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10 Oct 2005 : Column 171W—continued
Communication Data
Mr. Illsley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to publish the revised draft of the acquisition and disclosure of communication data code of practice. [15779]
Mr. Charles Clarke: Pre-consultation version of the revised draft code of practice for the acquisition and disclosure of communications data, under Chapter II of Part I of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, is published on the Home Office website:
Formal public consultation on a revised draft code of practice is expected to take place in the autumn.
Departmental Advertising
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much (a) the Department and (b) non-departmental bodies for which the Department is responsible spent on advertising in 2004–05, broken down by media type. [8007]
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Mr. Charles Clarke: The information is as follows:
(a) Advertising figures for the Home Office shows that £10.2 million was spent on advertising:
Information campaigns included acquisitive crime, drugs, recruitment of police officers, domestic violence, firearms and internet child protection.
(b) The Home Office does not hold advertising spend data for non-departmental bodies.
European Constitution
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it is his policy that mutual recognition and approximation of laws as provided for in Articles III-269 and III-270 of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe could be agreed without ratification of the Treaty. [15466]
Andy Burnham: Mutual recognition and approximation of laws as provided for in the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe cannot be agreed unless that treaty is ratified. However, there is significant work that can and is being continued in these fields under existing treaties and without ratification of the Constitutional treaty.
The EU has a programme of measures on mutual recognition including the agreed European arrest warrant and the European evidence warrant which is under negotiation. The EU has also established minimum provisions in some areas of the substantive criminal law and minimum penalties for a range of serious cross border crimes. These include trafficking in human beings and terrorism offences.
Food Procurement
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by his Department on public procurement of food in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what proportion of that expenditure was covered under Crown Immunity on food safety matters. [5785]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The core Home Office do not buy food other than light refreshments for meetings. This is covered under the 2 Marsham Street PFI contract and expenditure will be included in the facilities management service charge. Information covering specific items such as this is not held centrally but in any case is likely to be minimal.
The Prison Service expended £44,087, £255.00 in the period April 2004 to March 2005 from its central contracts. The figure would exclude small/minor one off purchases made by establishments. This further information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The Food Safety Act removed Crown Immunity from the Prison Service so the amount aforementioned is subject to all relevant food hygiene regulations.
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Identity Card
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what incentives will be put in place to encourage people to apply for an identity card in advance of their passport coming up for renewal. [13213]
Mr. Charles Clarke: There are no incentives currently planned to encourage people to apply for an identity card in advance of their passport renewal.
However, Government research conducted by Taylor Nelson Sofres demonstrated that 26 per cent. of passport holders would be prepared to take-up an ID card voluntarily before their passport expires. This research was published on 28 June 2005 and is available on the Identity Cards website.
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the basis is for the statement on page 8 of the document, Identity Cards Scheme Benefits Overview", that the ability for the police to check scene of crime marks against the National Identity Register will result in savings of £40 million per annum; and if he will make a statement. [13217]
Mr. Charles Clarke: We have used Home Office statistics on the success of police fingerprint systems and our understanding of the proposed operation of the Identity Card Scheme to model the benefit of identifying scenes of crime fingerprint lifts over and above that of existing police processes.
As more fingerprint lifts are identified, the police are able to eliminate those with legitimate access more quickly from their investigation while developing additional leads on suspects. Some of these leads will result in crime detections and halt criminal careers. This in turn will contribute to reducing economic harm caused by crime, which has also been well researched.
Together, these pieces of research allowed us to quantify the benefits of the ID card in this area at 40 million.
Illegal Drugs
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department has made of the street price of illegal drugs in the last two years. [6373]
Mr. Charles Clarke:
UK average street prices for illegal drugs for the past two years are shown in the tables. The figures are worked out on the basis of information provided to the National Criminal Intelligence Service by all UK law enforcement authorities.
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| Crack (£ per 0.2g rock) | Heroin (£ per gram) | Ecstasy (£ per dose) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2003 | 19 | 61 | 6 |
| August 2003 | 19 | 61 | 5 |
| December 2003 | 19 | 62 | 5 |
| April 2004 | 19 | 59 | 4 |
| August 2004 | 19 | 56 | 4 |
| December 2004 | 18 | 55 | 4 |
| April 2005 | 19 | 53 | 4 |
| Amphetamine (per gram) | Skunk (per ounce) | LSD (per dose) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 2003 | 9 | 127 | 3.10 |
| August 2003 | 9 | 121 | 3 |
| December 2003 | 9 | 114 | 3 |
| April 2004 | 8 | 118 | 3 |
| August 2004 | 9 | 121 | 3 |
| December 2004 | 8 | 121 | — |
| April 2005 | 9 | 123 | 4 |
Illegal Immigrants
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many employers have been fined for employing illegal immigrants in each year since 1997. [9591]
Mr. Charles Clarke: The latest available information on the number of persons found guilty under Section 8 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1996 for employing illegal immigrants and those found guilty under section25 (1) of the Immigration Act 1971 relating to the entry of an illegal entrant are shown in the following table.
Section 25 (1) of the Immigration Act 1971 is legislation related to facilitating the entry of an illegal entrant. Some of those cases will have involved people who import and supply illegal workers. Offences of knowingly facilitating the entry of an asylum claimant, or leave to remain of a person, by means of deception were added by the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 Section 8 and it came into force on 27 January 1997.
n/a=ot applicable.
(50)Principal immigration offence.
(51)Provisional figures.
(52)As added by Section 5 of the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996.
(53)Nil.
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Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many illegal immigrants have been found within UK borders in each year since 1997. [8531]
Mr. McNulty: The number of persons who have had enforcement action initiated against them as illegal entrants in each year since 1997 is given in the accompanying table.
People who have had enforcement action initiated against them may then be removed from the country. There may be some barriers to removal including:
absence of a travel route, lack of co-operation from receiving countries or scheduled flight services (resulting in lengthy documentation processes or use of charter flights).
Alternatively, some people may decide to leave voluntarily, after enforcement action has been initiated against them and others may chose to leave via assisted voluntary returns programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration.
Information on persons who have had enforcement action initiated against them in 2004 will be included in the Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2004. This was published in August and is available on the Home Office website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
| Number of persons | |
|---|---|
| 1997 | 14,390 |
| 1998 | 16,500 |
| 1999 | 21,165 |
| 2000 | 47,325 |
| 2001 | 69,875 |
| 2002 | 48,050 |
| 2003(56) | — |
(54)Illegal entrants detected and issued enforcement notice.
(55)Figures rounded to the nearest 5.
(56)Data were not of sufficient quality for publication in 2003, however it is estimated that 22,950 illegal entrants had enforcement action initiated against them in this year. Due to poor data quality this is not an official national statistic.
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