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19 Apr 2004 : Column 95W—continued
European Community Action Programme
Mr. Cash: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much each body funded under the European Community Action Programme received in grants in each of the last five years; how much was received by branches of each body in the UK in each year; and on what criteria decisions on making grants are based. [161396]
Caroline Flint [holding answer 17 March 2004]: This is not a question any Government Department can answer fully at this time.
Unfortunately, the Commission will not undertake an evaluation of the programme up until the end of 2003, as this was not built into the funding until now. It was impractical to carry out an evaluation because this was Commission funding, which member states have no involvement in or oversight of and the information needed to carry out such an evaluation is unavailable.
A list of bodies that received past funding from the programme and the amounts these bodies received are in the letter of 3 March from myself to the Chairman of European Scrutiny Committee and attached spreadsheet which has been placed in the Library.
There will be a full evaluation of the grants starting in 2004.
The grant process and criteria for decision making are described in the proposal for the establishment of the European Community Action Programme which has been placed in the Library.
Focus Groups/Polls
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of total expenditure by his Department on (a) focus groups and (b) opinion polls in each year from 1995–96 to 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [162751]
Fiona Mactaggart: Detailed information in the form requested is not held centrally in the finance system of the Core Home Office. It could be provided only at a disproportion cost.
The Home Office is committed to obtaining best value for money and wants to hear what people have to say about new policies and ideas. Contracts for research through focus groups and opinions polls are let in accordance with agreed procurement procedures.
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The Home Office makes extensive use of research to inform the development, delivery and evaluation of policy.
Girl Prisoners
Claire Ward: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many girls aged (a) 15 years, (b) 16 years and (c) 17 years are being held in prison. [163038]
Paul Goggins: On 31 January 2004 there were no girls aged 15 or 16 years and 55 girls aged 17 years being held in Prison Service establishments in England and Wales.
Guilty Pleas
Vera Baird: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will bring section 144 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 into force as a matter of urgency. [162984]
Paul Goggins [holding answer 23 March 2004]: Section 144, which provides for timely guilty pleas to be recognised by a reduction in sentence, re-enacts section 152 of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000, which was itself a re-enactment of section 48 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. No date has yet been set for section 144 to be brought into force.
On a related subject, Sir Robin Auld recommended that there should be a clearer tariff of discounts for early guilty please, backed up by a system of advance indication of likely sentence. The tariff question is being taken forward by the Sentencing Advisory Panel, which issued a consultation paper last year, and sentence indication will be dealt with non-legislatively.
Home Detention Curfews
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether risk of re-offending is a criterion for not granting release under the Home Detention Curfew Scheme. [165188]
Paul Goggins: Yes. Prisoners must not be released on Home Detention Curfew (HDC) if there is a pattern of offending which indicates a likelihood of re-offending during the HDC period.
Howard League
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the benefits to the Prison Service are of its joint project with the Howard League. [164351]
Paul Goggins: The Prison Service supports the Howard League's proposal to open a printing workshop at HMP the Mount. If the plan is successful the workshop will be self-financing and employ up to 11 prisoners on the minimum wage.
The workshop will benefit the Prison Service in helping develop the resettlement agenda; provide constructive activity for prisoners; and, provide an excellent opportunity to combine voluntary sector ideals with production workshop activity.
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Illegal Immigration
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons are on duty on a full-time basis to stop and search vehicles for suspected illegal immigrants at the port of Immingham. [162824]
Mr. Browne [holding answer 23 March 2004]: There are no dedicated Immigration Service staff on full-time duty at the port of Immingham. Staff from Humberside International Airport and Hull port attend incidents at Immingham port as required.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures are in place to prevent the entry of illegal immigrants through the port of Immingham. [162825]
Mr. Browne [holding answer 23 March 2004]: The United Kingdom Immigration Service is working in close co-operation with both Her Majesty's Customs and Excise and Humberside Police to combat illegal immigration through Immingham docks. The Immigration Service's Mobile Freight Search Team (MFST) is regularly deployed at Immingham when intelligence analysis suggests that this is necessary.
Such operations are undertaken by a team of four or five immigration officers from the MFST who are specialists in freight search techniques and who are assisted by one or more Humberside officers who have local intelligence and operational knowledge. MFST and Humberside immigration staff continue to work closely with Immingham carriers to improve checking systems in Belgium and Holland and so reduce the risk of the port being targeted by potential illegal immigrants. The programme to install freight screening and detection equipment overseas provides for deployment at feeder ports serving UK Channel and North Sea ports including Immingham.
Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been prosecuted for employing illegal immigrants in each year since 1997. [163140]
Mr. Browne: Information on the number employers in the UK who were prosecuted for employing illegal immigrants is not available and therefore information on the numbers of these employers successfully prosecuted is not available.
However, information on persons proceeded against for employing a person subject to immigration control is shown in the table.
| Offence description/Statute | (58)Person proceeded against | Number of offences involved | (59)Persons found guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employing a person subject to immigration control/Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 section 8 | |||
| 1997(60) | — | — | — |
| 1998(60) | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 1999(60) | 4 | 23 | 1 |
| 2000(60) | 10 | 32 | 4 |
| 2001(60) | 5 | 65 | 1 |
| 2002 | 2 | 22 | 1 |
(58) Principal immigration offence basis.
(59) Indicates that a substantive penalty has been imposed on a non-immigration offence dealt with at the same time.
(60) Data have been revised since they were published in the command paper "Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2001".
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Information on those people proceeded against under the Immigration Acts between 1997 and 2002 was published on 27 November 2003 in the command paper "Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2002" (Cm 6053), a copy of which can be found in the Library of the House. Comparable statistics for 2003 will be published later this year in the command paper "Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2003".
The government is taking action to tackle the employment of illegal workers. It has increased the number of enforcement operations, enhanced powers for immigration officers and expanded opportunities for people to work legally in the UK, paying taxes and contributing.
But business must also play its part in tackling this problem—by making rigorous checks on the documentation of potential employees, and these changes to the Section 8 regulations will make it easier for business to comply.
Most employers want to comply with the law, but in order to deter to those who may not, we are currently considering raising the penalty that complicit employers may face.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the results from the research into data collection methods for assessing the size of the UK's illegal population will be available. [164333]
Mr. Browne: The research commissioned is a review of the methods used in other countries to estimate their illegally resident populations. It is not restricted to data collection methods but also encompasses a review of data sources, an explanation and appraisal of the methods of calculation of estimates, and an appraisal of the applicability of these methods for use in the UK.
This work is still on-going. Data sources and availability are currently being investigated in the light of one of the possible methods the review is uncovering.
It is therefore not possible at this stage to estimate when this work will be completed though we will aim to publish the results as soon as practicable.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of the number of failed asylum seekers remaining in the UK. [164334]
Mr. Browne: Information on the total number of failed asylum seekers currently in the UK is not available. Some applicants may leave the United Kingdom without informing the Immigration Service.
The Government have commissioned research into the methods used in other countries to estimate the overall size of the illegal population including failed asylum seeker, in order to define methods appropriate for the UK.
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The work required is challenging because, by definition, illegal migrants fall outside of official statistics and are therefore difficult to measure. People illegally present in the UK are also motivated to ensure they remain hidden, which is a challenge to conducting research.
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