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18 May 2007 : Column 958Wcontinued
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what meetings he (a) has held and (b) plans to hold with representatives of the Romanian and Bulgarian communities to discuss the operation of the Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006. [131258]
Mr. Byrne: I have personally not met with any representatives of the Bulgarian and Romanian communities to discuss the operation of the Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006. Nor has a request been made to do so.
Officials from the Border and Immigration Agency are in regular contact with officials at the Romanian and Bulgarian embassies in the United Kingdom. They participated in two seminars on the operation of the transitional arrangements in December 2006 and will continue to participate in any future events arranged.
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many fines have been issued since 1 January 2007 to (a) Romanian and (b) Bulgarian workers found to be working illegally in the UK. [131259]
Mr. Byrne: As of 29 April, 42 fixed penalty notices have been served; 38 on Romanian nationals and four on Bulgarian nationals.
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many employers have been fined since 1 January 2007 for employing (a) Romanian and (b) Bulgarian workers illegally. [131260]
Mr. Byrne: As of 29 April, no employers have been prosecuted for employing Romanian and Bulgarian nationals without the correct permission to work in the United Kingdom, as we have been working with employers in other ways to ensure compliance with the Regulations which govern the employment of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals.
Mr. Hands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evidence workers from Romania and Bulgaria are required to produce to demonstrate their self-employed status under the Accession (Immigration and Worker Authorisation) Regulations 2006. [131282]
Mr. Byrne: Bulgarian and Romanian nationals engaged in self-employed activities are subject to the same regulatory regime as a UK national engaged in such an activity. The same level of evidence is required as would be necessary for a UK national to establish that activity undertaken is genuine self-employment.
Nationals from the two states in question are not required to carry at all times documentation confirming their status in the United Kingdom. A workers employment status for tax and National Insurance purposes is determined by the terms and conditions under which they work and is based on case law. Should they be questioned regarding their activities by an Immigration official conducting an illegal working investigation, that official will seek to establish if the activity being undertaken is genuine self-employment. It is the responsibility of both the worker and those he purports to provide services for to ensure that the relationship is one of genuine self-employment, and not an attempt to mask an employer-employee relationship.
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the adequacy of surveillance resources and expertise available to work on counter-terrorism; and whether the new MI5 Director has requested any additional resources. [136241]
Mr. McNulty: It would not be appropriate for me to comment in specific detail about the operational capacity of the security and intelligence agencies.
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many police (a) dogs and (b) horses (i) were recruited and (ii) were in service in England and Wales in each of the last 10 years, broken down by police force area; [137153]
(2) what the total cost is of fully training a police (a) horse and (b) dog; and how long it takes in each case; [137154]
(3) how many and what percentage of police (a) horses and (b) dogs (i) retired and (ii) were destroyed in each of the last 10 years; [137155]
(4) how many animals are employed by the police in England and Wales, broken down by species. [137156]
Mr. McNulty: The required information is not collected as part of the police service strength data series.
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police bicycles are owned by police forces in England and Wales; and what the cost was of each bicycle. [137168]
Mr. McNulty: This is an operational matter for the Chief Officer and the police authority.
Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints have been made to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) in England and Wales since the IPCC was established, broken down by police authority area and ranked in descending order of number of complaints. [137409]
Mr. McNulty: The Home Office does not collect the information requested.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many social workers in England have had a Criminal Records Bureau check. [118973]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: I have been asked to reply.
The figure for the number of social workers in England who have had a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check is not available.
All social workers in England must be registered with the General Social Care Council (GSCC) and as part of this registration, must declare details of any criminal record. The accuracy of this information is confirmed by their employer who will have carried out any necessary criminal record checks. Details of these checks, linked to occupation, are not separately recorded by the Department, the GSCC or the CRB.
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what action his Department is taking to improve the control of tropical diseases in Africa. [137087]
Hilary Benn:
Tackling tropical and other communicable diseases in Africa is a UK priority. Through DFIDs bilateral programme, the UK supports African countries
to develop strong and sustainable health services to address illness, including tropical diseases. For example, in Malawi DFID has committed £100 million to develop and implement the national health plan and increase the number of health workers who can provide basic health care. DFID also supports specific projects to tackle specific diseases, for example the £47.4 million Malaria programme in Kenya will provide long-lasting insecticide-treated bednets.
The UK also supports global and regional initiatives. For example, DFID:
contributed £7.6 million to the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control;
committed £359 million to 2008 to the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria and contributed £49 million to the WHO-led initiative, Roll Back Malaria;
provided £91.9 million (2000-06) to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation, a public-private partnership focused on increasing childrens access to vaccines in poor countries;
has committed a further £1.38 billion to the International Financing Facility for Immunization (IFFIm) from 2006-26 to develop vaccines;
provides funding directly to the World Health Organisation (e.g. $255 million in the 2004-05 biennium), the World Bank and the European Commission in the fight against tropical and communicable diseases;
finances critical research, including £10 million to the Medicines for Malaria Venture and £6.5 million to the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative over the next three years.
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to improve the (a) cultural status and (b) economic condition of women in sub-Saharan Africa. [137105]
Hilary Benn: DFID has engaged in a wide range of project, programme and policy efforts designed to improve the cultural, economic and political situation of women in sub-Saharan Africa.
The third White Paper on International Development (published July 2006), Eliminating world poverty: making governance work for the poor, underlined DFIDs commitment to give greater priority to work to support gender equality and women's rights in our development assistance, responding to key priorities of African institutions like the African Union (AU) and New partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).
Our gender equality action plan (launched March 2007) sets out how we will meet these commitments. DFID is further strengthening its analysis of gender equality through country governance assessments and through discussions with partner governments and regional institutions such as the AU. This will enable DFID to support efforts on women's empowerment and equality, including the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA) and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. DFID will continue to support efforts to increase girls enrolment in primary school, reduce HIV prevalence among women and girls, reduce maternal mortality, give social protection for the very poorest women and increase employment opportunities.
Examples of initiatives to address these issues include the following.
In Sudan, DFID is empowering women in some of the poorest, marginalised communities as they learn to read and write assisted by the literacy and livelihood programme as well as supporting social marketing of mosquito nets, specifically targeting pregnant women and mothers of children under five.
In Ethiopia DFID is a key contributor to the Government's productive safety nets programme which targets some of the most vulnerable households such as those headed by women.
In Nigeria DFID has contributed to a girls' education programme improving net enrolment for girls especially in northern Nigeria, by addressing cultural and economic barriers. The security, justice and growth programme, through partnership with the Centre for Islamic Legal Studies, has carried out path-breaking analytical work on women's rights under Sharia law.
DFID is supporting efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation; this includes the production of a best practice resource for civil society groups to encourage strong and appropriate legislation to protect women and children against this practice.
We have formed a partnership with the International Finance Cooperation to undertake gender and growth analysis in a number of African countries including Tanzania, Rwanda and Nigeria. This is expected to lead to concrete changes in legislation and new investments.
DFID is providing support to the World Bank's gender action plan, which has a particular focus on Africa including the launch of new programmes focused on women's economic empowerment.
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentage of responses to concept notes submitted to his Department were delayed in each of the last five years. [135627]
Mr. Thomas: DFID does not keep a central record of the response rates achieved under the various funding schemes run across the Department. Information for two of the largest current schemes is as follows:
Civil Society Challenge Fund (CSCF)
UK-based civil society organisations seeking support are required to submit a two-page concept note any time between 1 February and 15 June each year. These concept notes are registered by the Civil Society Team in DFID. An acknowledgment is then sent to the applicant within three days of receipt, and the concept note is passed to our external contracted evaluation team.
Our guidelines state that any applicant submitting a CSCF concept note can expect a decision within four weeks of our acknowledgement of receipt. Over the past five years, our contractors have been unable to meet this deadline in fewer than 6 per cent. of cases, i.e. for 69 out of 1216 concept notes:
Number of concept notes | Number responded to within deadline | Number delayed | Percentage delayed | |
Conflict and Humanitarian Fund
This fund has only been running for three years. Applications may be submitted either for Unearmarked (also known as Programmatic) funding or for Project funding. For Project funding there is a two-stage process under which applicants submit a short concept note and are then informed whether their application has been rejected or shortlisted for further consideration.
The figures for delays in informing applicants whether their concept notes had been shortlisted are as follows:
Number of concept notes | Number responded to within deadline | Number delayed | Percentage delayed | |
(1 )The Guidelines said that applicants would be informed by 31 March 2007 whether their concept notes had been shortlisted. Applicants were informed on 16 March 2007 that there would be a delay in letting them know whether their concepts had been short-listed (this delay was caused by bereavement). They were informed whether their proposals had been short-listed by 13 April 2007. |
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