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18 Jul 2005 : Column 1470W—continued
PCTs (Birmingham)
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what her plans are for the number of primary care trusts in Birmingham. [11305]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Decisions on the configuration of local services are a matter for the local health community.
Birmingham and the Black Country Strategic Health Authority reports that no decisions have been made about the future configuration of primary care trusts (PCTs) in the Birmingham area.
The Department is intending to publish guidance on the future role of PCT shortly.
Pensioners (Free Eye Tests)
Julie Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the cost has been to public funds of free eye tests for pensioners in each year since 1997–98. [10317]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Estimates of the total costs of national health service sight tests for patients aged 60 and over in England and Wales for the years from 1997 are shown in the table.
| Year(47) | England costs | Wales costs |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 49.6 | 3.7 |
| 2000–01 | 58.0 | 3.7 |
| 2001–02 | 64.5 | 4.1 |
| 2002–03 | 69.1 | 4.6 |
| 2003–04 | 74.4 | 4.8 |
(47)Eligibility for free eye tests for all those aged over 60 re-commenced in 1999–2000.
Retinopathy
Mrs. Betty Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many primary care trusts have protocols in place for recalling people with diabetes to receive retinal screening. [11339]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
This information is not held centrally. Information from strategic health authorities (SHAs) currently indicates that the national health service is on course to meet the target for March 2006, that is, that 80 per cent. of people with diabetes are offered screening for the early detection of diabetic retinopathy as part of a systematic screening programme; call and recall arrangements are an important part of systematic screening. The Department is working with all SHAs to ensure robust performance management of progress.
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Mrs. Betty Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many follow-up appointments at specialist eye clinics for those people needing treatment for sight-related retinopathy were cancelled in the last period for which figures are available. [11340]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not held centrally.
Mrs. Betty Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many follow-up appointments were (a) cancelled and (b) rescheduled for people with diabetes needing laser eye treatment in the last period for which figures are available. [11344]
Ms Rosie Winterton: This information is not held centrally.
West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the target waiting times are for (a) MRI scans and (b) ultrasound scans at West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust. [10698]
Ms Rosie Winterton: By 2008, no patient will have to wait more than 18 weeks from a general practitioner referral to start of treatment. This will include diagnostic procedures. It is the responsibility of local trusts to deliver acceptable access standards for all out-patients having taken into account clinical priority.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the target waiting times are for orthopaedic surgery at West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust. [10699]
Ms Rosie Winterton: From 1 April 2004, the maximum waiting time for in-patient treatment was reduced from 12 months to nine months and from end 2005 a maximum waiting time of six months will be introduced. By 2008, patients will be admitted for treatment within a maximum of 18 weeks from referral by their general practitioner, and those with urgent conditions will be treated sooner.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds in hospitals covered by West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust are available for patients with severe neck or spinal trauma. [10701]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not collected centrally.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Airwave
Mr. Henderson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding he allocated to provide the Airwave National Fallback Service. [11584]
Hazel Blears: The Home Office has approved expenditure of up to £345 million over the life of the contract for the Airwave National Fallback Service.
Antisocial Behaviour Orders
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to extend the disability equality duty to the application by police or local authorities for antisocial behaviour orders. [12165]
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Hazel Blears: The disability equality duty, introduced by the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, will apply to all functions of public authorities with the exception of a few narrow exemptions. All agencies eligible to apply for antisocial behaviour orders, including the police andlocal authorities, will be covered by the disability equality duty.
Courts will not be subject to the duty when considering whether to issue orders as this would undermine judicial independence.
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether antisocial behaviour orders have been (a) applied for and (b) granted in respect of persons living in social housing properties who are known to have a mental health problem. [12166]
Hazel Blears: Information is not collected centrally about the characteristics or circumstances of persons issued with an antisocial behaviour order.
Asylum/Immigration
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he made of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 in the framing of his Department's Asylum Policy Instruction on the internal relocation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. [12191]
Mr. McNulty: Security Council Resolution 1244 adopted by the Security Council at its 4011th meeting on 10 June 1999 ordered the withdrawal of all Yugoslav military forces and the establishment of an international peacekeeping force and made a commitment to ensure the safe and unimpeded return of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes in Kosovo. Resolution 1244 does not affect the view based on the available objective country information and case law that there is in general freedom of movement for all ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and that it would not be unduly harsh for ethnic Albanians to relocate internally within Kosovo, to an area where they will not face persecution.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers accepted into the UK since 1997 have been convicted of criminal offences. [8459]
Mr. McNulty: This information is not recorded centrally.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the proportion of people in the UK being assessed for asylum who will (a) fail in their application and (b) leave the UK after failing. [10454]
Mr. McNulty: Asylum numbers are continuing to fall dramatically year on year, and provisional figures for the whole of 2004 show UK asylum applications including dependants fell by 33 percent., twice the rate of the rest of Europe.
The number of cases awaiting an initial decision has continued to fall, to 8,700 at the end of March—the lowest level for more than a decade. It is not possible to know exactly what proportion of these applications will fail, or will result in applicants subsequently leaving the UK after failing.
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On the basis of the latest statistics on initial decision outcomes and appeal outcomes, it can be assumed that around 70–80 percent. of the 33,930 asylum applications received in 2004 will ultimately prove to be unfounded.
The level of removals in 2004 (12,430 principal applicants) is equivalent to around half this level of unfounded applications made in 2004. The equivalent proportion for 1996 is 20 percent. In addition some failed asylum seekers may leave the UK without informing the Immigration Service.
Our target is to increase the monthly number of removals so that they exceed the monthly number of new asylum applicants expected to be unfounded, by the end of 2005. Increasing removals is a key part of our fiveyear immigration and asylum plan, in particular working with source countries to secure more returns.
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:
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the use of Arab translators upon the accuracy of the recording of the testimony of Darfuri asylum seekers. [11062]
Mr. McNulty: Qualified interpreters in the Darfuri primary languages of Fur, Zaghawa and Massaleit are not available, but every effort is made to provide an Arabic-speaking interpreter who understands and can be understood by the person being interviewed. At the beginning of every asylum interview, the interviewer will ensure that the applicant understands the interpreter and vice versa, and will also ask the applicant at the end if he has understood the questions. We do not accept that the use of Arabic-speaking interpreters has disadvantaged Sudanese asylum seekers from the Darfur region.
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) asylum seekers and (b) immigration detainees in respect of whom all coroners' inquests and legal proceedings are completed have (i) died and (ii) been recorded as harming themselves in the last five years for which figures are available; how long each person concerned had been held in detention prior to death or harm; what the verdict was of the coroners' or other inquiry held into such incidents; and in which establishment each person was held. [12295]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 14 July 2005]: There have been four immigration detainee deaths in the last five years where the coroner's verdict is known:
There is no record of any having self-harmed in the period prior to their deaths.
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Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to put the criteria for the detention of asylum seekers on a statutory basis. [12968]
Mr. McNulty: No. Immigration detention powers are contained in schedules two and three to the Immigration Act 1971 and Section 62 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. These provide for detention to be authorised in the following circumstances: for persons on arrival subject to further examination before deciding whether to grant or refuse leave to enter; for illegal entrants and others liable to removal; and for persons subject to deportation. The Government's position on the normal use of these statutory powers is already in the public domain. Any changes to that position would also be made public.
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy that a decision to detain an asylum seeker is automatically and regularly reviewed as to its (a) legality, (b) necessity and (c) appropriateness by a court or other independent body. [12969]
Mr. McNulty: We do not accept that it would be appropriate or necessary to introduce automatic judicial or other independent oversight of individual decisions to detain. Immigration detainees may challenge the lawfulness of their detention before the courts through the processes of judicial review or habeas corpus. We are satisfied that the procedures for authorising detention under Immigration Act powers comply with Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) illegal immigrants and (b) failed asylum seekers entered the UK between 1997 and 2004. [313]
Mr. McNulty: The information is as follows.
(a) No government has ever been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who enter the country illegally. By its very nature it is impossible to quantify accurately, and that remains the case.
Although it is impossible to determine accurately how many people are in the UK illegally the Home Office published a report, on 30 June 2005, which included an estimate of the size of the illegal migrant population in the UK in 2001. It should be noted that the report included an estimate, not an accurate or definitive figure.
As mentioned in the report the only method to estimate the size of the unauthorised migrant population in the UK that currently can sensibly be applied is the residual method. As the method relies on data from the census of the population undertaken every 10 years, it is not possible to produce an estimate for other years.
Failed asylum seekers who do not comply with instructions to leave the UK, who are not appealing or who have exhausted their rights of appeal (including those who abscond during the process) are included in the definition of 'unauthorised' or 'illegally resident' migrant population used in the report.
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A copy of the RDS On-line report 29/05—Sizing the unauthorised (illegal) migrant population in the United Kingdom in 2001" can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/notes/june_summaries.html.
(b) Information on when asylum seekers enter the country is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when all of those who applied for the family concession from October 2003 will have their cases concluded; and if he will make a statement. [11840]
Mr. McNulty: It is not possible to provide a precise time scale of when all those currently being considered under the exercise will have had their cases concluded.
The time it takes to reach a decision depends both on individual circumstances and on the number of cases in the consideration process. Sometimes people do not complete the Family ILR Exercise Questionnaire properly, or fail to provide the documentation requested. The checks we conduct on potentially eligible applicants can also take some time to complete, depending on individual circumstances. We also encounter a number of complex cases that can take some time to resolve.
The main factor, though, which makes providing a meaningful completion date for the exercise difficult, is the substantial number of cases we still have to consider. In addition, we continue to receive a number of applications for the scheme, each of which requires careful assessment. We are hoping to have completed consideration of the majority of cases by the end of April 2006.
Key statistics relating to the Family ILR Exercise were published as part of the quarterly asylum statistics on 17 May. These show the current status of the exercise up to and including 31 March 2005 and are available to the public on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics (RDS) website. The full web address is:
These statistics will be updated in August to include the second quarter of 2005.
Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many cases in (a) Greater London, (b) the London borough of Enfield and (c) Edmonton are still outstanding under the family concession exercise of October 2003; and if he will make a statement; [11841]
(2) how many residents of (a) the London borough of Enfield and (b) Edmonton who have not yet had their cases under the family concession exercise determined, submitted their application in each quarter since the last quarter of 2003; and if he will make a statement. [11842]
Mr. McNulty:
We are unable to provide accurate figures of the numbers of outstanding applicants by location. General key statistics relating to the progress of the exercise were published as part of the quarterly asylum statistics on 17 May. These show the current status of the exercise up to and including 31 March 2005 and are available to the public on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics (RDS) website.
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The full web address is:
These statistics will be updated in August to include the second quarter of 2005.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of how many illegal immigrants live in the UK; and what research he has commissioned into the routes of illegal migration into the UK. [10102]
Mr. McNulty: No government has ever been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally. By its very nature it is impossible to quantify accurately, and that remains the case.
Although it is impossible to determine accurately how many people are in the UK illegally the Home Office published a report, on 30 June 2005, which included an estimate of the size of the illegal migrant population in the UK in 2001. It should be noted that the report included an estimate, not an accurate or definitive figure.
As mentioned in the report the only method to estimate the size of the unauthorised migrant population in the UK that currently can sensibly be applied is the residual method. As the method relies on data from the census of the population undertaken every 10 years, it is not possible to produce an estimate for a more recent year.
A copy of the Research Development and Statistics Directorates (RDS) On-line report 29/05—Sizing the unauthorised (illegal) migrant population in the United Kingdom in 2001" can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/notes/june_summaries.html.
The Home Office has commissioned research that provides some information on the routes of illegal migration into the UK. The findings are contained in an RDS On-line report 20/05 A survey of the illegally resident population in detention in the UK" (found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/onlinepubs1.html).
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate the Government have made of how many immigrants are in the UK having overstayed their visas. [10103]
Mr. McNulty: Information on the total number of immigrants who have overstayed their visa, is not available. This could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records. In addition some applicants may leave the United Kingdom without informing the Immigration Service.
E-borders and ID cards will enable us to monitor this more precisely in the future.
No government has ever been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally. By its very nature it is impossible to quantify accurately, and that remains the case.
Although it is impossible to determine accurately how many people are in the UK illegally the Home Office published a report, on 30 June 2005, which included an estimate of the size of the illegal migrant population in
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the UK in 2001. It should be noted that the report included an estimate, not an accurate or definitive figure.
Overstayers are included in the definition of 'unauthorised' or 'illegally Resident' migrant population used in the report.
A copy of the RDS On-line report 29/05—Sizing the unauthorised (illegal) migrant population in the United Kingdom in 2001" can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/notes/june_summaries.html.
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the routes by which people living in the UK illegally first entered the country. [10455]
Mr. McNulty: Persons living in the UK illegally may have entered the UK unlawfully, either clandestinely or by deploying deception, or may have entered the UK legally and remained beyond any permitted permission to remain. The methods and routes used to enter the country are varied and change in response to a number of factors, including the impact of new security measures.
The Immigration and Nationality Directorate routinely monitors the trends and changes to methods of illegal entry into the UK. These assessments are used to inform policy and operational initiatives.
Many of those entering the UK use the services of criminal groups to provide documentation, transport and to provide assistance once here. Under Reflex, the Government's multi-agency taskforce to combat organised immigration crime, intelligence assessments of the routes and methods used to enter the United Kingdom are regularly updated and are used to direct targeted operations against the criminal gangs involved.
The main route for clandestine entry to the UK has been through the South East ports while those entering by air often use false documents and take circuitous routings. A number of successful countermeasures have been introduced to combat these routes such as the introduction of juxtaposed controls, enhanced freight searching, deployment of overseas officers, the development of risk assessment units at key visa posts overseas and regular alerts to front-line staff on developments in document abuse.
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what estimate he has made of the change in the number of unauthorised residents in the UK since 2001; [10806]
(2) what proportion of the unauthorised migrant population estimated in his Department's research study were estimated to have arrived in the UK between 1991 and 2001. [10807]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 7 July 2005]: No government has ever been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally. By its very nature it is impossible to quantify accurately, and that remains the case.
Although it is impossible to determine accurately how many people are in the UK illegally the Home Office published a report, 30 June 2005, which included an estimate of the size of the illegal migrant population in
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the UK in 2001. It should be noted that the report included an estimate, not an accurate or definitive figure.
As mentioned in the report the only method to estimate the size of the unauthorised migrant population in the UK that currently can sensibly be applied is the residual method. As the method relies on data from the census of the population undertaken every 10 years, it is not possible to produce an estimate for a more recent year. It is also not possible to estimate the proportion of the unauthorised migrant population who arrived in the UK between 1991 and 2001.
A copy of the RDS On-line report 29/05—Sizing the unauthorised (illegal) migrant population in the United Kingdom in 2001" can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/notes/june_summaries.html.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many visits were made to employers by Immigration Service officers in 2004–05. [10073]
Mr. Charles Clarke: In 2004–05, 1,858 enforcement visits to business premises were reported by UK Immigration Service local enforcement offices. Other visits to employers to explain the law on illegal working would also have been undertaken, but figures for these are not held centrally.
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