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Immigration Applications

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on progress with the processing of immigration applications made under the Regularisation of Overstayers Scheme; and if it is expected that the assessment of all applications made under that scheme will be completed by April 2003. [64565]

Beverley Hughes: During the last financial year (2001–02) a sift of all outstanding applications made under the Regularisation Scheme for Overstayers was successfully completed, yielding a total of 1,033 easily identifiable grants under existing policy concessions.

During the current financial year more detailed consideration is being given to the remaining cases. To date, 282 further grants have been identified, along with 81 refusals; 10,990 cases remain to be fully considered. The team assigned to dealing with these cases is currently under expansion, and individual caseworker output is gradually increasing with experience. It is anticipated that all applications made under the scheme will be assessed by April 2003.

EU Directives

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the EU directives relating to his Department which have been (a) amended and (b) repealed in 2002. [64954]

3 Jul 2002 : Column 426W

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: None of the European Union directives relating to the Home Office have been amended or repealed in 2002.

Public Protection Panels

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department by what criteria members of the public will be chosen for the strategic boards overseeing the multi-agency public protection panels; and if he will make a statement. [64589]

Hilary Benn: The multi-agency public protection arrangements exist to protect members of the public from potentially dangerous sexual and violent offenders in communities across England and Wales. I announced last week that the Government wanted members of the public to be represented in these arrangements.

Adverts will be appearing in the press in the five areas which will be piloting this scheme (west Midlands, south Wales, Cumbria, Durham and Surrey), asking for members of the public to apply to sit on the strategic boards scrutinising and managing this work in their areas.

Lay members will not be required to have formal educational qualifications but are expected to have:

(i) an ability to understand complex information in written and numerical form;


(ii) an interest in community and social issues with a track record of involvement in them;


(iii) an ability to make appropriate decisions based on the available information;


(iv) a capacity for emotional resilience, retaining sensitivity while dealing with tragic or painful situations. In particular, this includes an ability to understand the needs and feelings of victims of crime;


(v) an ability to understand the complexity of human behaviour;


(vi) good social skills and the ability to work effectively with people in groups and in formal meetings;


(vii) an awareness of and commitment to equality and diversity;


(viii) an ability to challenge constructively the views and assumptions of senior professionals; and


(ix) an ability to maintain confidentiality appropriate to the circumstances and local protocols.

In each of the areas in which this development is being piloted, lay members will be recruited using these criteria through a formal assessment procedure designed and administered by an occupational psychologist. Elected representatives and relevant professionals are not eligible for selection. All candidates will be subject to the usual criminal history checks and anyone who has committed a sexual or a violent offence, or any other offence not spent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 will also not be eligible. We hope to make the first appointments later in the summer.

Criminal Records Bureau

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons are employed in the Criminal Records Bureau. [64835]

Hilary Benn: The number of staff employed by the Criminal Records Bureau is 871 with a further 117 seconded from other agencies and/or employed on contractual terms.

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Asylum Seekers

Tony Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he plans to increase support for asylum seekers to full income support rates; and if he will make a statement. [57997]

Beverley Hughes: The full national asylum support service support package is broadly equivalent to income support. Support for asylum seekers can include fully furnished accommodation. The costs of this together with associated utility bills and council tax are met centrally. Support levels for children here as part of an asylum seeking family are identical to the personal allowances for children in families on income support.

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is entitled to provide asylum support to persons who have won their asylum appeals but where the period since their asylum appeal was disposed of exceeds 28 days; and if he will make a statement. [60539]

Beverley Hughes: In accordance with section 94(3) of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 and Regulation 2 of the Asylum Support Regulations 2000 (as amended), the national asylum support service support should end 28 days after an appeal is disposed of if it is successful and 21 days if it is not.

Asylum Seekers Accommodation Centres

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions his Department has had with BAA Lynton regarding the use of the former RAF Turnhouse site for an asylum seeker accommodation centre. [42733]

Beverley Hughes: The Home Office, through its agent, has been in discussion with the British Airport Authority Lynton regarding the former Royal Air Force Turnhouse site, initially on the availability of the site and subsequently as to the potential for using the site as an accommodation centre.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what voluntary activity away from the sites of asylum accommodation centres he considers appropriate for residents of such centres; and if he will make a statement. [59277]

Beverley Hughes: We expect most purposeful activity to take place on site at accommodation centres. Opportunities for voluntary activity away from the sites will depend upon local circumstances in exactly the same way as such voluntary activity is available to and taken up by asylum seekers who do not live in accommodation centres. Residents of accommodation centres will not be compelled to undertake voluntary work away from the sites.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what contingency plans he has for the use of the facilities if the evaluation of the asylum accommodation centres show the centres are not performing satisfactorily; [59072]

(2) how he will evaluate the performance of asylum accommodation centres; and how long after the opening of the centres the evaluation will be completed. [59071]

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Beverley Hughes: We set out the likely criteria for evaluating accommodation centres in the White Paper published on 7 February 2002 (Cm. 5387). We are still considering the details of the evaluation process.

We expect the trial centres to be successful. If in the light of the evaluation of the trial there is a need to modify any aspect of the centres, we will address that at the time.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about compensation arrangements for residents living adjacent to Throckmorton airfield as a result of the combined impact of the foot and mouth disease burial site and the proposed asylum accommodation centre. [57345]

Beverley Hughes: My officials have had discussions with the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) officials in connection with the proposed accommodation centre at Throckmorton airfield, near Pershore, Worcestershire. We do not anticipate grounds for compensation of this nature.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many private sector sites have been offered to his Department for the proposed asylum accommodation centres; and for what reasons such sites are not being given further consideration. [57344]

Beverley Hughes: All sites, which have emerged as potentially suitable for accommodation centres, are being given consideration. In addition to the sties we have identified ourselves, a number have been put forward by potential bidders. We will not be putting into the public domain details of such sites unless and until they are considered to be a serious prospect for the siting of an accommodation centre.

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 12 June 2002, Official Report, column 1308W, on asylum seekers accommodation centres, when he will place in the Library the documentation for the bidders conference. [66144]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 2 July 2002]: A copy will be placed in the Library shortly.

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