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10 Dec 2007 : Column 74W—continued
Asylum
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Asylum Case Resolution Programme will be completed. [164790]
Mr. Byrne: In his statement on 19 July 2006, my right hon. Friend the previous Home Secretary advised that the Border and Immigration Agency would resolve its backlog of electronic and paper records relating to unresolved asylum cases in five years or less. It remains our intention to conclude all cases by July 2011.
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) Iraqi and (b) Afghan nationals granted asylum in the UK have settled in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales and (iv) Northern Ireland in each of the last six years. [169822]
Mr. Byrne: The requested information is not available, as we do not require those granted asylum to live in a particular place.
The closest available information is the number of asylum seekers in receipt of support from the Border and Immigration Agency, broken down by Government office region and local authority. This is published on a quarterly and annual basis and the latest publication, covering the third quarter of 2007, is available on the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/immigration1.html. Further breakdowns, of those in receipt of support from BIA, by parliamentary constituency, are also available from the Library of the House.
Asylum: Sudan
Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the Government's policy is on returning Darfuri refused asylum-seekers to Sudan; and if she will make a statement. [164411]
Mr. Byrne: All applications for asylum, including those from Darfuris from Sudan are considered on their individual merits against the background of the latest case law and country information. Claimants who meet the definition of a refugee in the 1951 convention are granted asylum. Those, whose applications are refused, have a right of appeal to the independent Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. In this way we ensure that protection is afforded to those who need it.
We are investigating the allegations made in a recent Aegis Trust report on ill treatment of returnees. No enforced returns will take place until these investigations are completed.
Aviation
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department spent on (a) business and (b) first-class air travel in the last 12 months. [171245]
Mr. Byrne: The Department's accounting system does not separately identify expenditure on first class, business class and standard class travel for air travel. Such information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The Department expects all official travel to be carried out by the most efficient and economic means available, taking into account the cost of travel and subsistence, savings in official time, management benefit, and the needs of staff with disabilities. This is in accordance with the Civil Service Management Code and the Ministerial Code.
The Cabinet Office produces the annual list of Cabinet Ministers’ overseas travel. The list for 2006-07 was published on 25 July 2007.
Border and Immigration Agency
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Border and Immigration Agency will provide a substantive reply to the letter of 14 September 2007 from the hon. Member for Aylesbury, reference L1123626 and B25881/7, about Mr. D. L. of Aylesbury. [171368]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 5 December 2007]: The Border and Immigration Agency responded to the hon. Member for Aylesbury on 1 October 2007 and resent the reply again on 3 December 2007.
Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will bring forward legislation to give the Secretary of State for the Home Department powers to remove the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis from office; what recent representations she has received about the matter; and if she will make a statement. [169456]
Mr. McNulty: No. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is satisfied with the existing legislative position on this matter, and has had no representations on it other than this question. My right hon. Friend has made clear her support for Sir Ian Blair.
Community Support Officers
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what competencies are required of police community support officers. [163834]
Mr. McNulty: The Police Could You website (www.policecouldyou.co.uk) contains information and guidelines for potential PCSO applicants, as well as a guide to becoming a police community support officer. This guide lists effective communication, community and customer focus, respect for race and diversity, team working and personal responsibility as key qualities needed to become a PCSO.
As set out in section 38 of the Police Reform Act 2002, it is for the chief officer of each force to determine whether a person is suitable for and capable of the role to which he/she is to be deployed. Each chief officer must also ensure that the PCSO is adequately trained to use the powers he/she has been designated.
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were detained by a police community support officer in each of the last four years; and in how many cases a police officer took charge of the detainee within half an hour of detention. [165650]
Mr. McNulty: The information is not collected centrally.
Crime: Young People
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of crimes were committed by persons aged between 16 and 25 years in (a) Cornwall, (b) each parliamentary constituency in Cornwall and (c) England in each year since 1979, broken down by category of offence. [166712]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not collected centrally.
The Home Office collects statistics on the number of offences recorded by the police in England and Wales but no information is collected on the age of the alleged offenders.
Departmental ICT
Gordon Banks: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which manufacturers' software is used in her Department. [167227]
Mr. Byrne: In the main, the Home Office no longer chooses specific software. There are a large number of computer systems operated by the Department.
The choice of software to meet the business needs of the Home Office now largely rests with its Strategic IST suppliers who are contracted, largely under the private finance initiative (and public-private partnership arrangements), to meet business requirements and provide value for money solutions, including the consideration of open source solutions.
Within our business requirements, the Home Office ensures that any technical choices should meet relevant Government software standards and provide for interoperability with the public and business partners.
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will place in the Library a copy of the guidelines issued to staff maintaining her Department’s and its agencies’ corporate identity; and what the estimated annual cost is of (a) producing and (b) complying with such guidelines. [170232]
Mr. Byrne: The costs of producing revised corporate guidelines was £21,878.50. This was a one-off cost—there is no annual cost for producing further guidelines.
There are no costs associated with complying with the guidelines. The Home Office logo did not change, so no new stationary was required. The guidelines were created to prevent the creation of new logos and identities with the intention of saving the Department money by enforcing the single Home Office logo use on all communication.
A copy of the corporate guidelines has been placed in the House Library.
Departmental Private Finance Initiative
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the value is of the unitary payments of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by her Department over the lifetime of the contract expressed in constant 2007-08 prices; and if she will make a statement. [164229]
Mr. Byrne: Details of each private finance initiative scheme overseen by the Home Department with information on estimated unitary charges for 2007-08 is available on HM Treasury's website at:
The estimated unitary charge is based on 2006-07 actual charges and is not simply repayments for capital
value of the project but frequently include other factors such as inflation, service provision, capital repayments and major refurbishment.
To provide information on the unitary payments over the lifetime of the contract expressed in 2007-08 prices and discounted to present value would incur disproportionate costs. On average an appropriate discount rate to use for providing a net present value total would be as set out in the Green Book as real discount rate of 3.5 per cent.
The signed deals list covers unitary charges up until 2033-34 and to update the figures to cover the duration of the contract would incur disproportionate cost.
The Secretary of State has no plans to make a statement.
Deportation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many non-EU nationals she has been unable to deport since October 2000 due to (a) UK courts finding a real risk of them suffering treatment contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights on their return and (b) her Department accepting that any such deportation would be in breach of Article 3 rights. [169770]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested can only be obtained through the detailed examination of individual case files to ascertain the specific reason for an allowed appeal against deportation or when it has been accepted that deportation should not be pursued. This would incur a significantly disproportionate cost. The chief executive of the Border and Immigration Agency wrote a letter to the Home Affairs Committee on 20 November in which she provided an update on the deportation of foreign national criminals and gave the most robust statistical information available. A copy of this letter is available in the Library of the House.
Deportation: Complaints
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she expects the investigation into the alleged mistreatment of Beatrice Guessi during the journey from Yarl's Wood detention centre to Cameroon on 28 August 2007 to be concluded; and if she will make a statement. [170286]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 3 December 2007]: The investigation into the alleged mistreatment of Beatrice Guessi was referred by the Border and Immigration Agency to Hampshire Constabulary and is currently being investigated. If appropriate, the BIA investigation will continue once the outcome of the police investigation is known.
Deportation: Iran
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons were deported to Iran in each of the last five years. [170467]
Mr. Byrne:
The following table shows the number of people removed to Iran in each year since 2004.
Information on the destination of persons removed from the UK has been collated only since the start of 2004.
Information on the total number of persons removed between January and September 2007 is based on management information. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols, should be treated as provisional and is subject to change.
Published statistics on immigration and asylum are available from the Library of the House and the Home Office's Research, Development and Statistics website at:
| Removals, voluntary departures and assisted returns( 1) to Iran, January 2004 to September 2007( 2) | ||||
| Number of removals | ||||
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006( 3) | January to September 2007( 3,4) | |
| (1 )Includes enforced removals, persons refused entry at port and subsequently removed (including cases dealt with at juxtaposed controls), persons departing voluntarily after enforcement action had been initiated against them, persons leaving under Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes run by the International Organization for Migration and since January 2005 those who it is established have left the UK without informing the immigration authorities. (2) Figures rounded to the nearest five. (3) Provisional figures. (4 )Figures for January to September 2007 are based on management information; this information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols, should be treated as provisional and is subject to change. | ||||
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions the Government were unable to deport a person to Iran because they failed to co-operate with the obtaining of a travel document in each of the last five years. [170468]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested could be obtained only by the detailed examination of individual case records at disproportionate cost.
Deportation: Iraq
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals residing in Scotland were (a) issued with deportation orders and (b) subject to forced returns to Iraq in each month since January 2006. [169479]
Mr. Byrne: Information on the region of residence at the time of removal or when a deportation order was issued is available only through the examination of individual records at disproportionate cost. The Chief Executive of the Border and Immigration Agency wrote a letter to the Home Affairs Committee on 20 November providing an up-date to information on the deportation of foreign nationals that have committed crimes within the UK. A copy of this letter is available in the Library of the House.
Deportation: Overseas Students
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons rejected for clearance to study proliferation-sensitive subjects under the voluntary vetting scheme were deported in each year since 1997. [171855]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested could be obtained only by the detailed examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.
Detection Rates
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the clear-up rate for recorded offences in each police district in England and Wales was in each year since 1997. [166809]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is given in the table.
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