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17 July 2007 : Column 262W—continued
Animal Experiments: Laboratories
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many laboratories there were in England and Wales which undertook experimentation on animals in each of the last four years; [149322]
(2) how many inspectors were employed in England and Wales to monitor experimentation on animals in laboratories in each of the last four years. [149323]
Meg Hillier: The operation of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 is a reserved matter and the Home Office implements the legislation throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
The total number of places in England and Wales designated as user, breeding and/or supplying establishments under the 1986 Act at 31 December in each of the last four years was:
| Number | |
Under the 1986 Act, the animals scientific procedures inspectorate is a national body with responsibilities throughout England, Scotland and Wales, and no inspectors are appointed solely with respect to the operation of the legislation in England and Wales. However, we estimate that the number of inspectors whose working time was devoted to establishments in England and Wales in each of the last four years was:
| Number | |
Detailed information about the work of the inspectorate is provided in the ASPI annual reports for 2004 and 2005, copies of which are in the House Library. These annual reports explain what the inspectors do and how they do it, and provide details of the inspectorate's staffing and structure, ways of working, professional background and skills, and training and development.
Asylum
David Heyes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 14 June 2007, Official Report, column 1221W, on asylum, and the correspondence received by the hon. Member for Ashton under Lyne from the Border and Immigration Agency, how many cases there are of applicants in the category referred to in that correspondence as receiving support and may be given some form of leave to remain; and how many such applications were submitted in each of the last five years. [149071]
Mr. Byrne: Lin Homer, the chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency, wrote to the chair of the Home Affairs Select Committee on 19 February 2007 about the legacy programme. She explained that once reports can be produced on the programme in which Parliament and the wider public can have suitable confidence, Parliament will be updated accordingly. A copy of this letter has been placed in the Library of the House.
Border and Immigration Agency
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 9 July 2007, Official Report, column 1182W, to the hon. Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory) on the Border and Immigration Agency, what steps the Government have taken in respect of the Ramzy case; and when she expects it to be resolved. [149553]
Mr. Byrne: The Government, together with the governments of Lithuania, Portugal and Slovakia, submitted written observations to the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Ramzy v. the Netherlands in November 2005. The observations were the same as those submitted in two other cases which raise similar issues, A v. the Netherlands and Nassim Saadi v. Italy.
The Grand Chamber held an oral hearing in the case of Nassim Saadi v. Italy on 11 July 2007, and the UK made an oral submission to the court. The court has given no indication about when it will give judgment in this case or how it proposes to deal with the other two cases.
Children: Protection
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what safeguards are in place to prevent known paedophiles from opening a children’s agency specialising in theatre, television and modelling; and if she will make a statement. [148729]
Mr. McFadden: I have been asked to reply.
I refer the hon. Gentleman to my previous answer on 11 July 2007, Official Report, column 1546W.
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which will be implemented from Autumn 2008, provides the legislative framework to help prevent unsuitable people from working with children. The Act applies where an individual is undertaking regulated activity, which includes teaching, training, supervising, caring for or offering advice, guidance or instruction to children where it is done frequently or intensively (overnight or on more than two days in a 30-day period). Operating a children’s agency would also be included. An individual who is barred under the new scheme will commit an offence if they seek to engage in this activity and an employer will commit an offence if they seek to use such a person.
In addition, those running agencies are required to meet the provisions of the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and associated regulations, which are designed to protect those using the work-finding services they provide.
The regulations provide that agencies which supply individuals to work with or alongside vulnerable persons, including children, must carry out strict checks regarding those individuals which include taking up of independent references. Where agencies supply workers to work with children, these checks would include a Criminal Records Bureau check.
Closed Circuit Television: Garages and Petrol Stations
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had with petrol companies on use of CCTV images from petrol station forecourts to assist in the detection of vehicle crime. [149451]
Mr. Coaker: None. The use of CCTV images from petrol station forecourts to assist in the detection of vehicle crime is a matter for agreement between individual police forces and petrol companies as part of locally developed crime reduction strategies.
Departments: Early Retirement
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of her staff took early retirement in the last five years; at what cost; what grades of staff took early retirement; and what percentage of each grade took early retirement. [148811]
Mr. Byrne: There are a number of areas in the Home Office that have run early retirement schemes. Details of staff numbers in each scheme, the grades of staff who took early retirement and the percentage of each grade that took early retirement are not centrally available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Overall cost figures are available and published in the Home Office consolidated resource accounts. The following table shows the provisions made each year for the full costs of new cases of early departures, since 2002-03.
Final figures for 2006-07 will be published in the Home Office resource accounts, expected in September 2007.
| Total (£000)( 1) | |
| (1) Includes totals for the core department, agencies and the 42 local probation boards but not the NDPBs. | |
Departments: Pay
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many former employees of her Department are being paid their original salaries after their employment has ended. [149476]
Mr. Byrne: Overpayment information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The Home Office does not knowingly pay salaries to staff who have left the Department. Overpayments do occur from time to time, sometimes as a consequence of payments being made to staff who have left the Department, but efforts are always made to recover them.
Immigration
Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were granted leave to remain in the UK through the long-residence concession in each of the last 10 years. [147781]
Jacqui Smith: The latest available statistics on grants of settlement on the basis of long residence for 1996 to 2005 are provided in the following table.
| Grants of settlement by selected category of grant, excluding EEA nationals and Switzerland—United Kingdom, 1996-2005 | |
| Number of persons | |
| Category of grant | Long residency( 1,2) |
| (1) Includes persons granted settlement following application under the regularisation scheme for overstayers. (2) Excludes dependants. (3) Swiss nationals are excluded from 1 June 2002. (4) Data from 2003 also exclude dependants of EEA and Swiss nationals in confirmed relationships granted permanent residence. (5) Includes nationals of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia before 1 May 2004, but excludes them from this date. Note: Figures for 2001-05 have been rounded to the nearest five. Figures for 2000 and earlier have been rounded to two significant digits. | |
Imports: Primates
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she (a) has renewed and (b) intends to renew the approval of Nafovanny in Vietnam to import non-human primates to the UK. [149503]
Meg Hillier: The Animals (Scientific Procedures) Inspectorate visited the Nafovanny centre during April 2007. The present position is that their current period of acceptance has been extended from 31 May 2007 to 31 August 2007 pending consideration of the breeding centre's application to retain acceptance for a further two-year period.
Members: Correspondence
Clare Short: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when her Department will reply to the letters of 24 May and 5 June 2007 from the right hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood on behalf of Nazia Saghir (Home Office ref: S1359575/2). [148637]
Mr. Byrne: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 12 July 2007.
Pornography: Children
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers and civilian personnel work in countering computer-based child pornography in each police force in England and Wales. [150326]
Mr. Coaker: Information on how many police officers and civilian personnel work in countering computer-based images of child abuse is not collected centrally. The Home Office does not use the term child pornography.
Yarl’s Wood Detention Centre
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detainees at Yarl’s Wood immigration removal centre received compensation as a result of civil claims in each of the last three years; and if she will give details of each claim. [148929]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested could be obtained by the detailed examination of individual case records only at disproportionate cost.
Justice
Coroners: Armed Forces
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what recent progress has been made in concluding inquests for personnel killed on operational duty overseas since 2003. [149465]
Bridget Prentice: I would refer my hon. Friend to the written ministerial statement made on 20 June that gives details of the progress with these inquests. Since 20 June a further eight military inquests and one inquest of a civilian whose body was repatriated via RAF Brize Norton have been held.
Data Protection
Margaret Moran: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the implications of data mashup for data protection. [149440]
Mr. Wills: Data mashing is a term used for taking and combining data from different sources to create new and often innovative services. This is most commonly done with published structured data made available on the world wide web via application programming interfaces, using data and services from providers such as Google, Yahoo and Amazon. Data mashing is the process, the mashup is the product.
In the United Kingdom, all forms of processing personal data are regulated by the Data Protection Act 1998. Although the Act does not refer specifically to data mashing or mashup, its provisions will apply where a website operator in the UK takes legitimate public sources of information about individuals and then publishes a combined version of that information on the internet. In particular the first principle requiring the processing to be fair and lawful will apply.
Departments: Public Transport
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what incentives he has considered to encourage staff in his Department to use public transport. [148800]
Maria Eagle: For business journeys, the Ministry of Justice encourages staff to use public transport where practicable. Staff policy for travel and subsistence requires that staff restrict the use of pool cars or private motor vehicles to journeys that cannot be readily made by public transport.
Further assistance and encouragement is provided by the offer of interest-free loans for the purchase of season tickets for travel to work by public transport and for bicycles (including safety equipment) which are available to all employees that have at least two months service. These advances are repayable in equal monthly instalments within the life of the ticket or over a maximum of 12 months for the purchase of the bicycle. The Ministry also offers;
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