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3 May 2007 : Column 1880W—continued
Immigration: Telephone Services
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 24 April 2007, Official Report, column 1058W, on immigration: telephone services, how many calls were received by the Border and Immigration Agency MPs’ hotline in each year from 2003 to 2006. [135056]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 30 April 2007]: From 1 June 2003 to 31 December 2003 the Border and Immigration Agency MPs’ hotline received 15,728 telephone calls; in 2004 it received 31,393 calls; in 2005 it received 34,338 calls and in 2006 it received 31,749 calls from Members of Parliament, the House of Lords and Members of the devolved Assemblies.
Statistical information is only available from 1 June 2003 onwards.
Naturalisation: Assessments
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people who were awarded passes in the Life in the UK citizenship test subsequently had that pass revoked in each month since November 2005. [125951]
Mr. Byrne: Appropriate action will be taken where concerns remain about an applicant's knowledge of English or UK society. This will apply if they seek settlement or citizenship or even after such a status has been granted to them.
The precise action to be taken will depend on the circumstances of an individual case but might include requiring a further test or an independent analysis of their language ability. The Government take very seriously any attempts to circumvent the legal requirements for settlement and citizenship, for example by taking part in fraudulent activity in order to obtain a pass certificate for the test. Ultimately revocation of, or refusal to grant settlement or citizenship may be appropriate in some cases.
Passports
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what his policy is on compensation for time remaining on the validity of an existing passport where a person seeks a new passport to take account of a name change following marriage. [134692]
Joan Ryan: No compensation is currently paid for time remaining on a passport which is replaced before expiry for any reason, although up to nine months unused validity is transferred to the new passport. The Identity and Passport Service has to recover all its costs through fees and a replacement passport costs as much to issue as a passport renewed on expiry. The possibility of a reduction in fees in these circumstances will be considered with HM Treasury when passport fees are next reviewed.
Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which police staff associations were consulted in advance of the announcement to review the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. [133364]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 23 April 2007]: No police staff associations were consulted in advance of the announcement to review PACE 1984.
When the consultation paper was published it was formally sent to all police staff associations groups (ACPO, the Police Federation, the Police Superintendents Association and Unison) along with a notification that officials would contact them in due course to arrange bilateral meetings before the formal consultation period closes (at the end of May).
Police Cautions
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been given conditional cautions by the police since 1997; and what percentage went on to re-offend. [134765]
Mr. McNulty: The conditional cautioning scheme, introduced in the Criminal Justice Act 2003, is in the process of being implemented across criminal justice areas on a phased basis, and is not currently available across all areas. The central collection of numbers of conditional cautions administered began on one January 2005, but the data quality in its first year was deemed not to be adequate for any figures to be released. Totals for 2006 will not be available until November this year.
Police: Crimes of Violence
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures his Department is considering introducing to reduce the levels of recorded assaults against (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers. [132958]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 20 April 2007]: There have been several recent developments which seek to reduce the levels of recorded assaults against police officers and police community support officers.
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary following collaboration with key stakeholders has recently published
a review of officer safety training entitled “Safety matters”. This report contains recommendations to assist in the reduction of injuries and is now available for forces to consider and apply. The Health and Safety Executive has been fully consulted and collaborated with HMIC on the development of this paper and supports the report.
In addition the National Health and Safety Standing Committee recently agreed a joint report on benchmarking standards a “Strategy For a Healthy Police Service" which has been approved by ACPO council, and its implementation is being supported by the National Policing Improvement Agency.
This sets standards on issues affecting individual health and safety including personal safety training. Each of the major principles will be developed through the ACPO Joint Advisory group on Health, Safety and Welfare. Again there was full consultation with the HSE with regard to this document.
Also a Fitness Sub Group of the National Recruitment Standards—a standing committee of the Police Advisory Board—has been established. Emanating from this will be further research on this topic.
Police: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of whether the resources available to the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis are adequate for the purpose of enforcing the ban on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; and if he will make a statement. [133289]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 23 April 2007]: The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is responsible for the day to day operational management of the force.
Police: Manpower
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the ratio of police to public was in (a) Suffolk, (b) Bedfordshire, (c) Cambridgeshire, (d) Essex, (e) Hertfordshire and (f) Norfolk in each year since 1997; [134678]
(2) how many police officers per 100,000 residents there were in each police authority in England in each year since 1997. [134680]
Mr. McNulty: The available data are given in the table. The relationship between the number of police officers and the number of members of the public are published in the form of “Total officers per 100,000 population” and these data have been provided.
Police strength data are published annually in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin series “Police Service Strength, England and Wales”. The latest publication (data as at 31 March 2006) can be downloaded from:
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