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Accommodation Centre Sites
The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes): I am announcing today that we are considering applying for planning approval to develop an accommodation centre for asylum seekers at HMS Daedalus, Gosport, Hampshire.
Because the need to establish the accommodation centres trial is urgent, the Government are committed as a matter of policy to developing accommodation centres for 750 asylum seekers each at DSDC Bicester and the former RAF Newton. For the trial to be effective it is necessary to have a policy commitment to these two sites and we will therefore continue vigorously to make our case to the planning inquiries established to consider our proposals.
We previously announced our intention to trial a smaller model of accommodation centre for up to 400 single men only. We consider the site at HMS Daedalus to be suitable for this model, and to that extent, it is a key element of the policy to trial accommodation centres.
As before, if we decide to proceed, we will comply with the planning process with this new site and I hope that we will make considerable progress in the consultation process with the local community and councils.
After detailed consideration, we have decided not to pursue the sites at Sully hospital, South Glamorgan; AirWest, Edinburgh; and RAF Hemswell, Lincolnshire for the purposes of the trial. No planning notifications will therefore be submitted for these sites.
Site searching continues and we are looking in particular for an alternative site in Scotland to replace AirWest, Edinburgh. When a potential site has been identified we will consult Scottish Ministers in line with section 40 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002.
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CABINET OFFICE
Public Administration Select Committee(Government Response)
The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr. Douglas Alexander): The Government have today published its response to the eighth report of the Public Administration Select Committee. The Government is grateful to the Select Committee for its constructive report on media handling at the former Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
The Government have accepted the Committee's central recommendation that there should be a
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"radical external review of government communications".
I am pleased that Bob Phillis, Chief Executive of the Guardian Media Group plc, has agreed to be the Chairman of the review group. The members of the group are Colin Browne, the Maitland Consultancy, David Hill, Good Relations Political Communications; John Hipwood, Wolverhampton Express and Star, Rupert Howell, recently of Chime Communications plc; Howell James, Brown Lloyd James Ltd; Sian Jarvis, Department of Health; Sue Jenkins, GIGS; Tom Kelly/
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- Godric Smith, 10 Downing Street; Charles Reiss, Evening Standard; Richard Tait, recently ITN; and Nicholas Timmins, Financial Times.
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"In the light of the Eighth report of the House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee, to conduct a radical review of government communications. This will include the examination of different models for organising and managing the government's communication effort, the effectiveness of the current model based on the Government Information and Communication Service, and the roles played by other civil servants including those special advisers who have a responsibility for communications."
WORK AND PENSIONS
Targeting Fraud Advertising Campaign
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Malcolm Wicks): The results of the evaluation of the September 2001–March 2002 bursts of the advertising campaign on Targeting Fraud have today been placed in the Library.