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CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

Pensions

42. Mr. Jack: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, what the annual financial effect was on the Church of England's pension arrangements of the removal of the payable tax credit was in the last 12 months. [54003]

Mr. Bell: The removal of the tax credit has reduced the Church Commissioners' investment returns and cut the amount of money available to support the Church by £7 million p.a. It has also increased the cost of pension

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contributions over the last 12 months by £3 million. Both these sums have had to be raised by dioceses and parishes from their congregations.

Church Repairs

44. Miss McIntosh: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, what the cost was to the Church Commissioners of church repairs in the last financial year. [54005]

Mr. Bell: The cost of church repairs is borne by the individual church congregations and figures are not held centrally. However, as the House will already know from previous answers, following a survey the estimated cost of repairs to and maintenance of Anglican Churches in 1999 was £120 million. No more recent survey has been undertaken.

These figures do not include the huge hidden subsidy of voluntary support within parishes or of the expert guidance within the faculty jurisdiction system.

The Commissioners have some small liabilities for the chancels of around 800 parish churches. In 2000, this cost almost £700,000.

Franks Allotments, Walcote

45. Mr. Robathan: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, if he will make a statement on the proposal by the Diocese of Leicester to sell the Franks allotments in Walcote. [54006]

Mr. Bell: No, Sir. The land in question belongs to the Leicester Diocesan Board of Education and the Church Commissioners have no connection with any proposals to sell it.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Asylum Accommodation Centres

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what legislation is required to permit the construction of the proposed asylum accommodation centres; what powers his Department has to prepare for their construction before such legislation has received Royal Assent; and if he will make a statement. [35641]

Angela Eagle: I am sorry the hon. Member has not received an earlier reply, this was due to an administrative error.

There are existing powers in part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 which permit the Home Secretary to acquire property for the purposes of providing accommodation for destitute asylum seekers and their dependants.

New powers in relation to accommodation centres are in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill which was published on 12 April 2002.

Asylum and Immigration Legislation

Mr. Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish a bill on asylum and immigration; and if he will make a statement. [43238]

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Angela Eagle: I am very sorry for the delay in replying to my hon. Friend; this was due to an administrative error. The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill was published on 12 April 2002.

Asylum Seekers

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if it is planned that monetary support for asylum seekers through the ARC card system will be provided in cash only; and if he will make a statement. [44442]

Angela Eagle: All financial support for asylum seekers is being provided in cash using existing systems. Later in the year it is envisaged that asylum seekers will use their Application Registration Care (ARC)—which will provide a useful way of verifying their identity—to access their financial support which will be provided in cash.

Mr. W. R. Glenie

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will instruct the Immigration Office to return the passport belonging to Mr. W. R. Glenie of Kingsbridge, Devon, lodged on 14 December 2001, by 21 March; and if he will make a statement on the reasons for the delay in processing it. [43836]

Angela Eagle [holding answer 18 March 2002]: I am very sorry for the delay in replying to the hon. Member this was due to an administrative error. Mr. Glenie's documents were returned to him on 18 March 2002 following completion of his fiancée's application for leave to remain.

Unpaid Advisers

Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the names of the unpaid advisers appointed by him and his predecessor since June 1997, stating in each case (a) the date of their appointment, (b) the duration of their appointment and (c) the project or projects on which they have been engaged. [43382]

Mr. Blunkett [holding answer 25 March 2002]: Since the period June 1997, the Home Office has not appointed any unpaid advisers in line with the requirements of paragraph 51 of the Ministerial Code.

For details of unpaid appointments made by the Home Office to task forces, review groups and other ad hoc advisory groups, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. friend for Shipley (Christopher Leslie) on 16 November 2001, Official Report, column 958W.

Public Service Agreements

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what new initiatives his Department has taken in 2001–02 to assist in achieving its public service agreement targets. [47411]

Angela Eagle [holding answer 10 April 2002]: Information about progress on Public Service Agreement targets will be published in the Home Office's 2002 Departmental Report.

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UK Citizenship

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to revoke the UK citizenship of a person whose name has been communicated to him; and if he will make a statement. [53083]

Mr. Blunkett: There are no present plans to deprive the person in question of British citizenship, but we will keep this under review.

Robert Brown

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to initiate the rehabilitation of Robert Brown. [53755]

Beverley Hughes: Mr. Brown has been offered a range of offending behaviour work and non offence-related courses, including for example, anger management, reasoning and rehabilitation and a pre-release course. He has declined most of these but this should not inhibit him from progressing towards his release. In addition, he has been offered the opportunity for escorted town visits to aid his reintegration into the community but has declined to participate. He has also been encouraged to engage in the sentence planning process and has been assisted to address his use of drugs in prison successfully. His suitability for transfer to a resettlement regime in an open prison will shortly be considered by the parole board.

Inter-country Adoption

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the countries from which young children up to the age of five years were allowed entry into the UK for legal adoption in the last 12 months. [53869]

Angela Eagle: Information on the number of children admitted to the United Kingdom from overseas countries for adoption is not currently available.

The information that is available covers the number of children up to the age of five years given indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom (UK) on the basis of adoption. This number excludes those children given limited leave to remain and who are subsequently adopted through the UK courts, becoming British citizens on the date that the final adoption order is made.

A total of around 20 adopted children up to the age of five were given indefinite leave to remain in 2000, the latest information available. The nationalities of the children were:

Chile


China


Guatemala


India


Jamaica


Lebanon


Nigeria


Pakistan


St. Lucia


Trinidad and Tobago


Ukraine


United States of America


Vietnam


Zimbabwe.

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We aim to publish 2001 data in July/August 2002.

National Asylum Support Service

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many supported asylum seekers received a £50 additional single payment from the National Asylum Support Service under regulation 11(1) of the Asylum Support Regulations 2000 in (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02; and what the total amount paid out in the form of such payments by NASS is since 3 April 2000. [54103]

Angela Eagle: The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) does not keep central statistics in respect of the number and total value of single additional payments it makes to supported asylum seekers.

Payment of a single additional payment (SAP) is achieved by increasing one of the regular weekly subsistence payments by the required £50. The value of all regular weekly payments is stored within each individual's computer record, together with associated explanation. NASS can, therefore, confirm the payment of a SAP to an individual and could ultimately obtain the requested statistics, but the cost in doing so would be disproportionate.

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