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28 Jan 2008 : Column 101W—continued
Illegal Immigrants
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in how many cases enforcement action to remove was successfully carried out in respect of non-UK citizens who were (a) illegal entrants and (b) overstayers in each year since 1997. [177472]
Mr. Byrne: Published information on persons removed as a result of enforcement action is broken down by the type of enforcement action initiated. Enforcement action is broken down into three main categories: illegal entry action, administrative removal action and deportations.
Section 33(1) of the 1971 Act, as amended by the 1996 Act, defines an illegal entrant as a person:
(a) unlawfully entering or seeking to enter in breach of a deportation order or of the immigration laws, or
(b) entering or seeking to enter by means which include deception by another person, and includes a person who has so entered.
An overstayer is a person who stays beyond the time limited/specified/given by his/her leave and is liable to administrative removal under section 10. Prior to 2000, such persons were liable to deportation as distinct from administrative removal.
The breakdown has not been available since 2003, but for information prior to 2004, it has been published in the Command Paper Control of Immigration: Statistics United Kingdom.
Copies of this publication and others relating to immigration to the UK are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at:
Immigration
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her Department’s average response time to representations from hon. and right hon. Members on immigration cases has been in each month since January 2006. [181229]
Mr. Byrne: In 2006 letters from hon. Members were answered within an average of 23.56 working days.
In 2007 (January to May) letters from hon. and right hon. Members were answered within an average of 16.83 working days. Figures for the average number of days to respond to a letter from June 2007 are not currently available.
Immigration: Work Permits
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for work permits were (a) initially refused and (b) subsequently granted on appeal as a percentage of total appeals in each of the last five years. [178538]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested is shown in the following table.
| Work permit individual and group applications refused and successful on review between 1 January 2003 and 31 December 2007 | ||||
| Refused | Total appeals on review | Successful on review | Successful (Percentage) | |
| Notes 1. Figures are rounded to nearest five. 2. Because of rounding, figures may not add up to totals shown. | ||||
The figures quoted are not provided under National Statistics protocols and have been derived from local management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change.
Offenders: Deportation
Damian Green:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) existing and (b) planned measures will be used to implement the Prime Minister’s undertaking to deport newcomers to the UK
who are caught (i) selling drugs or (ii) using guns; whether this policy will apply to all foreign nationals convicted of drugs and firearms offences; and if she will make a statement. [163777]
Mr. Byrne: The Government are committed to pursuing the deportation of foreign nationals convicted of using firearms and selling drugs.
Deportation Orders in such cases are already made under powers in Section 3(5) of the Immigration Act 1971. The automatic deportation provisions of the UK Borders Act 2007 will bring greater certainty and clarify to the deportation process. Foreign nationals imprisoned for serious crimes will know, from the point of sentence, that they will be deported save where one of a narrow list of exceptions applies.
Prisoners: Deportation
Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign national prisoners serving sentences have been notified that they are not at risk of deportation; and of those how many remain at risk of removal. [174903]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested can be obtained only through the detailed examination of individual casefiles at disproportionate cost.
In a statement to the House on 19 July 2006 I explained that there would be a presumption for deportation for those foreign nationals that meet the criteria. The automatic deportation provisions contained in the UK Borders Act 2007 have further strengthened the link between criminality and deportation. Foreign nationals not liable to deportation are considered for enforcement action on a case by case basis.
Regional Development Agencies: Finance
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she has allocated any resources to be spent via the regional development agencies’ single pot in 2007-08. [179810]
Mr. Byrne: No resources have been allocated in 2007-08.
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
Coal Authority
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will publish the guidance given to the Coal Authority on the (a) licensing and (b) commercial exploitation of its data. [180945]
Malcolm Wicks: The Coal Authority's use of its data is governed by its duties and responsibilities under the Coal Industry Act 1994 and other relevant statutes and regulations.
Energy: Rural Areas
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) what recent discussions he has had with Ministers at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the energy needs of rural households; [180760]
(2) what steps his Department is taking to assist rural communities without access to the mains gas network; [180762]
(3) what steps he is taking to assist rural households living in fuel poverty that are not connected to the mains gas network; [180763]
(4) what steps his Department is taking to assist households not connected to the mains gas network which have high energy bills. [180764]
Malcolm Wicks: BERR's Design and Demonstration Unit has developed a model under which deprived communities without access to mains gas and that meet certain criteria can be connected to the network, using existing funding. A number of communities have been connected using the model. In partnership with the regional development agencies in north-east England and Yorkshire and Humberside, we are co-funding demonstration projects delivered by Community Energy Solutions, a community interest company that will provide cost-effective energy to 40 communities. These projects will use mains gas and renewable technologies as appropriate, will benefit both urban and rural communities and are designed to be replicable elsewhere. Under the new gas distribution price control, Ofgem, with our support, has incentivised the gas distribution network companies to provide mains gas connections to deprived communities. We expect this to result in many thousands of customers gaining access to mains gas during 2008 to 2013.
Ministers from DEFRA and BERR have regular discussions on a range of energy issues, including the needs of rural households.
Nuclear Power Stations: Coastal Areas
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 14 January 2008, Official Report, column 975W, on nuclear power stations: coastal areas, if he will place in the Library copies of the research report on flood threat to nuclear plants; and what the web addresses are of each document. [180984]
Malcolm Wicks: The report “Flooding hazard from extreme sea levels” was commissioned by Nuclear Electric plc and any request for the report should be addressed to that company’s successors, British Energy plc and Magnox Electric plc. I am not aware that there is a web address for the document.
Overseas Loans: Developing Countries
Willie Rennie:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what his Department's record management practice is on keeping information relating to contracts for loans made to developing countries, with particular reference
to the (a) length of time for which information is retained and (b) the information which is retained. [180304]
Malcolm Wicks: ECGD's current policy is to retain all documentary information in its possession in relation to transactions which it has supported, for a period of up to seven years after the final repayment date of the loan or contract has been received. Where there has been a payment default and ECGD has paid a claim, the information would be held for up to seven years after the date on which ECGD either makes its final recovery in respect of the claim which it has paid or decides to abandon recovery action.
Post Offices
Anne Milton: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform by what means his Department defines (a) rural, (b) deprived urban and (c) remote communities in the minimum access criteria for the Post Office Network Change Programme. [181471]
Mr. McFadden: The Government’s response to the national public consultation on the post office network in May 2007 set out the definitions supporting the minimum access criteria for the post office network. The definition of a rural area is a settlement of less than 10,000 inhabitants. Deprived urban areas are defined as the most deprived 15 per cent. of super output areas in England, 15 per cent. of data zones in Scotland, and 30 per cent. of super output areas in Wales and Northern Ireland to take account of the proportional spread of disadvantaged areas across the UK.
There is no departmental definition of a remote area as no access criteria relates solely to ‘remote’ areas. Alongside the Government’s national access criteria, is the criterion that 95 per cent. of the population in every postcode district should be within six miles of a post office service. Implicit in this criterion is a safeguard for people in remote areas who might otherwise not have been assured of reasonable accessibility to services under nationally-applied criteria alone.
Post Offices: Closures
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what his most recent estimate is of the number of post offices to be closed (a) nationally and (b) in Leicestershire in 2008; and if he will make a statement. [181278]
Mr. McFadden: The Government's response in May 2007 to the national public consultation on the post office network committed funding support for strategic changes to the network with up to 2,500 compensated closures nationally. Closures under the network change programme began this month and the programme is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. I understand that final decisions on the closure proposals in the Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland area plan are scheduled to be announced by Post Office Ltd. on 1 February.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr. Gray) of 17 January 2008, Official Report, columns 1067-68, on post office closures, (1) if he will give details of the background costs taken into account when deciding whether a post office is profitable; [181970]
(2) what estimate he has made of the savings to Post Office Ltd. arising from the closure of 2,500 post offices in the first three years after the closures have taken place. [182454]
Mr. McFadden: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Copies of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate his Department has made of the effect on Royal Mail's revenue of the Post Office's planned programme of branch closures. [182181]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 25 January 2008]: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, managing director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Copies of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Post Offices: Rural Areas
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment he has made of the environmental impact of the change in the frequency of personal travel and car usage in rural areas resulting from the closure of rural post offices. [180794]
Malcolm Wicks: No such assessment has been made by my Department. But, in developing its proposals for post office closures and new outreach service points, Post Office Ltd. takes into account the Government's access criteria and wider factors relating to accessibility of post office services, including availability of public transport.
Post Offices: Urban Areas
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what minimum number of urban Post Office branches would be required to ensure 95 per cent. of the total urban population lived within one mile of a Post Office branch. [182066]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 25 January 2008]: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Copies of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
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