| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
2 July 2007 : Column 915W—continued
Antisocial Behaviour: Blackpool
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what antisocial behaviour initiatives her Department has funded in Blackpool since 1997. [146516]
Mr. McNulty: In 2005-06, Blackpool received £238,639 revenue and £54,453 Safer Stronger Communities Fund grant from the Home Office. This included £25,000 for a local antisocial behaviour co-ordinator, to prioritise and drive forward action on local issues.
Since 2006-07, Blackpool has received centrally pooled Safer Stronger Communities (SSC) funding from Communities and Local Government—£776,950 revenue and £1,027,031 capital in 2006-07; and £1,104,893 revenue and £1,199,033 capital in 2007-08. Through its Local Area Agreement, Blackpool has agreed to deliver a range of outcomes using this funding, including reductions in community perceptions of antisocial behaviour.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has said that, as a Respect Area, Blackpool has been allocated funding of up to £50,000 to appoint an expert parenting practitioner to work closely with antisocial behaviour teams, £125,000 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families for parenting interventions and an additional pump priming fund of £15,000 to cover costs related to delivering of parenting support training. A further £215,000 over two years has been allocated to Blackpool by the Respect Task Force to establish a Family Intervention Project.
Blackpool is also one of 20 Respect Areas which recently submitted proposals for ‘Talking CCTV’ as part of their wider campaign to tackle antisocial behaviour. Blackpool received £25,000 to set up and promote ‘Talking CCTV’.
Asylum: Applications
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of claims for asylum were dealt with within the eight week target time period in each of the last 12 months. [126948]
Mr. Byrne: Information on the timeliness of initial decisions is published quarterly and annually. Information up to March 2007 will be available on 21 August 2007 in the quarterly publication. Copies of these publications are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at:
Asylum: Children
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases were referred to Ministers for review of the continued detention of children on immigration grounds beyond 28 days in each of the last three years; and in how many of those cases was detention not extended beyond 28 days. [146166]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested on referrals is not centrally collated and could be provided only by examining individual cases at disproportionate cost.
Quarterly snapshots are published in the quarterly asylum bulletin, showing the number of people detained under Immigration Act powers on the last Saturday of each quarter. Statistics on the total number of persons leaving detention each quarter are also published in the quarterly asylum bulletin.
Published information on immigration and asylum is available on the Home Office's Research Development and Statistics web site at:
Asylum: Finance
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the section 9 pilot on removal of support to refused asylum seeker families was concluded; when the evaluation of the pilot was (a) conducted and (b) provided to Ministers; when she expects to publish the evaluation; and if she will make a statement. [146162]
Mr. Byrne: The section 9 implementation pilot concluded in December 2005.
The evaluation of the pilot was conducted between January 2006 and June 2007. Ministers were presented with the findings of the evaluation in June 2007.
A written ministerial statement was published on 25 June 2007, Official Report, column 9WS.
The evaluation of the section 9 pilot is available on the Border and Immigration Agency website.
Asylum: Housing
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people attending hearings before the Asylum Support Adjudicator were provided with overnight accommodation in each of the last three years. [146163]
Mr. Byrne: Management information records the following numbers of people provided with overnight accommodation to attend hearings before the Asylum Support Adjudicators (now the Asylum Support Tribunal): 521 in 2005; 661 in 2006; and 350 in 2007 (January to May).
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of complaints about poor accommodation provided under (a) section 95 and (b) section 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 have been (i) made, (ii) investigated and (iii) upheld since its introduction. [146164]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested in respect of complaints about s4 and s95 accommodation is not collected centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many accommodation providers under section (a) 95 and (b) 4 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 have been subjected to financial sanctions in each of the last three years. [146165]
Mr. Byrne: 25 regional accommodation contracts for s4 and s95 have had financial sanctions applied since the award of new contracts in April 2006.
Prior to the award of these new contracts financial sanctions were not applied. However, accommodation providers were expected to remedy any shortfalls identified or provide alternative accommodation.
Asylum: Iraq
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the criteria for considering applications for asylum from Iraqi citizens differ from those applying to other countries. [146745]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 29 June 2007]: The United Kingdom considers all asylum and human rights claims, including those from Iraqi nationals, on their individual merits in accordance with our obligations under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) against the background of the latest available country information. How other countries handle asylum claims is a matter for those countries.
Automatic Number Plate Recognition
Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment she has made of the reliability of automatic number plate recognition technology. [146483]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 29 June 2007]: Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) is a well-established technology that allows vehicles observed by camera to have their vehicle registration mark ‘read’ using pattern recognition software.
It is not possible to assess the reliability of ANPR technology as this information is not collated centrally. ANPR is operationally independent in each police force and is structured and maintained in a variety of
ways. There is however, an established, collaborative working arrangement between police forces at the local, regional and national level that allows for the exchange of good practice.
Children: Romania
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions her Department has had with the Romanian National Agency for the Protection of Minors on unaccompanied Romany minors entering the United Kingdom. [146195]
Mr. McNulty: Discussions have been held at a number of levels with the Romanian authorities about accompanied and unaccompanied Roma children from Romania who have entered the United Kingdom. These discussions are continuing.
Community Policing: Blackpool
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding was made available by her Department for neighbourhood policing initiatives in Blackpool in (a) 1997, (b) 2005 and (c) 2007. [146515]
Mr. McNulty: Before 2002-03, when the Home Office introduced funding specifically for police community support officers (PCSOs), the cost of funding any neighbourhood policing initiatives was met by police authorities from the general police grant and local resources. In November 2004, the Home Office launched the Neighbourhood Policing Fund and significantly increased investment in PCSOs and the wider aspects of neighbourhood policing. We have allocated the amounts shown in the following table to Lancashire constabulary. It is for the local police authority and the chief constable to determine the most appropriate distribution of resources to Blackpool and other parts of the force area.
| Lancashire constabulary | |
| Specific funding for neighbourhood policing and police community support officers (£ million) | |
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans her Department has to provide further funding to Blackpool as part of the town's award of Respect Area status. [146517]
Mr. McNulty: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families has said that, in return for securing Respect Area status, Blackpool has been allocated £125,000 for 2007-08 from the Department for Children, Schools and Families to help improve parenting programmes linked to tackling antisocial behaviour.
Convictions: Offensive Weapons
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convictions there have been under the (a) Licensing Act 2003, (b) Knives Act 1997 and (c) Drugs Act 2005. [145989]
Mr. McNulty: Data from the court proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform for offences under the Licensing Act 2003 and the Knives Act 1997 are shown in the following tables.
As offences of failing to attend drug assessments under the Drugs Act 2005 came into force late in 2005, there have been no offenders found guilty, up to the end of 2005. Data for 2006 will be available in the autumn of 2007.
| Defendants found guilty of offences under the Knives Act 1997, England and Wales, 1997 to 2005( 1, 2) | |
| Number | |
| Defendants found guilty of offences under the Licensing Act 2003, England and Wales, 2005( 1, 2, 3) | |
| Number | |
| (1) These data are on the principal offence basis. (2) 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 and police forces. 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. (3) The 2003 Licensing Act was not commenced until November 2005. | |
Dangerous Dogs Act 1991
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the cost has been to public funds of keeping dogs held by the Metropolitan Police Service under the provisions of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991; [145558]
(2) how many dogs are being held by the Metropolitan Police Service under the provisions of the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991. [145559]
Mr. McNulty: The number of dogs held by the Metropolitan Police Service under the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991 and the associated cost to public funds is an operational matter for the commissioner; such information is not collected by the Home Office.
Departments: Older Workers
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of staff in her Department were over 60 years of age in each of the last three years. [145683]
Mr. Byrne: The percentage of staff who were 60 years of age in each of the last three years is in the table.
The Criminal Record Bureau has been unable to provide data. The information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Figures are taken from the Home Office personnel system called ADELPHI for 31 March for each year. They cover permanent and casual employees but exclude agency staff and contractors.
It is possible that 31 March 2005 figure may be inflated by some staff whose employment status was in the process of being updated as data was transferred to ADELPHI from the preceding Home Office personnel system.
The information has been derived from the Personnel Corporate Database and Oracle HRMS. These systems are subject to the marginal inaccuracies associated with any large-scale reporting systems.
| Percentage | |||
| April 2004 to March 2005 (2005) | April 2005 to March 2006 (2006) | April 2006 to March 2007 (2007) | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |