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Naturalisation
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for The Home Department what qualifications suffice for the purposes of establishing a sufficient knowledge of English for the purposes of an application for naturalisation. [191362]
Mr. Browne [holding answer 15 October 2004]: Any qualifications which establishes knowledge of English at a level equivalent to, or higher than ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) Entry 3, will be accepted as establishing a sufficient knowledge of English for naturalisation purposes.
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for The Home Department when it will be possible for applicants for naturalisation to obtain a certificate from a designated person to demonstrate sufficient knowledge of English; and when he intends to publish the list of designated persons. [191471]
Mr. Browne
[holding answer 15 October 2004]: They can do so now. The Home Office website indicates which people are designated to certify that a person is a native English speaker or has English language skills at a similar level. Notaries are currently designated for that purpose, and following discussions with their professional bodies, solicitors will shortly be added. Other professional groups may be added in due course.
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EU Accession States
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many citizens from EU accession countries have registered with the workers' registration scheme; and what the five professions with the most registrations are. [190792]
Mr. Browne: I would refer my hon. Friend to my statement of 7 July 2004, Official Report, columns 35–37WS, which sets out published (provisional) figures for May and June 2004. In May and June just under 20,000 applications to the Worker Registration Scheme were approved. The top five sectors were: hospitality and catering; administration, business and management; agriculture; manufacturing; and retail.
Data for July, August and September will be published later this year.
Passports
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when free passports will be available to all over 75-years-old; [189426]
(2) what discussions he has had with the Treasury about the cost of providing concessionary passports to over 75-year-olds; and how the scheme will be funded. [189427]
Mr. Browne: My right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary announced on 13 October that the scheme to grant free passports to those who were 16 or over at the end of World War II—on 2 September 1945, will be implemented on Monday 18 October 2004.
All British Nationals who were born on or before 2 September 1929 will be able to apply for their free passports from that date.
The Home Office will fund the scheme this year, and will seek to recover the costs in future years from the general passport fee.
We have no plans to issue free passports to all over 75-years-old on an ongoing basis.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will implement his policy of free passports for the elderly; and if he will make a statement. [190690]
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department from what date he intends to make passports for people over 75 years free of charge. [189115]
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when older pensioners will be able to apply for free passports. [191474]
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when free passports for people over 75 years will be introduced; and if he will make a statement. [187457]
Mr. Browne:
My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary announced on 13 October that the scheme to grant free passports to those who were 16 or over at the end of World War II—on 2 September 1945, will be implemented on Monday 18 October 2004.
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All British nationals who were born on or before 2 September 1929 will be able to apply for their free passports from that date.
Press Officers
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his projection is of the number of press officers employed in his Department for 2004–05. [187553]
Fiona Mactaggart: The number of press officers is currently 39 and this is the projection of the total number that will be required for 2004–05.
In 2003–04 the Press Office news desk answered 60,039 calls, and the Press Office issued 583 press notices and held 29 briefings for the media.
Racist Attacks
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many racist (a) attacks and (b) threats the Leicestershire police authority has recorded in 2004. [194758]
Ms Blears: The available information relates 2003–04 and covers offences of racially or religiously aggravated less serious wounding and common assault. There were 101 offences of racially or religiously aggravated less serious wounding and 110 offences of racially or religiously aggravated common assault recorded in Leicestershire. Information on racist threats is not collected centrally.
Sikh Ministers of Religion
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Sikh Ministers of Religion have been denied entry to the UK this year. [190875]
Mr. Browne: Information on the number of Sikh Ministers of Religion denied entry to the UK is not available except by examination of individual case files at disproportionate cost.
Terrorism Act
Lynne Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will give the reasons for the differences in the figures for the number of searches under section 44(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 conducted in (a) England and
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Wales and (b) the Metropolitan Police district in 2002–03 given in the answer of 27 January 2004, Official Report, column 268W, and page 39 of the Home Office report Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System-2003; [190780]
(2) if he will give the reasons for the differences in the figures for the number of searches under section 44(1) of the Terrorism Act 2000 conducted in (a) England and Wales and (b) the Metropolitan Police district in 2001–02 given in the answer of 27 January 2004, Official Report, column 268W, and page 38 of the Home Office report Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System- 2003. [190821]
Mr. Blunkett: The Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2003 report is concerned with detailing stop-searches by ethnicity, therefore, the number of stop-searches carried out on vehicles and not the occupants is omitted. The Home Office Statistical Bulletin, the source for the answer of 27 January, includes instances where the police have stop-searched just the vehicle and not any of the occupants.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the reasons for the differences in the three figures for the number of searches under section 44(1) and (2) of the Terrorism Act 2000 conducted in Gloucestershire in 2002–03 as given in (a) the answer of 27 January 2004, Official Report, column 268W, (b) the answer of 6 February 2004, Official Report, column 1121W, on police and (c) page 37 of the Home Office report Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2003. [190781]
Mr. Blunkett: The Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System 2003 report is concerned with detailing stop-searches by ethnicity, therefore the number of stop-searches carried out on vehicles and not the occupants is omitted. The Home Office Statistical Bulletin, the source for the answer of 27 January, includes instances where the police have stop-searched just the vehicle and not any of the occupants.
I can confirm that the correct number of stop-searches under Section 44 (2) for the period is nil. The figure 299 was wrongly quoted in the response of 6 February due to an administrative error, for which I apologise. A breakdown of these figures from the Home Office Statistical Bulletin is shown in the following tables. This can be found on the Research and Statistics section of the Home Office website.
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(15) Formerly section 13A and 13B of the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 and repealed under the Terrorism Act 2000 which came into force on 19 February 2001.
(16) Stops and searches of vehicles and occupants and pedestrians are not separately identifiable.
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