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1 Sept 2004 : Column 856W—continued

Immigration Detention Facilities

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the expected date is of (a) decommissioning and (b) closure of the immigration detention facility at Oakington, Cambridgeshire. [185623]

Mr. Browne: South Cambridgeshire district council is considering a planning notification to extend the use of Oakington until the end of 2006, when it is expected that the site will close. Decisions on decommissioning have yet to be finalised.

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detention places he expects to be available for immigration control purposes over the next three years; where they will be; and if he will make a statement. [185625]

Mr. Browne: We expect to have around 2,800 places available for immigration control purposes by January 2005. From January 2007 this number will fall to around 2,500 places which will be located at Campsfield House (292 spaces), Colnbrook (326 spaces) Dover (316 spaces), Dungavel (194 spaces), Harmondsworth (551 spaces), Haslar (160 spaces), Lindholme (112 spaces), Tinsley House (150 spaces), Yarl's Wood (407 spaces).
 
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Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his long-term plans are for the Yarl's Wood Detention Centre; and whether these include housing those detained prior to deportation. [186149]

Mr. Browne: There are currently no plans to develop the site at Yarl's Wood further. Some of those held there may be awaiting deportation.

Insurance Cover

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made towards the implementation of an action plan based on the report of the Insurance Cover Working Group entitled "Research into Insurance Cover for the VCS in England"; and when it will be completed. [181008]

Fiona Mactaggart [holding answer 29 June 2004]: On Friday 16 July 2004 the Home Office published a paper responding to the suggestions made by independent consultants in their report "Research into Insurance Cover for the VCS in England", which was commissioned by the Home Office Insurance Cover Working Group (ICWG).

The paper outlines the practical action that is and has been taken across Government to address the challenges facing voluntary and community organisations in obtaining insurance cover for their activities.

Five action points have been agreed between the insurance industry, the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and Government:

Implementation of the plan has already started and will continue over the coming months as parcels of work are completed. The ICWG will be an "honest broker" between the VCS, the insurance industry and other key players, highlighting and discussing specific issues of concern to the VCS. I will champion this insurance issue for the VCS.

The actions we are taking are practical measures to empower the VCS. For example, by encouraging greater understanding of the issues facing the VCS within the insurance industry, by facilitating greater dialogue,
 
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encouraging the principle of "full cost recovery" across Government and providing better and more accessible information regarding such things as risk management/bulk purchasing schemes/and basic details to do with the provision of insurance cover, all adding up to practical help for the VCS. However, these are just the first steps in an area where there can be no overnight changes. Therefore, the Government and their partners are committed to making a difference over the long term.

In tandem with this longer term commitment, I have now set in motion a process for the delivery of a policy framework designed to address the increasing insurance burden and other concerns in the voluntary and community sector, particularly those parts of the sector that undertake activities with a greater element of risk. From this process we expect guidance to emerge on risk and its management as well as the development of a document similar to "Making the Market Work", an initiative the Association of British Insurers (ABI) developed for the assessment of Trade Associations Health and Safety schemes.

This work will undoubtedly draw on the Working Group's report and benefit from the group's input. Copies of the paper "Programme of Action", can be viewed and downloaded from the Home Office website: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/active/developing/ icwg.html.

Means-tested Benefits

Mr. Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the means-tested benefits available through the Department and the agencies for which it is responsible (a) in May 1997 and (b) now. [182572]

Mr. Browne: The Home Office was not responsible for any means tested benefits in 1997.

Since 3 April 2000 the Home Office has been responsible for administering the support available to destitute asylum seekers under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

Money Laundering Offences

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many deposit-taking institutions reported possible money laundering offences to the National Criminal Intelligence Service in (a) 2001, (b) 2002 and (c) 2003; and what proportion of the total disclosures and reports were made by the top 10 sources of such reports in each year. [185590]

Caroline Flint: The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 imposes an obligation upon individuals and business in the regulated sector undertaking relevant business such as accepting deposits, to make disclosures to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) where they have knowledge, suspicion or reasonable grounds to know or suspect that another person is engaged in money laundering. These disclosures are commonly known as Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs).

The information requested, based on disclosures input on to the NCIS database, is set out in the table.
 
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200120022003
Total Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) from deposit taking banks19,35536,69463,601
Percentage of above SARs from top 10 bank sources82.2991.5790.38
Total SARs from building societies2,2943,7045,210
Percentage of above SARs from top 10 building society sources74.2866.7966.55
Total SARs from deposit takers21,64940,39868,811
Percentage of above SARs from top 10 deposit taking sources79.5683.6183.76

National Offender Management Service

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who will have statutory responsibility for prisoners' families under the National Offender Management Service arrangements. [176677]

Paul Goggins: The Prison Service will continue to have responsibility for making arrangements for offenders to maintain meaningful links with their families and vice versa. Maintaining family support will be a specific objective build into the induction phase of the offender management process for offenders received into custody. The Reducing Re-offending National Action Plan published on 19 July recognises that the families and children of offenders are a vulnerable group and sets out a specific workstream to take forward work to further develop support arrangements.

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements have been made to ensure that the National Offender Management Service will have an approved Welsh language scheme from its first day of operation. [180945]

Paul Goggins: The National Offender Management Service will build on the existing Welsh language schemes within the Prison and Probation Service in accordance with the requirements of the Welsh Language Act 1993.

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the relevant trade unions will register disputes under the National Offender Management Service arrangements. [181583]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 7 July 2004]: Trade unions will continue to register disputes with the employing body. In the case of Prison Officers represented by the POA this will be the Prison Service, with existing procedures remaining in place. The unions recognised by the National Probation Service (Napo, UNISON and GMB-Scoop) will continue, as under existing procedures, to register a dispute with an individual Probation Board.

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when details of governance arrangements for the National Offender Management Service will be published. [181826]

Paul Goggins: On 20 July 2004 I made a statement on the National Offender Management Service which outlines the way I intend to introduce the new single service. The statement includes some additional details
 
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of governance arrangements. I will make available further clarification of governance arrangements as the service develops.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment has been made of the impact of the introduction of the National Offender Management Service on the input of the voluntary sector to the criminal justice system. [182319]

Paul Goggins: It is expected that the development of National Offender Management Service (NOMS) will open up new opportunities for the involvement of voluntary organisations as a provider of services. The National Offender Management Service is preparing a strategic review of existing and future relationships with the voluntary and community sector. A draft strategy will be circulated for consultation in the autumn.

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many consultees responded to the recent consultation document on the National Offender Management Scheme. [182381]

Paul Goggins: The Home Office has received 177 responses to the consultation paper on the National Offender Management Service's organisational design.

Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of the efficiency savings that will be achieved by establishing the proposed National Offender Management Service. [184406]

Paul Goggins: The establishment of the National Offender Management Service will lead to efficiency savings through the better targeting of interventions and an increase in the number of completed orders. Substantial savings will also be made by combining HQ functions which in turn will contribute to the 20 per cent. overall reduction in Home Office HQ costs. In addition, over the spending review 2004 period we will continue a target of three per cent. efficiency savings across the services.

Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Home Office's equal opportunities policy was followed in respect of the appointment of the national offender manager for the National Offender Management Service. [185263]

Mr. Browne: Yes. The Home Office's equal opportunities policy is applied to all recruitment and appointment processes.

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what structure will be put in place for joint working on public protection between the Probation Service and the police under the new National Offender Management Service structure. [163027]

Paul Goggins: The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) will build upon the range of work probation boards undertaken at a local level. The significant contribution the multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) have made to public protection will form a key part of the core offender management function within the NOMS. Operationally MAPPA usually function at a local rather than area level and will continue to do so under the arrangements for NOMS. The multi-agency public protection panels, which oversee the management of the
 
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highest risk offenders, will continue to operate at whatever level is most appropriate—usually local, sometimes area but occasionally wider—to manage the risks posed by the individual offenders in question.

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff are employed in the National Offender Management Service Team, broken down by (a) grade and (b) function. [172411]

Paul Goggins: Currently the Prison Service has around 47,500 members of staff and the National Probation Service has around 19,000 full-time equivalent employees. The correctional services headquarters has around 400 staff.

All of these employees now come under the ambit of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). However, as the NOMS senior management are currently developing proposals for the shape, size and structure of the new service it is not yet possible to provide details on the grade and function split of NOMS staff.


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