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HOME DEPARTMENT
Appeal Processing Centre
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the backlog of cases at the Appeal Processing Centre is; and how many people are employed at the centre. [119506]
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Beverley Hughes: The latest figure based on management information for the number of cases outstanding in the Appeals Processing Centre is 47,000 at the end of September 2002. This includes all appeals lodged with the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) that had not yet been sent to the Immigration Appellate Authority.
The Appeals Processing Centre currently employs 306 staff.
British Overseas Citizens
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been granted citizenship who were previously British Overseas Citizens. [119507]
Beverley Hughes: 1,055 people who were previously British Overseas Citizens were granted British citizenship in 2001.
Statistics for 2002 are due to be published later this year in the Home Office statistical bulletin "Persons Granted British Citizenship United Kingdom, 2002", a copy of which will be placed in the Library.
Correspondence
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff have been employed in the Ministerial Correspondence Unit of the Department in each of the last two years. [115888]
Fiona Mactaggart: The Home Office does not have a dedicated ministerial correspondence unit. The Direct Communications Unit (DCU) serves the non-Immigration Nationality Directorate Home Office, but the staff who deal with ministerial correspondence also deal with approximately 40,000 public letters per annum. Staff in IND also deal with public correspondence, and have a variety of other taks. The table shows the staffing figures.
| April 2002 | April 2003 | |
|---|---|---|
| DCU | 52 permanent | 49 permanent |
| 1 casual | ||
| IND | No figures available | 170 permanent |
Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when a substantive reply will be sent to the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed regarding his letter to the Minister of State of 4 September 2002 relating to an allegation of illegal immigration, ref 18268/2; and what the reasons are for the delay in dealing with the matter. [118809]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 16 June 2003]: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 18 June 2003.
Entitlement/Identity Cards
Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to introduce a national identity card; what information it will hold; what
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services it could access; whether it will be compulsory; and if he will make a statement on how a card could affect civil liberties. [119572]
Beverley Hughes: The six month consultation period on entitlement cards and identity fraud ended on 31 January 2003. We have received over 4,000 individual responses to the consultation exercise.
The consultation paper included suggestions for what might be held on any supporting database, which would be needed to administer a scheme. Only core personal information such as name, address and date of birth would be held, which is held many times over by a number of Government systems. The consultation document suggested that sensitive personal information as defined by the Data Protection Act 1998 would not be held on the database or card without consent.
The consultation paper invited comments on what services might be linked to a card scheme. We have said all along that it would not be compulsory to carry any card. The consultation paper explained how a card scheme could comply with all eight principles of the Data Protection Act. In providing greater protection against identity theft and fraud, a card scheme could enhance civil liberties.
EU Committees
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the names, titles and grades of the officials who sit on the committee for the European Refugee Fund, the number of times and the dates on which it has met since January 2002, the agenda items it has considered since January 2002, the decisions it has made since January 2002 and the means used to communicate these decisions to the House. [110498]
Beverley Hughes: Officials from the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate represent the United Kingdom. The precise composition of the delegation will vary according to the topics under discussion. Representation from other Member States is a matter for those Governments.
Since January 2002 the Committee has met four times. The dates of these meetings were 6 February 2002, 27 May 2002, 13 February 2003 and 22 May 2003. It has consulted once by way of written procedure in December 2002.
The agenda items that have been discussed are as follows:
- Opinion on draft revised decisions on co-financing of Member States national programmes for 2002, further to the increase in the budget of the European Refugee Fund (ERF) allocated by the Budgetary Authority;
Evaluation of Programmes;
Information from the Commission on decision regarding the selection of "Community Action projects" 2001 (Article 5 Council Decision);
Information on Call for Proposals published by the European Commission for "Community Action projects" 2002 (Article 5 Council Decision);
Information from the Commission on monitoring of national programmes; and
Presentation of its activities by the Council of Europe Development Bank.
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-
27 May 2002
Information from the Commission on implementation of Commission Decision 2002/307/EC of 18 December 2001, laying down detailed rules for the implementation of Council Decision 2000/596/EC as regards management and control systems and procedures for making financial corrections in the context of actions co-financed by the ERF.
- Opinion on draft decisions on co-financing of Member States national programmes for 2003; and
Information from the Commission on revised provisional allocations by Member States for 2003, based on forecast increased budget (subject to the final adoption by the Budgetary Authority).
- Opinion on draft revised decisions on co-financing of Member States national programmes for 2003, further to the increase in the budget of the ERF allocated by the Budgetary Authority;
Information from the Commission—preparation of final reports and financial statements for programme years 2000 and 2001;
Information from the Commission—presentation of independent evaluation by of 1998 and 1999 projects for asylum-seekers, displaced persons and refugees; and
Information from the Commission—independent ERF mid-term evaluation.
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22 May 2003
Question time—preparation of final reports and financial statements for programme years 2000 and 2001;
Information from the Commission—ERF 2004 provisional allocations;
Information from the Commission—call for proposals for Community Actions 2003;
Bilateral meetings between the Commission and ERF-Member States on the preparation of final reports and financial statements for programme years 2000 and 2001; and
Information from the Commission—presentation of the ERF programme to the acceding countries.
Extradition Requests
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many outstanding extradition requests have been made to the United Kingdom by each member of the European Union and EU accession states; and when the original extradition request was made in each case. [118911]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 16 June 2003]: The information requested is as follows:
| Total no of extradition requests received by UK from all(24) countries | |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 111 |
| 1999 | 101 |
| 2000 | 78 |
| 2001 | 133 |
| 2002 | 137 |
| Total | 560 |
| Cases outstanding as of 31 May 2003 and year of receipt | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Requests from EU(24) | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Belgium | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 3 | 1 |
| France | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 5 |
| Germany | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 7 | 6 | 8 |
| Italy | — | — | 2 | — | 1 | 3 | 8 | 12 | 3 |
| Luxembourg | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Netherlands | — | — | — | — | — | — | 2 | 5 | 2 |
| Denmark | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Greece | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | — | — | 1 |
| Portugal | — | — | — | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Spain | — | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 |
| Austria | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | — |
| Finland | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Sweden | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | 1 | 1 |
(24) Figures do not include requests from Ireland which are not collected centrally.
| Requests from EV | Cases outstanding as of 31 May 2003 andyear of receipt | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accession states | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 |
| Estonia | — | — | — | — | — |
| Latvia | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| Lithuania | — | — | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| Poland | 1 | — | 1 | 2 | — |
| Hungary | — | — | — | — | — |
| Czech Republic | — | — | 4 | 9 | 3 |
| Slovakia | — | — | — | 3 | — |
| Slovenia | — | — | — | 1 | — |
| Cyprus | — | — | — | — | — |
| Malta | — | — | — | — | — |
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