| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
17 Jan 2007 : Column 1192W—continued
Domestic Violence
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many murders resulting from domestic violence there were in each of the last 10 years; and how many people (a) were charged with, (b) pleaded guilty to charges of and (c) were convicted of domestic violence offences in each of the last 10 years. [108862]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 12 December 2006]: Available information was published in ‘Violent Crime Overview, Homicide and Gun Crime 2004/2005’ (HOSB 02/06) and relates to currently recorded offences of homicide (murder, manslaughter and infanticide) where the relationship of the victim to the principal suspect includes current or former spouse or lover. See following table.
From the information collected centrally on recorded crime and court proceedings, it is not possible to identify cases of domestic violence. Such offences are not specifically defined by statute and details of the individual circumstances of offences are not collected by the Home Office.
European Crime Report
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the proposed EU legislation for the development of the European Crime Report; and what its legal base is. [108078]
Joan Ryan: The Hague Action Plan lists as one of its intended objectives the delivery of a European Crime Report in 2007. The Government support in principle any measure that will improve the gathering and analysis of comparable information across member states that could help combat organised and serious crime. However, until we have seen a draft of the proposed European Crime Report it is impossible to comment in any detail on either its content or its legal base.
Family Indefinite Leave to Remain
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many out of time applications have been received for the family indefinite leave to remain exercise since 31 December 2004; how many such applications have been granted; and what the Government’s policy is on the length of time for which out of time applications will continue to be accepted. [115079]
Mr. Byrne: Information on the number of out of time applications received by the family indefinite leave to remain (ILR) exercise since 31 December 2004 and the number of these subsequently granted ILR is unavailable and would be obtainable only by examination of individual case files, at disproportionate cost.
As my right hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston (Beverley Hughes), then Minister for Citizenship and Immigration, explained in her letter to MPs of 29 October 2003, the family indefinite leave to remain exercise is not an application-based exercise but one in which it is for the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to identify eligible families.
We requested applications in 2004 to accelerate the process of identifying those who qualified, giving priority to applications submitted before 31 December 2004. Late applications were considered but not prioritised. We believe we have identified all families who might qualify under the exercise but will consider others if they come to light.
Information on the family ILR exercise is published in quarterly web pages and in the annual statistical bulletin Asylum Statistics United Kingdom. Copies of these publications and others relating to general immigration to the UK are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases have been referred to the specialist unit responsible for assessing article 8 cases from the family indefinite leave to remain exercise; and how many such cases have resulted in the granting of leave to remain. [115080]
Mr. Byrne: Information on the number of cases referred to the Enforcement and Removals Directorate for consideration under article 8 from the Family ILR Exercise and the outcome of these cases is unavailable and would only be obtainable by examination of individual case files, at disproportionate cost.
Foreign National Prisoners
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the findings of his Department's inquiry into the issues faced by the Immigration and Nationality Department following the release of foreign national prisoners in May 2005. [116161]
Mr. Byrne: The Director General of the Immigration Nationality Directorate, Lin Homer, wrote to the Home Affairs Committee on 29 October 2006 providing an update on foreign national prisoners. This update set out the purpose of the review and explained that the Director General would share its findings with the Home Affairs Committee in the early part of this year.
Gurdev Singh
Patrick Hall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects Mr. Gurdev Singh to be returned to India in accordance with the assurance given by his staff to the Immigration Court at Newport (Gwent) on 21 September. [108541]
Mr. Byrne: I wrote to the hon. Member on 9 January 2007.
Harmondsworth
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when his Department asked for a payout from the contractor Kalyx with regard to its contractual failures at Harmondsworth detention centre; [114063]
(2) what the contractual failures at Harmondsworth detention centre were that led to the payout from the contractor Kalyx in September 2006. [114064]
Mr. Byrne:
The contract under which the Harmondsworth Removal Centre is occupied and managed by the contractor includes a dispute resolution procedure which is founded upon the
Arbitration Act 1996. English law requires such disputes to remain confidential to the parties. Therefore, it is not open to the Secretary of State to disclose detail of the disputes without the consent of the other contracting party.
The Secretary of State was able to disclose the amount of the settlement to Parliament. It should be noted that pursuant to the Lord Chancellor’s pledge that Government Departments would utilise alternative dispute resolution wherever possible the parties entered into a mediation agreement with a senior member of the bar which agreement contained a confidentiality clause in line with the confidentiality attendant upon the arbitration of disputes. It follows that the Secretary of State cannot disclose details of the contractual points in issue or the date when they were first raised.
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what changes have been made to the contract with Kalyx following the incident at Harmondsworth detention centre on 29 November 2006. [114066]
Mr. Byrne: No changes have been made to the contract between the Secretary of State for the Home Department and Harmondsworth Detention Services Ltd. Any changes deemed necessary will be considered and implemented through the contract change mechanism of the contract.
Identity Fraud
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in Tamworth constituency reported being a victim of identity fraud in each of the last five years. [114253]
Joan Ryan: The information requested is not available centrally. Identity fraud is not a crime that is currently defined as such in law. At present most cases dealt with by the police, where a person’s identity has been used unlawfully to obtain property, are dealt with as deception offences under the Theft Act 1968 and recorded in the Home Office classification for ‘Other frauds’. However, deception offences cannot be separately identified from other offences recorded within the ‘Other fraud’ classification.
In July 2006, the Home Office brought into force sections 25 and 26 of the Identity Cards Act 2006 which created new criminal offences of being in possession or control of false identity documents. Such offences are recorded under the ‘Other forgery’ classification but again cannot be separately identified from other offences within that classification.
Identity Management
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason it has been deemed necessary to co-ordinate Government policy and strategy on identity management; and what benefits he expects to accrue from this decision. [115267]
Joan Ryan: Effective identity management is central to aligning public services around the citizen and realising the goal of joined-up and personalised government.
National Identity Register
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many previous addresses an individual will be required to register with the National Identity Register. [116213]
John Reid: It is currently planned to ask all applicants for details of their addresses for the past six years. In a small minority of cases there may be a need to collect further information from an applicant about earlier addresses in order to validate his identity, for example, in the case of a British citizen who has just returned to the United Kingdom having lived six years abroad.
National Offender Manager Team
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost has been of the National Offender Manager (Wales) team since its establishment. [102480]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 22 November 2006]: The cumulative direct cost of the National Offender Management Service Wales team since its establishment in April 2005 is forecast to be £1,499,453 by the end of this financial year. This figure includes costs associated with the transfer of responsibilities for the contracted out prison estate in Wales, which were devolved from central NOMS budgets during the latter half of 2005.
Non-EEA Students: Northern Ireland
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will grant non-European economic area students who enrolled in courses in Northern Ireland before the change in immigration rules which requires them to leave comes into force, leave to stay to complete their training. [115260]
Mr. Byrne: On 7 March 2006, changes were announced to the immigration rules for postgraduate doctors and dentists to allow only those people who had done their undergraduate medical or dental study in the UK to be granted leave under those rules to complete a Foundation programme. Transitional arrangements were introduced for some categories of doctors who had already completed their undergraduate study. No additional measures were introduced for undergraduate medical students who had enrolled on a course in any part of the United Kingdom before the changes were announced, including in Northern Ireland. The changes do not affect undergraduate medical study.
Offender Management
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanisms he plans to put in place to provide for accountability of offender management services subcontracted to (a) private and (b) voluntary organisations. [112994]
Mr. Byrne:
Organisations subcontracted by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to provide offender management services are held to
account through the operation of the contracts awarded to them. Under these contracts, such organisations are required to deliver services against specified standards and are penalised for poor performance. NOMS headquarters gives advice to probation services on how best to procure offender services and manage contracts for such services.
Personnel Checks
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what background checks his Department carries out on prospective employees regarding political affiliation that may affect the conduct of their work. [113942]
Mr. Byrne: Home Office pre-appointment checks do not require prospective employees to declare their political affiliation.
Police
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the value was per capita of (a) Home Office police grants, (b) revenue support grants and (c) revenue from business rates allocated to police forces in (i) Devon and Cornwall and (ii) England and Wales in each year since 1992. [112700]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested where available is set out in the table.
Police forces outside England and Wales are the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and Secretary of State for Wales, and the Scottish Executive.
The following table shows the data for Devon and Cornwall Police.
| £ per head | |||
| Revenue support grant per head | Redistributed business rates per head | Principal formula police grant per head | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |