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23 Oct 2002 : Column 340W—continued

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]

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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:















































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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:





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

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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
March2,765
April39,713
May87,865
June90,204
July159,393
August144,030
September204,868
October130,773

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

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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 IssuedDisclosure Applications ReceivedDisclosure Applications Returned to Applicant or Registered Body Applications because of errors
Mar212,765
Apr2,79839,713
May19,44687,8656,980
Jun34,90090,2041,921
Jul89,086159,39323,047
Aug110,411144,03019,034
Sep132,735204,86819,601
Oct92,974130,7735,571


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