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29 Nov 2006 : Column 775W—continued
Freedom of Information
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of the internal Home Office guidance documents on (a) answering parliamentary questions for written answer and (b) responses to Freedom of Information requests. [103544]
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library copies of his Department’s internal guidance documents concerning (a) answers to written parliamentary questions and (b) responses to freedom of information requests. [102874]
Mr. McNulty: The information is as follows.
(a) The Home Office provides guidance to officials on written parliamentary questions through its intranet. This guidance is under review as part of the Home Secretary’s commitment to reform the Home Office and to improve the way that the Department’s fulfils its obligations to Parliament. I will arrange for this guidance to be placed in the Library in December following that review. In addition to this guidance, the permanent secretary meets with service heads and directors on a weekly basis at which time they provide him with an update on the Department’s answering of written parliamentary questions.
(b) The Home Office possesses several sets of guidance on the handling of Freedom of Information requests to reflect local procedures in some parts of the Department and its executive agencies. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND), HM Prison Service, Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Identity and Passport Service (IPS) all possess their own guidance, while the remainder of the Department is served by a further set. I will arrange for this guidance to be placed in the Library by the end of December when a new edition of the current guidance for those parts of the Department not covered by the local guidance will be published internally.
The HMPS guidance is already in the public domain at:
http://pso.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/PSO_9020_data_protection_act_1998_and_freedom_of_info_ act.doc.
Gender Equality
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) his Department and (b) the non-departmental public bodies and executive agencies for which he is responsible are taking steps to meet the requirements of the forthcoming duty on public bodies (i) to end unlawful discrimination and harassment and (ii) to promote equality between women and men. [101551]
Mr. Byrne: In order to ensure better performance on the general gender equality duty which will require public authorities to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and harassment and promote equality of opportunity between women and men, my Department will be taking the steps outlined in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (Public Authorities) (Statutory Duties) Order 2006 (No. 2930) which should come into force on 6 April 2007.
Identity Cards/Passports
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role local authorities will play in the (a) administration and (b) populating of the National Identity Card and National Identity Register. [104076]
Joan Ryan: The Identity and Passport Service will be responsible for the administration and population of the National Identity Card and National Identity Register.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) computer software and (b) IT equipment his Department has purchased in the last 24 months in connection with the (i) Identity Cards Project and (ii) National Identity Register. [102873]
Joan Ryan: The Identity and Passport Service has purchased licensed versions of three pieces of software specifically in connection with work being conducted for the development of identity cards in this time period. They are:
(1) The “Doors” computer software programme for the purpose of managing requirements during forthcoming procurement processes.
(2) The “CompanyWatch” computer software programme for the purposes of analysing the financial health of potential suppliers.
(3) The “Change Director” computer software programme for mapping benefits arising from change programmes.
Other than this purchase, there has been no specific expenditure on computer software and IT equipment for the purposes mentioned in the question outside of the provision of standard office equipment (e.g. desktops and standard software).
Immigration and Nationality Directorate
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) training days and (b) away days were held by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in each of the last five years. [103548]
Mr. Byrne: Some 48,969 training days were provided by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate College in 2005-06, with 33,522 provided in 2004-05. Figures are not available for earlier years.
The figures do not represent all training undertaken by IND staff, for example by e-Learning, or by training organised locally (which is not recorded centrally).
There is no central record of the numbers of away days.
Leave to Remain
Mr. Mudie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the date of application was in respect of the last case of a claim for extension of discretionary leave to remain decided upon in the week commencing 23 October 2006 by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. [103423]
Mr. Byrne: Local records show that the last application for an extension of discretionary leave considered during the week commencing 23 October 2006 had an application date of 1 March 2006.
Met Police Exhibit (Earl's Court)
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total cost was of (a) the Metropolitan police traffic operational command unit’s exhibit at the Miles Per Hour 2006 show at Earl’s Court and (b) purchasing or hiring, repainting and displaying a Lamborghini Murcielago LP640 at this exhibit. [100830]
Mr. McNulty: I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that there was no cost involved.
The exhibit stand was provided free of charge, the Lamborghini Mucielago LP640 was loaned at no cost to the Metropolitan police and all additional modifications to the vehicle were paid for by sponsors.
National Offender Management Service
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria are taken into account by the National Offender Management Service in deciding to award a contract to a non-public sector trust. [105888]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The National Offender Management Service manages its competitions in compliance with the appropriate European competition rules. Accordingly, the evaluation criteria will be dependent upon the scope and nature of services being competed for. All tenders for a given competition will be evaluated against the same criteria. Bidders are advised of the criteria upon which their tenders will be evaluated at the time of invitation.
Offences
Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what offences have been created by (a) primary and (b) secondary legislation sponsored by his Department since 1997; and which of those offences have not yet been brought into force. [103500]
Mr. McNulty: In the period since 1997, the Home Office has had responsibility for a wide range of subjects some of which have now become the responsibility of other Departments. In that period, the Home Office has sponsored primary and secondary legislation on electoral law, data protection and licensing as well as immigration and nationality, terrorism and criminal law and criminal justice. In some cases, the legislation has created new offences; in other cases, it has re-enacted existing offences, sometimes with modifications to their extent or scope.
A list of the offences created in all Home Office legislation in the period since 1997 is not held centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost in time and resources.
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the reasons were for the delay in answering Question reference 68428, tabled on 2 May by the hon. Member for Totnes, about Channings Wood Prison. [102482]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 23 November 2006]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in answering this question, which was one of the huge number of PQs tabled to the Department on foreign national prisoners, at a time when resources in the Immigration and Nationality Department were focused on dealing and locating those foreign national prisoners released without deportation consideration.
Police
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers per 1,000 of the population there were in Cambridgeshire in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [101721]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 23 November 2006]: Tables within the Home Office Statistical Bulletins on Police Service Strength contain the required information per 100,000 of the population and these data are also given in the following table. The most recent Police Service Strength bulletin can be downloaded from:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/hosb1306.pdf
| Police officers per 100,000 of the population for Cambridgeshire police force as at 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2006 (FTE)( 1) | |
| As at 31 March: | Police officers per 100,000 |
| (1 )Full Time Equivalent figures rounded to the nearest whole number. Figures up to 31 March 2002 exclude staff on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. The figures for 31 March 2003 onwards figures include those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. This accounts for a small proportion of the increase between 31 March 2002 and 31 March 2003; the exclusive figure for 31 March 2003 is 195. | |
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans his Department has to change funding for the Avon and Somerset constabulary to reflect (a) relative crime levels and (b) the conclusions of recent departmental reviews of force funding; and if he will make a statement. [102086]
Mr. McNulty: The police funding formula provides an assessment of the relative need of each police force in England and Wales. This assessment is based on the social characteristics of each police authority which are considered to affect the level of demand for police services in the community. To avoid penalising police authorities that successfully reduce crime, actual crime is not used in determining relative need.
The police funding formula was reviewed in consultation with the police service in 2005 and a revised formula was implemented for the 2006-07 settlement. This revision incorporated more recent data from the 2001 census, changes in the structure of policing and more up-to-date analysis of how the characteristics of different areas affect policing demands. To avoid large changes in grant resulting from this revision, each police authority was guaranteed an increase in formula grant of at least 3.1 per cent. in 2006-07 and 3.6 per cent. in 2007-08.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of inspected cases falling under (a) 6a, (b) 6b and (c) 7a of the Police Performance Assessments framework were for conditional caution under the meaning of Part 3 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, broken down by police authority. [103141]
Mr. McNulty:
The Policing Performance Assessment Framework (PPAF) uses aggregate data for sanction
detections (7a) and offences brought to justice (6a and 6b). There are no centrally collected data available on conditional cautions for the 2005-06 period, as the disposal was only in use in a limited number of Basic Command Units. Data will be collected centrally and published for the period 2006-07.
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what police response times to emergency calls were for each police authority in each year since 2000. [103641]
Mr. McNulty: Data on the time taken to respond to emergency calls are not collected centrally. This is essentially an operational matter for the chief constable of each force.
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received from the BBC requesting permission to film community support officers. [104455]
Mr. McNulty: The Home Office have received no representations from the BBC requesting permission to film community support officers.
Police Mergers
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much each police authority has (a) claimed and (b) been granted to cover costs of changes to the plans to merge police forces. [102549]
Mr. McNulty: The following table shows the amounts claimed by and offered to each of the police authorities in England and Wales in respect of the additional costs incurred on the preparatory work for police force mergers. These were included in a written statement on this subject laid before the House on 30 October 2006.
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