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23 May 2007 : Column 1325W—continued
Departments: Energy
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) instructions are issued to staff in his Department and (b) technical procedures are in place to shut down computers at night. [136098]
Mr. Byrne: Instructions for PC shutdown are not centrally managed within the Home Office. Shut down policies vary, dependant on individual Business area requirements.
The user information for most Home Office IT systems require users to power off their base unit and monitors at night, but not everyone does so. The Sustainable Development Team, in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Information Officer are working towards raising the profile of Sustainable Operation Targets, and how best the Home Office can meet them.
Departments: Legislation
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedure his Department uses to ascertain support within relevant public bodies and Government Departments for proposed legislation. [135853]
John Reid: Each non-departmental public body or executive agency for which we are responsible has a “sponsor” unit within the Home Office. Such units would normally liaise routinely and regularly with the relevant body as part of the normal policy development process which leads to legislation. As part of the normal function of Government, we obtain collective ministerial agreement on significant proposals or those which affect other Departments. Other Departments would respond on behalf of those bodies for which they are responsible, seeking their views directly where appropriate.
Where time, resources and the parliamentary process permits, we will consult on legislation in draft and undertake full public consultations to obtain a wider range of views.
Departments: Pay
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total sum of bonuses paid to civil servants in his Department was in (a) 2005 and (b) 2006. [121569]
Mr. Byrne: Where it is available, the information requested is recorded in the following table, covering the financial years 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Within the Home Office and its Agencies there are separate arrangements for awarding bonuses. Staff may receive annual, appraisal-related awards based on their exceptional contribution throughout the year, or special bonuses for exceptional, specific work. Senior
civil servants can be awarded bonuses as set out in the senior salaries review body report number 62.
| Amount paid (£) | Number paid | Total staff (headcount) | |
| Notes: 1. The data for appraisal-related bonus payments are included only for Home Office HQ and Border and Immigration Agency (BIA). The data for the public sector Prison Service are excluded as they can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Identity and Passport Agency (IPS) does not run an appraisal-related bonus scheme. 2. Data for special bonus payments are included only for the Senior Civil Service (for the whole Department and its Agencies) and IPS for 2004-05 and 2005-06 for certain bonuses where information is available. 3. Data recorded for performance appraisal payments relate to the previous reporting year and not the financial year in which the bonuses themselves were paid. 4. Staffing data are for those in Home Office HQ and BIA and all senior civil servants in the Department and its Agencies. For 2004-05 and 2005-06 IPS staff are included. | |||
Departments: Publications
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the reports produced by consultants to his Department in each of the last five years. [136231]
John Reid: There is no central record of reports produced by consultants for the Department. To examine files for all individual pieces of consultancy dating back to 2002 would incur a disproportionate cost. Requirements for consultants are subject to value for money reviews at the point of purchase.
Departments: Renewable Energy
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much energy in kilowatt hours was purchased by his Department from renewable sources in the most recent year for which figures are available. [134992]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office is committed to the sustainable operations in Government target to purchase at least 10 per cent. of its energy from renewable sources by 31 March 2008. The amount of renewable energy the Home Office purchased in 2005-06 was 65,502,271 kWh all of which was electricity. This represents 17 per cent. of the total energy purchased, which exceeds the target.
Departments: Speeches
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his speech delivered in Venice on Saturday 12 May to Ministers representing the G6 nations of the EU represents Government policy; and if he will place in the Library a full text of the speech. [138001]
John Reid
[holding answer 18 May 2007]: The G6 meeting is a regular informal gathering of the Homeland Ministers of the six largest European countries. During the G6 meeting of the 11 and 12 May, I did not give any formal speeches so there is no text of a speech. I did, however, make a number of
interventions during the summit on a range of issues. All of those interventions were entirely consistent with Government policy.
Drugs: Children
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children have been (a) arrested, (b) prosecuted and (c) imprisoned for drugs offences since 2005. [137022]
John Reid: There were 14,500 persons aged 17 and under arrested for notifiable drug offences in England and Wales in 2004-05, the latest year for which data have been published (HOSB 21/05).
Latest available prosecutions data relate to persons aged under 17 cautioned or dealt with at court for all drug offences in England and Wales during 2004 (HOSB 23/05).
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts, police forces and other agencies. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.
| Persons aged under 17 dealt with for principal drug offences( 1) by action taken: England and Wales 2004 | |
| Action taken | Number of persons |
| (1) In the case of persons charged with two or more drug offences, the principal drug offence is the one for which attracted the most severe penalty. (2) Includes informal warnings and no further action. | |
Identity Cards
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will commission a successor report to the KPMG Outline Business Case following recent changes to the details of the proposed Identity Cards Scheme. [135843]
John Reid: KPMG were originally commissioned to review the outline business case put forward by the Home Office.
The business cases related to the National Identity Scheme have also been scrutinised by Her Majesty’s Treasury and are subject to the Office of Government Commerce Gateway Review Process.
There are no plans to commission any further such reports but this may be considered in the future.
Illegal Immigrants
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Immigration and Nationality Directorate enforcement officials keep a record of the (a) confirmed and (b) unconfirmed illegal individuals dealt with while carrying out (i) raids and (ii) searches. [135838]
John Reid: The Border and Immigration Agency do keep records of illegal migrants encountered during operational visits and searches.
Officers undertake intelligence led operational visits and searches to detain and remove persons who no longer have the right to remain in the UK and do so in line with operational policy and guidance, which is available to view at:
Immigrants: EC Enlargement
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate he has made of the number of A8 accession country immigrants working in the UK's social care sector. [135913]
John Reid: Information taken from registration of A8 nationals under the worker registration scheme shows that there were almost 6,200 persons working as care assistants and home carers and 300 as social workers for the calendar year 2006, as published in Annex A of the Accession Monitoring Report on 27 February 2007 at:
The sectors and occupations used in the Worker Registration Scheme do not conform to the ONS standard industrial and occupational classifications.
The figures quoted are not provided under national statistics protocols and have been derived from local management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change.
Immigration
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have left the UK following removal of their support under section 9 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004. [135836]
John Reid: Information on the number of voluntary and enforced returns will be included in the section 9 pilot evaluation report when it is published.
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have had their asylum support removed as a result of section 9 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Act 2004. [135837]
John Reid: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Mid-Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke) on 14 December 2006, Official Report, column 1311W.
Updated information on the number of families who had support withdrawn under the section 9 provision will be included in the section 9 pilot evaluation report when it is published.
IND
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many members of staff at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate have been investigated for impropriety since 31 July 2006. [112656]
Mr. Byrne: In recording data on investigations, we do not have a specific category called “impropriety”. The number of investigations commissioned within the Border and Immigration Agency investigated or under investigation for potential misconduct between 1 August 2006 and 30 April 2007 is 322.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Warley of 12 March on Mrs. Nagina Bi of Smethwick. [137972]
Mr. Byrne: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 18 May 2007.
Mr. Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Taunton of 19 February on the location of passport interview centres. [138432]
Joan Ryan [holding answer 21 May 2007]: Bernard Herdan, executive director of service delivery for the Identity and Passport Service, replied on behalf of the Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Airdrie and Shotts (John Reid) to the hon. Member for Taunton's letter on 7 March 2007. A copy of Mr. Herdan’s letter is as follows:
Letter from Bernard Herdan, dated 7 March 2007:
Thank you for your letter of 19 February to the Rt Hon John Reid MP. It has been passed to me to reply as Executive Director, Service Planning and Delivery at the Identity and Passport Service (IPS).
The network of 69 interview offices has been designed to strike a balance between keeping costs (and therefore fees) as low as possible while making journeys to interviews as short as possible. The proposed locations have been verified by a consultancy and take into account consultations with authorities and agencies responsible for sparsely populated areas. I have enclosed a document “Passport Office Authentication by Interview Network”, which will give you more information on how we decided the locations of the interview offices, The interview office network is intended to provide an office within an hour’s travelling time for over 95% of the UK population. In remote, sparsely populated areas where it is not cost-effective to set up an interview office, we are putting in place videoconferencing facilities to conduct the interview to avoid people having to make long journeys. This will affect a small number of applicants who live more than an hour's journey from an interview office, estimated to be less than 4,000 per year in 25 areas.
When assessing interview office locations and travelling times to those offices we considered both private and public transport and used all available local and national transport and census data on population movements and modes of travel.
Each location has been selected as part of a mutually supporting network; no individual location can be changed without affecting the whole network.
I hope this has clarified the situation.
Migrant Workers: Children
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) migrant workers and (b) school age children of migrant workers in (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland; and how many such children are registered in schools in (A) Wales, (B) England, (C) Scotland and (D) Northern Ireland, broken down by country of origin. [128690]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 20 March 2007]: The Home Office has not made estimates of any of the figures requested.
Figures from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), estimate that there were 3.075 million people who were born overseas in employment in the UK in April-June 2006. A breakdown on a comparable basis for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is not available from ONS. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
Comparable estimates of the number of school age children of people who were born overseas and were in employment in the UK are not available.
Information on the number of children of migrant workers registered in schools is a matter for the various Education Ministers. They have informed me that this information is not collated centrally.
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