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16 Apr 2007 : Column 470W—continued

Naturalisation Test

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the percentage of British citizens who could pass the Life in the UK naturalisation test. [130017]

John Reid: No such estimate has been made.

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consultations were carried out on the (a) content and (b) method of the Life in the UK naturalisation test. [130019]

John Reid: The questions for the Life in the UK test are based on “Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship”, the second edition of which has just been published. Advice on the content of the test was taken from the Advisory Board on Naturalisation and Integration (ABNI), the members of which were selected on the basis of open competition. ABNI, together with educational experts and information technology experts, were also consulted about the testing method.

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the subject matters which are included within the Life in the UK naturalisation test. [130037]

John Reid: As from 2 April the Life in the UK Test will be based on chapters two to six of the publication “Life in the United Kingdom; A Journey to Citizenship” (second edition).

For a period of three months after 2 April facilities will be made available for people who studied the first edition of “Life in the United Kingdom” to take a Life in the UK Test based on that edition.

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the questions for the Life in the UK naturalisation test were tested on British citizens. [130039]

John Reid: The Life in the UK Test was piloted in June 2005 at eight test centres. Candidates included long-term and more recent migrants as well as some British citizens. 25 per cent. of the total number of participants were British citizens.

Oakhill Secure Training Centre

Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 19 February 2007, Official Report, column 120W, on Oakhill Secure Training Centre, how many members of staff have resigned since January 2005. [122841]

Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 23 February 2007]: Between 1 January 2005 and 31 January 2007, 224 members of staff resigned. These figures have been
16 Apr 2007 : Column 471W
supplied by the Youth Justice Board and relate to employees of the contractor, G4S Justice Services. They do not include those employed by sub-contractors, for example providing health care or education services.

G4S recognises that this is a high number of resignations. It is in part attributable to the particular employment conditions in Milton Keynes, where Oakhill is located. The Youth Justice Board and G4S are working on an action plan to address performance issues identified by the Commission for Social Care Inspection. This should help promote stability and reduce the number of staff leaving the centre.

Offenders: Deportation

Mr. Rob Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign national prisoners were served with formal notice warning of liability to deportation (IM3 form) in each year since 2001; how many of these prisoners were released into the care of his Department at the end of remand or sentence; and how many were released into the community. [130401]

Mr. Byrne: The requested information is not available and could be obtained only by the detailed examination of individual case records at disproportionate cost.

On 19 February the director general of the immigration and nationality directorate wrote to the Home Affairs Committee to provide the most recent information available on the deportation of foreign national prisoners. A copy of this letter is available from the Library of the House.

Offenders: Rehabilitation

Anne Snelgrove: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the weekly cost of (a) a violence reduction programme and (b) a prison place. [131169]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Probation Service run a range of offender behaviour programmes, including several which focus on violence. Unit costs for individual programmes are currently being developed by the Probation Service and will be available in the autumn of this year.

The average weekly cost per prison place in 2005-06 was £556.

Offenders: Republic of Ireland

Stephen Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Irish nationals have been transferred at the completion of a custodial sentence from a prison to an immigration removal facility in the last 10 months. [121869]

Mr. Byrne: Accurate and robust information for the period requested is not available.

In my written ministerial statement of 19 February 2007, Official Report, column 4WS, I explained that those Irish national prisoners whose deportation cases
16 Apr 2007 : Column 472W
were not considered exceptional and whose sentences had expired would be released from custody.

This has now been activated.

Offensive Weapons

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many and what percentage of people convicted of having an article with a blade or point under section 139 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 had a previous conviction at the time of their sentence, broken down by (a) offence and (b) age group; [131182]

(2) how many and what percentage of people convicted of encouraging violent behaviour involving the use of a knife under the Knives Act 1997 had a previous conviction at the time of their sentence, broken down by (a) offence and (b) age group; [131217]

(3) how many people and what percentage of people convicted of carrying an offensive weapon under section 1 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1953 had a previous conviction at the time of their sentence in each of the last 30 years, broken down by (a) offence and (b) age group. [131242]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Information on previous convictions is not available at the level of individual offences. Figures on criminal histories broken down by types of offence can be found on the Home Office’s website in Table 6.3 of Sentencing Statistics 2005:

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many incidents of recorded violent crime a samurai sword was used as an offensive weapon in each year since 1997. [131239]

Mr. Coaker: From the information collected on recorded crime, it is not possible to identify those offences which are sword/knife related. Such offences are not specifically defined by statute and details of the individual circumstances of offences do not feature in the recorded crime statistics.

Figures are collected for homicides involving the use of sharp instruments but they do not separate identify knife-related offences. The Home Office is working closely with ACPO to develop a knife-enabled crime action plan and is seeking to collate the numbers of knife-related offences for grievous bodily harm through the Annual Data Requirement in 2007-08.

Passports

Mr. Francois: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam, of 21 March 2007, Official Report, column 972W, on passports, what the error rate was on checks provided by the Passport Validation Service in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [131382]

Joan Ryan: The Passport Validation Service provides confirmation that information on a passport presented to a user organisation corresponds with the information held on central passport records for the purpose of combating fraud and identity theft.

This has been provided since 2002 via a computer interface. A call centre service also commenced operation on 1 August 2006.


16 Apr 2007 : Column 473W

On the basis of PVS records we are satisfied that no check has resulted in any erroneous confirmation being provided to a user organisation.

Passports: Applications

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to section 6(7) of the Identity Cards Act 2006, whether applicants for passport renewal who apply solely for a passport prior to 1 January 2010 will have their details entered on the National Identity Register. [120392]

Joan Ryan: Once passports are designated under section 4 of the Identity Cards Act 2006, anyone applying for the first time or for renewal of a passport will have their identity details entered on the National Identity Register which, apart from the recording of biometrics, will hold exactly the same sort of identity information that is already required for the issue of passports and other official documents. Prior to 1 January 2010 section 6(7) of the Identity Cards Act makes it possible for anyone, who wishes to do so, to opt out of being issued with an identity card, but after that date anyone applying for a passport would be issued with an identity card together with a passport. This principle was accepted by Parliament when the Identity Cards Act was passed in 2006.

Passports: Interviews

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 22 March 2007, Official Report, column 302W, on passports: interviews, on which days of the week each office will be open; and for how many hours each office will be open on each day. [131189]

Joan Ryan: The days per week each interview office referred to will open are:

All the offices will be open 8.00am to 6.00pm each day they are open.

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 22 March 2007, Official Report, column 301W, on passport interviews, if he will assess the merits of hosting remote access facilities for passport interview centres in Taunton. [131190]

Joan Ryan: Remote passport interview facilities will be located in sparsely populated parts of the UK, as defined by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Somerset is not defined as a sparsely populated area in this context.

Police

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of gross revenue expenditure by (a) Devon and Cornwall Police Authority and (b) all police authorities was financed by (i) central Government provision and (ii) revenue from council tax in each year since 1992. [112701]


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Mr. McNulty: The information requested where available is set out in a table which has been placed in the Library.

Revenue funding includes all grants inside aggregate external finance (AEF) (i.e. revenue grants paid for councils' core services), and includes formula grant and all specific grants.

The figures exclude grants inside AEF such as housing benefit subsidy, capital grants, funding for local authorities' housing management responsibilities and those grant programmes (such as European funding) where authorities are simply one of the recipients of funding paid towards an area.

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people are employed within the (a) Policing Policy and Operations Directorate, (b) Police Leadership and Powers Unit and (c) Police Human Resources Unit; and what the cost of their salaries is in each case in 2006-07. [129370]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 23 March 2007 ]: As at the end of March 2007, the Policing Policy and Operations Directorate (a) employed 204 full-time equivalents. Of this number, 47 were employed within the Police Leadership and Powers Unit (b) and 46 within the Police Human Resources Unit (c). The cost of the salaries for 2006-07 was (a) £10.9 million; (b) 2.7 million; and (c) 2.7 million.

Police Custody: Wales

Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of spaces available in Wales under Operation Safeguard were used in each week since the operation came into force; and if he will make a statement. [128424]

Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 19 March 2007]: The usage of Operation Safeguard by individual police forces is held for use as management information only.

Police Patrols

Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department further to his answer of 6 March 2007, Official Report, column 1930W, if he will provide the figures by each police force. [130199]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 28 March 2007]: The following table sets out by force the proportion of police officer time spent on front-line duties. The information asked for on the time spent in each force on patrol and paperwork is not available as these data are collected by forces for internal management purposes only.


16 Apr 2007 : Column 475W
Time spent on Front-line duties
Percentage
Front-line policing Position in 2005-06 Target for 2007-08

Avon and Somerset

60.90

63.30

Bedfordshire

62.10

68.50

Cambridgeshire

70.70

69.30

Cheshire

63.40

71.40

City of London

69.10

70.60

Cleveland

55.20

69.90

Cumbria

59.30

66.90

Derbyshire

70.30

70.80

Devon and Cornwall

63.10

66.50

Dorset

68.70

72.00

Durham

59.50

67.60

Dyfed-Powys

63.30

68.70

Essex

62.70

70.30

Gloucestershire

66.50

72.70

Greater Manchester

61.20

72.10

Gwent

60.00

65.60

Hampshire

67.30

167.00

Hertfordshire

64.20

73.00

Humberside

56.60

68.30

Kent

67.50

71.10

Lancashire

62.50

68.10

Leicestershire

67.80

70.40

Lincolnshire

66.50

72.30

Merseyside

61.40

72.60

Metropolitan police

61.30

65.80

Norfolk

66.70

70.30

North Wales

63.50

66.60

North Yorkshire

64.40

75.60

Northamptonshire

65.50

68.80

Northumbria

62.50

71.40

Nottinghamshire

59.50

73.00

South Wales

61.00

73.40

South Yorkshire

65.90

70.20

Staffordshire

66.60

68.70

Suffolk

59.50

68.50

Surrey

63.10

69.40

Sussex

61.30

68.50

Thames Valley

66.10

68.70

Warwickshire

66.20

168.80

West Mercia

64.60

71.80

West Midlands

61.80

73.10

West Yorkshire

70.60

66.70

Wiltshire

63.10

68.90

England and Wales

63.10

70.80


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