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Drug Rehabilitation

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of prison facility funding was spent on drug rehabilitation schemes in the last period for which figures are available. [18696]

Fiona Mactaggart: Out of a total £1,865 million allocated to run prisons during 2005–06, £61 million of additional funding has been provided to deliver drug treatment. This equates to 3.2 per cent. of the total allocation. The baseline figure for drug treatment expenditure is not available centrally.

Drug Smugglers

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what punishments are available for drug smugglers who are caught by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs. [22955]

Paul Goggins: The maximum penalty for the importation or exportation of class A drugs is life imprisonment; for class B substances it is 14 years. A court may alternatively or additionally impose a fine of any amount. Community penalties are also available.

Where an offender is convicted for the third time of an offence of importation, exportation, production, supply or possession with intent to supply class A drugs the court must impose a sentence of at least seven years save in exceptional circumstances.

Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much, in (a) metric weight and (b) street value, of the (i) heroin and (ii) meta-amphetamine supply in the UK he estimates originated in Burma in 2004–05. [23646]

Paul Goggins: Drugs seizures from April to December 2004 show no evidence that any of the heroin and methamphetamine in the UK originated in Burma.

EU Committees

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many meetings of the (a) EU Committee on the introduction of a uniform format for visas, (b) EU Committee for the implementation of the community action programme on preventive measures to fight violence against children, young persons and women (Daphne) and (c) EU committee for the european refugee fund are planned for the UK presidency of the EU; who will be presiding over each meeting; which other UK representatives will be present; what provision is in place for representation of the devolved Governments; and if he will make a statement. [16462]

Andy Burnham: With respect to the number of working parties and their representatives;

(a) The visa working party takes forward measures on a range of matters connected with the EU common visa policy, including the uniform format visa. There are currently six meetings of this working group planned during the UK presidency. The chair of the group during the UK presidency is an official from the UK Permanent Representation to the European Union (UKREP). Other UK representatives at the meeting will
 
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vary depending on the items on the agenda but normally consist of officials from the Immigration and Nationality Directorate and UKvisas.

(b) The EU Committee for the implementation of the Community action programme on preventive measures to fight violence against children, young persons and women (Daphne II Programme 2004- 08) met on 8 September and there are no further meetings of the committee scheduled to take place within the UK presidency of the EU. The committee meetings are chaired by officials from the European Commission and the UK is represented on the Committee by a Home Office official (for domestic violence and violence against women), an official from the Department of Health (for child protection issues).

(c) The ERF committee met on 6 October 2005, no further meetings are planned during the UK presidency. The committee meeting was chaired by an official from the European Commission and the UK was represented by officials from the immigration and nationality directorate.

The UK Government take into account the views and interests of the devolved administrations when formulating the UK's policy position on all EU and international issues which touch upon devolved matters. Provision for attendance at EU meetings by Ministers and officials of the devolved administrations is set out in paragraphs 4.12–15 of the Concordat on Co-ordination of European Union Policy Issues (part of the Memorandum of Understanding between devolved Ministers and the UK Government). Ministers from the devolved administrations have attended and do attend Councils, by agreement with the lead Whitehall Minister.

A copy is available on the internet at: http://www.dca.gov.uk/constitution/devolution/pubs/odpm_ dev_600629.pdf

Europe Goes Alternative Conference

Dr. Iddon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if a Minister from his Department will attend the Europe Goes Alternative Conference in Brussels on 7 November. [21389]

Andy Burnham: Due to prior Home Office Parliamentary commitments, a Home Office Minister will not be attending the Europe Goes Alternative Conference in Brussels on 7 November. However we hope that the Home Office Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Paul Wiles, will be speaking at the meeting. Other Home Office Officials with responsibilities under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and EU Directive 86/609/EEC will be attending.

Historical Sex Abuse Cases

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many strategic management groups have been established in historical sex abuse investigations; and how many were chaired by (a) the police and (b) social services. [20175]

Paul Goggins: Information on the number of strategic management groups, and who chairs them, is not collected centrally.
 
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Infant Life Preservation Act

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will make a statement on the operation of the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929; [20095]

(2) if he will make a statement about the operation of the Infant Life Preservation Act 1929. [20629]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Infant Life (Preservation) Act 1929 makes it an offence, in England and Wales, to cause the death of an unborn child by any wilful act done with intent to destroy the child's life, if the child was capable of being born alive, unless such an act was done in good faith to preserve the life of the mother. The Act presumes a fetus to be viable at 28 weeks. A conviction under the Act carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Under section 5(1) of the Abortion Act 1967, any medical practitioner who acts in accordance with the Abortion Act will not commit an offence under the 1929 Act.

There have been two cases under the Infant Life (Preservation) Act in the last five years.

Kagho Sebata

Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will accede to the request by Kagho Sebata (Home Office reference number S1038309) for the return of his passport; and if he will make a statement. [22858]

Mr. McNulty: The immigration service responded to Mr. Sebata on 28 October 2005. In that letter he was asked to provide flight details to the immigration office in Poole who will then make arrangements for his passport to be available for him to travel.

Literacy and Numeracy

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on in-house training on (a) literacy and (b) numeracy (i) in total and (ii) per head in each year since 2002. [23432]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The Department does not collect information centrally on the amount spent on literacy and numeracy development. The Department seeks to embed literacy and numeracy development into a range of training courses offered to staff as well as working in partnership with external providers to offer literacy and numeracy development leading to national qualification which have so far not incurred significant additional cost to the Department. Provision of a breakdown of training costs for literacy and numeracy provision would incur a disproportionate cost.

Marcus Downie

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department plans to take to change the practices and procedures for monitoring the taking of medication by prisoners suffering from mental illness following the verdict from the inquest on the death of Marcus Downie. [19193]

 
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Fiona Mactaggart: We will be studying any findings arising from the inquest very carefully and will then consider any action that may be appropriate.

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