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15 Mar 2005 : Column 188W—continued
HOME DEPARTMENT
Animal Experimentation
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many licences he has issued in each of the last five years to Wickham Research Laboratories for the purposes of experiments on live animals; what the aims of the experiments were; what species of animals were involved; how many animals were involved; what the level of severity of the experiments was; and if he will make a statement. [218718]
Caroline Flint: It is an offence under section 24 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 for anyone with functions under the Act to disclose information given to them in confidence. I am therefore only prepared to provide information of the type requested with the agreement of the establishment concerned.
On that basis I am able to confirm no more than that the named establishment currently holds three project licences granted under the 1986 Act, that it undertakes safety and quality assurance testing of medicines and other healthcare products, and that the species it uses are rats, rabbits, mice and guinea pigs.
Asylum Seekers
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many appeals against initial decision have been filed by asylum seekers in each year since 1992. [217748]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
The information is published in the annual and quarterly asylum statistics, available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website.
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David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of asylum seekers have appealed against their initial decision in each year since 1992. [217749]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The information requested is published in the annual asylum statistics bulletin "Asylum Statistics United Kingdom", available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of asylum cases, including final appeal, were decided within six months in 2004. [219127]
Mr. Browne: Information on the proportion of new substantive asylum applications in 2004, that were decided, including final appeal, within six months, is not yet available. Information relating to applications made in 2004 will be available in August 2005.
Information on the timeliness of asylum cases is published in the quarterly asylum statistics on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of failed asylum seekers were removed in 2004. [219129]
Mr. Browne: It is not possible to know what exactly proportion of applications made in 2004 will prove to be unfounded, or will eventually result in removal. Some applications made in 2004 are still awaiting the outcome of initial decisions or of appeals. Other cases are in the process of removal, can, in certain cases, create a number of barriers, for example the length of time it takes to obtain documentation to allow individuals to be accepted back by their countries of origin. Many failed applicants may either leave the UK voluntarily without advising the Home Office, or seek to evade the Home Office in order to try to avoid removal, or come from countries where removal is very difficult due to the situation in the country (e.g. Iraq).
The level of asylum applications has continued to fall. There were 33,930 applications for asylum, excluding dependants, in the UK in 2004, a third fewer than in 2003.
Information on the numbers of asylum applications and removals of failed asylum seekers is published in the quarterly asylum statistics on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications have been made by his Department to the Iranian Government for passports or other travel documentation to facilitate the repatriation of failed asylum seekers in each of the last six months; and what the average time between the application and the delivery of such documentation has been over that period. [220872]
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Mr. Browne [holding answer 8 March 2005]: Applications for travel documents to facilitate return are made by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND). Internal statistics show that, over the last six months, IND has applied for a total of 24 Iranian travel documents.
Of the 24 applications for travel documents made by IND, none have as yet been issued by the Iranian authorities.
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many failed asylum seekers have been compulsorily returned to Iran in each of the last six months. [220873]
Mr. Browne [holding answer 8 March 2005]: The latest available information on the number of failed asylum seekers who have been returned to Iran shows that in the six months from July to December 2004, 30 persons were removed. A breakdown by month is shown in the table.
| Persons removed | |
|---|---|
| July | 5 |
| August | 5 |
| September | 5 |
| October | 5 |
| November | 10 |
| December | 5 |
| Total | 30 |
(5) Persons who had sought asylum at some stage, including dependants.
(6) Excluding persons leaving under Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration and other voluntary departures.
Notes:
These figures are based on management information and are not National Statistics; the data are also provisional and are rounded to the nearest five and may not sum due to rounding.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what recent progress has been made towards the public service agreement target to focus the asylum system on those genuinely fleeing persecution by taking speedy, high quality decisions and reducing significantly unfounded asylum claims; [219124]
(2) what recent progress has been made towards the public service agreement target to ensure the fast turnaround of manifestly unfounded asylum cases; [219125]
(3) whether the public service agreement target to ensure that 75 per cent. of substantive asylum applications are decided within two months by 2004 was met; [219126]
(4) what recent progress has been made towards the public service agreement target to enforce the immigration laws more effectively by removing a greater proportion of failed asylum seekers; [219128]
(5) what recent progress has been made towards the public service agreement target to reduce unfounded asylum claims; [219135]
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(6) what recent progress has been made towards the Public Service Agreement target to tackle abuse of the immigration laws and promote controlled legal migration. [219136]
Mr. Browne: Performance against my Department's targets is published in the Annual Report and the Autumn Performance Report available in the House Library and on the Home Office website (www.homeoffice.gov.uk).
Begging (Children)
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933 there have been of individuals for procuring a child to beg in each year since 1990; and if he will make a statement. [220667]
Paul Goggins: The available information contained in the table gives the number of offenders found guilty at all courts for
under the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Section 4, England and Wales 1990 to 2003.
Statistics on court proceedings for 2004 will be published in the autumn.
(7) These data are on the principal offence basis.
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