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1 Oct 2007 : Column 2358W—continued


1 Oct 2007 : Column 2359W

Maxim prosecution data only cover the last two years and these are:

Currently the Maxim Organised Immigration Team has a 100 per cent. conviction rate.

The Human Trafficking Unit was launched on 7 March and is part of the Maxim team. Since its inception the unit has made 12 arrests for human trafficking. There are four cases currently on-going within the judicial system. There have been no convictions yet as all these cases are awaiting trial.

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the establishment is of the Serious Organised Crime Agency; how many staff are dealing with human trafficking issues; and if she will make a statement. [155139]

Mr. Coaker [holding answer 12 September 2007]: As at 31 July 2007 the SOCA budgeted headcount was 4,164 staff.

The Home Secretary's priorities for SOCA in its first year included that SOCA should devote a higher proportion of its resources and activity to intelligence work than the agencies that it replaced and that Class A drugs and organised immigration crime, in that order, should be its top priorities. Organised immigration crime covers both the organised facilitation of immigrants to the UK (people smuggling) and trafficking of people for criminal exploitation, for example prostitutes or forced labour (human trafficking).

As published in its 2006-07 Annual Report SOCA deployed 11 per cent. of its operational resource against organised immigration crime.

The UK Serious Organised Crime Control Strategy, developed by SOCA on behalf of UK Law Enforcement, has four programmes of activity directly focussing on organised immigration crime. This includes a programme on “Trafficking of people”, in particular women and children for the UK vice trade.

Human Trafficking: Children

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what extra resources have been given to local authorities to provide safe housing and special support to child victims of trafficking discovered as a result of Operation Pentameter 2. [155456]

Mr. Coaker [holding answer 17 September 2007]: Under section 20 of the Children Act 1989, local authorities have a legal duty of care to safeguard any child in need of protection and to provide accommodation.

Special arrangements have been made between local authority children's services and the police to ensure that any children discovered as being sexually exploited
1 Oct 2007 : Column 2360W
during Operation Pentameter 2 will be referred to the appropriate local authority's children's services as a child in need of protection. A letter from the Department of Children, Schools and Families to all directors of children's services alerts them to Operation Pentameter 2 and requests that a designated officer be in place to liaise with the police about child victim referrals.

Identity Cards: Biometrics

Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which and how many locations in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland will be used for the capture of UK citizens’ biometric data as part of the identity card scheme. [155466]

Meg Hillier [holding answer 17 September 2007]: No decision has been made yet on the number or location of biometric enrolment centres for identity cards. However, it is likely that they could be sited in the same location (but not necessarily the same offices) as the 69 local offices being opened throughout the UK for passport interviews.

Where the network of enrolment centres needs to be further expanded, we will first seek to use high street offices that are already used by central and local government.

Kidnapping

John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the rate of incidents of gang-related kidnappings has been since April 2005, broken down by police area. [155365]

Mr. Coaker [holding answer 17 September 2007]: The information is not held centrally.

Mr. Garnier: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of gang-related kidnappings (a) which were unreported and (b) where no charges were forthcoming during the financial year 2006-07; and how many gang-related kidnappings occurred during each month of (i) 2005, (ii) 2006 and (iii) 2007, broken down by police area. [155570]

Mr. Coaker [holding answer 17 September 2007]: The information is not held centrally.

Minister for Women

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) ministerial committees and (b) permanent groups involving senior civil servants have been set up by her Department to liaise with the Ministers for Women. [155435]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 17 September 2007]: My right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister announced the new Cabinet Committee structure on 23 July 2007. The Domestic Affairs (Communities and Equalities) Committee, chaired by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, was one of the new Committees. The terms of reference for DA(CE) are:


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In addition to this and as with all cross cutting issues, Ministers and officials in the Home Office liaise with the Ministers for Women as necessary.

Offenders: Deportation

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many convicted criminals were deported to their own country in each of the last five years. [155487]

Mr. Byrne [holding answer 17 September 2007]: On 14 June the Director General of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate wrote to the Home Affairs Committee to provide the most recent information available on the deportation of foreign national prisoners. In this letter the Director reported that 2,784 foreign national prisoners were deported or removed in the financial year 2006-07. A copy of this letter is available from the Library of the House.

Statistics on the deportation of foreign nationals were last published in 2002. The data are available through the Home Office's Research Development and Statistics website at:


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Published information on persons removed as a result of deportation action has not been available from 2003 onwards due to data quality issues. The Immigration and Nationality Directorate is putting in place new systems to improve its data collection systems for the future in this area.

Offensive Weapons: Greater London

Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people under the age of 18 years were murdered as a result of (a) gun crime and (b) knife crime in each London borough in each of the last 10 years. [155142]

Mr. Coaker [holding answer 12 September 2007]: Available information relates to offences currently recorded as homicide that were caused by (a) shooting, which includes crossbows as well as guns and (b) a sharp instrument, which includes other sharp instruments as well as knives.

The number of homicides recorded by the City of London and Metropolitan Police Services between 1995 and 2005-06, where the victim is aged under 18, is given in the following table. Centrally-collected data cannot be broken down by London borough. Police force area breakdowns for homicides recorded during 2006-07 are scheduled to be published in January 2008.

Offences currently( 1) recorded as homicide where victim is aged under 18: City of London and Metropolitan Police 1995 to 2005-06( 2)
Year offence initially recorded as homicide( 3)
Police force area/apparent method 1995 1996 1997 1997-98 1998-99 1999-2000 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06

City of London:

Shooting(4)

Sharp instrument(5)

All methods

1

Metropolitan:

Shooting(4)

2

1

3

2

Sharp instrument(5)

5

5

5

6

3

5

9

6

5

2

1

6

All methods

18

15

22

22

18

12

19

16

23

17

13

17

(1) As at 9 October 2006; figures are subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available.
(2) 2006-07 data will be published in January 2008.
(3) Offences are shown according to the year in which police initially recorded them as homicide. This is not necessarily the year in which the incident took place or the year in which any court decision was made.
(4) Includes shooting by crossbows as well as firearms.
(5) Includes other sharp instruments as well as knives.

Passports

Mr. Clegg: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Government expects to pay Equifax for the contract to provide reference information on passport applicants in (a) financial year 2007-08 and (b) in each of the next three financial years. [155347]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 12 September 2007]: It is expected that spend on reference data provision in 2007-08 would be in the region of £392,000. The amount is variable depending upon the passport demand. This does not include software development and software/hardware development changes.

Spend in the following three years will be determined by the business model applied, which will drive the volume of checks, and negotiations with the reference information supplier.

Passports: Fraud

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many forged or false passports were seized at Heathrow and Gatwick airports in each of the last three years; and how many of those were from children. [154950]


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Mr. Byrne [holding answer 10 September 2007]: The activity of Airline Liaison Officers (ALOs) based overseas together with other border control initiatives, has resulted in a fall in Inadequately Documented Arrivals (IDAs) reaching the UK from 11,233 in 2004 to 6,915 in 2006. Over the last five years the ALO Network has assisted in preventing nearly 180,000 IDAs from boarding aircraft.

Under carriers liability legislation, air and sea carriers may be liable for a charge of £2,000 for each person they carry to the UK who is subject to immigration control and who fails to produce either a valid immigration document satisfactorily establishing his identity and nationality or a valid visa, if required. Carriers' liability is now an important complement to our immigration control. Over 60 other countries, including most of Europe, have carrier liability legislation.

Figures for forged and false travel documents detected at Heathrow and Gatwick airports for the past three years are as follows:

Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport
Number

2004

3,305

2005

2,164

2006

1,695


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