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12 Dec 2005 : Column 1707W—continued

Asylum/Immigration

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 14 July 2005, Official Report, column 1215W, on asylum seekers, what recent reassessment he has made of this policy. [35323]

Mr. McNulty: The situation is unchanged. Asylum seekers who make their application for asylum in Northern Ireland may receive support, including accommodation, there. However Northern Ireland is not currently a dispersal area.

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many calls made to the hotline for hon. Members at the immigration and nationality directorate were made by each hon. Member in each year since 2001. [35586]

Mr. McNulty: The number of calls made to the immigration and nationality directorate's (IND) MPs' hotline are as follows:

	Number
2002	23,712
2003	26,952
2004	31,393
2005 (to 30 November)	31,546

Border Management Programme

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans he has to evaluate the effectiveness of the border management programme. [34729]

Mr. McNulty: The White Paper One Step Ahead—A 21st Century Strategy to Defeat Organised Crime" tasked HM Revenue and Customs, IND and the police
 
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to work together to develop options for providing more effective border controls through enhanced inter-agency co-operation.

The border management programme is intended to develop this capacity for more effective working between the agencies in order to maximise border security whilst minimising the impact on legitimate traffic. The programme commenced a number of trials in early 2005 to test various aspects of shared working at the border.

Emerging findings are being considered and plans for further development of the programme and implementation are currently being established. These will include arrangements for further review, and ongoing monitoring and evaluation processes.

Chronic Back Pain

Mr. Pelling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what initiatives are being taken in his Department to help civil servants with chronic back pain. [34972]

Mr. Charles Clarke: The Home Office with its Executive agencies has put in place a number of initiatives and arrangements to help civil servants with chronic back pain and promote employee health and wellbeing more generally. These initiatives include fast-track access to assessment and treatment for those with back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders, workstation assessments to ensure correct posture, and manual handling training to reduce the risk of back injury.

Correspondence

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letters
 
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from the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green of 5 July, 19 July and 5 October 2005, regarding a constituent Mr. Rastgouy; what the average response time to hon. Members' inquiries to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate is; and if he will make a statement. [28844]

Mr. McNulty: The Director-General of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) wrote on 21 November 2005. The average time taken in 2004–05 to answer Members' letters on IND-related matters was 32 days.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of 10 August from the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham about Mr. and Mrs. Bloxham of Sompting, West Sussex. [34197]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 2 December 2005]: Ireplied to the hon. Member on 6 December 2005.

Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letters of 9 September and 9 November 2005 from the hon. Member for Richmond Park concerning Mr. John Maurice Mubita, reference: M1203172. [35623]

Mr. McNulty: I replied to the hon. Member on 30 November 2005.

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Minister of State for Immigration will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green of 28 September 2005 on behalf of Mr. Fredjan Prenga (Home Office ref: P1044999/correspondence reference PREN004/CJB). [36399]

Mr. McNulty: The Director-General of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate replied to the hon. Member's letter of 28 September 2005 to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate on 27 October. I wrote to the hon. Member in reply to her letter to me of 2 November on 6 December.

Custodial Sentences (Southend)

James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) minors and (b) adults normally resident in Southend are serving custodial sentences. [34140]

Fiona Mactaggart: Information is not recorded centrally on the home address of prisoners in England and Wales. Information is, however, held on the court that a prisoner is committed to or sentenced at.

On 31 October 2005 there were 1,006 sentenced prisoners held in prison establishments in England and Wales who were sentenced at courts in Essex, as recorded on the Prison Service IT system. 880 of these were adults and 126 were young adults or juveniles (i.e.aged between 15 and 20).

Custody Leavers (Judicial Review)

Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many judicial reviews have been
 
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carried out in the last three years of local authority decisions about the care of young people coming out of custody. [35058]

Fiona Mactaggart: The requested information in not held centrally.

Departmental Properties

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was paid by his Department in 2004–05 in rent for properties in (a) total, (b) each (i) region and (ii) nation of the UK and (c) London. [35944]

Mr. Charles Clarke: This information is not held centrally and could be calculated only at disproportionate cost.

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was paid by his Department in rates to each local authority in the UK in 2004–05; and how much was paid in (a) each (i) nation and (ii) region of the UK and (b) London. [35989]

Mr. Charles Clarke: This information is not held centrally and could be calculated only at disproportionate cost.

Deportation

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals residing in Scotland have been (a) issued with deportation orders and (b) subject to forced returns to Iraq in each month since May 2003; and if he will make a statement. [34737]

Mr. McNulty: The Home Office does not currently hold or record this specific data required and is unable to collate data by areas within the United Kingdom to the level of detail requested to give an accurate response to this request.

Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act

John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many immigration cases there have been involving alleged domestic violence in a foreign country in the past three years. [35065]

Dr. Howells: I have been asked to reply.

There are no statistics kept on entry clearance applications made overseas by individuals who might have been involved in domestic violence.

Although it is possible that some individuals seeking entry clearance for the UK may be victims of domestic violence, there is no provision under the immigration rules for entry to the UK on these grounds. There is therefore no requirement or incentive for an applicant seeking entry clearance at any of our visa issuing missions overseas to declare that they have been subject to domestic violence, as their applications will be considered on other grounds.

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests have been made under the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 since its introduction; and if he will make a statement. [21977]

 
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Fiona Mactaggart: The measures within the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 are being introduced gradually and as resources become available. The new powers of arrest, which the Act creates under section 10(1) have not been implemented in England and Wales, so data on the number of arrests for domestic violence related incidents under these powers are not available. However, once the new powers of arrest are implemented data will be routinely collected.

Currently, as part of the Police Performance Assessment Framework, all police forces are required to collect data on the percentage of arrests for domestic violence where a power of arrest already exists. Additionally, from April 2005 we have introduced a Key Diagnostic Indicator, which will compare these figures against the Crown Prosecution Service figures for the number of prosecutions related to domestic violence. An analysis of the figures will be available on a quarterly basis from each Local Criminal Justice Board area.

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