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Religious Incitement

15. Mrs. Humble: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what powers he has to limit the availability of anti-Semitic and extreme anti-Israel incitement on the internet. [219844]

Fiona Mactaggart: There are a number of incitement offences in law which provide protection against anti-Semitic and extreme anti-Israel incitement. In particular, this includes the incitement to racial hatred offence in the Public Order Act 1986 which makes it an offence to use threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour with intention or likelihood that hatred would be stirred up on the grounds of colour, race, nationality or ethnic or national origins.

The legal position is that what is illegal off-line is illegal on-line, so, provided that the elements of the offence are made out, a prosecution for incitement to racial hatred could be taken for words or behaviour published on the internet.

Custody Suites

16. Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the overall availability and capacity of custody suites in police stations. [219846]

Caroline Flint: The Department does not keep central records of the availability and capacity of police custody suites. This is an operational matter for police chief constables.

Asylum and Immigration

17. John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the integration of asylum seekers into local communities in Glasgow. [219847]

Mr. Browne: My hon. Friend will appreciate that the people who know best are local agencies and authorities in Glasgow. The Scottish Refugee Council works to bring asylum seekers, refugees and local people together to improve their communities and this work has been commended in an independent report by the Scottish Centre for Research on Social Justice entitled Building Bridges: Local Responses to the Resettlement of Asylum Seekers in Glasgow". I would commend its contents to him. I would like to mention as well, the work undertaken by Glasgow city council since 2000 and I very much hope the partnership between MASS
 
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and the council will continue. Partnership working to provide an effective system of support for asylum seekers is essential, not only for asylum seekers but also to ensure continued community cohesion.

20. Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many measures theUK has opted into under title IV of the EC treaty covering visas, asylum, immigration and movement of persons. [219850]

Mr. Browne: The Government's position remains unchanged since 1999 when the treaty of Amsterdam, including our title IV protocol came into effect. The UK retains the right to opt in to EU asylum and immigrations measures. Where measures are in our interest we will opt in.

To date, our records show that we have opted in to:

Eight measures related to Dublin and Eurodac arrangements which enable us to return asylum seekers to the European Union member state responsible for determining their claim;

11 negotiating mandates for European Community readmission agreements with third countries and four resulting readmission agreements that have been finalised to date. The aim of these agreements is to facilitate the return of third country nationals who do not or no longer have a basis to remain in the territory of member states;

Four minimum standards measures in the field of asylum, which the UK already adheres to;

11 measures on illegal immigration contributing to increased security of the European Union's borders;

Two measures relating to the format of visas.

22. Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of measures he has taken to control (a) illegal immigration and (b) unfounded asylum claims. [219852]

Mr. Browne: The measures we have taken to secure our border, including deploying new detection technology, increasing the number of juxtaposed control locations and expanding the airline liaison network, have had a significant impact on both illegal immigration and asylum intake.

(a) An indication of our success in combating illegal entry is the fall by 65 per cent. of clandestine entry in Kent in 2003 compared with 2002. This fall has continued in 2004 with a 44 per cent. decrease in clandestines in Kent in 2004 compared to 2003.

In addition carriers at ALO locations during 2004 have denied over 30,000 passengers boarding.

(b) The measures taken have also resulted in a fall in asylum applications. Between October and December 2004 asylum applications were 22 per cent. lower than the same period in 2003 and 68 per cent. lower than the peak of October 2002.

Note:

Statistics on clandestine entry are based on locally collated figures and may be subject to change.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what change there has been to the average time taken to process initial asylum applications in each year since 2000. [216798]

 
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Mr. Browne: Information on the timeliness of initial decisions on new substantive cases is published quarterly on the Home Office website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for theHome Department what plans he has to introduce compulsory testing of immigrants for (a) HIV and (b) tuberculosis. [217437]

Mr. Charles Clarke [holding answer 24 February 2005]: As we made clear in our five year strategy for asylum and immigration 'Controlling our borders: Making migration work for Britain' (Cm 6472), our approach to the prevention of the communication of diseases through migration is based on expert advice on protecting the nation's health. We will accordingly target health screening for tuberculosis in high-risk areas at the entry clearance stage; those who are diagnosed with it would then need to seek treatment at home before being allowed to enter the UK.

HIV, unlike tuberculosis, is not airborne, so the public health issues it raises are different. However, the case for extending routine health checks to diseases other than tuberculosis is kept under review.

Antisocial Behaviour

18. Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to visit the Vale of York to discuss problems relating to antisocial behaviour. [219848]

Ms Blears: There are no current plans for Home Office Ministers to visit the Vale of York to discuss antisocial behaviour.

However, my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary visited Hambleton and Thirsk on February 11 2005.

Whilst he was there he visited the Clock Project in Thirsk, a youth drop-in centre with multi agency support linked to antisocial behaviour and to prevent and deter" strand of the Prolific and Priority Offenders Strategy.

He also met with manager and chair of the Hambleton Community Safety Partnership.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what redress victims of antisocial behaviour have if they feel the police or local authority are not responding to their concerns. [219330]

Ms Blears: The police and local authorities are key partners in reducing crime and disorder in their local area. They will be signatories and supporters of strategies and interventions to tackle antisocial behaviour. These strategies should be widely advertised so that local people can understand the work that the police and local authorities are undertaking and what they can expect by way of action.

Section 12 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2004 introduced a duty on all social landlords to publish policies and procedures by December 2004 on how they intend to tackle antisocial behaviour. These policies and procedures should be made available so that tenants as well as the wider community know what they can expect from social landlords.
 
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If a victim of antisocial behaviour is not satisfied with the response they have received from a local agency then they should seek further clarification via the established routes which have been set out locally for dealing with such issues, in some instances this might be by way of an established complaints procedure.

They might also wish to seek advice and support from their local elected representative.

Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on steps his Department is taking to tackle antisocial behaviour in Sussex. [218168]

Ms Blears: The Government's TOGETHER campaign helps local people and agencies to tackle and not tolerate antisocial behaviour.

TOGETHER applies across all England and Wales including the hon. Members constituency.

All Sussex's 13 Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRPs) have appointed an antisocial behaviour co-ordinator. All CDRPs were awarded £25,000 for antisocial behaviour in 2004–05 and have used this to recruit a co-ordinator.

Hastings has been chosen as a Together Action Area, which will pilot new approaches and become an example of best practice in tackling antisocial behaviour. Hastings will also look to develop new ways of involving members of the public in the drive to tackle antisocial behaviour.

84 ASBOs have been issued across Sussex since 1999.

Brighton and Hove and Worthing have all had winners of the Home Office 'Taking a Stand' Awards.

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