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Telephone Inquiries

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether telephone inquiries relating to the direct payment of benefits and pensions are handled by staff other than those employed by his Department. [190650]

Mr. Pond [holding answer 14 October 2004]: Following open competition the Department has a contract in place with ATOS Origin to send mailings to customers and handle telephone responses on our behalf through a dedicated customer conversion centre. It is normal business practice for the Department to manage this sort of large scale but temporary operation in this way.

The customer conversion centre staff are fully trained, and all telephone calls are monitored to ensure that customers are presented with sufficient information to enable them to make an informed choice. Continual monitoring and evaluation throughout the conversion process has resulted in a number of improvements to staff training, scripts, letters and forms that customers are asked to complete.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Crime Statistics

14. Mr. Illsley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to improve the circulation and dissemination of crime statistics. [191203]

Ms Blears: The steps being taken to improve the circulation and dissemination of crime statistics are based on the Review of Crime Statistics which was undertaken in 2000. Updated information on both the British crime survey, and police recorded crime, is now made available every three months. The latest information will be published this Thursday.
 
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Fly-posting/Graffiti

15. Mr. Russell Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action is being taken by his Department to tackle (a) fly-posting and (b) graffiti. [191204]

Fiona Mactaggart: Graffiti and fly-posting are serious issues and make areas look run-down and uncared for. This can often lead to an increase in crime and the fear of crime.

The Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003 which allows local authorities to serve Graffiti Removal Notices requiring owners to remove the graffiti within 28 days. If they do not comply, local authorities can clean up and charge the costs to the owners. These provisions are currently being piloted in 12 areas.

The Act also provides a £50 Penalty Notice for Disorder for minor graffiti and fly-posting offences. Other action includes launching our Name That Tag scheme and the 100 Days Clean Ups which aim to tackle graffiti, fly posting and other enviro-crime issues.

British Crime Survey

16. Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria are used to determine which crimes are included in the British crime survey; and who determines the criteria. [191206]

Ms Blears: The British Crime Survey (BCS) includes all crimes experienced by adults aged 16 and over living in private households in England and Wales, with the following exceptions:

Murder

Corporate crime

Fraud (although credit card fraud is covered separately)

The crimes included in the overall BCS main crime count have not changed since it started in 1982, when the criteria were agreed by the Home Office.

Illegal Immigration (Bogus Colleges)

17. Ross Cranston: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures he is taking to stop bogus colleges assisting illegal immigration. [191208]

Mr. Browne: On 22 April and 22 July we announced a raft of measures designed to tackle this problem as part of our wider review of managed migration.

These measures include:

a programme of visits by IND to educational establishments where we have doubts about their status;

a new DfES registration scheme for all genuine institutions by the end of the year; and

more Risk Assessment Units in our embassies abroad to improve the flow of intelligence about fraud or abuse.

To date we have assessed 1,050 education institutions. Over 25 per cent. have been identified as bogus and a further 25 per cent. require a more detailed visit. Our initial investigations will be completed by December of this year.
 
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We are working closely with the English Language sector to move towards comprehensive accreditation of all private English Language schools taking overseas students.

And we are also working with education sector representatives to agree procedures for notifying us of all overseas students who fail to attend courses.

Sex Offenders

18. Mr. Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to ensure that known sex offenders living in the community do not represent a threat to the public. [191209]

Paul Goggins: The Sexual Offences Act 2003 strengthened the requirements for sex offenders to notify their personal details to the police, and introduced new offences to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 has extended the provisions made in every area of England and Wales for the Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements, which help to manage the risks posed by sex offenders in the community.

Community Support Officers

20. Mr. Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police community support officers he expects will be deployed in west Yorkshire by the end of this financial year; and if he will make a statement. [191211]

Ms Blears: There are, as of the end of August 2004 264 community support officers in West Yorkshire. The Home Office has already provided funding to enable the force to recruit a further 40 CSOs by 31 March 2005. In addition to this, I am currently considering proposals from forces, including West Yorkshire Police, for allocating the £50 million of new money for extra CSOs this year announced as part of Spending Review 2004. I will announce my decision shortly.

The additional funding of £50 million announced in July for the first phase of the Neighbourhood Policing Fund will help ensure that we reach at least 5,500 CSOs in England and Wales by March 2005. There will be 25,000 CSOs and wardens by 2008.

Police Training

22. Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the (a) accreditation of police training modules and (b) accreditation agencies. [191213]

Caroline Flint: We are driving forward the development of good quality, accredited programmes. The introduction last year of National Occupational Standards underpinned new major programmes and led to the development of a qualifications framework for the police service.

Skills for Justice, the Sector Skills Council for the justice sector, is currently developing a quality framework for learning and development which will be available to the police sector.
 
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This will provide for the recognition of training, and for the endorsement of individual programmes. Details of the draft quality framework will be available for consultation in November, for introduction in April 2005.

Taking a Stand Awards

23. Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what level of participation there has been in this year's Taking a Stand Awards. [191214]

Ms Blears: Following on from the success of last year's Taking A Stand Awards, were we received 500 nominations, this year 500,000 posters were put up in Co-op shops, the BBC have promoted the Awards on local radio and there have been hundreds of pages of reports in local press.

The closing date for nominations was 28 September 2004. As of 28 September 2004 we received 651 nominations.

Afghan Hijackers

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the total accommodation costs have been for the Afghan hijackers at Stansted Airport since 2000; [185617]

(2) what the total living costs have been for the Afghan hijackers at Stansted Airport since 2000; [185618]

(3) which authority is responsible for housing the Afghan hijackers from Stansted Airport. [185619]

Mr. Browne: The 77 Afghans who arrived on the hijacked aircraft at Stansted Airport in February 2000, including the hijackers and the other passengers, have claimed asylum and have been supported under Section 111 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. At present those who are still in the UK are housed in accommodation provided by the Refugee Arrivals Project, one of the six voluntary sector organisations grant funded by the National Asylum Support Service for the provision of advice and support services for asylum seekers. Reliable and available information relates to the cost of the contract for the accommodation service as a whole and not to individual asylum seekers.

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