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29 Nov 2006 : Column 768W—continued
Training and Development (Civil Servants)
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what the average expenditure by her Department was on training and development per person in each civil service grade for the most recent year for which figures are available. [103661]
Mr. McFadden: The information by grade is not collected centrally.
For the year Saturday 1 October 2005 to Saturday 30 September 2006 the annual expenditure on training and development by the Department was £2,711,797.
This equates to an average annual spend of £1,572 per person on training and development during the same period.
V
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what programmes to encourage volunteering are being undertaken by V; and how much match funding has been provided to V since its launch. [101134]
Edward Miliband: V has undertaken the Grants 1 funding round, with short-term projects being awarded funding in July 2006 and part-time, long-term or volunteer development teams being funded in October 2006. The Grants 1 funding round has created just over 42,000 volunteering opportunities.
The volunteering projects cover a wide range of programmes with traditional organisations extending their reach to young people and new projects which involve young people as never before. Opportunities range from activities with large, well-known charities such as the British Red Cross, which is providing opportunities in peer education where young people deliver first aid training or humanitarian education to other young people, to small, local projects such as the opportunities provided by Youth A.I.D Lewisham, a community based voluntary youth organisation which
provides advice, information and development services across the borough. Programmes funded through the V grants have a wide geographical spread across England and are found in both urban and rural areas to increase opportunities to volunteer for young people in a variety of communities.
The programmes provide opportunities for young people to engage with their community, develop skills, increase confidence, meet other young people, reduce social exclusion and extend their opportunities for training to increase opportunities for employment.
V has received £3,450,000 in match funding to date, creating 19,527 volunteering opportunities and has pledges from the private sector worth £17.1 million.
Home Department
Asylum Seekers
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were granted asylum on grounds of religious persecution in each year since 1997. [103791]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 27 November 2006]: The requested information is unavailable and could be obtained only by examination of individual case records and therefore at disproportionate cost.
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the percentage of asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2006 who now reside in Wales. [106077]
Mr. Byrne: The percentage of asylum seekers who arrived in the United Kingdom between 2005 and 2006 who now reside in Wales is not available and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
Statistics on the location of asylum seekers in the UK are linked to the available information on the support that the asylum seeker receives. The number of asylum seekers in receipt of support from IND are published on a quarterly and annual basis, broken down by Government office region and local authority. The latest publication covering the third quarter of 2006 is available on the Home Office Research Development and Statistics website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html.
Further breakdowns by parliamentary constituency are also available from the Library of the House.
Attacks on Faith Groups
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of assaults on (a) Christians, (b) Jews, (c) Muslims, (d) Hindus, (e) Sikhs and (f) members of other faith groups that have taken place during the past five years. [103270]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 27 November 2006]: Recorded crime figures collected centrally by the Home Office do not record the religion of the victim.
Criminal Records Bureau
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how unproven allegations of child abuse are recorded by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB); how many such allegations are on CRB records; what procedure there is for the removal of an unfounded allegation; and if he will make a statement. [103578]
Joan Ryan: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not hold criminal records or records of allegations. Rather, in processing Disclosure applications, the CRB obtains information held by the police service and from lists held by the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health which contain details of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. Where Enhanced Disclosures are made, police information may include intelligence considered relevant to the application by the chief officer of police responsible for the data.
A disputes procedure exists where the accuracy of disclosed material can be challenged by the applicant. In addition, an individual may apply to the police for information to be deleted from the record. The retention or disposal of intelligence material held by the police is entirely a matter for the chief officer.
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment the Government have made of the effect of records kept by the Criminal Records Bureau on the ability of those on whom records are kept (a) to find employment and (b) to adopt children; and if he will make a statement. [103584]
Joan Ryan: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not hold criminal records or records of allegations. Rather, in processing disclosure applications, the CRB obtains information held by the police service and from lists held by the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health which contain details of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. Where enhanced disclosures are made, police information may include intelligence considered relevant to the application by the chief officer of police responsible for the data.
A disputes procedure exists where the accuracy of disclosed material can be challenged by the applicant. In addition, an individual may apply to the police for information to be deleted from the record. The retention or disposal of intelligence material held by the police is entirely a matter for the chief officer.
Independent research shows that, of the 2.7 million checks completed in 2005, over 190,000 revealed conviction or other information on an individual. In nine out of 10 cases, this information did not result in the individual being refused the position he or she sought. The majority of the convictions that resulted in the job offer being withdrawn were for theft and violence. Statistics are not held centrally on the success of applicants seeking to adopt.
The CRB offers guidance to users of the service in the form of a code of practice and explanatory guide,
which states that disclosure information should only be used in the context of a policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders, designed to protect applicants from unfair discrimination on the basis of non-relevant past convictions. However it is ultimately for an employer to decide an applicant’s suitability for a particular role.
Departmental Staff
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what investigations he has carried out into the number of members of the Hizb ut Tahrir employed by his Department; and if he will make a statement. [103417]
Mr. McNulty: Home Office staff are not required to declare membership of Hizb ut Tahrir.
Departmental Targets
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what formal targets his Department was set by the Treasury in each year since 1996. [103533]
Mr. Byrne: The new public service agreement targets for the Home Office for 1998 were set by the Treasury as part of the comprehensive spending review,
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./spending_review/spend_csr98/spend_csr98jndex.cfm
and announced through the White Paper.
http://www.archive.official-documents.co.uk/document/cm40/4011/4011 .htm
Formal targets are set during the spending review round which outlines the Department’s plans for a three-year period.
Targets for the remaining SR periods can be found on the following sites: SR2000
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./spending_review/spending_review_2000/spending_revi ew_report/ spend_sr00_repchap10.cfm
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./Spending_Review/spend_sr02/report/spend_sr02_repc hapl0.cfm
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk./media/E99/79/sr04_psa_ch6.pdf.
Driving Licences
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the owner of a vehicle which has been involved in an accident while unattended is required to present his or her driving licence to the police; and if he will make a statement. [104262]
Mr. McNulty: In the circumstances described the police have no power to require the production of a driving licence from the owner of the vehicle. They may make such a requirement only of a person driving a vehicle, of a person reasonably believed to have been driving a vehicle at the time of its involvement in an accident, of a person reasonably believed to have committed an offence with the vehicle and of the supervisor of a provisional licence holder.
Foreign Prisoners
Dr. Tony Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals are in prison, broken down by country of origin. [102371]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on the numbers of foreign nationals held in prison establishments in England and Wales, broken down by country of origin, can be found in the following table drawn from data held on the Prison IT system, showing the position on 30 September 2006.
These 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 although shown to the last individual the figures may not be accurate to that level.
| Population in prison by nationality and sex, England and Wales 30 September 2006 | |||
| Nationality | Male | Female | Total |
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