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Prostate Cancer

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will introduce the public education programme about prostate cancer announced in the NHS Prostate Cancer Programme in September 2000. [91777]

Ms Blears: The national health service prostate cancer programme stated that an education programme for the public, patients and professionals on the risks associated with individual testing for prostate cancer will be introduced. This has been achieved through the prostate cancer risk management programme, which sent out evidence-based primary care resource packs to all general practitioners in England from 23 September 2002 to aid them in counselling men who are worried about prostate cancer.

This ensures that men make an informed choice about whether or not to have a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, based on an information leaflet developed specifically for men about the advantages and disadvantages of having a PSA test.

The Department is funding a Section 64 grant to the prostate cancer charity to increase further information about prostate cancer. This is supporting the creation, review, provision and dissemination of a range of awareness material, supported by £135,000 over three years.

Recruitment

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 2 December 2002, Official Report, column 608W, on recruitment, how many nursing agencies have been removed from the list of approved agencies which have failed to comply with the code of practice in the recruitment of overseas nurses since it was established; and if he will list them. [86807]

Mr. Hutton [holding answer 10 December 2002]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow) on 14 January 2003, Official Report, column 535W.

LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

Data Protection

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, what guidance is given to Government Departments in dealing with information on individual files that has been accepted as inaccurate under the Data Protection Act 1998. [92187]

Yvette Cooper: General guidance on compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998 is issued by the Information Commissioner. The Commissioner's booklet, "The Data Protection Act: Legal Guidance", contains a section on complying with the requirement in the 1998 Act's fourth data protection principle that personal data must be accurate and, where necessary, kept up to date.

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Judicial Competence

Mr. John Taylor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if the Lord Chancellor will make it his policy (a) to introduce rules relating to the conduct and competence of judges in the small claims court and (b) to introduce independent assessors (i) to monitor the observance of such rules and (ii) to permit assessment to inform future appointment by way of promotion or otherwise. [91393]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Lord Chancellor has no plans to introduce either rules relating specifically to the conduct and competence of judges in small claims cases, or independent assessors to monitor the observance of such rules. The decisions of judges in those cases are, of course, subject to the possibility of appeal (as are the decisions of judges in other jurisdictions). Where there is no complaint about a judicial decision, but it is alleged that a judge has failed to meet the high standard of conduct expected of all judges, the Lord Chancellor, as head of the judiciary, is able to consider a complaint about the judge's conduct.

Small claims cases are generally dealt with by full-time District judges or part-time Deputy District judges. The Lord Chancellor would usually expect candidates for appointment as District judges to have gained experience of sitting as a part-time Deputy. Deputy District judges are observed, and appraised, in their work by full-time judges, enabling both their performance, and suitability for promotion to full-time office, to be assessed.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Annual Report

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much producing his Department's latest annual report cost; how many copies were printed; how many copies of it were sold at its cover price; to whom copies of the report have been provided free of charge; and how many copies were provided free of charge. [90884]

Mr. Blunkett: The last annual report for my Department was published on 13 June 2002 and was also made available on the Home Office Internet website in HTML format from September 2002. The cover price was £14.75. The cost to my Department of producing the report was as follows (all figures include VAT):

Cost of producing report

	£
Design and editing	35,724.82
Design for Internet version	2,600.00
Printing and purchase of 1,200 copies	(31)16,567.98
Total cost	54,892.80

⁽³¹⁾ This figure includes 20 per cent. discount on cover price of 1,100 copies and 60 per cent. discount on remaining 100 copies.

Under the terms of their contract with my Department TSO Ltd. use their commercial judgment to decide the total size of the print-run and bear all the remaining cost of printing the copies over and above the number required by the Department for distribution.

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Information on the total number of copies printed and sold at cover price is not therefore available to the Department.

The Department distributed 200 copies to Parliament members of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Members of the Cabinet and Leaders of the Opposition Parties. Some 400 copies were distributed across the Department to directors, heads of unit and frontline staff. About 400 copies have also been distributed to the press, other Government Departments, agencies, and non-governmental organisations and other bodies with an interest in the Department's work.

Asylum Department

Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff were employed in the Asylum Department of the Home Office in each year since 1997; and what the rate of absenteeism was in each year. [90848]

Beverley Hughes: Records are available for the years from 2000. The number of full-time equivalent staff employed in Asylum Group was 422 in April 2000, 1,129 in April 2001 and 1,065 in April 2002.

Data is not recorded in terms of absenteeism. Sickness absence for the Home Office is recorded and published by the Cabinet Office.

Asylum Seekers

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his performance against the target of 30,000 deportations a year of failed asylum applicants; and what plans he has to amend that target. [91246]

Beverley Hughes: The 2002–03 target of 30,000 removals per year was based on the public service agreement (PSA) to enforce the immigration laws more effectively by removing a greater proportion of failed asylum seekers. Latest information on performance against this target will be published in the "Asylum Statistics Q4 2001 United Kingdom" on 28 February.

My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has always made it clear that, the target for 30,000 removals set for 2002–03 was aspirational and hugely ambitious. In order to reach and exceed 30,000 removals per year, we needed to remove about 2,500 people per month. This target was not attainable.

The PSA in 2003–04 remains the same, ie to enforce the immigration laws more effectively by removing a greater proportion of failed asylum seekers. The proportion is measured by comparing the total number of refused asylum seekers (including dependants) removed from the UK with the total number of refused asylum seekers (including dependants) who have either exhausted all appeal rights or not appealed within 15 working days of the despatch of the refusal decision or meet the criteria for non-suspensive appeals.

Burglary Sentences

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many defendants have, pursuant to section 111 of the Powers of Criminal

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Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, been given the mandatory sentence imposed by that section in relation to three separate occasions of offences of domestic burglary. [91011]

Hilary Benn: Information reported to the Home Office shows that six persons were sentenced under section 111 of the Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 (previously section 4 of the Crime (Sentences) Act 1997) in England and Wales for a third offence of burglary by the end of 2001.

An offender has to have committed an offence, been apprehended, prosecuted and convicted, on three separate occasions since 1 December 1999 to be subject to the mandatory sentence. Given that a custodial sentence for the first or second offence since December 1999 is likely in many cases it will take some time before significant numbers of offenders who qualify for the mandatory sentence appear before the courts.

Information for 2002 is due for publication in the late autumn of 2003.

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