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23 Jun 2004 : Column 1421W—continued
Passports
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will introduce free passports for British passport holders over 75 years. [179393]
Mr. Browne: The United Kingdom Passport Service is currently pursuing options to introduce the scheme, which will provide free passports for all British Nationals born on or before 2 September 1929. It is the United Kingdoms Passport Service's intention to introduce this scheme in the autumn 2004.
Sexual Offences
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Initial Crime Investigators Department Programme will include training of uniformed officers who deal with sexual offence investigation; and if he will make a statement. [171024]
Ms Blears: The Initial Crime Investigators Development Programme delivered by CENTREX is aimed at Trainee Investigators with the potential to become Detective Constables. It includes the investigation of sexual offences. The programme has been implemented nationally since January 2003 and is currently being delivered in 38 out of 43 forces, with the remainder moving towards full implementation.
The CENTREX National Centre for Policing Excellence is also working on national training development in this area. It is intended to design a
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national programme to develop "Specially Trained Officers". These officers are usually uniformed officers who provide victim care, while also ensuring optimum evidence retrieval. The aim is for this programme to be piloted from the end of 2004.
Somaliland/Somalia
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were returned to (a) Somaliland and (b) Somalia in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement. [179512]
Mr. Browne: Although Somaliland declared its independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991, it is not recognised internationally and asylum applicants received from those originating from that part of Somalia are not recorded separately.
Information on the total number of people who are removed from the United Kingdom is not available by nationality except by examination of individual case-files at disproportionate cost.
Estimates of the number of Somali nationals who had sought asylum at some stage and were removed from the UK between 1999 and 2003 are shown in the table. These figures include persons departing "voluntarily' after the initiation of enforcement action against them, and persons leaving under Assisted Voluntary Returns Programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration.
| Number of persons | |
|---|---|
| 1999 | n/a |
| 2000 | n/a |
| 2001 | 25 |
| 2002(10) | 50 |
| 2003(10) | 50 |
n/a—not available
(8) All data have been rounded to the nearest 5.
(9) 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. Excludes dependants of asylum seekers.
(10) Provisional data.
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether a memorandum of understanding, similar to that signed with the administration in Somaliland, has been signed with any authority in Somalia. [178091]
Mr. Browne: The UK has not signed a memorandum of understanding on the return of failed asylum seekers with any authority in Somalia.
Speeding Fines
Simon Hughes:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many speeding fines were issued in Greater London, broken down by borough, in (a) 2001 and (b) 2002; [179355]
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(2) how many speeding fines were paid by motorists in Greater London, broken down by borough, in (a) 2001 and (b) 2002; and how many speeding offences were detected in Greater London, broken down by borough, in (i) 2001 and (ii) 2002. [179356]
Ms Blears [holding answer 18 June 2004]: Available information showing the total number of fixed penalties and written warnings issued and court proceedings for speeding offences within Greater London for 2001 and 2002 are given in the tables. It is not possible from the data collected centrally to identify each London borough.
Information on the number of fixed penalties paid or fines paid for speeding offences is not collected centrally.
| Court proceedings fines issued | Fixed penalty notices issued | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 8,941 | 59,125 |
| 2002 | 8,090 | 58,116 |
(11) Offences under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and Motor Vehicles (Speed Limits on Motorways) Regulations 1973.
(12) The Metropolitan and City of London Police combined.
| 2001 | 2002 | |
|---|---|---|
| Type of action | ||
| Court proceedings total findings of guilt | 9,049 | 8,202 |
| Fixed penalty notices issued | 59,125 | 58,116 |
| Written warnings issued | 23 | 14 |
| Total | 68,197 | 66,332 |
(13) Offences under the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 and Motor vehicles (Speed Limits on Motorways) Regulations 1973.
(14) The Metropolitan and City of London Police combined.
Working Time Directive
Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many employees in his Department have (a) signed a formal opt out from and (b) are exempt from the Working Time Directive; and how many employees in his Department have recorded hours, including any accruing on a flexitime basis, in excess of the maximum allowed under the Working Time Directive in the last month for which figures are available. [178376]
Fiona Mactaggart: Employees working in excess of 48 hours per week are required to sign an "Opt-Out" agreement. Departments and agencies are required to maintain a register of all staff who have signed such an agreement.
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With regard to the Prison Service and Forensic Science Service the information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Televisions
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what work her Department is undertaking to ensure that industry increases the energy efficiency of (a) televisions and (b) television set-top boxes when in stand-by mode. [179172]
Mr. Morley: The Department's Market Transformation Programme, working closely with the DTI and in consultation with industry and other experts, has established a substantial evidence base on the energy consumption of appliances and equipment in use, including standby mode, and on the potential for improvement.
For TVs and set-top boxes, we have sought undertakings by manufacturers to reduce both "on" and "stand-by" power consumption. Following an EU industry commitment, we expect that the majority of new televisions sold in the UK will soon consume around 1 Watt of power in stand-by mode rather than the 3–8 Watts consumed by older models. Furthermore, our commitment to more sustainable procurement requires any Government Department which purchases televisions to specify a stand-by power requirement of no more that 1 Watt.
My Department has strongly supported the development of the EU voluntary Code of Conduct for set top boxes, which we estimate will already secure energy savings of about 3 Terawatt hours per annum by 2010. We are working via the EU and channels such as the IEA to further raise the profile of this policy issue. We are also working with the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes and the Energy Saving Trust to explore the scope to use the Efficiency Recommended logo to encourage consumers to choose boxes which use the least energy. And, with DTI, we have agreed on minimum and best practice standards as part of the Government's policy on the switch over to digital TV services.
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of energy consumption arising from the use of set top television boxes in the last year for which figures are available. [179192]
Mr. Morley:
The Department's Market Transformation Programme has estimated that there were about 10 million set top television boxes in use in
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the UK in 2003, which consumed about 1.3 Terawatt hours of electricity. The estimate for 2004 is that the number of boxes in use will rise to nearly 12.5 million, with electricity consumption approaching 1.5 Terawatt hours. (The estimates cover the separate boxes which are used to receive digital TV signals via cable, satellite and Freeview transmissions. They do not include the energy consumed by decoders which are built into televisions and recording equipment.)
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