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18 Oct 2006 : Column 1296W—continued
Criminal Justice
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his oral statement of 20 July 2006, Official Report, column 472, on criminal justice, what estimate he has made of the total cost of building 8,000 more prison places; when the first of these will be operational; and when the full 8,000 will be operational. [90204]
John Reid: Estimated capital costs for the 8,000 place expansion programme are around £1.5 billion. Estimated annual running costs are expected to be around £0.35 billion once the programme is completed. The delivery of these places will take place over six years
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his oral statement of 20 July 2006, Official Report, column 472, on criminal justice, what estimate he has made of the total number of prison places which will be available in each of the next five years. [90205]
John Reid: We have a current building programme that when completed will provide 80,400 places in 2007. I announced a new 8,000 place building programme, delivery of which will be spread over six years.
Custody Plus
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what costs were incurred following the decision to defer the implementation of custody plus. [91474]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Preparatory work for custody plus in the Prison and Probation Services was not accounted for separately from funding provided for the implementation of other sentencing provisions in the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
Departmental Expenditure
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by his Department on food and alcohol for its staff working out of office in each year since 2001-02. [91886]
Mr. Byrne: The answer could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The expenditure on food and alcohol is made in accordance with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on principles set out in Government Accounting.
Departmental IT
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent on information technology (IT) sourced from outside his Department in each of the last five years; who is responsible for such projects in his Department; and what IT (a) expertise and (b) qualifications they possess. [71762]
Mr. Byrne: The information on how much was spent on information technology (IT) is not held centrally and could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Responsibility for IT projects lies with the IT teams in each area of the Department. The heads of IT are recruited with regard to appropriate skills and experience, the majority of these were recruited via open competition.
Departmental Staff
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many non-pensionable bonuses were awarded to members of his staff in each of the last three years; and at what total cost. [73023]
Mr. Byrne: The following table summarises non pensionable special bonus payments made to staff in the core Department, immigration and nationality directorate, Prison Service and National Offender Management Services. The information does cover other Home Office agencies or non-departmental public bodies.
| Number paid | Total value (£) | |
| Notes: 1. The Department's long standing special bonus scheme allows for prompt and tangible recognition for outstanding achievement in particularly demanding tasks or situations. This can be by staff for individual work, or members of a group of staff for outstanding teamwork. Special bonuses can therefore cover a wide range of behaviours or activities. 2. Special bonuses are paid for out of normal pay running costs and all directorates are expected to target a maximum of 0.3 per cent. per annum of their pay running costs for this purpose. | ||
Peter Viggers: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many civil servants were employed in his Department before the Gershon report; what net reductions are proposed in the Gershon report; how many reductions have been made; and how many civil servants are expected to be employed in his Department in the Gershon target month of April 2008. [74287]
Mr. Byrne: Staffing levels before the Gershon report (July 2004) are set out in the 2004 detail in the table laid before the House in a written answer to the question N27446, 20 December 2005, column 2888W.
The Gershon report proposed a reduction in Home Office staff of 2,700. The Home Office, as part of Spending Review 2004, undertook to make this reduction from headquarters staff.
As reported in the Home Office Autumn Performance Report 2005, column 6707, the reduction in headquarters staff covered by the HQ Reduction exercise during 2004-05 was 917 FTE posts. Projections for 1 April 2008 will be published in the forthcoming Home Office Annual Report 2006. Projections for 1 April 2008 will be published in the forthcoming Home Office Annual Report 2006.
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of (a) staff and (b) new staff employed since April 2005 in (i) his Department and (ii) each of the agencies for which he has responsibility is recorded as disabled. [92178]
Mr. Byrne: In respect of the numbers of staff recorded as disabled (a), the latest information is available via the Cabinet Office website at this link:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/statistics/publications/xls/report_2005/table_p.xls.
The following information on new staff (b) is taken from the personnel systems of the Home Department and its agencies as shown in the following table.
The collection of disability data is intended to enable the Home Office to monitor the effectiveness of its HR policies and processes and the provision of such data is entirely voluntary. It is probable therefore that the data for some disabled staff are not centrally recorded and for this reason these figures must be regarded as indicative rather than definitive. While we encourage staff to provide this information so that we can ensure robust monitoring, it is not Home Office policy to make its supply mandatory.
| Area | Proportion of new staff since 1 April 2005 recorded as disabled (percentage) |
|
Home Office (including National Offender Management Headquarters) | |
Deportation
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his oral statement of 3 May 2006, Official Report, columns 969-73, on deportation and removals, what plans he has to consult on proposals to achieve a more coherent approach to taking criminality into account in decisions on who is allowed into the UK, who is allowed to stay, who is granted settlement and who can acquire British citizenship; and what the timetable is for such consultation. [76437]
Mr. Byrne: The IND review paper “Fair, effective, transparent and trusted: Rebuilding confidence in our immigration system”, which we published on 25 July 2006 explained that we will introduce an early Bill to take new powers, including to ensure that foreign national prisoners automatically face deportation. Work on wider criminality issues will take account of the work on foreign national prisoners and be taken forward within the context of IND's new strategic objectives of strengthening our border, and ensuring enforcement and compliance with our immigration laws, removing the most harmful people first. The work on simplifying the legal framework for immigration, on which proposals for consultation will be ready by April 2007, will also be relevant to a coherent approach to criminality.
Dispersal Orders
Mr. Kenneth Clarke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many dispersal orders were issued in Nottinghamshire in each of the last three years. [93221]
Mr. McNulty: Section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 provides the police with powers to disperse groups and remove under 16s to their place of residence, within authorised areas. These powers came into force on 20 January 2004.
Information on the use of the powers has not been routinely collected. However, from a Home Office data collection exercise, we estimate that 809 areas were designated between January 2004 and June 2005. From April 2006, the data is being collected by police force area.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many dispersal orders were issued in (a) Humberside and (b) the East Riding of Yorkshire in each of the last three years. [93736]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 17 October]: Section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 provides the police with powers to disperse groups and remove under 16s to their place of residence, within authorised areas. These powers came into force on 20 January 2004.
Information on the use of the powers has not been routinely collected. However, from a Home Office data collection exercise, we estimate that 809 areas were designated in England and Wales between January 2004 and June 2005. From April 2006, the data are being collected by police force area.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many dispersal orders were issued in each (a) police authority area and (b) local authority area in each of the last five years. [93762]
Mr. McNulty: Section 30 of the Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 provides the police with powers to disperse groups and remove under 16s to their place of residence, within authorised areas. These powers came into force on 20 January 2004.
Information on the use of the powers has not been routinely collected. However, from a Home Office data collection exercise, we estimate that 809 areas were designated in England and Wales between January 2004 and June 2005. From April 2006, the data are being collected by police force area.
Embarkation Controls
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what significant changes have been made to embarkation controls for passengers travelling overseas since 1994; on what date each such change was made; and for what reason in each case. [84297]
Mr. Byrne: On 15 December 1993, the then Home Office Minister Charles Wardle, announced that on 1 February 1994 embarkation controls would be withdrawn for passengers travelling to destinations within the European Community from ferry ports, small and medium sized airports.
The reconfiguration of the residual embarkation control at other ports was announced by the then Home Office Minister, my hon. and learned Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Mr. O’Brien) on 16 March 1998. The Immigration Service retained an ability to operate embarkation controls on an intelligence led basis, but blanket manual system based embarkation was ineffective.
Following the events of 7 July and 21 July targeted embarkation controls were established at Heathrow, Gatwick, London Waterloo and some other international ports in support of Special Branch.
Targeted intelligence led embarkation controls continue to take place at major ports to identify failed asylum seekers and other immigration offenders who are leaving the UK.
Scheduled to commence in 2008, the e-Borders programme will strengthen and modernise our border control including providing an electronic record of all those entering and leaving the UK.
English Language
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of people in the UK who (a) speak English as a second language and (b) do not speak English. [94350]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The Skills for Life Survey reported that 7-8 per cent. of adults of working age in England (£2.2 million- £2.5 million people) spoke a first language which was not English. There are no exact figures for the numbers
of people who do not speak English at all, but it is estimated that around half of those who spoke another language would benefit from help with their English skills.
European Community Associations Agreement (Immigration Agreements)
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time taken was from the date of receipt to the date of decision for European Community Associations Agreement immigration applications during the period 1 November 2005 to 30 April 2006; and what the target time was for decisions on such applications. [79515]
Mr. Byrne: Following the suspension of decision making on European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) applications from the end of March 2004 until 9 May 2005, the average time taken was 433 days. The target time was to process 25 per cent. of these applications in 20 working days and 30 per cent. in 70 working days.
This information should be treated as provisional management information and may be subject to change.
Ex-prisoners (Accommodation)
Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) mid-term and (b) long-term prisoners have been released from prison without having specified accommodation to move into in each of the past three years; and if he will make a statement. [93442]
Mr. Sutcliffe: In April 2003 the Prison Service introduced a shadow Key Performance Indicator (KPI) on accommodation to improve the number of offenders leaving prison with accommodation. Since the introduction of the shadow KPI which became a full KPI in April 2005, the percentage of prisoners released with accommodation has risen from 54 per cent. in 2003-04 to 87 per cent. in 2005-06.
Information on the numbers of prisoners being released from custody without accommodation to go to from each establishment in England and Wales since 2003 is given in tables to be placed in the House Libraries. The data is available only for all sentenced prisoner discharges. To provide the data according to sentence length would be at disproportionate cost.
Firearms
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how the disposal of firearms surrendered under court orders is monitored by his Department; [93152]
(2) how his Department monitors the disposal of handguns handed in following such guns being banned; [93153]
(3) how many firearms were handed in to North Wales police following the banning of handguns. [93154]
Mr. McNulty: It is for individual police forces to arrange for the disposal of handguns whether as the result of a court order or following surrender in accordance with the provisions of the Firearms (Amendment) Acts 1997. I understand that a total of 1,817 firearms were handed in to the North Wales police following the handgun ban.
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