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HOME DEPARTMENT

Parliamentary Ombudsman

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2001, Official Report, column 330W, on the Parliamentary Ombudsman, on which date each of the seven new statutory statements of complaint was received; and on which dates the responses were made. [22372]

Angela Eagle [holding answer 11 December 2001]: The information requested is shown in the table.

PCA case	Date received by Home Office	Date answered by Home Office
No. 1	21 May 2001	2 July 2001
No. 2	6 August 2001	31 August 2001
No. 3	5 September 2001	17 October 2001
No. 4	7 September 2001	24 October 2001
No. 5	11 September 2001	22 October 2001
No. 6	18 September 2001	25 October 2001
No. 7	5 November 2001	(26)—

⁽²⁶⁾ Outstanding

Immigration

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of applicants seeking an extension of an existing leave to remain there are; how many of these cases have been awaiting decision (a) more than 12 months and (b) six to 12 months; how many such cases have lost entitlement to disability related benefits; and whether a protocol has been agreed with the Department of Social Security to backdate benefits when the claim for extension is decided. [20902]

Angela Eagle: Statistics on the number of applicants seeking an extension of an existing leave to remain and the length of time they have been awaiting a decision are not available.

I understand from my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions that payment of disability living allowance or attendance allowance can continue where a recipient has applied for an extension of leave to remain.

Deportation

Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to detain a person whose name has been communicated to him and to deport him. [20262]

Angela Eagle: I wrote to the hon. Member on 11 December 2001.

Custody

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of people arrested remained in custody for longer than two hours in the last 12 months. [20929]

Beverley Hughes: Available data on arrests for notifiable offences are based on aggregated returns made by the police. The information collected is by sex, age group, ethnicity and offence category. Information is not collected on the time people were held in custody.

12 Dec 2001 : Column: 922W

The authority for police power of arrest is set out in sections 24 and 25 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. Reviews of the detention of each person in police detention in connection with the investigation of an offence shall be carried out periodically in accordance with the provisions of section 40 of the same Act.

Languages (Detainees and Translators)

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison officers speak (a) Arabic, (b) Hindi, (c) Urdu, (d) Farsi or Dari and (e) Pashto as a first language; how many officers, and at what grades, are trained to speak each language; and how many translators are available for work in detention camps in each region of England and Wales. [21308]

Beverley Hughes: Information on the languages spoken by prison officers is not held centrally and could be collected only at disproportionate cost. Translation arrangements in Immigration Detention Centres are provided primarily by external translators and on occasion by Immigration Service staff.

Correspondence

Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of 2 November from the hon. Member for West Derbyshire on the state of roads and pathways under the control of the Prison Service relating to the Sudbury Park estate, Ashbourne in Derbyshire. [21470]

Beverley Hughes: I wrote to the hon. Member on 12 December 2001.

Forced Marriage

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the practice of forced marriage among British Muslims. [21618]

Angela Eagle: The practice of forced marriage is wrong. Forced marriage occurs where a marriage is conducted without the valid consent of both parties, and where duress is a factor. It can affect many communities from a variety of cultural backgrounds and continents, not just Muslims. All major world religions condemn forced marriage.

On 6 November, the Government announced their action plan to tackle the problem, including measures to support victims, in response to the report of the Working Group on forced Marriage "A Choice by Right" published last year. Copies of this report, the joint Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office action plan and the progress report on the latter are available in the Library and on the Home Office website.

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many British Muslims have complained to the Department about being forced into marriage against their will in the last five years. [21614]

12 Dec 2001 : Column: 923W

Angela Eagle: We do not have figures covering the past five years. During the past two years, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has had over 300 inquiries on forced marriage. These include people who have:

(i) already been forced into a marriage and are back in the United Kingdom and have contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO);

(ii) people who have made telephone calls to the FCO prior to leaving the United Kingdom, stating they fear they may be forced into a marriage;

(iii) people who have escaped a forced marriage and have been repatriated back to the UK with the help of the Consulates; and

(iv) people who are still in the countries where they have been taken to by their families to be forced into a marriage but are unable to escape because they are being held against their will.

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures there are to ensure that British Muslims are able to choose their marriage partner freely. [21615]

Angela Eagle: Under United Kingdom law, any marriage requires the valid consent of both parties. We are seeking to raise awareness of the legal position in the communities affected by forced marriage, particularly community leaders and potential or actual victims.

Prison Diets

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the diet of prisoners. [20959]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 10 December 2001]: Public sector prisons provide three meals a day for prisoners. Catering departments prepare multi-choice menus, which meet the needs of the establishment's population and enable pre-selection to take place. All prisons must comply with all food safety legislation and must have regard to particular dietary and religious needs. The Prison Service Catering Manual, which is published as a Prison Service Order, provides full guidance for catering staff on hygiene and food safety, nutritional requirements, diets for special groups, food quality and quality control, and customer surveys. Its requirements apply to both Prison Service and contractually managed establishments.

Homicides

Dr. Murrison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many homicides were committed in each year from 1997 to 2001 by criminals who were on early release from prison at the time of the attack. [18418]

Beverley Hughes: Records held centrally are not in a form as to permit routine analyses of the re-offending of all those on early release.

However, figures are available for homicides by persons who had previously been convicted of homicide in England and Wales, and are as follows:

1997: 2—One offender committed suicide after the second offence.


1998: 2


1999: 5—One offender committed suicide and one offender died following the second offence.


2000: 0


2001: 0.

12 Dec 2001 : Column: 924W

Data for suspects convicted of homicides by previous homicide convictions are published annually in tables 4.10 and 4.11 of Criminal Statistics England and Wales.

Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list his reasons for excluding the police from awards of the Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal. [18507]

Mr. Caborn: I have been asked to reply.

As I announced on Tuesday 4 December, the Government have decided that eligibility for the Golden Jubilee medal should be extended to include members of the emergency services: the police, fire and ambulance services, the Coastguard, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, and the Mountain Rescue service. As is the case for the armed forces and the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the medal will be issued to serving members who have completed a minimum of five years' reckonable service on 6 February 2002.

A copy of the announcement has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

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