place. A public consultation exercise on that by local police authorities, co-ordinated by the Association of Police Authorities, finished at the end of May. I expect the Lawrence steering group to consider the results of that consultation exercise in July.

MI5

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions of MI5 employees have been instigated in each year since 1980 for crimes where the maximum sentence is six months imprisonment or greater. [3138]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 10 July 2001]: As far as is known, one, in 1983.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of employees within MI5 are (a) of ethnic minority origin and (b) female; and what percentage apply within the senior grades, (i) for the latest year for which figures are available and (ii) for 1990. [3139]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 10 July 2001]: Currently, 3.2 per cent. of employees of the Security Service are of ethnic origin, that is, not white European; all equivalent of senior civil service grades are white.

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Females represent 46.6 per cent. of employees of the Security Service; and represent 13.8 per cent. at the equivalent of senior civil service grades.

James Ashley

Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make arrangements for the Hoddinott report into the fatal shooting of James Ashley to be published. [2317]

Mr. Denham: The report by Sir John Hoddinott was into the conduct of the chief officers in charge of the operation which led to the fatal shooting of James Ashley. The report is the property of Sussex police authority and it must be their decision to publish. I met my hon. Friend and members of the Ashley family on 4 July. At the meeting I said that we would use our best endeavours to encourage the police authority to publish as much as possible, bearing in mind that the report contains confidential information that will need to be subject to considered legal advice, and the need to ensure there is no adverse impact on other proceedings.

Asylum Seekers

Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Government determined that family groups of asylum seekers would be treated on arrival in the UK as one person and as individuals when departing in statistics on asylum seekers; and how this decision was published. [2026]

Angela Eagle [holding answer 4 July 2001]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the right hon. Member for Maidstone and The Weald (Miss Widdescombe) on 4 July 2001, Official Report, column 206W.

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his policy is on assisting people seeking asylum appeals who do not have the finance for the payment of legal representatives to assist them in the presentation of their case; and if he will make a statement. [2843]

Angela Eagle: The Home Office currently provides grant-in-aid under section 81 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 to three voluntary organisations: the immigration advisory service, the refugee legal centre, and the law centre (Northern Ireland). They provide free legal advice and representation to those with rights of appeal under the Act including asylum seekers. Additional funding for this purpose is also available in England and Wales in the form of franchised contracts awarded under the community legal scheme, which is administered by the Legal Services Commission (which replaced the Legal Aid Board).

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current weekly unit cost of housing an asylum seeker in Oakington detention centre; and what proportion of that cost is accounted for by (a) IND staff and related costs, (b) supervisory and care staff and related costs and (c) security staff and related costs. [3306]

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Angela Eagle: The current weekly unit cost of housing an asylum seeker at Oakington, based on an average occupancy of 229 in June, is estimated at £1,203. This can be broken down into the immigration and nationality directorate (IND) staff and related costs of £184 and supervisory, care and security staff and related costs of £745. (The balance is attributable to other running costs, primarily the costs of interpreters and accommodation). The unit cost is subject to variation because of changes in occupancy.

The contract for the management and operation of the establishment does not disaggregate costs for each element of the service so it is not possible to provide the information in the form requested.

Young Offenders

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) juveniles and (b) young offenders are covered by probation orders; what the average (i) length of such orders and (ii) frequency of contact with a designated probation officer is, for each of the last 12 months; how many breaches there have been of such orders; and if he will make a statement. [2100]

Beverley Hughes: The number of juveniles ¹ starting community rehabilitation orders (formerly probation orders) in 1999, supervised by the Probation Service, was 2,443; the number of young offenders ² starting community rehabilitation orders in 1999, supervised by the Probation Service, was 9,772.

The average length of community rehabilitation orders starting in 1999 was 14.99 months for juveniles and 16.25 months for young offenders.

In 1999, breach proceedings were taken in court against 306 juveniles and 2,359 young offenders on community rehabilitation orders for failure to comply with their orders.

National standards require at least 12 appointments within the first 12 weeks of supervision, normally once a week and one of which will be a home visit. A minimum of six appointments is required over the following 12 weeks, and thereafter contact should be no less than monthly.

¹ Offenders aged 16 to 17.

² Offenders aged 18 to 20.

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