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24 Apr 2006 : Column 853W—continued
Correspondence
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of 2 December 2005 from the hon. Member for Brent, East regarding Dr. Mohammed Salah Nabi. [64028]
Mr. McNulty: I wrote to the hon. Member on 19 April 2006.
DNA Database
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Government are taking to assess the deterrent effect of the DNA database on crime; and if he will make a statement. [64175]
Hazel Blears: It is not currently possible to quantify specific deterrent effects to any single given component of the investigative and prosecutorial processes. The Government have been, and is continuing to, evaluate the impact of increased use of DNA by the police, database growth and the impact on the investigation and detection of crime. The Home Office published a summary of what has been achieved through the Government's DNA Expansion Programme 2000–05 on 4 January 2006.
Identity Cards
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his statement of 18 January 2006, Official Report, column 833, what the evidential basis was for the assertion that the London School of Economics Report was written by the leading campaigner against identity cards. [62611]
Andy Burnham: My right hon. Friend the Prime Minster stated that he thought he was right in saying that the Identity Project Report, published by the London School of Economics' Department of Information Systems, had been written by a leading campaigner against identity cards. This is a reasonable conclusion given the close correlation between the contents of the report and the publicly expressed opinions of the individual who acted as project mentor/co-ordinator and of the organisation he is a director of.
Illegal Immigrants
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many employers in West Lancashire constituency have been prosecuted for employing illegal immigrants in each year since 1997. [64123]
Mr. McNulty:
The Court Proceedings Database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform shows that there have been no prosecutions in Lancashire for employing illegal immigrants between 1997 and the latest date for which published data is available—2004
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Immigration and Nationality Directorate
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff of the immigration and nationality directorate are based in (a) Scotland, (b) each of the English regions, (c) Wales, (d) Northern Ireland and (e) overseas, broken down by office location; and what the remit is of each office. [39935]
Mr. McNulty: The total number of staff employed and based in the UK is shown in table 1 and a breakdown of IND in English regions is presented in table 2.
A table indicating the numbers of staff based overseas is provided in annex A.
There are approximately 134 buildings, at least partially occupied, by the immigration and nationality directorate, within the UK. Some operational staff will also be based in police stations periodically as working practices indicate that co-located intelligence gathering is beneficial to both the immigration and police services.
Due to the large number of offices, and in some instances for security reasons, it is also not feasible to list the remit of each office. I can state that the larger estates such as Croydon and Liverpool, undertake functions that cut across several areas. These include operational programmes; casework—both general and asylum; appeals work; human resources, finance and IT support functions and building services. The smaller locations tend to undertake operational programmes but are supported by regional corporate services as appropriate.
| Full time equivalent: | Permanent | Non-permanent |
|---|---|---|
| England | 14,537 | 2,534 |
| Scotland | 256 | 10 |
| Wales | 83 | 6 |
| Northern Ireland | 5 | 1 |
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Indefinite Leave to Remain
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases have been affected by the suspension of casework for indefinite leave to remain applications made under the provisions of the European Community Association Agreement between March 2004 and February 2005; what the size of the backlog is; what the cost is of dealing with these cases; what steps his Department is taking to address the situation; when he expects the backlog to be cleared; and if he will make a statement. [64045]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 18 April 2006]: An estimated 3,248 European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) applications for indefinite leave to remain (ILR) were affected by the suspension of ECAA casework between 30 March 2004 and 14 February 2005.
This figure includes those cases lodged prior to 30 March 2004, which were put on hold on the date of suspension; those received during the suspension and those submitted since resumption of case consideration. There are currently 2,367 ECAA applications for ILR outstanding.
This information is provisional management information and may be subject to change.
Data on the costs of dealing with this specific category of application are not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Significant additional casework resource has already been allocated to this work. It remains the Department's aim, subject to intake levels, to reduce the backlog of ECAA applications to frictional levels by the end of 2006.
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether compensation will be available to businesses and individuals who have been adversely affected by the suspension of casework for indefinite leave to remain applications made under the provisions of the European Community Association Agreement between March 2004 and February 2005. [64047]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 18 April 2006]: The suspension was required to strengthen the regime for consideration of these applications and on that basis there are no plans to offer compensation.
Ministerial Visits
Mr. Amess:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which (a) probation offices,
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(b) prisons and (c) drug rehabilitation centres officials in his Department have visited since 1997; and for what purposes in each case. [64690]
Fiona Mactaggart: This information is not held centrally and would incur disproportionate costs in gathering this information.
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