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18 July 2006 : Column 418W—continued
Road Safety
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many motorists have (a) three, (b) six and (c) nine penalty points on their licences. [82442]
Mr. Coaker: The information is not collected by my Department.
I have been advised that it is available only at disproportionate cost from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
Schlumberger Sema Ltd.
Mark Fisher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times his departmental officials have met Schlumberger Sema Ltd. [11150]
Mr. Byrne: Departmental officials in the Home Office Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) and Schlumberger Sema Ltd have had a series of commercial relationships since 1996.
Security Industry Authority
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his estimate is of the number of unregistered door supervisors and security guards operating in (a) each English region and (b) the Tees Valley. [63132]
Mr. Coaker: It is not possible to calculate the numbers of licensed or unlicensed security guards and door supervisors on a regional basis. The national figures for England and Wales are as follows. The Security Industry Authority (SIA) estimate that there are about 183,000 people who require a licence to work in the private security industry. As of 5 July, the SIA had accepted 162,452 complete applications, granted 119,653 licences, and refused 4,231. The remaining 38,568 applications were in the SIA’s processing system. On that date there were also 213 companies with Approved Contractor status legally able to deploy about 15,450 of their staff while their licence applications were being processed.
Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his latest estimate is of the number of people employed and working in the security industry who have not yet received a Security Industry Authority licence. [71953]
Mr. Coaker: The Security Industry Authority’s (SIA’s) most recent estimate is that about 183,000 individuals require a licence to work in the private security industry. As at 5 July, the SIA had accepted 162,452 complete applications, granted 119,653 licences, and refused 4,231. The remaining 38,568 applications were in the SIA’s processing system. On that date there were also 213 companies with Approved Contractor status legally able to deploy about 15,450 of their staff while their licence applications were being processed.
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Security Industry Authority in awarding licences to security personnel; and if he will make a statement. [74129]
Mr. Coaker: The Security Industry Authority (SIA) estimate that there are about 183,000 people who require a licence to work in the private security industry. As of 5 July, the SIA had accepted 162,452 complete applications, granted 119,653 licences, and refused 4,231. The remaining 38,568 applications were in the SIA’s processing system. On that date there were also 213 companies with Approved Contactor status legally able to deploy about 15,450 of their staff while their licence applications were being processed.
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of contracted security guards that are currently working without licences. [79301]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 21 June 2006]: The Security Industry Authority’s (SIA’s) most recent estimate is that about 183,000 individuals require a licence to work in the private security industry. As at 5 July, the SIA had accepted 162,452 complete applications, granted 119,653 licences, and refused 4,231. The remaining 38,568 applications were in the SIA’s processing system. On that date there were also 213 companies with Approved Contractor status legally able to deploy about 15,450 of their staff while their licence applications were being processed.
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of time taken to process licence applications for operatives working in the private security industry was from the date the application was submitted to the date the licence was issued, in each month since April 2005. [79304]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 21 June 2006]: The Security Industry Authority (SIA) do not calculate the average processing times for applications. Some, such as those involving overseas criminal records checks, unavoidably take a considerable time. The SIA have a published target of processing 80 per cent. of all applications within six weeks, measured from the date that a properly completed application enters the processing system to the date that a licence is issued.
Since September 2005, there has been a backlog of applications that have been waiting to enter the system. These have added an additional time of between four and six weeks to the process, so it is now taking up to 12 weeks to process most applications.
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the licence applications submitted by operatives working in the private security industry (a) are currently being processed, (b) have been granted and (c) were returned to the applicants because they were completed incorrectly. [79305]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 21 June 2006]: On 5 July, the Security Industry Authority (SIA) had 38,568 applications in their processing system, and had granted 119,653 licences. Over the past six months, the average monthly number of incomplete applications returned to applicants has been about 2,800.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many licence applications were held for processing by the Security Industry Authority on 1 March. [62302]
Mr. Coaker: 23,413 licence applications were held in the Security Industry Authority’s processing system on 1 March 2006.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of time taken was to process applications for Security Industry Authority licences in the latest period for which figures are available. [82490]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 4 July 2006]: The Security Industry Authority (SIA) do not calculate the average processing times for applications. Some, such as those involving overseas criminal records checks, unavoidably take a considerable time. The SIA have a published target of processing 80 per cent. of all applications within six weeks, measured from the date that a properly completed application enters the processing system to the date that a licence is issued.
Since September 2005, there has been a backlog of applications that have been waiting to enter the system. These have added an additional time of between four and six weeks to the process, so it is now taking up to 12 weeks to process most applications.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for Security Industry Authority licences are being processed. [82491]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 4 July 2006]: As of 5 July, the Security Industry Authority had 38,568 applications in its processing system.
Greg Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to allow applicants for Security Industry Authority licences to work if the processing of their licences is delayed. [82492]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 4 July 2006]: Applicants who have been trained and whose applications are being processed by the Security Industry Authority can be legally deployed under the Licence Dispensation arrangements available to approved contractors. On 5 July there were approximately 15,450 people who could be legally deployed under Licence Dispensation.
Somalia
Martin Linton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Somali nationals arriving on flights from (a) Nairobi and (b) Addis Ababa claimed asylum at Heathrow in 2005. [84813]
Mr. Byrne: Only locally collated management information, which might be subject to change and does not represent national statistics, is available.
In 2005, a total of 29 persons claiming to be Somali nationals arrived at Heathrow and claimed asylum, of whom 25 travelled to the United Kingdom from Nairobi and four travelled from Addis Ababa.
Staff Discipline
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many officials in his Department (a) have been suspended, (b) have been dismissed and (c) have had their responsibilities significantly changed in each of the last three months. [77076]
John Reid: The data available in respect of (a) and (b) are set out in the following table. Data for (c) could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
| 2006 | Suspended | Dismissed |
Figures are as of 14 June 2006 and include staff in the central Home Office and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
The figures for HMPS could not be obtained except at disproportionate cost.
Staff Misconduct
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many allegations of staff misconduct have been (a) received and (b) investigated in each directorate of his Department in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [76919]
John Reid: I am advised that available figures are as follows:
| Directorate | |||
| Central HO | IND | HMPS | |
Student Visas
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many overseas student visa holders there were in the UK in each of the last five years; and in how many cases in each year the student (a) (i) did not register and (ii) failed to attend a course and (b) worked more than 20 hours a week. [75224]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office does not hold central records of student offenders.
Superannuation Liability
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what total amount of employers’ normal contributions accruing superannuation liability charge has been accounted for by his Department in each of the last five years for which data are available. [61364]
Mr. Byrne: The amount of employers’ accruing superannuation liability charges (ASLC) in respect of members of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme is detailed as follows, for the last four years. The figures represent the total ASLC paid by the Home Office, its agencies, non-departmental public bodies and all other public bodies on the Home Office payroll.
The Home Office changed its payroll system during the 2001-02 financial year. To collate ASLC figures for this year would require more manual checking and verification using paper records from the previous payroll system. The information for this year could therefore be provided only at disproportionate cost.
| £ | |
| Note: From 1 October 2002 new entrants have been able to opt for a partnership pension account, a stakeholder arrangement with an employer contribution element. Employers’ contributions to partnership pension accounts are not included in the above figures. | |
Translation Services
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost was of translation and interpreting services for foreign nationals (a) in prisons in England and Wales and (b) supervised by the probation service. [77415]
John Reid: Neither the Prison Service nor the probation service separately record this category of expenditure.
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