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12 Mar 2007 : Column 102Wcontinued
Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many criminal offences in Bedfordshire resulted in the conviction of the offender in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [124512]
Mr. McNulty: Information from the Court Proceedings Database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants found guilty at all courts for all offences in Bedfordshire police force area for the years requested is provided in the table.
Data for 2006 will be available in the autumn.
Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total expenditure for visits, other activities and commitments outside the UK undertaken by his Departments Ministers and officials was in each of the last three years. [123682]
Mr. Byrne: The Departments expenditure on foreign travel and accommodation in each of the last three years was:
£ | |||
Travel | Accommodation | Total | |
Separate records were not kept of foreign accommodation costs in 2003-04 and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The difference in costs over the period reflects the changing nature of the Home Offices business, in particular the growth of international terrorism, migration and international travel. Collaboration and information exchange with other countries on counter-terrorism activities and border control have become increasingly critical to the effective discharge of the Departments responsibilities for asylum, immigration and national security. This has involved higher levels of overseas travel.
For ministerial foreign travel, which is included in the above, I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer given by the Prime Minister on 19 December 2006, Official Report, column 1808W.
The Department incurs additional expenditure outside the UK, in connection with border control, international crime and anti-terrorism responsibilities. Details of this expenditure could only be identified from within records of total operational spend at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 5 March 2007, Official Report, column 1748W, on drugs: money laundering, what correspondence his Department has received from Michael A. Braun on the Serious Organised Crime Agency and Operation White Dollar; and if he will make a statement. [126751]
Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when Mohammed Reza, Home Office reference R1040509, a constituent of the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood, will receive a response to his application for indefinite leave to remain submitted in December 2005. [124765]
Mr. Byrne: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 5 March 2007.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to the answer of 19 February 2007, Official Report, column 106W, on foreign national prisoners, on how many of the foreign prisoners released from HMP Peterborough in the 12 months to 31 March 2006 who were eligible for deportation, the immigration and nationality directorate keeps electronic records; and if he will make a statement; [125273]
(2) what estimate he has made of the cost of providing information on offences committed by foreign national prisoners discharged from HMP Peterborough in the 12 months to 31 March 2006; and if he will make a statement. [125274]
Mr. Byrne [holding answers 5 March 2007]: The immigration and nationality directorate holds electronic records of all foreign national prisoners who have been notified to IND for consideration of deportation. However, historic data are drawn from a number of manual and electronic sources.
Prisons keep records of foreign nationals released from or transferred across the prison estate. This record does not record the offences committed by individual prisoners. Manually identifying and cross- referencing IND and prison records to provide information on the foreign national prisoners released from HMP Peterborough could be done only at disproportionate cost.
The Home Secretary has identified that there is no unique identifier to link individuals who come into contact with the asylum and immigration and criminal justice systems. We have therefore commenced development of a comprehensive approach to identity management across all Home Office areas.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the possible effects of the prescription of heroin to long-term addicts on the NHS on the levels of crime. [126601]
Mr. Coaker: It is not possible currently to estimate the likely effect on crime of heroin prescription to long- term addicts. The current evidence base indicates that heroin prescribing is only suitable in a small number of cases. In the vast majority of cases, it is not a safer or a more effective option than methadone prescribing.
The National Treatment Outcome Research Study (NTORS), the most important UK research on drug treatment, showed that for every £1 spent on treatment, at least £9.50 is saved, mainly in the costs of reduced crime. Thus there are clear economic benefits to treating drug misusers. However, this study provided no information of the relative impact of different types of treatment.
Research is under way to build our knowledge in this area. The Home Office has commissioned the Drug Treatment Outcomes Research Study (DTORS) which will evaluate the impact of current drug treatment services on drug and alcohol use, offending, and health and social outcomes. Additionally, Government-funded projects to enhance the evidence base for the clinical use of heroin in drug treatment are currently under way.
David Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what progress has been made in tendering the contracts for the (a) refurbishment and (b) construction of the regional offices required to administer the national identity card scheme; [113898]
(2) what the locations are of the regional offices required to administer the national identity card scheme. [113899]
Joan Ryan: The Identity and Passport Service currently has no plans to set up further regional offices in addition to the current seven regional passport offices, in London, Newport, Peterborough, Glasgow, Durham, Liverpool and Belfast. An expanded local office network is already being put in place in order to meet and interview first-time applicants for passports and to prepare for recording biometrics. This office network consists of 69 offices throughout the UK, in the following proposed locations:
Aberdeen, Aberystwyth, Andover, Armagh, Barnstaple, Belfast, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Birmingham, Blackburn, Boston, Bournemouth, Bristol, Bury St. Edmunds, Camborne, Carlisle, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Coleraine, Crawley, Derby, Dover, Dumfries, Dundee, Edinburgh, Exeter, Galashiels, Glasgow, Hastings, Hull, Inverness, Ipswich, Kendal, Kilmarnock, Kings Lynn, Leeds, Leicester, Lincoln, Liverpool, London, Luton, Maidstone, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Newport, Newport (Isle of Wight), Northallerton, Northampton, Norwich, Oban, Omagh, Oxford, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Scarborough, Shrewsbury, Sheffield, St. Austell, Stirling, Stoke-on-Trent, Swansea, Swindon, Warwick, Wick, Wrexham, Yeovil and York.
The network will be supplemented by remote interview sites for remote communities, where applicants will conduct their interview by video conferencing. The contract for this office network was awarded in early 2006 to Mapeley, and the offices are currently being leased and fitted out for use by IPS.
These offices will open in 2007 and the network will subsequently be used for the National Identity Scheme. Where the network of enrolment centres needs to be further expanded, we will first seek to use high street offices that are already used by central and local government. We will also look at options for the private sector providing outlets and any contracts will be tendered as appropriate.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison officers have been recruited to work at the new prison HMP Kennett in Merseyside. [124410]
John Reid: So far, 30 prison officers have been recruited to work at Kennet prison. Further recruitment is under way.
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the compatibility of compulsory English language requirements for migrants with European Union law. [124402]
Mr. Byrne: We are satisfied that the arrangements for requiring applicants for permanent settlement and naturalisation to demonstrate a knowledge of English are fully compatible with European law. The integration of migrants is a matter for member states competence.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of prisoners in Lancashire have learning difficulties. [125754]
Phil Hope: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested is not available centrally. However, a project undertaken by the Dyslexia Institute in Yorkshire and Humberside looked at the incidence of dyslexia and related learning disabilities among the prison population. The findings suggested that 20 per cent. of the prison population have some form of unseen (hidden) disability which will affect and undermine their performance in both education and work settings. A further 32 per cent. of the sample who were given an in-depth assessment had literacy difficulties but did not show positive evidence of the characteristics of dyslexia, dyspraxia or other unseen disabilities.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which public authorities the Office of the Surveillance Commissioners inspects and monitors in respect of (a) property interference, (b) intrusive surveillance, (c) directed surveillance and (d) using covert human intelligence sources. [125639]
Mr. McNulty:
The public authorities liable to oversight by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners are, in respect of property interference, those authorities with which the authorising officers described in section 93(5) of the Police Act 1997 (as amended) hold positions; in respect of intrusive surveillance, those authorities with which the authorising officers described in section 32(6) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) (as amended) hold positions; in respect of directed surveillance, those public authorities listed in Schedule
1 of RIPA (as amended) and in respect of using covert human intelligence sources, those public authorities listed in Part 1 of Schedule 1 of RIPA (as amended).
Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the adequacy of provision of custody space at police stations in West Ham constituency. [125221]
Mr. McNulty: The provision of custody accommodation in West Ham is a matter for the Commissioner for the Metropolitan Police.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there are on duty in hospitals in Lancashire (a) during the day and (b) at night. [124975]
Mr. McNulty: This is an operational matter for the chief constable.
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prison officers were employed in each prison by HM Prison Service on 31 December (a) 2005 and (b) 2006; and what the planned number of officers was in each case. [124826]
John Reid: Information on the number of prison officers, senior officers and principal officers employed and the operational staffing requirement for every Prison Service establishment on 31 December 2005 and 2006 are contained in the following tables.
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