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Prisons (Violence)

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to reduce violence by prisoners against prisoners. [74928]

Mr. Hilary Benn: The Prison Service is committed to reducing all forms of violence in prison whether affecting prisoners or staff.

Existing steps include; a policy for addressing bullying with anti-bullying co-ordinator roles in establishments; an offender assessment system developed jointly by the National Probation and Prison Services; the recently introduced cell sharing risk assessment tool which we hope will minimise the risk of violence when allocating prisoners to cell accommodation; and a number of accredited offending behaviour programmes, including cognitive skills programmes, which have been shown to affect institutional behaviour.

Future steps will include a violence reduction policy in the very early stages of development, which will bring together existing approaches and seek to develop a safer environment for prisoners and staff.

CIO

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times in 2002 he has overturned the decision of a CIO to remove a person from the UK. [75648]

23 Oct 2002 : Column 341W

Beverley Hughes: Statistics on the number of cases where the Home Secretary has overturned the decision of a chief immigration officer are not collated.

IND

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department to whom hon. Members should write in IND on immigration matters. [75659]

Beverley Hughes: hon. Members should write to the following addresses:

Entry Clearance Cases (Refusal of visa of entry clearance overseas)

UK Visas

Visa Correspondence Unit

London

SW1A 2AH

Work Permit Cases

Customer Relations

WP (UK)

Immigration and Nationality Directorate

Home Office

Level 5, Moorfoot

Sheffield

S1 4PQ

Nationality Cases

The Junior Nominated Officer

Immigration and Nationality Directorate

INPD

Room 311

India Building

Water Street

Liverpool

L2 0QN

National Asylum Support Service

MP's Correspondence Section

National Asylum Support Service

3rd Floor, Voyager House

30 Wellesley Road

Croydon

CR0 2AD

Timing of Appeals

The Clerk to the Adjudicator

Immigration Appellate Authority

Taylor House

88 Rosebery Avenue

London

EC1R 4QU

Refusal of entry at UK Port

The Chief Immigration Officer at the relevant Port should be the first point of contact. Ministers will only become involved if the Member has new and compelling information such as the death or illness of a close friend or family member.

General casework, asylum and cases pending appeal

Member of Parliament Correspondence Section (MPCS)

Immigration and Nationality Directorate

Head of MPCS

Lunar House

40 Wellesley Road

Croydon

CR9 2BY

23 Oct 2002 : Column 342W

Appeal rights exhausted and subject to removal or a deportation order

Asylum Removal Delivery Group Secretariat

2nd Floor, Green Park House

29 Wellesley Road

Croydon

CRO 2AJ

If Removal Directions are already in place or removal imminent

Members who think they have new and compelling information that would affect imminent removal should contact either the Chief Immigration Officer at the Enforcement Unit or Port, (A list is contained in the booklet).

Further details, including Enforcement office contact details, are contained in the IND booklet ''Information for Members of Parliament about immigration and nationality enquiries'', a copy of which was sent to all hon. Members on 18 July 2002. Further copies are available on request from either the Minister's Private Office or:

IND Secretariat

12th floor

Apollo House

Croydon.

Racial Equality Services

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the use of funding allocated to racial equality services by the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland is monitored for effectiveness. [74977]

Beverley Hughes: The production of work programmes, work programme reviews and Core Standards assessments is the key tool in determining the effectiveness of the service being delivered by the Scottish Racial Equality Services (RECs).

During the course of the year the Scottish RECs submit reviews on a six monthly basis to the Scotland Committee of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) to identify progress against their work plans and end of year targets.

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide a breakdown of how the money allocated to racial equality services by the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland has been spent in each of the last five years. [74976]

Beverley Hughes: The Work Programmes submitted by Racial Equality Councils (RECs) focus on four programme areas—race specific casework, policy development, public education and awareness, and community development—and the activity within each area is tailored to local circumstances as determined by the RECs and their management boards.

A breakdown of expenditure by programme area is not available.

The Commission for Racial Equality's funding for RECs is currently in the form of grant aid to meet the salary costs of Race Equality Officers and/or Directors of RECs and is not programme specific.

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanisms have been put in place by the Commission for Racial Equality in Scotland to

23 Oct 2002 : Column 343W

ensure that all CRE funded providers of racial equality services have achieved the quality standards that are required of local racial equality councils. [74975]

Beverley Hughes: In 1999, The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) introduced Core Standards, a quality assurance framework for all funded Racial Equality Councils (RECs). To help RECs achieve the quality standard, extensive guidance and self-assessment policies were produced, and a corporate training programme developed for the RECs.

A CRE/REC Joint Consultative Forum was established to provide a mechanism for CRE officers and representatives of RECs from across Britain to meet regularly and share ideas and views on the development and implementation of the Core Standards programme.

In addition, seminars are held to enable RECs to review progress, focus on the implementation of the standards and explore ways to meet their organisational development needs.

Criminal Records Bureau

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications were received in each month since January for clearance by the Criminal Records Bureau in respect of (a) nursery and school staff (employed), (b) nursery and school staff (voluntary), (c) youth service staff, (d) social services staff, (e) other voluntary workers and (f) other employed staff. [76185]

Mr. Hilary Benn [holding answer 21 October 2002]: The information sought by the hon. Member for the Isle of Wight is not available in the format requested. There are no Information Technology Procedures at present to extract this data from the Customer Relationship Management database. It is expected that this functionality will become available in subsequent system releases.

The attached table shows monthly details of the total number of Disclosure applications received since the Criminal Records Bureau launched its disclosure service on 11 March 2002.

	Disclosures Applications Received
March	2,765
April	39,713
May	87,865
June	90,204
July	159,393
August	144,030
September	204,868
October	130,773

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for clearance by the Criminal Records Bureau were received in each month since January; and in which month they were provided. [76184]

Mr. Hilary Benn [holding answer 21 October 2002]: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) launched its Disclosure service on 11 March 2002. Applicants obtain Disclosure information from the CRB by completing a blank application form or making an application by telephone. Figures representing the total number of

23 Oct 2002 : Column 344W

Disclosures received and issued per month are provided below. There are no Information Technology Procedures at present to break down this data further to show in which month the Disclosures were provided to applicants. It is expected that this functionality will become available in subsequent system releases.

	Disclosures Issued	Disclosure Applications Received	Disclosure Applications Returned to Applicant or Registered Body Applications because of errors
Mar	21	2,765
Apr	2,798	39,713
May	19,446	87,865	6,980
Jun	34,900	90,204	1,921
Jul	89,086	159,393	23,047
Aug	110,411	144,030	19,034
Sep	132,735	204,868	19,601
Oct	92,974	130,773	5,571

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