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11 July 2007 : Column 1524W—continued
Community Support Officers
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police community support officers in (a) Southend, (b) Essex and (c) England have been transferred from the original neighbourhood team to which they were recruited (i) to another neighbourhood team within their respective area and (ii) to a team outside their respective area. [147183]
Mr. McNulty: This information is not centrally collected. The deployment of police community support officers is an operational matter for the Chief Constable.
Community Support Officers: Police
James Duddridge:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals who were recruited as police community support officers in (a) Southend, (b) Essex and (c) England have
subsequently taken up positions as police officers, broken down by the period in which they were originally recruited. [147185]
Mr. McNulty: The requested information is not collected centrally as part of the police personnel statistics series.
Community Support Officers: Recruitment
James Duddridge: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police community support officers were recruited in (a) Southend, (b) Essex and (c) England during the period (i) January to June 2006, (ii) July to December 2006 and (iii) January to June 2007; and how many officers recruited during each period are still in post. [147184]
Mr. McNulty: The requested data on police community support officer recruits are not available. Data for 2006-07 will be made available after the publication of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin “Police Service Strength, England and Wales, 31 March 2007”, due for release on 26 July 2007.
Information relating to the number of police community support officer recruits still in post is not collected centrally as part of the police personnel statistics series.
Departments: Council of Europe Co-operation Group to Combat Drug Abuse
Mr. Malins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what meetings Ministers from her Department have had with the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe in the last 12 months; and what matters were discussed. [148530]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 9 July 2007]: Home Office Ministers have had no meetings with the Pompidou Group of the Council of Europe in the last 12 months. There was a Ministerial meeting of the Group on 27-28 November 2006 which I was unable to attend, but at which the United Kingdom was represented by our Ambassador to the Council of Europe and a Home Office official. The meeting endorsed a programme of work for experts in the field for the period 2007-10 in furtherance of the Group’s core mission of contributing to the development of multidisciplinary, innovative, effective and evidence-based drug policies in Council of Europe member states, in particular in the areas of prevention, treatment, criminal justice, research, ethics and co-operation between operational staff at airports.
Departments: Private Finance Initiative
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the total cost is of all private finance initiative projects for which her Department has responsibility completed since 1997; and what the projected cost is of such projects commissioned or under way. [148029]
Mr. Byrne:
The cost of completed projects is £129.80 million. The cost of projects under way is projected to be £2,058.24 million including costs associated with the
Home Office’s headquarters building where the construction phase of the project was completed in 2005.
These figures are the sum of the unitary charge payments made over the course of the projects, where any future payments are projections conditional on the performance of the private sector contractor involved.
The payments cover more than just the repayment of the capital value of the projects and include costs of service provision, capital repayments and inflation.
Further details of the individual PFI projects can be found at:
Departments: Public Transport
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what incentives she has considered to encourage staff in her Department to use public transport. [148801]
Mr. Byrne: It is Home Office policy to avoid staff travel wherever possible by the use of systems such as videoconferencing or teleconferencing or by encouraging home working. However where travel is necessary such as for commuting staff are encouraged to take up interest-free loans for season tickets. The use of public transport for duty travel is encouraged by restricting on site car parking, and making use of travel websites for information services and to simplify ticketing arrangements. Staff are also informed about local transport initiatives and promotions. Where the location or nature of the work makes the use of public transport impractical for staff, car sharing is encouraged.
Driving Under Influence: Screening
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether roadside drug-screening devices will be available for use by police forces within the next three years. [148554]
Mr. Coaker: We hope to publish the Guide to Type Approval of Drug Testing Devices by September 2007. The availability of devices will then depend largely on how quickly manufacturers prepare devices in accordance with the specification given and submit them for approval, how they perform in the necessary operational and laboratory tests and how soon after approval the manufacturers make them commercially available.
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her estimate is of the timescale for type-approval of roadside drug-screening devices. [148564]
Mr. Coaker:
Following detailed and extensive work on the preparation of a suitable device specification, we hope to publish a Guide to the Type Approval of Drug Screening Devices by September 2007. It will then be for manufacturers to prepare devices in accordance with that specification and submit them for type approval. Progress will then depend on how well the
devices perform in the necessary operational and laboratory tests and how quickly and appropriately manufacturers respond to any problems or queries that arise, if there are no difficulties, a typical timescale for the type approval process might be around six months.
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in type-approving roadside drug-screening devices. [148574]
Mr. Coaker: The Forensic Science Service and Home Office Scientific Development Branch, with outside experts, have been developing a specification for a device. Following extensive consultation, we hope to publish a Guide to the Type Approval of Drug Screening devices by September 2007. It will then be for manufacturers to prepare devices in accordance with the specification and submit them to the type approval process.
Extradition
Mr. Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times an European arrest warrant has been used to extradite foreign nationals back to the United Kingdom for prosecution. [147140]
Meg Hillier: Since 1 January 2004 when the European arrest warrant procedure entered into force in the United Kingdom, ninety four foreign nationals have been arrested as a result of European arrest warrants (part 3 warrants) issued by the UK. 74 of these have been surrendered to the UK. These figures comprise both those sought for prosecution and those who have already been convicted.
Identity Cards
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on progress with the national identity card scheme. [148012]
Meg Hillier: The Government remain committed to the introduction of the national identity scheme.
ID cards are essential in combating identity fraud and illegal immigration and in disrupting organised crime and the continued threat of terrorism.
Illegal Immigrants
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) illegal immigrants and (b) failed asylum seekers were granted leave to remain in the UK as a result of amnesties in each of the last 10 years. [147242]
Mr. Byrne: There have been no amnesties in the last 10 years for people who have no legal basis for stay in the United Kingdom.
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many overstayers there have been in the UK since 1997, broken down by estimated period of overstay. [147688]
Mr. Byrne: As the former Home Secretary set out in his evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 23 May 2006, following the dismantling of embarkation controls beginning in 1994, no government has been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally. The Home Secretary has set a clear goal of reintroducing systems to count everyone in and out of Britain. The majority of passengers will be checked in and out of the United Kingdom by 2009.
Immigration: Doctors
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many qualified medical doctors have been granted permission to remain in the United Kingdom under the Fresh Talent scheme following qualification under an HND, degree level or Masters or Doctoral course in England and Wales. [147940]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested could be obtained by the detailed examination of individual records only at disproportionate cost.
Passports: Photographs
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) for what reasons photographs accompanying passport applications may be rejected; and what proportion have been rejected for each reason in the last 12 months; [148342]
(2) what proportion of photographs were rejected for passport applications in the last 12 months, broken down by (a) age, (b) ethnic background and (c) disability status of applicant. [148343]
Meg Hillier: The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) collate photo rejections under 47 different headings. The possible reasons for rejection reflect the standards set out in the guidance in the passport application pack. These standards are designed to ensure that when the photograph is scanned onto the passport system a good quality facial biometric is captured.
The most common reasons for rejections are not looking straight at the camera (7.5 per cent. of all rejections), failing to adopt a neutral expression (around 12.5 per cent.), and where the eyes are obscured (17.5 per cent.).
Because of the way in which this data is stored it is not possible to provide a monthly breakdown of all reasons for rejection without incurring disproportionate cost.
Reject rates have settled at around 4-5 per cent. for all applications since the revisions to the standard announced at the end of 2005. The IPS do not keep separate statistics by ethnicity or disability, but are able to waive requirements where a customer is unable to meet them due to disability. There have not been any significant complaints about the current standards impacting unfavourably on disabled or ethnic minority customers, and a wide consultation process was carried out during the formulation of the standards.
Separate statistics are kept for children aged five and under. Photographs for children of this age only need to be a good likeness, with a clear image of the child.
Rejection rates for these applications average around 2.5 to 3 per cent. Around 30 per cent. of these are rejected due to the photograph being too light, and the IPS continues to work with the photographic industry to ensure they are able to provide the public with acceptable photographs.
Safety Belts: Children
Mr. Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many enforcement campaigns have been carried out on child car seats following the introduction of new child car seat legislation since 18 September 2006; and what level of compliance has been achieved. [148565]
Mr. Coaker: Enforcement of the new legislation is an operational matter for the police. The information requested is not collected centrally.
Compliance with the new legislation has been encouraged by an extensive Department for Transport advertising campaign costing around £600,000. This offered advice to parents on how the new measures affect them and also on what is needed to comply with the law. The campaign included coverage on national television and radio, in parenting magazines and on-line, as well as the distribution of 3.5 million items of literature.
It is too early to provide meaningful information on what level of compliance has been achieved following the introduction of the new legislation on 18 September 2006. A survey in October 2006, available at http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/campaigns/childseats/rates.htm did however compare the observed wearing rates for child restraints with the previous three surveys. This does show an increase since the April survey.
Innovation, Universities and Skills
Apprentices
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills which 10 (a) companies and (b) trades have provided the largest number of apprenticeships. [148211]
Mr. Lammy: The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) does not hold data on all employers that recruit apprentices as contracts may be with a training provider which in turn has arrangements with employers. However information is available on the 10 employers who hold the largest contracts directly with the LSC for their apprenticeship funded provision—this is shown in table 1.
Table 2 shows the 10 sectors that offer the largest number of apprenticeships and the numbers of young people in learning in those sectors in June 2007.
| Table 1 | |
| Employer | Total in learning (at June 2007) |
| Table 2 | ||||
| A26 code | Sector framework | Advanced apprenticeship | Apprenticeship | Total |
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