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15 Oct 2002 : Column 734W—continued
Consultancies
David Davis: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will list external (a) public relations/communications companies, (b) advertising and marketing companies, (c) management consultancies, (d) accountancy companies, (e) banking firms, (f) individual consultants and (g) other specialist consultancies used by his Office since June 2001; what actions those consultancies/companies have performed within his Department; and what costs have been incurred through use of these consultancies/companies. [74672]
Mr. Alexander: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) on 29 January, Official Report, column 251W, by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley.
Mr. Greenway: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the Performance and Innovation Unit report on the review of sport. [74303]
Mr. Alexander: The joint Strategy Unit/DCMS report on sport will be published in due course.
EU Fixed-Term Workers Directive
Mr. Hammond: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) if ministerial special advisers are fixed-term workers within the scope of the EU Fixed-Term Workers Directive; [73683]
- (2) what assessment he has made of the impact of the EU Fixed Term Workers Directive on the employment of special advisers, with particular reference to the provision that fixed term contracts will become permanent after four years. [73819]
Mr. Alexander: Special advisers are temporary civil servants appointed under Article 3 of the Civil Service Order in Council 1995. The Government's view is that they cannot be employed on a permanent basis on the grounds that they have been recruited outside the Civil Service rules of fair and open competition, and they are not required to be politically impartial or serve a future Administration of a different political party. Special advisers are employed on fixed term contracts for the purposes of the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002 but the Government believes that special advisers' contracts cannot be converted to permanent ones by virtue of Regulation 8. Employing special advisers on a temporary basis is justified on objective grounds due to the special nature of their employment.
15 Oct 2002 : Column 735W
HOME DEPARTMENT
Asylum seekers
Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many dispersed asylum seekers are accommodated in Nottingham, broken down by the different housing sectors. [73688]
Beverley Hughes: Information is not available in the form requested.
As at the end of June 2002, 1,495* asylum seekers (including dependants) were being supported in the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) accommodation in Nottingham.
Information on the type of accommodation in which asylum seekers are housed is currently not available.
Statistics on the number of asylum seekers supported by NASS in each region are available on the Home Office's Immigration and Asylum Statistics website:
- http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
- * Figures have been rounded to the nearest five.
- Figures exclude cases where the asylum seekers support has been ceased.
Mrs. Irene Adams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many people have applied for asylum in Scotland in the last 12 months; [73692]
- (2) how many asylum seekers have had applications to remain in Scotland rejected in the last 12 months. [73677]
Beverley Hughes: Asylum seekers apply to be granted refugee status in the United Kingdom (UK) rather than specifically in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. Asylum applications data are not available at regional level except by port (for those applications made at port—these accounted for 33 per cent. of applications in the period July 2001 to June 2002, inclusive). Corresponding information on initial decision outcomes relating to persons in particular areas of the UK is also not available, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records.
John Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what support will be made available from public funds for asylum seekers whose applications have taken more than six months to determine and who are unable to take up employment as a result of the recent withdrawal of the employment concession; [74255]
- (2) how many asylum seekers whose applications have taken more than six months to determine have taken advantage of the concession to take up employment in each of the past three years; what estimate he has made of the resulting impact on public funds; and if he will make a statement. [74254]
Beverley Hughes: Asylum seekers who are destitute can apply for support from the National Asylum Support Service (NASS). Support can include the provision of accommodation and financial support. The amount of financial support varies according to the person's circumstances but the rates of support applicable from 8 April this year are as follows:
15 Oct 2002 : Column 736W
| Price | |
|---|---|
| Person aged 18–24 | #29.89 |
| Person aged 25 or over | #37.77 |
| Couple | #59.26 |
| Lone Parent | #37.77 |
| Child under 16 | #33.50 |
| Child aged 16 or 17 | #32.50 |
Where accommodation is provided the costs of this, together with any associated utility bills and council tax is met centrally. Asylum seekers are also eligible for NHS treatment and may be eligible for free prescriptions, dental and optical services.
Children of compulsory school age here as part of an asylum seeking family are also entitled to attend school.
Information is not held centrally on the number of asylum seekers who were granted permission to work under the terms of the employment concession and this could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many places will be provided in the further asylum accommodation centres proposed by his Department. [74509]
Beverley Hughes: We propose to provide approximately 3,000 places in the trial accommodation centres.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidelines he has set in terms of numbers for the level of pressure on local authorities' housing for those authorities not to be considered suitable locations for an asylum accommodation centre; and what the level of pressure on local authorities' housing is in each of (a) the proposed accommodation centre sites and (b) the other sites short-listed but not chosen. [74646]
Beverley Hughes: No such guidelines have been set. We do not envisage a demand on local authority housing as a consequence of those working or residing in an Accommodation Centre.
Tony Baldry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which sites for proposed asylum accommodation centres his ministers have visited; and when these visits were made. [74523]
Beverley Hughes: My officials and I visited the proposed sites at DSDC Bicester on 26 June 2002, at RAF Newton on 2 July 2002 and at Throckmorton Airfield, Pershore on 8 October 2002.
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Scottish Executive will have the final decision in the consideration of planning permission for an asylum seeker accommodation centre at RAF Turnhouse. [74183]
Beverley Hughes: Planning proposals in Scotland are determined by the Scottish planning authorities and the Scottish Ministers.
15 Oct 2002 : Column 737W
If such a proposal for the Turnhouse site were to be pursued, it would be a matter for consideration by the City of Edinburgh Council in the first instance. If the Council were to object then the Home Office, as developer, would consider whether to refer the proposal to the Scottish Ministers for a final decision.
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Government are taking to identify potential sites for asylum seeker accommodation centres other than those already announced as under consideration. [74182]
Beverley Hughes: Site searching has continued since we made our initial announcement, as we said it would. 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.
15 Oct 2002 : Column 738W
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what compensation will be made available to people living close to sites of asylum seeker accommodation centres. [74180]
Beverley Hughes: I refer the hon Member to the reply my hon. Friend the Member for Wallasey (Angela Eagle) gave to the hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry) on 19 April 2002, Official Report, column 1262W.
Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for asylum have been (a) approved and (b) rejected in respect of Zimbabwean nationals since 1 January 2000. [73796]
Beverley Hughes: The table shows the initial decisions of Zimbabweans claiming asylum, excluding dependants, from January 2000 to June 20021,2.
| Total Initial Decisions 3 | Cases considered under normal procedures 4 | Backlog clearance exercise 5 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Granted asylum | Granted ELR 7 | Refused | Granted Asylum or ELR 7 under backlog criteria | Refused under backlog criteria 6 | ||
| 2000 | 595 | 20 | 10 | 525 | 35 | 5 |
| 2001(p) | 2,105 | 115 | 45 | 1,950 | - | - |
| January to June 2002(p) | 2,310 | 645 | 55 | 1,610 | - | - |
Notes:
1 Figures rounded to the nearest 5, with * = 1 or 2.
2 Decision figures do not necessarily relate to applications received in the same period.
3 Information is of initial decisions, excluding the outcome of appeals or other subsequent decisions.
4 Cases considered under normal procedures may include some cases decided under the backlog criteria.
5 Cases decided under measures aimed at reducing the pre 1996 asylum application backlog.
6 Includes some cases where the application has been refused on substantive grounds.
7 ELR = exceptional leave to remain.
(p) Figures for 2001 and 2002 are provisional and subject to change.
Information on asylum applications and decisions is published quarterly. The next publication will be available from 29 November 2002 on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the backlog in asylum applications was at the end of each of the last 10 quarters for which figures are available. [74451]
Beverley Hughes: The number of asylum applications awaiting an initial decision, as at the end of each of the last 10 quarters, is shown in the table.
| Year | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Q1 | 114,600 |
| Q2 | 102,800 | |
| Q3 | 96,900 | |
| Q4 | 88,600 | |
| 2001(p) | Q1 | 60,200 |
| Q2 | 47,800 | |
| Q3 | 43,000 | |
| Q4 | 38,800 | |
| 2002(p) | Q1 | 34,800 |
| Q2 | 35,300 |
Notes:
Rounded to nearest 100
(p) provisional data
Information on the number of asylum cases awaiting an initial decision is published quarterly. The next publication will be available from 29 November 2002 on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.htm.
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