| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
18 May 2006 : Column 1207W—continued
(7) how many places in Scotland were designated as (a) a supplying establishment, (b) a breeding establishment and (c) a scientific procedure establishment under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 at the end of 2004. [70964]
Joan Ryan: Comprehensive statistics of scientific procedures on living animals in Great Britain of animals carried out under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 are published annually. Copies of the publication for 2004 (Cm 6713) can be found in the House Library.
The data are not collected, stored or presented in a way enabling them to be easily broken down between England, Wales and Scotland as the 1986 Act is administered by the Home Office for the whole of Great Britain (it is administered separately in Northern Ireland). A special exercise has therefore been conducted to isolate the information requested in relation to Scotland.
As at 31 December 2004, there were 34 establishments in Scotland designated as places where licensed scientific procedures using animals may be conducted. Of these, 19 were also designated as breeding establishments and 10 as supplying establishments.
In 2004, 114 project licences were granted in Scotland under the 1986 Act and a total of 510 project licences were in force in Scotland at the end of 2004. Of these, 196 were categorised in the mild severity band, 288 moderate, 11 substantial and 15 unclassified.
The 1986 Act requires that all experiments shall be carried out under local or general anaesthesia unless the Secretary of State judges that the anaesthesia would be more traumatic to the animals than the experiment itself, or that anaesthesia is incompatible with the objective of the experiment.
In 2004, 61 per cent. of the regulated procedures carried out in Scotland during 2004 were conducted without any form of anaesthesia. 15 per cent. of procedures carried out in Scotland in 2004 used genetically modified animals and four per cent used animals with a harmful genetic defect. 69 per cent. of the regulated procedures were carried out for fundamental and applied studies other than toxicology. 20 per cent. were for toxicity tests, or other safety and efficacy evaluation.
Two infringements of the 1986 Act were reported from designated establishments in Scotland during 2004. No prosecutions resulted.
Asylum Seekers
Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his Department has proposed to Birmingham city council that asylum seekers accommodated by the council should be provided with free (a) televisions and (b) television licences; and whether Birmingham city council has made representations to his Department on this issue. [70857]
Mr. McNulty: Accommodation providers contracting with the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) to house supported asylum seekers are required to provide accommodation that meets the minimum standards set out in the NASS Statement of Requirements, a copy of which is in the Libraries of the House. The Statement of Requirements, which is a schedule to the NASS accommodation contract, does not require providers, in meeting those standards, to supply asylum seekers with a television or TV licence.
Birmingham city council has not made any representations to the Home Office on this issue.
Deportation
Mr. Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will instigate an immediate inquiry into the manner of the recent deportation of the Dar family from Bootle, Merseyside to Pakistan; and what guidance he has issued on (a) the provision of medical treatment, (b) the conduct of officials, (c) the quality of transport, (d) access to legal advice and (e) access to the relevant hon. Member with respect to deportees from the UK. [70743]
Mr. McNulty: It is not considered that an inquiry into this case is needed as there is no evidence of any deviation from the policies that should be adhered to in cases of this nature.
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Government is taking to deport illegal immigrants. [70746]
Mr. McNulty: The Government have a number of measures in place to tackle illegal immigrants and ensure the removal of individuals who have no basis of stay in the UK and these include; The Assisted Voluntary Returns programme: the increased use of reporting, electronic monitoring, tagging and voice recognition; joint intelligence led operations with the police to maintain contact; increased use of chartered flights; working in partnership with countries and governments overseas to secure appropriate travel documentation.
Domestic Violence
Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what provision is available in (a) West Yorkshire and (b) Wakefield constituency to deal with domestic violence. [54281]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I refer the hon. Member to the previous answer provided to the right hon. Member for Normanton (Ed Balls) on 5 December 2005, Official Report, column 980W. This details provision for domestic violence within both West Yorkshire and Wakefield.
Group 4 Securicor
Kelvin Hopkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Answer of 15 February 2006, Official Report, column 2126W, on Group 4 Securicor, what the value of contracts is expected to be in each region. [55671]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The latest available information suggests that in the financial year 2005-06 the total value of the contracts awarded to Group 4 Securicor for electronic monitoring, broken down by region, is expected to be as in the following table:
| Region | £ million |
Home Detention Curfews
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offenders in Hertfordshire were on home detention curfews (HDCs) in 2004-05; and what proportion of these offenders failed to complete the HDC period successfully. [49332]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested, as recorded on the Prison Service IT system, is provided in the following table.
| Number of persons released from prisons in Hertfordshire( 1) on Home Detention Curfews (HDC) in 2004-05 and percentage of those offenders who failed to complete the HDC period | |||
| The Mount( 2) | 2004 | 2005 | Total |
| (1) The question has been answered to give the number of prisoners released from Hertfordshire prisons; information on offenders from Hertfordshire who have been released on HDC is not held centrally. (2 )Total for Hertfordshire. |
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many places were occupied in (a) probation hostels and (b) voluntary sector hostels in (i) England and (ii) Wales where the offender was known to the Multi-Agency Public Protection panel on the latest date for which figures are available. [52316]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The data in the table relate to Approved Premises, formerly bail and probation hostels, in England and Wales. Data are not collected centrally on other types of hostel accommodation outside the Approved Premises Estate which may accommodate ex-offenders.
IND Procedures
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what enforcement action is taken against those who are required to report to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate and who miss two appointments in a row; and if he will make a statement. [70968]
Mr. McNulty: The operational response to any failure to comply with a condition of temporary admission will depend upon all the circumstances of the case. Sometimes this can be achieved by writing to applicants and reminding them of their obligation to observe the conditions attached to their temporary admission, but in more serious cases detention or prosecution may be appropriate.
A programme is currently underway whereby two successive failures to report leads to expiry of the Application Registration Card and in turn to loss of access to asylum support. Access to support can be regained simply by resumption of reporting.
Leyhill Open Prison
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many escapes there have been from Leyhill open prison in each quarter since Q1 1999; what original offences were committed by each person who escaped; and if he will make a statement. [45593]
Mr. Sutcliffe: There have been 393 prisoner absconds from Leyhill prison since 1999. Data on the convictions of those who absconded are given in the following table. The total number of absconds is not equal to the
total number of offences. There is a shortfall of four offences, due to double entry of incidents. The information is held on an annualised basis, and to break it down on a quarterly basis could only be carried out at disproportionate cost. The data have been extracted from the prison service incident reporting system (IRS). IRS has a number of inconsistencies and is currently under review.
As soon as a prisoner is found to have absconded from an open prison the local police are informed immediately. The prisoner's security category is reviewed when the prisoner is recaptured and returned to an appropriate closed prison.
| Convictions of prisoners absconding from Leyhill prison between 1999 and 2005 | ||||||
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |