| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
8 Jun 2006 : Column 806W—continued
Home Department
Alcohol Sales
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the negative price differential between alcoholic and soft drinks. [74612]
Mr. McNulty: None. However, we have been working with the drinks industry to raise standards of operating practice and support their principles and standards document which was published in November. This contains guidance on preventing irresponsible promotions and includes the recommendation that operators include a selection of soft drinks or low alcohol drinks at reduced prices during the happy hour. We have been working with all sectors of the trade to put this document into place.
Assets Recovery Agency
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 11 May 2006, Official Report, column 508W, on the Assets Recovery Agency, if he will break down the total value of realised assets for (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06 by type of assets realised. [74686]
Mr. Coaker: The information as regards realised assets in 2004-05 is set out in the table. I regret that the total sum of realised assets in 2004-05 given in my earlier reply, 11 May 2006, Official Report, column 508W, was understated by £0.158 million. I am now advised by the Assets Recovery Agency that the correct figure is £4.3 million. The agency’s annual report for 2005-06, which will set out progress in meeting last year’s targets, including the value of realised assets, will be laid before Parliament shortly.
| Value realised 2004-05 | |
| Asset type | £ million |
| (1) Cash covers bank accounts, money seized by other law enforcement and money held in solicitors and other client accounts etc. | |
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Assets Recovery Agency recovered assets equivalent to 100 per cent. of its budget in (a) 2004-05 and (b) 2005-06. [75313]
Mr. Coaker: The Agency did not recover assets equivalent to 100 per cent. of its budget for 2004-05 which was its second full year of operation. Civil recovery cases in the High Court can take over two years to complete litigation. This period is longer where respondents seek to use all their rights of appeal. The impact of legal challenges, although inevitable with new legislation, has delayed the progress of cases in the High Court. The Agency's Annual Report for 2005-06, which will set out progress in meeting last year's targets, will be laid before Parliament shortly.
Criminal Records Bureau
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the financial impact on voluntary organisations of their Registered Body status being removed by the Criminal Records Bureau. [74439]
Joan Ryan: Draft regulations were submitted to the Domestic Affairs Committee prior to being laid before Parliament. A full regulatory impact assessment was completed. It was acknowledged that small organisations would probably not be able to satisfy the minimum threshold and would need to approach other organisations in order to obtain checks on their employees and incur the associated costs. However, in some cases it was concluded that the costs of using such an organisation would be lower than the administrative costs of running and maintaining a small volume Registered Body.
The proposed changes arose from a key recommendation of the 2002 Independent Review of the CRB and were supported by the recent Bichard Inquiry. The intention is to make the Registered Body network more professional and more experienced in the disclosure process which will allow the CRB to ensure that the network of users is proficient in the security and policies of the CRB.
As part of the continuous consultation process, the CRB are working with the voluntary and community sector (VCS) to resolve issues about access to the disclosure service. To this end, there are several voluntary and not-for-profit Umbrella Bodies (UBs) that serve the VCS and details of these are available on an improved web page of the CRB website. Charges by these UBs are comparatively low and in some cases, services are free to volunteers. Access to the disclosure service will be maintained by this UB network. By using voluntary or not-for-profit UBs, the cost of accessing the disclosure service will be kept to an absolute minimum for voluntary organisations and, in many cases, the charges will be less than the administrative costs associated with direct registration with the CRB.
The CRB will provide advice, guidance and support to organisations on the options available to access the disclosure service before their registration is cancelled due to low volume.
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many criminal record checks were carried out (a) for people undertaking voluntary work and (b) for voluntary organisations in each year since 1998; [74440]
(2) how many voluntary organisations (a) are registered bodies for the purposes of the Criminal Records Bureau, (b) lost their registered body status as a result of not meeting the minimum number of checks per annum in each year since 1998 and (c) applied to be registered bodies in each year. [74441]
Joan Ryan: The number of criminal record checks carried out by the Criminal Records Bureau for people undertaking voluntary work since the disclosure service was launched in 2002 is as follows:
| Number | |
Information is not available to answer the hon. Member’s question about the number of checks carried out for voluntary organisations in each year since 2002.
There are 350 registered bodies who have defined themselves as voluntary organisations which are registered for the purposes of processing disclosures. To date, the registered body status of 66 voluntary organisations is currently under review initially as a result of not meeting the minimum number of checks in any 12-month period. As part of this review there will be an appeals process. The basis of a successful appeal will be on the specific situation of each organisation and will be based on various criteria such as the services the group supplies, whether it has any sector speciality and the number of other organisations
in the area. The number of voluntary organisations which applied to be registered bodies in each year is as follows:
| Number | |
Deportations
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals are held as convicted prisoners in (a) Aylesbury Young Offenders Institution, (b) Grendon Prison, (c) Springhill Prison and (d) Woodhill Prison; how many such prisoners were convicted of each category of offence; in the case of how many such prisoners the trial judge recommended that deportation be considered at the end of the custodial sentence; and if he will make a statement. [67675]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information requested on foreign nationals being held as convicted prisoners in each of the prisons listed, by type of offence and as recorded on the Prison IT system, is provided in the table.
Information about those detained in the prisons listed who have been recommended for deportation is not held centrally. The Immigration And Nationality Directorate are in the process of introducing a system to enable this information to be routinely collated.
| Foreign national convicted prisoners held in prisons in Buckinghamshire on 31 March 2006, by type of offence | |||
| Prison | |||
| Offence | Aylesbury | Grendon/Spring Hill | Woodhill |
| Note: Includes sentenced and convicted unsentenced prisoners. | |||
Family Indefinite Leave to Remain Exercise
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals who have been granted leave to remain under the Government’s Family Indefinite Leave to Remain Exercise have had (a) a claim for asylum refused and (b) a claim for asylum refused and exhausted their rights of appeal. [73778]
Mr. Byrne: The requested information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records.
Fire Sprinklers
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the policy is of his Department with regard to the fitting of fire sprinkler systems in (a) forensic hospitals and (b) prisons. [71021]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Home Department is responsible for fire safety policy in prisons, and the Department of Health has this responsibility for high and medium security psychiatric hospitals.
In prison cells, the usefulness of sprinklers is unproven as they pose practical and operational implementation difficulties and are costly and difficult to install, particularly in existing establishments. A policy regarding the use of sprinklers is to be determined in the context of an overall prison fire safety strategy. Sprinklers have been fitted in some prisons in high-risk areas such as kitchens and hospitals.
In the three high security psychiatric hospitals, no sprinklers have been fitted. The design guide for medium secure psychiatric units does not specifically mention sprinklers. Instead, building designs include measures such as fire compartmentation and easy horizontal evacuation to places of safety.
Foreign Prisoners
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what procedures the UK immigration service follows relevant to the handling of cases where a Scottish judge has recommended a foreign national on sentencing to be deported on release; [67584]
(2) what discussions his Department has had with the Scottish Prison Service on foreign national prisoners recommended for deportation who are serving their sentence in a Scottish prison. [67589]
Mr. Byrne: I refer to the written ministerial statement made by my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary on 23 May.
Free on Licence Prisoners
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for how many of the prisoners free on licence following life sentences his Department does not have addresses. [71254]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
All life sentence prisoners are released on licence on the authority of the independent Parole Board. The licensee must comply with a number of specific licence conditions, including a requirement to be supervised by a probation officer and to live only at approved addresses. Although the supervision element of the licence may be removed after a minimum of four
years, the life licence remains in force for the rest of the person’s life and can be revoked at any time if such action is necessary on risk grounds.
A total of 1,565 life licensees were under active supervision on 31 March 2006 and their addresses are known to the relevant probation areas. In 23 other cases where the life licence has been revoked, the life licensees are unlawfully at large pending their arrest and return to custody. The police are notified when prisoners abscond and their details are entered on the Police National Computer.
Immigration and Nationality Directorate
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Immigration and Nationality Directorate will reply to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green of 7 February 2006 regarding a constituent Mrs. Mackay (née Lema) of Victoria Road, London, Home Office Reference L1115499. [75603]
Mr. Byrne: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate wrote to the hon. Member on 24 February 2006.
Immigration/Asylum
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum detainees who escaped from the Yarl’s Wood detention centre on 14 February 2002 have subsequently been detained. [73924]
Mr. Byrne: Many records were burnt or destroyed on the night of the fire and, to the best of our knowledge, the following figures are correct. Of the 23 escapees 16 have been relocated. Of these, nine have been removed, four re-detained (three of whom were subsequently released), one reported to Croydon enforcement unit voluntarily and was released and two were granted temporary release. The whereabouts of seven remain unknown. Decisions on the 16 were made in line with the casework criteria as it applies to their individual circumstances.
Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detainees held at the Yarl’s Wood detention centre on 14 February 2002 were unaccounted for following the fire at the centre that day. [73926]
Mr. Byrne: 23 detainees were unaccounted for in the immediate aftermath of the fire. Stephen Shaw published brief details of these people in his comprehensive report of the fire and disturbance.
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of people arriving in the UK on student visas who (a) returned and (b) did not return to their country of origin upon completion of their studies in the last 5 years. [74124]
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |