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18 July 2006 : Column 399W—continued
Custodial Education
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of education was for children and young adults in custody in each of the last 30 years; what proportion of the total cost of their detention was represented by spending on their education in each such year; and what was the per capita spending on education in each such year. [86204]
Mr. Sutcliffe: This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Custody
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will consider the merits of establishing a public inquiry into (a) the deaths of children in custody and (b) the role of sentencing policy in such cases; and if he will make a statement. [86229]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
Any death of a child or young person in custody is thoroughly investigated. (Fortunately such deaths are comparatively rare.) The main form of public inquiry into any death is the inquest. Developments in case law in recent years have greatly extended the scope of inquests into deaths in custody,
so that they can now inquire into a wide range of possible contributory factors (although sentencing policy will rarely, if ever, be a directly contributory factor to a death in an individual case). In addition, the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman conducts his own independent inquiry into any death of a young person in a young offender institution or a secure training centre; and the Local Safeguarding Children’s Board is likely to commission a serious case review under Part 8 of the joint Department for Education and Skills/Home Office/Department of Health guidance Working Together to Safeguard Children (1999). Many of the young people who become involved in serious or persistent offending are at risk of self-harm, whether or not they are in custody. It is not possible to quantify how many young people’s health, including mental health, has been positively assisted by care received while in custody. There is no reason to believe that sentencing policy is increasing the rate of mortality of young people under 18.
Departmental Staff
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals work for his Department in the UK. [73625]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office, which includes the Immigration and Nationality Directorate and the Prison Service but not its other Agencies, is currently employing one foreign national under the terms of the 1955 Aliens’ Employment Act.
Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff changes there have been in the private offices of Departmental Ministers of State in each year since 1999. [73672]
Mr. Byrne: This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate costs.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 7 June 2006, Official Report, column 732-34W, on departmental staff, how many staff in his Department have had two or more periods of sick leave of less than five days in two or more of the years for which he has provided figures. [84036]
Mr. Byrne: I am advised that the number of staff in his Department that have had two or more periods of sick leave of less than five days in two or more years are show in the following table.
Deportations
Peter Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance he issues to staff escorting deported foreign nationals back to their country of origin on the way in which these deportees are (a) handled and (b) treated; and if he will make a statement. [68798]
Mr. Byrne: Staff escorting deported foreign nationals back to their country of origin are certificated Detainee Custody Officers, who are fully trained in the appropriate handling and treatment of those detainees in their care.
The conduct of the escorts is governed by the contractor’s own operating procedures. These are approved by the Contract Monitor, a Crown Servant, who closely reviews the contractor’s performance.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign criminals undergoing consideration for deportation require a translator; and at what cost. [69563]
Mr. Byrne: The information as requested in each answer is not currently available in the format requested and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
EU Legislation
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what EU legislation the UK has opted (a) out of and (b) into in the areas of (i) asylum, (ii) legal migration, (iii) visa and border controls and (iv) civil law under the rules governing Title IV of the Treaty establishing the European Community. [73168]
Mr. Byrne:
For legislation opted into in the areas of asylum and immigration, I refer the hon. Member to the answer that my right hon. Friend the Member for Kilmarnock and Loudoun (Des Browne) gave to the
right hon. Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory), on 7 March, 2005, Official Report, column 1596W, and to the answer that my right hon. Friend the Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire, South (Mr. Alexander) gave to the hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) on 1 December 2005, Official Report, column 737W.
Since 1 December 2005 the UK has opted into the following two measures in asylum: a recommendation for a council decision authorising the Commission to negotiate a readmission agreement between the European Community and Russia; and a proposal by the Council establishing a Mutual Information Procedure. The UK has not opted into the following proposals in the area of Civil Law: proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and cooperation in matters relating to maintenance obligations; and a proposal for a European Parliament and Council Regulation on the law applicable to contractual obligations.
There has been no legislation to decide to opt into since 1 December 2005 in legal immigration or visa and border controls.
Failed Asylum Seekers
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those local authorities who have withdrawn support and accommodation from failed asylum seeker families in addition to those councils piloting implementation of section 9 of the Asylum and Immigration Act (Treatment of Claimants etc.) 2004. [79292]
Mr. Byrne: Support may have been withdrawn by local authorities supporting families under the Interim Provisions where the authority identified that a family had been granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR) under the Family ILR concession or had otherwise been granted leave to remain; mainstream support is available in such cases. There have been no withdrawals of asylum support under section 9 since December 2005 when the pilot commenced its evaluation phase.
Foreign Criminals
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many foreign national offenders there were in UK prisons in each year since 1997; and what percentage this represents of the total prison population; [68720]
(2) how many offenders whose nationality is unknown are in UK prisons; and how many offenders whose nationality was unknown there were in (a) 2001, (b) 2002, (c) 2003, (d) 2004 and (e) 2005; [68728]
(3) how many foreign national offenders there are in UK prisons; what their country of origin is; and for what offences they are imprisoned. [68733]
John Reid:
Information on the population in prison establishments by nationality is published in annual and quarterly Home Office statistical publications. The figures have been drawn from the prisons administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when
processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system.
Information on the number of foreign nationals and those with nationality not recorded, for the years 2001 to 2005, held in prison establishments in England and Wales is given in table 8.4 and 8.4a of Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004.
Information on the nationality of foreign nationals held in prison establishments in England and Wales is given in table 2.14 of Offender Management Caseload Statistics Quarterly Brief October to December 2005.
The number of sentenced foreign nationals in prison establishments in England and Wales for each offence group is given in table 8.29 of Offender Management Caseload Statistics 2004.
Information from these tables is given as follows.
Information on Scotland and Northern Ireland is a matter for my colleagues in the Scottish Executive and Northern Ireland Office.
| Population in prison establishments( 1) by nationality, England and Wales as at 30 June each year | ||||||
| Number of persons | ||||||
| 2001 | 2002 | 2003( 2) | 2004 | 2005( 3) | 2006( 4) | |
| (1) Excludes police cells. Includes Immigration Removal Centres at Dover, Haslar and Lindholme managed by the Prison Service on behalf of IND. Includes remand, sentenced and non criminals. (2) As at 28 February 2003. (3) Further quality assurance of the population data was undertaken in 2005 resulting in revised figures from June 2005 onwards. This has affected the statistics on nationality. The number with unrecorded nationality has decreased by 400, the number of British nationals has increased by 300 and the number of foreign nationals has increased by 100 from previously published figures. (4) As at 31 May 2006. (5) 0.3 per cent. of the immediate custodial sentenced population has an unrecorded nationality. Sources: The figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, and so is not necessarily accurate to the last whole number as shown here. | ||||||
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign prisoners who have served custodial sentences and who have been recommended for deportation were held in immigration detention centres on 20 June 2006. [83092]
Mr. Byrne: The Immigration and Nationality Directorate does not collate information in the format requested and it could only be produced in the format requested at disproportionate cost. However, I am able to advise the hon. Member that 469 former prisoners who had completed their sentence were detained in immigration detentions centres, pending deportation, on 17 June 2006. This figure rose to 497 on 24 June 2006.
Foreign Students
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set up a sponsors register for academic institutions to allow foreign students to come to the UK to study. [83087]
Mr. Byrne: We intend to introduce a register of sponsors for academic institutions as part of Tier 4 of the Points-Based System for Managed Migration.
HM Prison Service
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of senior operational managers in HM Prison Service in each area achieved an exceed rating on their staff performance and development record in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [85479]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table shows information from the Corporate Database on the proportion of performance levels recorded as “exceeded” for senior operational managers in each year from 2001-02 to 2004-05. Comprehensive information on performance levels for 2005-06 is not yet available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
| Performance levels recorded for senior operational managers | ||||
| Percentage | ||||
| Area | 2004-05 | 2003-04 | 2002-03 | 2001-02 |
| Note: Senior operational managers are senior manager grades A to D. Percentages are calculated as proportion of all recorded SPDR markings for those grades. Where no marking is recorded the data are omitted. | ||||
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