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Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the decision to exempt some non-EU students from national insurance contributions as part of the student agricultural workers scheme. [190843]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.
National insurance contributions fall within the remit of the Inland Revenue and I am replying as the Minister responsible. Regulation 145(3) of the Social Security (Contributions) Regulations 2001 (SI 2001/1004), which dates back to 1948, allows certain foreign students employed in the UK during their vacations to be exempt from NICs for the first 52 weeks of their employment. It does not apply to students from within the EU or countries with which the UK has a Reciprocal Agreement (RA) or Double Contribution Convention (DCC).
Jim Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effect on the resilience of the critical national infrastructure of a second independent national emergency service communications network operating in parallel to Airwave. [190221]
Caroline Flint: We are working with the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities, the Police Information Technology Organisation and commercial partners to increase further the resilience of Airwave. A single, resilient network has very significant cost and technical advantages over the building and operation of two independent networks.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he was informed (a) of the death of three primates en route to Huntingdon in 1998 and (b) that the crates in which they were carried broke International Air Transport Association regulations; and if he will make a statement. [189113]
Caroline Flint:
The animals were found dead on arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris from the Philippines on 5 August 1998. Their deaths were reported to Home Office Ministers on 28 August 1998. The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the department responsible at that time for the enforcement of regulations governing the transportation of animals to the United Kingdom, was also informed.
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Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many anti-social behaviour orders have been issued in the Borough of Hackney; and if he will make a statement. [190129]
Ms Blears: Anti-Social behaviour orders (ASBOs) have been available to the courts since 1 April 1999. From commencement, up to 31 March 2004 (latest available), the Home Office has been notified of three ASBOs issued where restrictions imposed are specific to the Borough of Hackney.
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who have successfully claimed asylum in the last three years are paying national insurance contributions. [191296]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested is not available.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of policing the Great Gorilla Run in London on 19 September was. [190449]
Ms Blears: The Commissioners of Police for the City of London and for the Metropolis inform me that no additional policing costs were incurred for this charity event.
The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund organised the event and provided the majority of stewards.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Government are doing to improve trust of the police among black people. [190136]
Ms Blears: Citizen-focused policing, a key strand of the police reform programme, is about improving the way police forces understand, communicate with and engage with their communities. Race and diversity are a key element of this.
Recent national initiatives aimed at improving public confidence in the police are the Police Race and Diversity Learning and Development Programme, which aims to help officers meet the individual needs of diverse communities, and the work of the Stop and Search Action Team which aims to increase the confidence that the black and minority ethnic (BME) community has in the way the police use the stop and search power and, where appropriate reduce disproportionality.
Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) men and (b) women police officers in the Metropolitan Police force come from a minority ethnic background. [190255]
Ms Blears: I refer my hon. Friend to the recently published Home Office Statistical Bulletin on Police Service Strength 31 March 2004.
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy to ensure that police forces that choose not to employ community support officers do not lose out in the distribution of the Neighbourhood Policing Fund. [190305]
Ms Blears: The aim of the Neighbourhood Policing Fund (NPF) is to support the development of local policing teams to work with residents on policing priorities in their area. The NPF will enable forces to recruit 24,000 Community Support Officers (CSOs) by April 2008.
£50 million from the NPF is to be allocated to police forces in 200405 in to fund the salaries of new CSOs. We are expecting all 43 forces England and Wales to
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submit bids for funding. We will be discussing with police authorities and forces the terms of funding in subsequent years.
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) complaints have been received and (b) investigations were carried out by the office of the Police Complaints Commission for England and Wales in each of the last four years. [188652]
Ms Blears: It is assumed that the question refers to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) which was established under the Police Reform Act 2002 and commenced operations on 1 April 2004. It replaced the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) which ceased operations on 31 March 2004.
A breakdown of the complaints for the years 19992000 to 20022003 are as follows.
Total complaints received by police | Complaints referred to PCA | Complaints accepted for investigation | Voluntary referrals of non-complaint matters received | Voluntary referrals accepted by PCA | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
200203 | 15,248 | 898 | 447 | 181 | 133 |
200102 | 16,654 | 937 | 622 | 177 | 162 |
200001 | 18,911 | 946 | 586 | 125 | 117 |
199900 | 21,000 | 1,192 | 822 | 144 | 139 |
The powers available to the IPCC are greater than those that were available to the PCA. It can receive complaints directly rather than just by referral. It also has powers to independently investigate complaints in certain circumstances.
Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time taken for a prisoner on the CARATS or other drug programmes to access drug treatment on leaving prison is. [190308]
Caroline Flint: Information is not available in the format requested.
The National Treatment Agency (NTA) report that by July 2004 in the majority of Drug Action Teams (DATs), there was an average waiting time of between one and a half to three and a half weeks for all types of treatment for all drug users, both those leaving prison and those entering treatment from the community. This is compared to between three to eight weeks in December 2002. The NTA is working with DATs to ensure waiting times continue to drop.
The NTA report that waiting times in the 47 DATs where the Drug Interventions Programme (formally known as CJIP) is being delivered intensively are lower than non-Drug Interventions Programme areas.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were stopped and searched in Lechlade near Fairford on 22 March 2003 using powers under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994. [190778]
Caroline Flint: I understand from Gloucestershire Police that 25 people were stopped and searched in Lechlade near Fairford on 22 March 2003 using powers under section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
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