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European Arrest Warrant
Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the Government's policy on protection of the principle of speciality in the Council Framework Decision on the European arrest warrant; and if he will make a statement. [20147]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The United Kingdom (UK) does not intend, generally, to apply the dual criminality test to requests made to the UK authorities under the provisions of a European arrest warrant, and therefore would not, generally, expect to apply the rule of specialty in a case where a person is surrendered by the UK to another European Union member state.
Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if it is his intention to apply the dual criminality test to offences listed under Article 2.4 in the Belgian Presidency's draft text of the Framework Decision on a European arrest warrant; and if he will make a statement. [20149]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Draft Article 2.4 of the Framework Decision allows the executing member state to decide whether to apply the dual criminality test, and this point will be finalised in the legislation necessary to implement the Framework Decision.
The Government will reflect on this, in particular, whether it should retain the dual criminality test for abortion and euthanasia.
Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy to include in the Framework Decision on the European arrest warrant power for a person who is due to be extradited to oppose their
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extradition on the grounds that their human rights under the ECHR would not be protected by the requesting country; and if he will make a statement. [20154]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The Framework Decision is intended to create a system enabling faster procedures for surrender of a fugitive as between European Union member states. Protection for the individual is provided in the domestic incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in the issuing state's criminal justice system, rather than before courts in the United Kingdom (UK). This is the principle of mutual recognition on the basis of which we would similarly expect our EU partners to return those we want to bring to our courts to stand trial.
The question of compatibility with ECHR rights will be addressed again by the Government as part of the legislative process to implement the Framework Decision. It is conceivable that there may be a wholly exceptional case in which the UK courts may judge that there is a risk of treatment, on return of a fugitive to an EU member state, that is incompatible with the ECHR. Under those circumstances, the District Judge could refuse to execute a request for a European arrest warrant.
Kainos Wings
Mr. Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance he has given the Prison Service regarding the closure of Kainos wings; and if he will make a statement. [19608]
Beverley Hughes: None. The closure of the Kainos wings is properly within the discretion of the Prison Service Management Board.
Sense in Sentencing
Ms Shipley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many responses his Department has received following its consultation, Sense in Sentencing; and if he will list those who have responded. [18511]
Beverley Hughes: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for the Home Department, on 21 November 2001, Official Report, column 355W, which gave details of the level of response to the consultation on the Halliday report, 'Making Punishments Work'. Those who have responded will be listed in the summary of responses to be published at the end of January 2002.
Young Offenders Institutions
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the number of (a) mentally and (b) personality disordered prisoners now held in young offenders institutions. [16313]
Beverley Hughes: The table shows the principal findings for young people aged 16 to 20 in a survey of the prevalence of mental ill health in the prison population of England and Wales carried out in 1997 by the Office for National Statistics. The report of this survey, 'Psychiatric Morbidity among Prisoners' was published in 1998. A second report, 'Psychiatric Morbidity among Young Offenders in England and Wales', which contains further analysis of the data from the survey, was published in 2000.
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| Remanded young men | Sentenced young men | Sentenced young women | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functional psychosis in the past year(27) | 8 | 10 | (28)9 |
| Neurotic disorder in past week(29) | 52 | 41 | 67 |
| Hazardous drinking in year before imprisonment | 62 | 70 | 51 |
| Drug dependence in year before imprisonment | 57 | 52 | 58 |
| Personality disorder(27) | 84 | 88 | (28)84 |
(27) From clinical interview
(28) Probable diagnosis identified during lay interview
(29) From lay interview
Immigration Hotline
Mr. Ian Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will improve the quality of service of the hon. Members' hotline for immigration matters. [18272]
Angela Eagle: The hotline was set up to deal with representations in general non-asylum cases which involve urgent or compelling compassionate circumstances. It currently deals with about 500 calls a week.
The number of operators has recently been increased to 10 to offer a rapid response to hon. Members.
Drug Treatment and Testing Orders
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the cost to public funds in (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02 of drug treatment and testing orders. [17330]
Mr. Bob Ainsworth: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 28 November 2001, Official Report, column 956W.
Terrorism Act
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons have been arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000 since its enactment in connection with (a) Northern Ireland-related terrorism and (b) international terrorism; how many of each have been subject to extended detention; on how many occasions an extension order was refused; and how many individuals in each category have been (i) charged under the Act, (ii) charged with other offences and (iii) subject to other procedures. [17764]
Mr. Blunkett: The Terrorism Act 2000 came into force on 19 February 2001. I refer my hon. Friend to the following table.
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Dual Nationals
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take powers to collect statistics relating to the number of UK citizens with dual nationality with (a) Pakistan, (b) Bangladesh and (c) India. [17359]
Angela Eagle: Information that is currently collected relates to the number of persons granted British citizenship; the number of persons who were granted British citizenship in the United Kingdom in 2000 whose previous nationality was Pakistani, Bangladeshi or Indian is given in the table.
| Previous nationality(30) | Grants of British citizenship in 2000 |
|---|---|
| Pakistani | 8,631 |
| Bangladeshi | 5,380 |
| Indian | 8,135 |
(30) Nationality possessed (or main nationality in cases of dual nationality) immediately before acquiring British citizenship
It would not be possible or viable for the Home Office to collect information on the number of United Kingdom citizens with dual nationality as part of the process of applying for citizenship, since it would not be possible to determine the number of persons who renounced or retained their previous nationality.
At present there are no plans to collect the information requested.
Passports
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what additional steps he is taking to make UK passports more difficult to (a) forge and (b) alter; and if he will make a statement. [17416]
Angela Eagle: The Government take very seriously the security and integrity of the United Kingdom passport. The United Kingdom Passport Service works very closely with the Immigration Service and other agencies to monitor the incidence of attempted forgery and manipulation of United Kingdom passports.
The new digital British passport which the United Kingdom Passport Service has been using since October 1998 contains advanced security features to prevent forgery and alteration. These include a digital image of the holder's portrait and signature on the personal identification page of the passport which has been moved from the back cover to the last page of the passport. Both of these changes are designed to increase protection against portrait substitution.
The personal identification page is also protected by a clear plastic laminate which incorporates a holographic device, and a series of laser perforations. In seeking to fully protect the passport special attention has also been paid to the component materials, and special printing techniques have been applied to the page designs.
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The design of the passport and the special security features incorporated within that design are kept under constant review.
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