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Asylum Seekers

4. Mrs. Helen Clark (Peterborough) (Lab): If he will make a statement on the role of the National Asylum Support Service in housing asylum seekers, and on the factors taken into account in making decisions. [178153]

The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Mr. Desmond Browne): The National Asylum Support Service administers the support provided to asylum seekers. Asylum seekers requiring accommodation will normally be housed in one of the 71 dedicated dispersal areas. In deciding where to provide accommodation, NASS takes into account the availability of suitable accommodation and the offers of accommodation by private sector providers and by local authorities.

Mrs. Clark: I am grateful for that reply, but is the Minister aware that three weeks ago there was serious violence and unrest in Peterborough between asylum seekers and Asian residents from different Muslim communities? Does he agree that NASS's housing strategy should be extremely alert and vigilant to cohesion issues? Will he go further and guarantee that, from now on, local authorities will be partners in the development of any new strategy rather than sitting on the sideline and having to pick up the pieces afterwards?

Mr. Browne: I thank my hon. Friend for her question and I pay tribute to her for her consistent and consistently constructive work in Parliament to address the concerns of her constituents and the local authority in respect of problems arising from the dispersal of asylum seekers to her constituency. I think that she will be pleased to hear that my information is that, although tensions remain relatively high in the Gladstone area of Peterborough, there have been no further incidents since
 
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16 May. Officials from the immigration and nationality directorate and the community cohesion unit have held discussions with council officials there in the last few weeks. It is, of course, our intention that local councils are fully engaged in discussions about dispersal to their areas.

Lady Hermon (North Down) (UUP): Since it is wholly inappropriate to house asylum seekers in Maghaberry prison—a high security prison—in Northern Ireland, will the Minister kindly inform the House of any recent discussions he has had with his former colleagues in the Northern Ireland Office, where he is missed, to ensure that such people have proper and adequate housing? There are only a few asylum seekers in Northern Ireland, but they should not be housed in a high security prison. What is the Minister doing to address that serious problem in Northern Ireland?

Mr. Browne: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her question and for her observations about my previous post in the Northern Ireland Office—and I must say that I greatly miss it, too. [Interruption.] It is quite possible to be perfectly happy where one is and greatly miss where one was. [Interruption.] I sometimes forget that some Opposition Members cannot do two things at any one time, but let us return to the question.

The hon. Lady asked a very important question about Northern Ireland and I am well aware of the concern among elected community representatives about the necessity of detaining a very small number of failed asylum seekers in Maghaberry prison prior to removal. It is a facility that we would rather not use, but in the absence of other facilities and in circumstances where it is absolutely necessary to detain persons, there is no alternative. I have had no recent discussions with my former colleagues—or, indeed, any of my colleagues—in the Northern Ireland Office on this matter, but I know that officials are in constant touch about the issues to ensure that asylum seekers who are not required to be detained in Northern Ireland are able to find appropriate accommodation.

Mr. John Wilkinson (Ruislip-Northwood) (Con): Will the hon. and learned Gentleman bear in mind the significance of the rising tide of unaccompanied refugee children that local authorities have to house, particularly in areas such as mine where there are ports of entry within the borough? Does he understand that in the period 1997 to 2002, the number of unaccompanied refugee children rose from 1,100 to 6,200 and that his Department, according to a written answer of Wednesday 9 June, has no data at all on the accompanied refugee children who came "sans papiers", without passports or identity documents? Will the Home Office get a grip on the situation, please, because it is extremely costly to the boroughs with ports of entry, such as my own of Hillingdon?

Mr. Browne: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his question and for elevating me to the position of Queen's counsel, which unfortunately I do not hold. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman raises a serious and important issue and while I am happy in normal circumstances to exchange banter across the Dispatch   Box, that would be inappropriate in these
 
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circumstances. One of the most disturbing developments in the trafficking of people has been the increase in the number of unaccompanied minors who are being trafficked. My priority is to get to the root of the problem and to prevent those young people from being brought to this country and being abandoned. To achieve that, a degree of co-operation is required from carriers. The hon. Gentleman will be aware of the report of Operation Paladin, which revealed some of the figures to which he refers and some of the answers to the problem. He rightly identifies the need to able to respond to the requirements of those young people when they arrive in the country and that the true answer to the problem is to stop them being brought here in the first place.

Alcohol

5. Mr. Stephen Pound (Ealing, North) (Lab): To what extent his Department is working with the alcohol industry to deal with the binge drinking culture. [178154]

The Minister for Crime Reduction, Policing and Community Safety (Ms Hazel Blears): We are working closely with the alcohol industry to tackle binge drinking and the crime and antisocial behaviour it causes. That is a priority area for us and last Friday the police standards unit launched an enforcement drive across the country to try to address it.

Mr. Pound: There may be some who doubt that I am wholly objective on this subject, but God loves a sinner who repenteth and I hope that the House will be similarly indulgent. I thank my hon. Friend for a typically concise, helpful and positive response. In that Las Vegas of drinking that is central Ealing, night after night people move from being verbose to jocose to bellicose to lachrymose, and end up comatose. In the intervening period, they do great damage to themselves and the environment, especially as so many of them are young people not legally entitled to drink. Will my hon. Friend tell me whether her discussions with the industry have included discussing the appalling issue of under-age drinking?

Ms Blears: They certainly have. My hon. Friend asks his question in his usual erudite fashion and he gets his point across effectively. I am delighted to tell him that we are in discussions with the industry not only about under-age drinking, but the whole range of problems caused by binge drinking. In particular, we are concerned about the number of young people who are drinking more, and more often. We have instituted a system of test purchasing, concentrating on off-licences in particular, where there is a real problem. We now have powers to close down premises where young people are being served under age, and we are encouraging the police to use those powers. We have also issued some 13,000 fixed penalty notices for incidents of drunk and disorderly behaviour. We are determined to reclaim our cities and our town centres for the decent, law-abiding majority of citizens.
 
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Mr. Mark Oaten (Winchester) (LD): With so many of our cities still out of control on Friday and Saturday nights, does the Minister agree that we need more police to deal with drink-related crimes? If football clubs are charged for policing, is there not a strong case for putting a levy on clubs and nightclubs to pay for the policing of city centres? People want police in rural areas, tackling crime, and they resent having to pay for the police to deal with drunks on Friday nights.

Ms Blears: It is an interesting idea and the hon. Gentleman will know that we are presently promoting the idea of corporate social responsibility, including payments from industry towards solving the whole range of problems in our city centres, including policing costs, transport and taxis to get youngsters home. I am amazed at the hon. Gentleman's late adoption of that approach. He will know that football banning orders have been extremely successful in Portugal, yet his party opposed those orders tooth and nail, so his late conversion to proper, effective action on binge drinking comes as a revelation.

Linda Gilroy (Plymouth, Sutton) (Lab/Co-op): Will my hon. Friend seek the help of the Chancellor to address the high cost of policing? She will know that in my constituency the costs of policing Union street and the Barbican can be very high. Perhaps she could engage the Chancellor in her discussions with the drinks industry to see whether we could have 1p for a p. In case that is misinterpreted, in terms of alcohol, I mean one penny on a pint, or a dram, for a policeman.

Ms Blears: We are very well aware of the excellent work done by my hon. Friend with a whole range of partners in her constituency, including the police and the local authority, to try to address these issues. I am sure that she will want to engage the Chancellor personally about her innovative idea. We have had significant extra resources for investment in the police in the last few years, an increase of about 30 per cent. for police services. There is always much more we can do, with police officers and community support officers, to give our communities the reassurance they need, but I have no doubt that in my hon. Friend's area the partnership is working extremely well.

David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con): The Minister spoke about consulting with industry, yet the early draft of the report "Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England" included a section by experts that stated explicitly that liberalisation of licensing laws would have a negative impact on society. Why was that section removed before the report was published? Why were the facts suppressed?

Ms Blears: The facts were not suppressed to any extent at all. There was a draft consultation—the normal way of developing such things. The right hon. Gentleman should know that the changes to the Licensing Act 2003 were supported by the Association of Chief Police Officers and the Police Federation. We have given an undertaking that we will closely monitor the effects of the changes under the Act. If there is a necessity to change those provisions we shall not hesitate to do so, but a core principle of the licensing
 
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provisions is to try to reduce the crime and disorder that is fuelled by alcohol, so right across Government, and with our partners, we shall be looking closely at what happens. We have said that we will review the scheme early in the next Parliament, because we mean to get those issues right; they are complex, which is why it is a matter not just for the Government but for industry, local communities and individuals themselves to try to change the behaviour that is causing so much damage to our communities.

David Davis: I agree that it is not just a matter for the Government; indeed, the reason that it was suppressed may be explained by one line: it states that relaxing availability increases general harm, whether through more outlets as in Finland, denser outlets as in California or longer hours as in western Australia. The Minister mentioned ACPO. A report from the Metropolitan police said that the 2003 Act would "lead to increased consumption", that

"public order flash points will occur with increased frequency over a longer period,"

and that it would

"favour the black economy and increase disturbance for residents"

and

"demand an increased police presence throughout the night".

As the Minister talked about ACPO and the other submissions made to her, can she publish all that evidence? I agree with her: it is possible to devise a strategy to control the social effects of alcohol abuse, but it will not be achieved if the Government continue their addiction to media manipulation and cover-up.

Ms Blears: If the right hon. Gentleman had been assiduous in following the development of the alcohol harm reduction strategy that took place over the past 18 months, he would have known that we published all the interim analysis, which runs to hundreds of pages and is on the website. I should welcome his actually reading that evidence and making sure that he is fully appraised of the circumstances. I hope that he is not suggesting prohibition as part of his policy, because there is no problem for the vast majority of people in this country who go out for a drink with their friends and have a good time. As a sensible Government, we are trying to tackle the harm that is caused both through binge drinking and some of the chronic drinking that goes on. We think we have a sensible and balanced approach and I urge the same on the right hon. Gentleman.

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