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Youth Offending Teams

John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on progress in filling front-line vacancies in youth offending teams. [26670]

Fiona Mactaggart: Staff in Youth Offending Teams (YOTs) are employed locally and not by the Youth Justice Board. The board supports recruitment and retention of front-line YOT staff, for example through its bespoke National Qualifications Framework for practitioners in the overall context of the Government Workforce strategy. It is also consulting on a Human Resources and Learning strategy 2006–08 and will be issuing guidance on workforce planning to support YOT managers. The vacancies for front-line practitioners in April 2004 was 5.9 per cent., a reduction from 6.5 per cent. in September 2003.

Zimbabweans (Naturalisation)

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to speed up the process for decisions on naturalisation in the UK of Zimbabweans. [29167]

Mr. McNulty: There are no plans to treat Zimbabwean applicants for naturalisation differently from those of any other nationality. Any individual request for priority treatment will be considered on its merits.

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