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Police Performance Monitors
The Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing, and Community Safety (Ms Hazel Blears): Today I have published the second set of police performance monitors for individual forces in England and Wales. The first set of performance monitors was published in February 2003. The "performance monitor" diagrams provide a quick, visual summary representation of the balance of performance for a force. Although the diagrams are simple to look at, they contain a lot of information and have the capacity to reflect performance in a number of separate areas of policing responsibility.
The forthcoming National Policing Plan 2004–07, to be published in November 2003, describes in more detail the ongoing work to develop a set of national measures of policing performance and an associated assessment system. While this is being developed, we are continuing
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to monitor the performance of police forces across a set of "interim indicators" of policing performance, as well as through other relevant information.
The publication of the second set of performance monitors will enable the public to gauge the performance of their local force across a range of policing responsibilities. The ability to make this assessment has been considerably improved by the addition of bar charts to the original monitor diagrams, giving a more detailed breakdown of the comparison of forces with their peers. This is further enhanced by the inclusion of two years' worth of performance information, which indicates changes in police performance since last year.
Asylum Seekers (Language Analysis Pilot)
The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes): I am pleased to announce the outcome of the pilot testing of language analysis to help determine asylum claims from selected applicants who claimed to be nationals of Afghanistan, Somalia and Sri Lanka. The pilot was established in the light of concerns that some asylum seekers were posing falsely as nationals of these three countries. Its purpose was to assess the potential value of language analysis in providing expert evidence to identify the place of origin of asylum seekers, and to detect and deter abuse of the asylum system.
Evaluation of the decisions and appeals outcomes for cases in the three-country pilot to the end of July this year has shown that language analysis is a valuable aid in detecting false nationals (9 per cent. of the total number of applicants selected for the pilot and 21 per cent. of claimed Somali nationals) and in delivering robust and effective decisions. The percentage of outright refusal decisions was 78 per cent. compared with 51 per cent. for the pilot nationalities as a whole in 2002. In cases where appeal rights have been exhausted the percentage of decisions upheld (86 per cent.) was also higher than the norm (68 per cent. for these nationalities, in 2002).
In order to address continuing concerns about abuse of the asylum system and in the light of the initial and similarly encouraging results from the subsequent Iraqi language analysis pilot, I have decided to commission further work to take forward the wider introduction of language analysis. To achieve maximum benefit, this will form part of the asylum screening process, and will be targeted on cases where claiming a false nationality would give rise to a greater likelihood of being granted asylum, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave.
The evaluation of the appeals outcomes for cases in the three-country pilot found that challenges to the reports have focused on the credentials of individual language analysts. It is of course essential that the reports are accepted as credible evidence at appeal and that failed applicants are removed from the UK. This demonstrates the need to ensure that the credentials of the language analysis bureau and their analysts meet the requirements of the Immigration Appellate Authority.
Among other options, we will be considering the feasibility of establishing a language analysis bureau in the UK to address this issue.
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The race monitor, Mary Coussey, who reports to Parliament via the Secretary of State, will exercise independent scrutiny of the operation of language analysis.
A copy of the summary of findings of the three country language analysis pilot has been placed in the Library of the House.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Government/Business Information Sharing
The Minister for Trade and Investment (Mr. Mike O'Brien): The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Confederation of British Industry have been working together to strengthen arrangements for government and business to share information on a wide range of issues affecting their security when operating in overseas markets. The Government recognise that business needs good information sharing to ensure that they are making the right decisions on their investments in overseas markets.
Most of our embassies and high commissions already have arrangements to exchange information on security issues with locally-based British business representatives and to provide information on request to business visitors. The new scheme is designed to make the service more systematic and more proactive, and will seek to ensure that all posts and FCO departments provide a consistent level of service.
A major feature of the new scheme will be the establishment of a forum in the UK for regular discussion of security related issues. A steering group consisting of FCO, CBI and British Trade International officials and business representatives will monitor the process to ensure we are fully meeting the needs of business. Details of the new scheme have been placed on the FCO, British Trade International and CBI websites with links to each other.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Local Museum and Heritage Review
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Angela Smith): The local museum and heritage review, which was instigated by Michael McGimpsey, Minister in the NI Executive, has sought to chart the best way forward for the museum and heritage sectors in Northern Ireland.
The Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and the Department of the Environment have considered carefully the report of the review steering group and have produced this response that sets out our proposals for taking forward the review's recommendations.
I believe that the response provides a sound basis for the future development of local museum and heritage provision in Northern Ireland.
I am pleased to be able to commend this joint response by the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and the Department of the Environment.
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Copies of the Joint Response are now available in the Library.
TRANSPORT
Working Time Directive
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Dr. Kim Howells): A consultation document on working time limits for the road transport sector has today been published. The proposals will form the basis for transposing the sector specific road transport directive scheduled for implementation by 23 March 2005, into domestic legislation.
These proposals will provide extra protection for drivers and crew of heavy goods and public service vehicles, who carry out road transport activities covered by the EU drivers hours rules—regulation (EEC) 3820/85. The main provisions of the directive include:
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Up to 60 hours work can be performed in a single week, as long as the average 48 hour limit is maintained.
Night workers are restricted to 10 hours working time in any 24 hour period.
Self-employed drivers will be subject to the RTD from March 2009.
An assessment of the costs and benefits of these proposals is being published alongside the consultation document. Copies of these documents will be placed in the House Library and will also be available on the DfT Website.