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Crown Dependencies
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the effects on the Crown Dependencies of Protocol 3 of the 1972 Act of Accession; and if she will make a statement. [84932]
Ms Harman: I have not made any such assessment, however the governments of the Crown Dependencies have confirmed that they are satisfied that the Protocol has achieved the purposes for which it was established in 1972, that is the free flow of goods between the Islands and the European Community.
Departmental Premises (Security)
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what measures are in place to ensure that no illegal immigrants are employed in the manned guarding of her Department’s premises. [80803]
Ms Harman: My Department uses a mix of in-house and contract security guards.
Where security guards are recruited directly to provide in-house services, recruitment is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Service Commissioners Code.
Two suppliers have provided manned guarding services to all Crown and county courts since 2000. Another supplier provides manned guarding services to offices on the DCA HQ estate. Under the terms of their respective contracts, these suppliers are required to carry out security vetting of personnel they propose using.
My Department assumed responsibility for magistrates courts in April 2005, many of which have contracts for manned guarding services awarded prior to this date. Information on individual contractual arrangements is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
A national procurement exercise covering all courts in England and Wales, which will standardise the contractual arrangements including vetting requirements, will begin later this year.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether her Department has (a) directly and (b) indirectly employed illegal immigrants as security guards. [80812]
Ms Harman: In 2005, an individual employed as a security guard by Her Majesty’s Courts Service, an Executive Agency of the Department, was found to be an illegal immigrant. His status was discovered in the process of an immigration officer's investigation, and he was found to have provided false information in order to obtain documents that showed him to be fit for employment. He was dismissed.
Departmental Staff
David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many of her staff are (a) under and (b) over 55 years of age. [77300]
Ms Harman: The statistics are provided as at31 December 2005 as staff headcount:
| Headcount | |
| Note: Data
on civil service entrants has been collected by the Cabinet Office on
an annual basis. Previously published data on entrants has been based
on Departments submitting returns on a ‘Mandate’ or
summary level basis. Data on entry age is only available from
Departments’ records of individual civil servants, as civil
service statistics does not include this information for all
Departments. | |
David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many people over the age of 55 years have been recruited into her Department in each of the last three years. [77301]
Ms Harman: The statistics for the last three financial years are set out in the table as follows.
| Financial year | Total |
| (1)
The figures do not include the magistrates courts prior to 1 April
2005. | |
Early Retirement
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many departmental employees have taken early retirement due to ill-health in each of the past five years for which figures are available. [46751]
Vera Baird: The number of employees who have taken early retirement due to ill-health in each of the last five years is set out as follows. These figures are for the period April to March for each of the years shown.
| Number | |
Family Courts
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what measures she has taken to increase confidence in family courts. [84555]
Ms Harman: I refer my hon. Friend to my written statement of 11 July 2006, Official Report, column 60WS.
Home Repossessions
Chris Huhne: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many court orders have been made for the repossession of homes in (a) Eastleigh constituency and (b) each district in(i) Hampshire, (ii) Southampton and (iii) Portsmouth in each year since 1987. [84659]
Ms Harman: The following table shows the number of mortgage possession orders made in countycourts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (includes Aldershot and Farnham, Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Newport) since 1987. These are the only county courts in Hampshire andIsle of Wight that deal with mortgage repossession matters.
The civil procedure rules provide that all claims for the repossession of land must be commenced in the district in which the land is situated. However, these county courts cover areas that are not necessarily consistent with other administrative or constituency boundaries, and therefore for instance repossessions at Portsmouth county court may relate to properties in other constituencies besides Portsmouth.
These figures do not indicate how many houses have been repossessed through the courts, since not all the orders will have resulted in the issue and execution of warrants of possession.
| Number of mortgage( 1) possession orders made in Hampshire county and the Isle of Wight county, 1987-2005 | ||||||||||
| Possession orders made( 2) | ||||||||||
| 1987( 3) | 1988( 3) | 1989( 3) | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | |
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