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HOME DEPARTMENT

Asylum Seekers

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers, who have been refused asylum status, have been removed from the country in (a) the last year for which figures are available and (b) the previous five years. [97638]

Beverley Hughes: Data on those people who have been removed after seeking asylum at some stage are given in the table.

Removal of asylum seekers⁽⁶³⁾

	Principal applicants	Dependants(64)
1997	7,165	N/a
1998	6,990	N/a
1999	7,665	N/a
2000	8,980	N/a
2001	9,285	(64)1,495
January to September 2002(65)	7,780	1,825

⁽⁶³⁾ Includes persons departing "voluntarily" after enforcement action has been initiated against them and persons leaving under the assisted voluntary return programmes run by the IOM.

⁽⁶⁴⁾ Data for dependants removed only shows those removed from April 2001 onwards. Data on dependants was not collected prior to this date.

⁽⁶⁵⁾ Provisional data subject to change.

Note:

Figures are rounded the nearest five.

Information on the number asylum seekers removed in the period October to December 2002 is due to be published on 28 February 2003 on the Home Office website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/whatsnew1.html.

Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans his Department has to house asylum seekers in Pyrford Court, Pyrford Common Road, Woking, Surrey. [97679]

Beverley Hughes: Pyrford Court, Pyrford Common Road, Woking Surrey has not to date been considered by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) for emergency accommodation, dispersal accommodation or as an induction centre.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people seeking asylum are registered as living at the Hinton Hotel, Fareham;

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and if the hotel provides accommodation to asylum seekers by arrangement with the National Asylum Support Service. [97680]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 13 February 2003]: The voluntary sector use the Hinton Hotel as emergency accommodation to house asylum seekers. However, Fareham is not a cluster area for the dispersal of asylum seekers.

Mr. Brazier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Government plans to renegotiate the UK's treaty obligations with regard to asylum seekers. [98769]

Beverley Hughes: Our obligations to asylum seekers are governed by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). We have no plans to withdraw from either convention unilaterally or to renegotiate our obligations.

However, we will not be afraid to review relevant international obligations if current measures to tackle asylum are not effective.

Mental Illness (Prisoners)

Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to reduce the number of people with mental illness in prison. [98767]

Hilary Benn: We are tackling excessive delays in arranging transfer to hospital for the most seriously ill. We are also working to improve the mental health services available to the majority of prisoners who are not so ill that they require hospital care.

Freight Search Technology

14. Mr. Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on progress made in the introduction of UK-provided freight search technology in ports in (a) Northern France and (b) Belgium. [98770]

Beverley Hughes: We have already deployed detection equipment at both Calais and Coquelles. There is now the capability to screen 100 per cent. of freight vehicles embarking from Calais. We will shortly be placing equipment at those key continental ports in France and Belgium, such as Dunkirk, Cherbourg, Ostend and Zeebrugge, vulnerable to the displacement of clandestine entry following the tightening of security at Calais.

Burglary (Sentencing)

15. Angela Watkinson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the deterrent effect of custodial sentences for household burglary. [98772]

Hilary Benn: Domestic burglary is a serious offence, as has recently been made clear by the Government and the courts. As a rule, it should attract a custodial sentence unless it is a first time offence and there are clear mitigating circumstances. Sentences act as a deterrent in a number of ways, including restricting opportunities to re-offend and by tackling the causes of an individual's offending behaviour.

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Police Officers (Paperwork)

16. Peter Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to reduce the paperwork of police officers. [98773]

Mr. Denham: We have set up a steering group, co-chaired by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Home Office, to take forward the recommendations of Sir David O'Dowd's Bureaucracy Taskforce, whose report was published last September. Amongst the achievements so far, the necessary provisions to introduce street bail are in the criminal justice bill; the Metropolitan Police Service has made 306 forms obsolete and we hope that the Custody and Case Preparation applications will be rolled out to all forces by April 2006.

Policing (North Yorkshire)

17. Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on policing in North Yorkshire. [98774]

Mr. Denham: North Yorkshire Police had 1,417 officers on 31 March 2002, a record number. The force will receive over £70 million in general grant for 2003–04 and this will be supplemented by funding for a range of specific initiatives, including over £2 million from the Rural Policing Fund.

Police Forensic Services

18. Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the future of police forensic services. [98775]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: Forensic science is an increasingly valuable tool in the fight against crime and its successful exploitation is key to the delivery of police reform. The use of DNA, in particular, has revolutionised crime investigation and also provides an invaluable source of intelligence.

As announced by my hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham) on 23 July 2002 the principal provider of forensic science services to the police, the Forensic Science Service, is currently the subject to an independent review which is looking at the delivery, performance and responsiveness of the Service and the ways in which we can maximise its contribution to the work of the police and through them to the wider criminal justice system.

Street Crime

19. Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on recent measures to combat street crime. [98777]

Mr. Denham: The Street Crime Initiative was launched in April 2002 in the 10 police force areas with the highest rates of recorded robbery during 2001–02. Its key aims are to increase the detection rate for street crime cases, increase the proportion of offenders charged and brought to justice, and speed up the process between arrest and sentence.

This practical and partnership driven approach from the Government, police and other agencies had, by the end of September 2002, reduced the overall number of

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street crime offences by 16 per cent since its inception. At the end of last September: robbery, the more violent street crime offence, was down 25 per cent compared to the month immediately preceding the start of the initiative.

Barry Probation Office

21. Mr. John Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received about the proposed closure of Barry probation office; and if he will make a statement. [98778]

Hilary Benn: To date I have had no representations specific to the Barry Probation Office, though there have been local stakeholder discussions and I have received representations more generally on the property strategy of the South Wales Probation Board.

The decision to close the main probation office in Barry, and relocate staff to Cardiff, was made by the local employer, the South Wales Probation Board. This decision was made in the wider context of improving effectiveness in dealing with offenders. The Board's strategy is to release resources to redirect into staff, particularly new staff to deliver successful Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) and to introduce the more effective "enhanced community punishment".

Better targeting of public funds is an important aspect of improving public protection and reducing re-offending. The decision to double the planned number of DTTOs over the next two years underpins the success of their approach.

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