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23 Jun 2003 : Column 596W—continued

Yemen

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he next plans to visit Yemen; what plans he has to review the travel advice for Yemen; and when he last met the Yemeni ambassador to the UK. [119524]

Mr. Rammell: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has no plans to visit Yemen at present. Our travel advice for Yemen is kept under continuous review. The Foreign Secretary has met the Yemen ambassador at a number of recent official diplomatic events, the last of which was his dinner for the Diplomatic Corps to celebrate the Queen's official birthday on 11 June 2003.

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HOME DEPARTMENT

Asbestos

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the actions his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are taking to comply with the requirements of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002; whether he has made an estimate of the cost of compliance; and if he will make a statement. [117703]

Fiona Mactaggart: The new asbestos regulations come into force on 21 May 2004. The Home Office has already undertaken a number of actions to ensure that it complies with them. Building managers have been informed of the implications of the new regulations and they will be provided with relevant training.

A survey undertaken last year indicated that about 70 per cent. of properties across the Home Office including all prisons are already compliant with the new regulations and this will be followed up by a survey in early 2004 to check compliance in advance of them coming into force. The total cost of compliance has not been centrally calculated and could be obtained only at disproportionate costs.

CCTV

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether CCTV has been installed in residential areas of Wandsworth Prison; and if he will make a statement. [117685]

Paul Goggins: Closed circuit television (CCTV) has not been installed inside residential units at Wandsworth prison, as it is not considered necessary. CCTV, however, will be part of the specification for a refurbished segregation unit on which work is to start next year.

Community Sentences

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many community sentences were given in the last two years in which a condition of residence at a probation hostel was imposed. [118787]

Paul Goggins: The number of people starting supervision by the Probation Service under community sentences on which the condition of residence at a probation hostel was imposed was 677 in 2000 and 624 in 2001.

Corporate Killing

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the results were of his Department's Regulatory Impact Assessment on the Government's proposals to change the law on corporate killing. [118732]

Paul Goggins: The results of the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) are still being assessed but the preliminary indications are that the costs of a change in the law will not be large. As made clear in the RIA, no

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new burdens will be placed on companies in terms of the standards with which they will be legally required to comply.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the legislation in force in relation to corporate killing. [118734]

Paul Goggins: Currently companies who cause death through systemic management failure may be prosecuted for the common law offence of gross negligence manslaughter, and are subject to a number of other statutory regimes relating to health and safety.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list recent meetings he has had with (a) companies and business leaders and (b) trade unions on the issue of corporate killing and possible legislation on it. [118735]

Paul Goggins: Home Office Ministers have met with a number of organisations to discuss the issue of corporate killing over the past few years. Most recently these included:

Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TU on 27 February 2003


Digby Jones, CBI Director General on 12 May 2003


William Moyes and deputation from the British Retail Consortium on 2 June 2003

In addition a number of meetings have been held with officials. Further meetings with key stakeholders will be convened over the next few months in order to inform the development of proposals for legislation on corporate killing.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is his policy that Crown employees should be held accountable on the same basis as company directors under any new legislation on corporate killing. [119202]

Paul Goggins: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced on 20 May 2003 that firm proposals for legislation on corporate killing will be published before the end of this year. The position of Crown bodies in relation to any new proposals will be an issue for consideration. No decision has yet been made.

Crime Statistics (East Yorkshire)

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes were committed by juvenile offenders in (a) Haltemprice and Howden, (b) the East Riding of Yorkshire and (c) the Humberside Police Authority area in each of the last two quarters for which figures are available; and how many cautions were issued. [116769]

Paul Goggins: It is not known how many crimes are committed by juveniles. The information contained in the table gives the number of juveniles convicted or given reprimands and final warnings in Humberside, for the 3rd and 4th quarter 2001.

The information collected centrally does not enable cases in the Haltemprice and Howden constituency to be identified nor reprimands and final warnings in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

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Statistics for 2002 will be published in the autumn.

Number of juveniles, found guilty at all courts, number reprimands and final warnings⁽³¹⁾, for all offences, Humberside,3rd and 4th quarter 2001

Area, age and disposal etc.	Quarter 3	Quarter 4
East Riding of Yorkshire
Juveniles aged 10–17 found guilty	112	93
Juveniles aged 10–17 receiving a reprimand	n/a	n/a
Juveniles aged 10–17 receiving a final warning	n/a	n/a
Humberside Police Force Area
Juveniles aged 10–17 found guilty	477	382
Juveniles aged 10–17 receiving a reprimand	247	186
Juveniles aged 10–17 receiving a final warning	129	74

n/a = Not available

⁽³¹⁾ Cautions were replaced by reprimands and final warnings from June 2000

Criminal Records Bureau

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department by what percentage amount the Criminal Records Bureau is to increase its fees for (a) standard search and (b) new enhanced search. [118508]

Paul Goggins: With effect from 1 July 2003 the fee for Standard level disclosures will increase to £24.00, with Enhanced level checks increasing to £29.00. This is expressed in percentage terms as an increase of 100 per cent. for Standard Disclosures and an increase of 142 per cent. for the Enhanced searches. The main reason for these increases is that fees, which where set before the service was operational, have been found to be unrealistically low. Additionally, in the past 12 months the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) has seen an increase in its operating costs. The following factors have contributed to this:

A higher than anticipated demand for the paper application channel;


A higher than anticipated proportion of Disclosures being at Enhanced level;


The high number of applications having to be returned, due to inaccuracies or the omission of supporting documentation, resulting in additional processes and procedures.

Telephone and postal applications made to the CRB from 1 July 2003 will be charged the new fees. In consideration for any delays in the postal system a one-week period of grace will be allowed for applications submitted by post.

Volunteers will continue to obtain their Disclosures free of charge. The CRB issued over 200,000 Disclosures to volunteers up until 31 March, which represents a saving of over £2.4 million to the voluntary and community sector.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Criminal Records Bureau searches from Essex county council have been outstanding for (a) four weeks, (b) 10 weeks and (c) six months. [118509]

Paul Goggins: The total number of applications outstanding for Essex county council over four weeks is 457. Of these, 203 are over 10 weeks old and 139 are over six months old.

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These figures include those applications that have been returned to the customer for additional information or further documentary evidence. Essex county council has been notified of these applications and until this information has been received, the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) cannot process these applications. The CRB has undertaken several initiatives recently to reduce the number of aged applications in the system that are causing delays to other applications. The number of applications outstanding over 10 weeks and six months are reducing week by week. The Bureau continues to improve its output and anticipates that the number of aged applications will be reduced to no more than 5 per cent. of work in progress by September 2003.

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to meet the target of 90 per cent. of Criminal Records Bureau (a) standard searches completed within two weeks and (b) new enhanced searches completed within four weeks. [118511]

Paul Goggins: The target to complete 90 per cent. of Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Standard Disclosures within two weeks and Enhanced Disclosures within four weeks is expected to be met by the end of July 2003. Latest figures indicate that the CRB is currently processing 85.6 per cent. of Standard Disclosures within two weeks and 88.2 per cent. Enhanced Disclosures within four weeks.

The original service standards were set before the launch of what is a new and unique service at a time when it was difficult to predict the optimum level of service that could be delivered. The experience of the first 12 months operation indicated that they were overly ambitious.

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Criminal Records Bureau searches on behalf of persons or organisations in Cornwall have been outstanding for (a) 10 weeks, (b) four months and (c) six months. [119530]

Paul Goggins: The information sought by the hon. Member regarding outstanding Disclosure applications in Cornwall is only available as a total figure which does not take into account the large number of applications that have been returned either to the 273 Registered Bodies in Cornwall or the applicants, because of form completion errors or omission.

The number of outstanding disclosure applications for Cornwall are:

(a) Applications between 0–10 weeks—700 (547 of these applications are under four weeks old)


(b) Applications between 10 weeks–04 months—204


(c) Applications between 04 months–06 months—224

The Criminal Record Bureaus (CRB's) current service standards are to clear 90 per cent. of Standard Disclosures within two weeks and 90 per cent. of Enhanced Disclosures within four weeks. As of week ending 07 June the targets achieved by the CRB were 85.6 per cent. and 88.2 per cent. respectively.

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