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30 Nov 2005 : Column 598W—continued
Passports
Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of passport photographs have been rejected as being insufficiently clear by the UK Passport Service since 1 October. [19410]
Andy Burnham: The proportion of photographs being rejected because of the photograph not being sufficiently clear is 2.6 per cent. as proportion of total applications for the period 3 October 2005 to 20 November 2005. The total number of applications that have had photograph rejections for all reasons is 12.7 per cent. in the same period.
Photograph reject rates are however showing a decline as the photo booth industry upgrades their booths and the public understand the new standards.
The UKPS is revising the guidance in the application pack and on its website and continuing to work with both the industry and their Partners such as Post Office Ltd to ensure that inconvenience to customers is kept to a minimum.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what estimate he has made of the costs of the introduction of the high street network of offices for conducting interviews for all first-time adult applicants for passports in (a) 2005–06 and (b) 2006–07; [24472]
(2) what estimate he has made of the costs in (a) 2005–06 and (b) 2006–07 of introducing biometric passports. [24473]
Andy Burnham: The UK Passport Service will begin issuing biometric passports in 2005–06. As stated in the Corporate and Business Plans, the average unit cost for the production of passports will rise from £42.36 in 2005–06 to £57.93 in 2006–07 to cater for a range of improvement initiatives, among which is the introduction of biometrics and the introduction of offices for conducting interviews.
Although a contract for this work has been signed, the UK Passport Service is unable to release detailed costs at this time as it may prejudice our negotiating position for future procurement to incorporate the second biometric.
The UK Passport Service has not yet completed the procurement process for the introduction of the high street network of offices for conducting interviews for all first-time adult applicants for passports. It is therefore unable to release details on costs at this time as it could prejudice the contract negotiations.
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Police Reform Act (Schedule 4)
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) required not to consume alcohol in a designated public place and (b) forced to surrender any alcohol or container for alcohol by (i) community support officers and (ii) police officers under paragraph 5 of schedule 4 to the Police Reform Act 2002 in each of the last four years, broken down by police authority. [29361]
Paul Goggins:
Information from the Home Office Court Proceedings database on the number of defendants prosecuted for contravening a community support officers requirement to surrender liquor and not to consumer liquor, by police force area, is shown in the table.
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Court statistics for 2005 will be available in autumn 2006. Similar information is not available in respect of police officers.
In addition to the aforementioned, information was collected on alcohol confiscations undertaken during the nationwide 2004 summer Alcohol Misuse Enforcement Campaign (AMEC). The campaign started at the beginning of July 2004 and ended at the end of August 2004 and the results were published in a Lessons Learned document. This showed that in total the police confiscated alcohol from 9,677 people. Two-thirds of these (66 per cent.) confiscations were from alcohol exclusion zones or designated areas, and one-third (34 per cent.) were from youths. During a similar shorter two-week Christmas 2004/new year 2005 AMEC the police confiscated alcohol from 1,560 youths and 1,290 adults in a designated area. The following number of Designated Public Places Orders have been introduced: three in 2001; 69 in 2002; 78 in 2003; 92 in 2004; 59 so far in 2005.
(42)These data are on the principal offence basis.
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Terrorist Suspects
Mrs. Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in negotiations with (a) Algeria, (b) Egypt, (c) Tunisia, (d) Morocco, (e) Libya, (f) Pakistan, (g) Sri Lanka and (h) India, regarding deportation and exclusion powers relating to those suspected of terrorism. [31046]
Mr. McNulty: We have signed Memoranda of Understanding with Jordan and with Libya regulating the provision of assurances in respect of people who are being deported.
We have said that we are in negotiations with the governments of Algeria and the Lebanon. Those negotiations are continuing, and we hope to conclude them shortly.
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It would be premature to comment on the state of any other negotiations or to identify the country or countries involved.
The power to exclude relates solely to cases where theperson concerned is outside the United Kingdom. It is a unilateral decision, and we have not had any negotiations with other countries regarding the use of this power.
Uzbekistan
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures (a) have been and (b) will be taken to ensure Uzbek officials banned from travelling to the European Union do not enter the United Kingdom. [30870]
Mr. McNulty:
A Statutory Instrument incorporating the recent European Union (EU) Common Position on
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Uzbekistan is currently being prepared and will be laid before Parliament without delay. This amending Order will enable all those identified in designated EU and UN instruments as subject to restrictive travel measures to be excluded from the UK. Until travel bans are designated by Order, provision exists in the Immigration Rules for leave to be refused or cancelled on non-conducive grounds.
Details of those senior Uzbek officials subject to restrictive travel measures are being placed on appropriate databases which are available to UK immigration officials at posts overseas and ports of entry.
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