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Written Ministerial Statements
Monday 13 March 2006
TREASURY
ECOFIN
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown): Preparation of the European Council of 23–24 March:
Key Issues Paper—Council will adopt an ECOFIN Key Issues Paper to contribute to the spring European Council;
European Investment Bank Contribution to Jobs and Growth—ECOFIN will adopt a report on the EIB contribution to promoting growth and employment;
Better Regulation—There will be a progress report from the Commission and the Council will discuss a presidency paper setting out steps to reduce the administrative cost of community programmes;
Joint Report on Social Protection and Social Inclusion— ECOFIN will discuss a joint Council/Commission report on the open method of coordination on social protection and social inclusion.
Stability and Growth Pact—ECOFIN will adopt Council opinions on the stability and convergence programmes of Portugal, Ireland, the UK, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Spain and Italy. The Council will consider a recommendation to adopt a decision on the excessive deficit procedure for Germany and conclusions on the procedure for Italy.
General Budget of the European Union:
Discharge Procedure—Council will adopt a recommendation on the discharge procedure in respect of the implementation of the 2004 EU Budget;
Priorities for the 2007 Budget—Council will adopt conclusions on priorities for the 2007 EU Budget.
HEALTH
NHS Charges
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Jane Kennedy): Regulations have been laid before Parliament to increase National Health Service charges in England from 1 April 2006. There will be an increase in the prescription charge of 15p from £6.50 to £6.65 for each quantity of a drug or appliance dispensed.
The cost of prescription pre-payment certificates will rise to £34.65 for a four month certificate and £95.30 for an annual certificate. These offer savings for those needing more than five items in four months or 14 in one year.
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Prescription charges are expected to raise around £430 million for the NHS in 2006–07. Charges for elastic stockings and tights, wigs and fabric supports supplied through the Hospital Service will be increased similarly.
The prescription charge increase this year closely reflects the level of inflation. The other increases are pro-rata with the 15p increase. These increase will help maintain the contribution charges make to NHS funding.
NHS charges in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are a matter for the Devolved Administrations.
Details of the revised NHS charges have been placed in the Library.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Control Order Powers
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Charles Clarke): Section 14(1) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (the 2005 Act) requires me to report to Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of every relevant three-month period on my exercise of the control order powers during that period.
The 2005 Act came into force on 11 March 2005, and was renewed by affirmative resolution in both Houses of Parliament on 15 February 2006.
During the fourth period (11 December to 10 March) I made three orders with the permission of the court under section 3(1 )(a) of the 2005 Act—one on 21 December 2005 in respect of a foreign national and two on 24 February 2006 in respect of British citizens.
I have also renewed two control orders in accordance with section 2(4) (b) of the 2005 Act.
There are 11 control orders currently in force, three of which are in respect of British nationals.
Immigration (Electronic Monitoring)
The Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality (Mr. Tony McNulty): On 8 November 2005 I informed the House of our decision to reverse the policy requiring the Immigration Service to seek the consent of individuals before imposing an electronic monitoring regime as part of contact management plans. I also said I would provide a further update to the House on developments in the use of electronic monitoring in an immigration context.
Electronic monitoring takes three forms: telephone reporting using voice recognition technology, tagging and satellite tracking. A pilot during October 2004 to February 2005 focused on the practicalities of applying electronic monitoring in an immigration context. Since then, the Immigration Service has been working on how best to use electronic monitoring as part of our developing contact management strategy. Contact management, including electronic monitoring is a key aspect of the "New Asylum Model" as described in the five-year plan.
We have focused the use of telephone reporting on managing our contact with lower risk cases in conjunction with physical reporting at reporting centres. We are thereby able to:
manage better the throughput at our reporting centres in line with the intelligent reporting strategy;
maintain contact with those who find it difficult to travel to a reporting centre, for example, those who are ill or pregnant women immediately before and after the birth of their child; and
The use of tagging is being focused on higher risk cases. Among the key applications for tagging are cases where we have not detained, but where we wish to maintain a high level of contact and control because the circumstances of the case suggest that the individual may not comply, for example to avoid removal. The categories which meet those criteria include:
We will shortly be extending the use of tagging to those who cannot continue to be detained at Oakington and Colnbrook Reception Centres and Harmondsworth Removals Centre but who are shortly to be removed. We also intend to begin tagging people at reporting centres at the point of service of their dismissed appeal determination pending removal.
We have made less use of satellite tracking. This is partly because of the geographical limits on the availability of the technology to Greater Manchester, Hampshire and the West Midlands as part of a wider pilot sponsored by the National Offender Management Service which was only running in these areas. We will do further work to establish clearly whether this more intrusive method of contact management will deliver business benefits and provide value for money.
During the original pilot, in line with the requirement for consent, monitoring periods were generally set in a way which did not impact on an individual's movements, for example, monitoring periods of two hours early in the day, twice a week. By imposing more frequent monitoring periods and at different times of the day, we intend to demonstrate to those who are not detained that we intend to exercise a high level of control pending their removal.
In December 2005 the Immigration Service carried out an exercise at the Asylum Screening Units (ASUs) in Liverpool and Croydon to tag adult asylum applicants at the point of claim. By making clear the intention to tag the applicant our aim was to discourage unfounded applications for asylum. Eleven applicants—all of whom were liable to detention—were tagged during the week-long exercise, and the ASU have continued to refer claimants for tagging who are not detained. A total of 60 claimants at the ASUs had been tagged by the end of February 2006. For the purpose of the exercise we sought to tag only those claimants with settled addresses in view of the cost and logistical difficulties of inducting and re-inducting those moving between different properties run by emergency accommodation providers. However, as our aim is to send a clear message to
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unfounded claimants, we are working towards tagging all adult claimants at our ASUs who are not detained, including those who seek asylum support.
Tagging is not suitable in all cases where the substantive claim to asylum has yet to be considered. Cases where we would not seek to tag at the point of claim include certificated medical foundations cases and those who have been the victims of trafficking. Those cases may still be suitable for electronic monitoring, however, through telephone reporting to allow us to monitor compliance with residence requirements.
By February 2006, some 353 people had been inducted onto telephone reporting, which requires them to telephone the monitoring centre once a week, in lieu of reporting to an Immigration Reporting Centre. The number currently reporting, (net of those who are no longer subject to telephone reporting) is 260. We have inducted 192 people onto a tagging regime, of whom 154 are currently tagged. Of those no longer subject to electronic monitoring, 21 have been removed. Two left voluntarily. Five people were made subject to tracking orders, and two are currently being tracked.
The evaluation of the original trial on EM found that the overall compliance rate in terms of tagging and tracking was 68 per cent. The compliance rate for both tagging and telephone reporting is currently around 90 per cent.
Electronic monitoring provides the Immigration Service with a real alternative to detention while allowing them to manage the risk of non-compliance with reporting and residence restrictions according to the specific circumstances of a case. The Immigration Service will plan to apply electronic monitoring to higher numbers of cases next year as they continue to develop the initiative. I will update the House from time to time when those developments are significant.
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