Written Answers to Questions
Friday 12 May 2006
Home Department
Anti-Semitism
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the level of anti-Semitism in the UK. [57554]
Meg Munn: I have been asked to reply.
The Association of Chief Police Officers’ national community tension team (NCTT) regularly produces a Community Impact Assessment which contains an assessment on the state of community relations, this includes anti-Semitism. This material is not shared with the public, as it contains operational policing information. The NCTT liaises with the community security trust (CST) at the national level on behalf of the police service. Forces with significant Jewish communities liaise closely at the local level. The Home Office's assessment of community relations also draws upon advice from Government Offices who in turn are informed by a wide range of community sources.
Asylum/Immigration
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers were required to report to the police as a condition of their temporary admission on 1 April 2006. [68597]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not readily available as it would require the examination of individual case records which could be done only at disproportionate cost.
Ms Diana R. Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers there are in Kingston upon Hull North constituency; and how many of them are children. [69771]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 24 April 2006]: Statistics on the location of asylum seekers in the UK are linked to the available information on the support that the asylum seeker receives. The number of asylum seekers supported by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) are published on a quarterly and annual basis, broken down by local authority. The next publication covering the first quarter of 2006 will be published on the 23rd May 2006, and will be available on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics website at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html. Data on asylum seekers supported by NASS broken down by parliamentary constituency are also available from the Library. Separate arrangements exist for unaccompanied asylum seeking children who are supported by local
authorities; the local authority receives funding from the Home Office for this purpose. As at the end of March 2006 NASS was reimbursing Kingston upon Hull for providing support to 13 unaccompanied asylum seeking children, this figure is based on management information.
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times (a) a Minister and (b) an official has responded to an hon. Member that a file has been lost in an immigration case in the last 12 months for which figures are available; and what steps are being taken to prevent such files being lost. [69885]
Mr. McNulty: The information is not routinely kept and the cost would be disproportionate to provide the information requested. A range of measures including additional training and targeted exercises to locate files and update records is currently being pursued in order to reduce the number of files that become lost.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are taken by his Department to ensure that victims of torture who seek refuge in the UK, including those whose asylum applications have failed, have access to medical treatment and counselling. [70017]
Mr. McNulty: Asylum seekers receive NHS treatment free of charge while their claim is being considered. If they are to be dispersed, asylum claimants are advised on access to GP services in their dispersal area. If an asylum claim, including any appeal, is unsuccessful routine access to free NHS treatment will cease, although a course of treatment which has already started can be continued free of charge until the patient leaves the country. Immediately necessary treatment would not be withheld, regardless of whether the patient was chargeable or able to pay. In appropriate cases we will advise claimants of the existence of the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture which is able to provide care, treatment and counselling.
Criminal Justice System
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken to increase the priority given to victims by the criminal justice agencies; and what changes have been made to the criminal justice system (a) to take more account of the needs of victims and (b) to make the system more efficient and effective. [45205]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Government are committed to putting victims at the heart of the criminal justice system. In “Rebuilding Lives: supporting victims of crime” we set out our plans to improve support to victims of crime, by refocusing the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme to provide more financial help to those most seriously injured and immediate, practical help to other victims through delivering Victim Care Units.
The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime will help ensure victims get information about their case, and from April victims can enforce their rights through the
parliamentary ombudsman. We are in the final stages of appointing a new victim's advisory panel (the last panel has just completed its three-year tenure). The panel meets with CJS Ministers quarterly to advise on all aspects of services and support for victims of crime. We have increased the amount of money we spend on victims; Victim Support's funding has increased from under £12 million to £30 million .
We have set up 165 witness care units across England and Wales, giving victims and witnesses a single point of contact to help them through the court process. We have allocated over £3 million this year to improve accommodation facilities at court for witnesses. We have also consulted on proposals to pilot victims advocates in homicide cases. We have also established the prosecutors' pledge which sets out the level of service victims can expect to receive from prosecutors; reinforcing our commitment to victims.
Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 1 March 2006, Official Report, column 813W, on the Faith Communities Capacity Building Fund, what assessment he has made of the compatibility of the exclusion of non-religious belief groups from eligibility for grant money under the Faith Communities Capacity Fund with the provisions of the Human Rights Act 1998 relating to official discrimination between religious beliefs and non-religious beliefs; and if he will make a statement. [60296]
Meg Munn: I have been asked to reply.
Non-religious belief groups were eligible for the Faith Communities Capacity Building fund. All voluntary and community sector organisations including secular ones were entitled to apply for funding provided they could satisfy the criteria.
Illegal Residents (Northern Ireland)
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of how many people have been (a) residing illegally and (b) working illegally in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years. [66457]
Mr. McNulty: Although it is impossible to determine accurately how many people are in the UK illegally, the Home Office published a report which included an estimate of the size of the illegal migrant population in the UK in 2001. A copy of the research and development statistics on-line report 29/05 Sizing the unauthorised (illegal) migrant population in the United Kingdom in 2001 can be found at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/notes/june_summaries.html#rdsolr2905. The method used relies on data from the census undertaken every10 years, so it is not possible to produce an estimate for other years. Nor is it possible, using this methodology, to estimate the number living in Northern Ireland. No estimate has been made of the number of people who have been working illegally in Northern Ireland.
Migrant Workers
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many migrant worker work permits were granted to farms in Bassetlaw in the last three years, broken down by country of origin. [69738]
Mr. McNulty: Approvals for individuals to work in the UK agricultural sector are granted under the Work Permit Scheme, the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) and the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS). The following tables show the approval information for each of the schemes.
| Work Permit Scheme | |||
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | |
| Worker Registration Scheme | ||
| 2004 | 2005 | |
| Note: The Worker Registration Scheme has only operated from 1 May 2004. |
| Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme | ||
| 2004 | 2005 | |
| Note: Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme applicants are recruited by Home Office contracted operators and information is only collated for those workers registered on the scheme. Previous to 2004 records were not collected as to which area of the country the workers were deployed to and therefore information is only available for the Bassetlaw area as from that date. |
This data is not provided under National Statistics protocols. It has been derived from local management information and is therefore provisional and subject to change.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy when placing material in the Library in response to a parliamentary question to supply a copy of the material to the hon. Member who tabled the question; and if he will make a statement. [64212]
John Reid: Government best practice is that Departments should supply a copy of material placed in the Library in response to a parliamentary question to the hon. Member who tabled it.
Prisoners (Hampshire)
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many UK nationals (a) are serving and (b) have completed in each of the past five years, prison sentences in Hampshire for (i) murder, (ii) manslaughter, (iii) grievous bodily harm, (iv) rape and (v) sexual offences against children; and how many of those released in each category served half of their sentence or less. [68484]
Mr. Sutcliffe: [holding answer 11 May 2006]: The information requested on UK nationals being held in prisons in Hampshire by type of offence, as recorded on the central prison IT system, is provided in the
attached table. This IT system does not specify sexual offences against children as a separate category, so information is not available for those offences. The information requested on how many prisoners have been discharged from sentences from prisons in Hampshire is not available.
The only way in which an offender would have been released before the half way point would have been on home detention curfew which, for prisoners sentenced under the Criminal Justice Act 1991, is statutory restricted to those sentenced to less than four years and not convicted of a grave offence. Those who are eligible are then subject to risk assessment. So few of these offenders will have been released before the halfway point.
| Population of sentenced UK nationals in Hampshire prisons by offence and sentence length, 2002-06 | ||||||||
| June 2002 | June 2003 | |||||||
| All | Less than 4 years | 4 years to less than life | Life | All | Less than 4 years | 4 years to less than life | Life | |
| June 2004 | June 2005 | |||||||
| All | Less than 4 years | 4 years to less than life | Life | All | Less than 4 years | 4 years to less than life | Life | |
| March 2006 | ||||
| All | Less than 4 years | 4 years to less than life | Life | |
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