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14 Jan 2008 : Column 1042W—continued
Asylum: Newcastle
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contractual commitments for units of accommodation the Border and Immigration Agency has with (a) Your Homes Newcastle and (b) other accommodation providers in Newcastle; and how much notice is required before that figure can be altered. [169005]
Mr. Byrne: The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) have three regional accommodation contracts providing accommodation for asylum seekers in Newcastle; two with the private sector (Kimberley Housing Group and Angel London Ltd.), and one with the public sector (North East Contract Consortium for Asylum Support). BIA does not have any contractual arrangements with Your Homes Newcastle.
The three contracts BIA has with providers in the North East contain minimum and maximum volume capacities which can be renegotiated at any time. The information is not made public due to commercial confidentiality.
Asylum: Sudan
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Sudanese Embassy officials have conducted interviews in the UK with Sudanese asylum seekers whose appeal rights have not been exhausted or who have made a fresh claim; and if she will make a statement. [165758]
Mr. Byrne: We take great care to protect individuals who pass through our asylum system and have confidence in the quality of our decision making process. We have a clear policy that external Governments do not become involved in the re-documentation process until decisions have been made on cases. Removal of the individual should take place only once appeal rights have been exhausted and there are no other barriers to their removal.
Burglary: Schools
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many burglaries were committed on school premises in 2006; and what proportion involved theft of IT equipment. [177865]
Mr. Coaker: The information requested is not available centrally. Burglaries on school premises are recorded under the Home Office offence classification of ‘Burglary in a building other than a dwelling’. As such they cannot be separately identified from other offences recorded within this classification e.g. burglaries in factories or warehouses.
Community Policing: Greater London
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many community police support staff have been in post in Romford since 2003; and if she will make a statement. [176793]
Mr. McNulty: Figures collected centrally relate to police community support officers (PCSOs) in the London borough of Havering since 2005. The Home Office started collecting PCSO data below police force level at this time, and these local area data relate to police basic command units (BCUs). Romford is part of the London borough of Havering BCU.
The figures appear in the following table.
| Numbers of police community support officers in the London borough of Havering: 2005-07 | |
| Police community support officers (FTE)( 1) | |
| (1) All figures are full-time equivalents (FTE) rounded to the nearest whole number. Note: Figures may not be directly comparable to the 2007 figure in the table, which is part of the Home Office's regular police personnel collection. | |
Control of Immigration Statistics 2006
Mr. Clappison:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will break down by sub-category the Other category in Table 5.6, Grant of
Settlement by main category and geographic region of nationality 1996-2006 of the Control of Immigration Statistics 2006; and what assessment she has made of the factors underlying the increase in this category since 1997. [177412]
Mr. Byrne: A more detailed breakdown of settlement grants by category can be found in Table 5.3 in the Command Paper “Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom 2006”. This publication may be obtained from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website:
The significant rise in grants in the “Other” category mainly reflects a rise in grants of settlement to recognised refugees and persons granted exceptional leave to remain, including grants under measures aimed at reducing the backlog of pre-1993 asylum applications and grants due to the Family Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) exercise.
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what contracts her Department has with external consultants; what the total value, including all VAT and disbursements, of these contracts are for the current financial year; how long each contract lasts; and what the forecast total value is of each contract. [163817]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Department engages consultancy firms to support and augment civil servants in the delivery of a specific range of work, including large IT development programmes and, where more cost-effective, longer term service delivery programmes.
The Department’s expenditure on these services is allocated across a wide range of firms, from small, specialist companies with niche expertise and few employees, to global multinational organisations offering a broad spectrum and substantial depth of consultancy expertise.
The Department awards contracts in competition according to the EU procurement directives based on value for money. The Department uses OGC framework agreements where appropriate. The use of external consultants provides the Department with specialist knowledge, skill, capacity and technical expertise that would not otherwise be available. Some expenditure is on consultants to whom we have outsourced services, such as IT.
The Department does not hold a central record of individual contracts with external consultants showing the level of detail requested. Only spend figures are held centrally. To assemble the requested details from individual records would incur disproportionate cost. The Department is able to provide the information set out as follows.
The information held by the Home Department on the total value of spend on consultancy and professional legal services from April to September and the forecasted total value for the current financial year is as follows:
| £ million | |||
| Home Office including Border and Immigration Agency | Identity and Passport Service | Total | |
| Note: Figures include non-recoverable VAT and disbursements. | |||
The information held by the Home Department on the total spend on the top, by spend, eight major suppliers of consultancy services from April to September of the current financial year is as follows:
| April to September financial year 2007-08 spend | £ |
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff employed by her Department during the last 12 months have not been entitled to work in the United Kingdom. [166104]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 19 November 2007]: I informed the House—17 December 2007, Official Report, column 966W—that, as a result of prioritised enforcement action undertaken by the Border and Immigration Agency with respect to the Security Industry, one member of staff employed by a sub-contractor providing services to the Department was identified as not having the right to work within the United Kingdom. This person was immediately detained and has since been deported.
As a result of this discovery, the permanent secretary ordered a review of the immigration status and entitlement to work in the United Kingdom of over 30,000 people employed by and contracted to the Department.
This review will be completed by the end of February 2008.
Deportation
Mr. Clappison:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department further to the answer of 17 December 2007, Official Report, column 951W, on
deportation, how many of the 72,550 asylum applicants removed from the UK between April 2003 and September 2007 were (a) enforced removals, (b) persons refused entry at port within the UK and subsequently removed, (c) persons refused entry outside the UK at juxtaposed controls, (d) persons leaving voluntarily after enforcement action had been initiated against them, (e) persons leaving under assisted voluntary return programmes run by the International Organisation for Migration and (f) persons otherwise voluntarily leaving the UK. [177479]
Mr. Byrne: Between April 2003 and September 2007, 72,550 asylum applicants, including dependants, were removed, including voluntary departures. Of these, 42,325 were removed as a result of enforcement action (including voluntary departures and persons leaving voluntarily after enforcement action had been initiated against them), 14,495 were refused entry at port and subsequently removed (including cases dealt with at juxtaposed controls), and 15,730 departed under Assisted Voluntary Return Programmes run by the International Organization for Migration. These data have been rounded to the nearest five and may not sum to the overall total due to independent rounding.
These figures include management information on the breakdown of dependants of asylum applicants removed in 2003. This information has not been quality assured under National Statistics protocols and should be treated as provisional.
Deportation: Overseas Students
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what instructions have been given to immigration officers on the deportation of students who overstay their visas; what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of enforcement measures in respect of student overstayers; and if she will make a statement. [177399]
Mr. Byrne: A person who stays in the United Kingdom (UK) beyond the time limit specified by his/her leave, an overstayer, is liable to administrative removal under section 10 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. The Operational Enforcement Manual (OEM) provides guidance and information for officers dealing with enforcement (after entry) immigration matters. Chapters 10 and 11 of the OEM specifically deal with persons liable to administrative removal under section 10 and administrative removal procedures respectively.
A copy of the OEM is available to view in the House Library and on the Border and Immigration Agency website at:
Intelligence-led operations are conducted every day of the week across the country to detect and remove those people who have breached UK immigration laws and in 2006 we removed over 63,000 people altogether, including amongst others failed asylum seekers and overstayers.
Driving Offences: Surveillance
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what plans she has to use the photographs taken by surveillance cameras to (a) detect and (b) prosecute those seen committing an offence under (i) section 14 of the Road Traffic Act 1988 and (ii) the Road Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) (No.4) Regulations 2003; what recent representations she has received on the issue; and if she will make a statement. [177577]
Mr. Coaker: How the offences are enforced and what evidence it is helpful and appropriate to put forward are matters for the police and the prosecuting authorities.
Failure to wear a seat-belt is recognised in the national Roads Policing Strategy as one of the key behaviours contributing to road casualties and there is a specific commitment to address it. We recognised the danger inherent in using a mobile phone while driving by increasing the penalty for the offence in the Road Safety Act 2006. This is a matter on which we regularly receive correspondence.
Entry Clearances
Mr. Paul Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what percentage of decisions on applications for (a) extension of stay and (b) indefinite leave to remain were made within 13 weeks in each year since 2001; [173958]
(2) how many (a) applications for and (b) decisions on (i) extension of stay and (ii) indefinite leave to remain there were in each year since 2001. [173967]
Mr. Byrne: Service standards were introduced during 2004. Charged and non-charged turnaround performance for 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07 is published on the BIA website under making an application—service standards.
The requested statistics on decisions on (i) extension of stay and (ii) indefinite leave to remain (settlement) are shown in the following table.
This information is published annually in the yearly Command Paper “Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom”. This publication may be obtained from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website:
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