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Operation Telic

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many regular service personnel in the (a) Royal Navy, (b) Royal Marines, (c) Army and (d) RAF units are involved in Operation Telic; and if he will make a statement. [122155]

Mr. Ingram: The information requested is shown in the table.

Regular Service Personnel (as at 30 June)

Royal Navy	694
Royal Marines	38
Army	10,850
RAF units	1,841

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RAF Bases

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the future of RAF Uxbridge. [119504]

Mr. Caplin: My predecessor made a Press Statement on 29 October 2002 and wrote to a number of local MPs notifying them of the Department's intention to offer the United States Navy the opportunity to occupy for military use the majority of the land and the buildings at RAF Uxbridge. This relocation forms part of project MOD Estate London (MoDEL) to rationalize the Department's estate in London.

The proposal would allow the United States Navy to consolidate at RAF Uxbridge their offices currently situated on seven London sites. It is expected that many of the Service Family Houses would be retained for Ministry of Defence use, and options are being investigated for the preservation of the RAF Bunker as a site of historic interest.

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The estate offered to the United States Navy would remain the property of Her Majesty's Government, and the establishment would keep a RAF designation. The proposal is subject to separate approval procedures to serve the interests of the MOD and the United States Visiting Forces. Should the United States Navy choose not to relocate, then RAF Uxbridge would be considered for alternative use or declared surplus and available for disposal.

Unused Leave

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to compensate armed forces personnel for unused periods of leave. [122815]

Mr. Ingram: Leave policy is kept under continual review by the Services. Individuals are actively encouraged to take their full leave entitlement in the year of allocation. If however, due to a high level of operational commitments personnel are unable to take their full leave entitlement there is flexibility within the system and procedures are in place to allow a proportion of the untaken annual leave to be carried forward into the next leave year.

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HOME DEPARTMENT

Immigration

Mr. Hunter: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the fast track visa scheme on the employment prospects of British IT specialists. [120299]

Beverley Hughes: In operating the work permit arrangements, Work Permits (UK) is concerned to ensure that UK employers are able to recruit those workers with the skills that they need while protecting the interests of resident workers and that decisions to issue work permits are therefore based on a full understanding of current labour market conditions. The Information Technology, Communications and Electronics Sector Advisory Panel meets regularly to advise Work Permits (UK) on labour market conditions in the IT sector, and the information on which any assessment is based is kept under continuous review. In the light of the panel's advice, IT occupations were removed from Work Permit (UK's) Shortage Occupation List in September 2002.

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information the Immigration and Nationality Enquiry Bureau in Croydon provides to (a) the public and (b) legal representatives concerning the location of applications which are suffering from delays; and if he will make a statement. [121845]

Beverley Hughes: The Immigration and Nationality Enquiry Bureau (INEB) does not give out details of the locations of individual files, which would be neither meaningful nor helpful for customers. General guidance on timescales is given by INEB agents and mirrors that contained on the Immigration Nationality Directorate website, which is regularly updated. All application forms sent out by INEB also contain an information sheet, which gives the latest timescales. Agents in the Bureau do have some information about backlogs in various locations and the Bureau is presently trying to refine that information so that callers can be given clearer likely timescales for their individual applications.

Asylum Seekers

Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to accommodate asylum seekers in a camp in (a) Croatia and (b) another eastern European country outside the EU; whether the occupants of such camps would have rights under the law of the country where the camp is located; what legal system would apply to the occupants; and whether he will be responsible for ensuring the rights of occupants under (i) the Convention on Refugees and (ii) the European Convention on Human Rights. [121757]

Beverley Hughes: There is no truth in the reports that the UK will process asylum applicants in a camp in Croatia. We have no current plans to process asylum applications to the UK in camps in states on the borders of the EU.

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We are exploring with partners and the UNHCR how best our ideas on new approaches to international protection can be put into practice.

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for asylum in the UK have been made since January by Iraqi (a) Ba'ath and (b) ex-Ba'ath party officials. [122018]

Beverley Hughes: No one identified as either a current or former Ba'ath Party official has applied for asylum since January 2003.

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what research he has commissioned on the number of asylum seekers who commit crimes. [122208]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 30 June 2003]: There is no available evidence to suggest that asylum seekers are more likely to commit crime than any other person living in the United Kingdom.

Details of the nationality and immigration status of suspects or of those convicted of crimes are not collated centrally as part of the recorded crime statistics and are not necessarily recorded by individual police forces.

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 has provision to prevent serious criminals availing themselves of the protection of the 1951 Refugee Convention and we will seek to remove such criminals from the United Kingdom wherever possible.

Capita

Mr. Willis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many employees have been seconded from Capita to the Department since 1997; for how long they worked in the Department; and what positions they held. [115627]

Paul Goggins: Secondments are part of the interchange initiative, which promotes the exchange of people and good practice between the Civil Service and other organisations. All sectors of the economy are involved: public, private and voluntary. Interchange provides opportunities for civil servants to learn new skills, widen their experience and develop ideas. It also brings in skills and experiences from other sectors.

Over 100 staff are currently seconded into the Home Office. Since 1997, only one employee has been seconded from Capita to the Department, between 1 October 1999 to 30 September 2001. Details of the position held are not available centrally.

Common Agricultural Policy

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received on the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy. [121350]

Mr. Bradshaw: I have been asked to reply.

There were 117 responses to the Department's public consultation on the European Commission's draft proposals for reform of the Common Agricultural

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Policy. These are available to the public through the main Defra library and copies of the list of respondents has been placed in the Library of the House.

In addition to her regular contacts with her colleagues on the EU Agriculture Council, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has met representatives from various interest groups to discuss CAP reform, most recently from farming and consumer groups. My noble Friend Lord Whitty chairs regular meetings with a wide range of key stakeholder organisations to exchange views on the CAP reform proposals, and officials frequently meet similar interested organisations.

Dead Bodies (Desecration)

Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will establish a review of the law in respect of desecration of dead bodies. [122172]

Paul Goggins: We will keep the need for additional legislative provisions for the protection of the dead under review.

Documents

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 3 June, Official Report, column 960, when the document he refers to will be available. [122048]

Paul Goggins: The Prison Service wrote to the hon. Member on 25 June 2003, enclosing a copy.

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