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22 Mar 2004 : Column 527W—continued

Street Crime (Castle Point)

16. Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will visit Canvey Island to discuss levels of street crime. [162534]

Ms Blears: The Home Secretary has no immediate plans to do so.

Internet Pornography

18. Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he is taking to tackle websites hosted outside the UK which contain child pornography and other images of abuse. [162536]

Paul Goggins: UK law enforcement agencies make every effort to take down sites hosting illegal images, prosecute those responsible, and disrupt supporting functions such as payment mechanisms.

The Government continue to discuss these issues with our international partners, including during the Home Secretary's recent visit to the US.

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Immigration (Eastern Europe)

20. Mr. Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many immigrants came to the UK from Eastern Europe in the last 12 months. [162538]

Beverley Hughes: Estimates of total international migration produced by the Office for National Statistics are compiled from a range of survey and administrative sources. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is unable to provide a reliable estimate of the immigration of Eastern European nationals to the UK for the latest year for which data are available (2002), as the low sample sizes in the main survey source (the International Passenger Survey) result in such an estimate being subject to a high degree of error. For the last three years, 2000–02, combined it is estimated that 49,900 Eastern European citizens migrated to the UK.

Police (CBRN Training)

21. Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers, and from how many constabularies, have been trained at the police Nuclear, Chemical, Biological and Radiological Establishment at Winterbourne Gunner. [162540]

Ms Blears: Over 5,000 UK police officers nationally have now received training in responding to a CBRN incident. The majority of these have been trained by the Police National CBRN Centre. The numbers of officers trained consist of police personnel from all UK police forces, including the Metropolitan Police who have their own training facility.

Prisons

22. Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what meetings he has had with Prison Service managers to discuss the situation in prisons. [162541]

Paul Goggins: As Minister for Correctional Services I meet with Prison Service managers on a very regular basis and discuss a wide range of issues relating to the situation in prisons.

Asylum Seekers

Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers from Zimbabwe were refused asylum in the UK (a) in 2002–03 and (b) since April 2003; and how many failed asylum seekers have been deported to Zimbabwe in each period. [157437]

Beverley Hughes: The following table shows the number of asylum applications and initial decisions for nationals of Zimbabwe (excluding dependants) in (a) 2002–03 and (b) for each month between April 2003 and December 2003, the latest period for which published data are available. Initial decisions do not necessarily relate to applications received in the same period.

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Applications received for asylum in the United Kingdom, excluding dependants, and initial decisions^{(5) , (6) , (7)}, nationals of ZimbabwePrincipal applicants

		Initial decisions considered under normal procedures
	Applications received	Total initial decisions	Grants of asylum	Grants of ELR	Grants of HP	Grants ofDL	Total refusals
2002–03	7,220	6,405	2,385	85	n/a	n/a	3,930
April 2003	335	310	90	n/a	—	5	215
May 2003	230	430	95	n/a	5	*	330
June 2003	250	405	90	n/a	—	*	315
July 2003	285	285	50	n/a	—	5	230
August 2003	185	270	35	n/a	—	*	235
September 2003	240	345	50	n/a	—	5	290
October 2003	265	335	55	n/a	—	—	280
November 2003	220	360	40	n/a	—	5	320
December 2003	200	250	25	n/a	—	*	230

⁽⁵⁾ Figures are provisional and rounded to the nearest five, with *= 1 or 2.

⁽⁶⁾ Decision figures do not necessarily relate to applications received in the same period.

⁽⁷⁾ Information is of initial determination decisions, excluding the outcome of appeals or other subsequent decisions.

The following table shows the available data, for outcomes of adjudicator appeals at the Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA) for nationals of Zimbabwe in (a) 2002–03 and (b) for each month between April 2003 and December 2003, the latest period for which published data is available. Appeals may relate to initial

22 Mar 2004 : Column 530W

decisions made in earlier periods. Corresponding information on appeals to the Immigration Appellate Tribunal (IAT) relating to Zimbabwean nationals (including appeals made by the Secretary of State) is not available and could be produced only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case files.

Outcome of appeals^{(8) , (9)} determined by adjudicators of the Immigration Appellate Authority, excluding dependants, nationals of ZimbabweNumber of principal appellants

	Appeals determined by adjudicators
		Allowed		Dismissed		Withdrawn
	Total determined	Total	As percentage of determined	Total	As percentage of determined	Total	As percentage of determined
2002–03	2,785	1,010	36	1,635	59	140	5
April 2003	380	115	31	250	66	10	3
May 2003	405	115	29	265	65	25	6
June 2003	315	95	30	205	64	20	6
July 2003	405	145	36	245	60	15	4
August 2003	305	70	23	220	72	15	5
September 2003	400	105	26	280	70	15	4
October 2003	375	105	28	260	69	15	3
November 2003	345	80	23	250	72	15	5
December 2003	330	80	24	245	74	10	2

⁽⁸⁾ Provisional figures rounded to nearest five (except percentages), with '*' = 1 or 2. Figures may not add up due to independent rounding. Data on appeal outcomes by nationality in this table are derived from Immigration and Nationality Directorate electronic sources.

⁽⁹⁾ Figures include cases withdrawn by the Home Office, as well as the appellant.

Deportations are a specific subset of removals alongside persons subject to administrative removal, removal due to illegal entry action or those refused entry at port and subsequently removed.

Estimates of the number of nationals of Zimbabwe who had sought asylum at some stage and who were removed from the UK between April 2002 and September 2003 (the latest date for which figures are available) are shown in the following table. These figures include persons departing 'voluntarily' after the initiation of enforcement action against them, persons leaving under Assisted Voluntary Returns Programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration and removals to a safe third country.

Removals and voluntary⁽¹⁰⁾ departures of principal asylum applicants (excluding dependants), nationals of Zimbabwe^{(11) , (12) , (13)}

	Number
2002–03	100
April to June 2003	15
July to September 2003	20

⁽¹⁰⁾ Includes persons departing "voluntarily" after enforcement action had been initiated against them, persons leaving under Assisted voluntary return programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration, and removals on safe third country grounds.

⁽¹¹⁾ Figures rounded to the nearest five and may not sum to total due to rounding.

⁽¹²⁾ Data have been estimated due to data quality issues.

⁽¹³⁾ Provisional figures.

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Removal of failed asylum seekers to Zimbabwe was suspended on 15 January 2002; we did not at the time consider that it was unsafe to return them but in view of the rapidly changing circumstances it was appropriate not to enforce returns. The suspension has been maintained since that date and although we still consider it would not be unsafe to return failed asylum seekers there, enforced returns would be inappropriate in the wider context of the Government's position on Zimbabwe. An exception to the suspension policy in cases where a failed asylum seeker has a serious criminal record or their presence in the United Kingdom is not otherwise conducive to the public good was announced on 5 February 2004. In such circumstances enforced return to Zimbabwe would be considered by Ministers on a case by case basis.

Information on asylum applications, initial decisions, appeals and removals are published quarterly. The current publication covering the fourth quarter of 2003, and provisional 2003 data, are available on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html. Data on the nationality of removals are published a quarter in arrears. Data for the final quarter of 2003 will be published at the end of May.

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