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9 Dec 2004 : Column 731W—continued
Ukraine
Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of whether Ukraine retains (a) operational nuclear weapons, (b) decommissioned nuclear weapons in storage and (c) a physical infrastructure and expert personnel to enable nuclear weapons to be manufactured. [201624]
Mr. MacShane:
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine, in common with the other newly-independent states, renounced nuclear weapons and acceded to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as a non-nuclear weapons state. Nuclear warheads from the Soviet era that had been stationed in Ukraine were returned to Russia.
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A number of institutes formerly involved in the Soviet nuclear weapons programme are located in Ukraine.
The Government has seen no information to suggest that Ukraine is not fully in compliance with its obligations under the NPT.
Visas (Pakistan)
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the average waiting time is to get a visitor's visa from each consulate in Pakistan. [200562]
Mr. Mullin: Processing times for visitor's visa application to the UK from Islamabad (currently our only visa issuing post in Pakistan) as of 22 November 2004 are:
Seven working days for visitors who have travelled to the UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand or Australia within the last 10 years or students and businessmen on approved schemes.
There is currently a heavy demand for applications from first time non-family visitors aged 25 and over. These applicants can apply to register details of their applications and the applicant will be contacted when we are able to deal with the application. We are currently considering how to manage the volume of applications, including setting an estimated time for clearing the backlog.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Asylum and Immigration
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total cost has been of enforcing section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 in each year since 1997. [201409]
Mr. Browne: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate is not funded on an activity basis and therefore it is not possible to give a definitive figure for the amount of resource used to tackle illegal migrant working.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals were (a) arrested and (b) removed from the country as a result of enforcement operations conducted by the Immigration Service in 2003–04. [201411]
Mr. Browne: The information requested is not available.
In 2003, 19,630 persons were removed from the United Kingdom as a result of enforcement action. This includes persons departing Voluntarily' after enforcement action had been initiated against them but excludes Assisted Voluntary Returns. However, this figure is not just for those removals that resulted from enforcement operations; it also includes other enforcement activity.
Data for 2004 are not available.
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Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the five most common nationalities were of individuals found to be working illegally in the UK in the most recent period for which figures are available. [201412]
Mr. Browne: This information is not currently available. We are exploring new methods of data collection for illegal working operations that will make this type of information available in the future.
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions have taken place under section 2 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004; how many of these are being dealt with in magistrates courts; and how many have been referred to Crown courts. [201611]
Mr. Browne: Between 29 September 2004 and 29 November there have been 112 people charged under Section 2 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004.
32 cases have been convicted in magistrates courts and have received custodial sentences.
The remaining cases are currently going through proceedings in the magistrates courts and are being referred from there when appropriate to the Crown court.
The figures provided are obtained from locally collated management information and may be subject to change.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers have been dispersed to each parliamentary constituency in (a) the two years up to the end of 2003 and (b) the latest two-year period for which figures are available. [199717]
Mr. Browne [holding answer 29 November 2004]: Figures for asylum seekers (including dependants) in receipt of National Asylum Support Service (NASS) accommodation support in each parliamentary constituency as at the end of September 2004 are presented in the following table. Information in respect of the number of persons dispersed to an area during a given year is not available and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
Information on the number of asylum seekers supported by NASS is published quarterly on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
(17) Figures have been rounded to nearest 5, with "*' = 1 or 2, and are provisional.
(18) Asylum seekers that have been allocated NASS accommodation and have been confirmed as having arrived in that accommodation
(19) Excludes unaccompanied asylum seeking children supported by local authorities, estimated at around 7,000 in May 2004. Excludes cases that pre-date the establishment of NASS in April 2000, administered under arrangements with local authorities, estimated at up to 16,000 cases in May 2004 (the number of such cases is falling).
(20) Excludes cases where support has been ceased by the National Asylum Support Service.
(21) Only those parliamentary constituencies where NASS dispersed or disbenefitted cases are resident are shown.
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Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many failed asylum seekers have had their benefits withdrawn under section 9 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004. [201392]
Mr. Browne: None. Section 9 came into force only on 1 December 2004, and is being piloted in a limited number of areas. Failed asylum seeking families subject to the provision will be given three written warnings that their support may be terminated if they fail without reasonable excuse to take reasonable steps to leave the United Kingdom voluntarily, or place themselves in a position in which they can leave the United Kingdom voluntarily. They also have the opportunity to attend an interview. This process takes a number of weeks before a decision is made on whether support should be withdrawn.
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