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27 Feb 2008 : Column 1659W—continued
Honours
Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many members of the senior civil service in her Department have received an honour. [187125]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office does not have records of those staff who were awarded an honour before they joined the Department or for achievements unrelated to official duties.
Eight senior civil servants in the Home Office (including the Home Office Headquarters, Border and Immigration Agency, Criminal Records Bureau, and the Identity and Passport Service) have received an honour since the new year honours list published at the end of December 2002, beginning of 2003.
Five remain in the Department, one is currently on secondment to an outside organisation, and two have transferred to the Ministry of Justice following the Machinery of Government changes in May 2007.
Four hold a Companion of the Order of the Bath, three hold a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and one holds an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Human Trafficking: Eastern Europe
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions she has had with her counterparts in (a) Ukraine, (b) Belarus and (c) Moldova on the combating of illegal migration and human trafficking. [189180]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 26 February 2008]: I have not recently held discussions with my counterparts in Ukraine, Belarus or Moldova on illegal migration or human trafficking. However, the UK supported the EU Council conclusions of June 2007 which extended the EU-wide global approach to migration strategy to countries to the east and south east of Europe, including those listed. As part of the implementation of this strategy, the UK has provided some financial support to two EU-funded projects in the Ukraine which are building the capacity of the Government of the Ukraine to manage migration and offer in-region protection to refugees.
Immigration: Rural Areas
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of levels of immigration to rural communities in England of people from countries which acceded to the EU in (a) 2004 and (b) 2007. [188600]
Mr. Byrne: The Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) provides information on both nationals of countries acceding to the European Union in 2004 who have registered with the Worker Registration Scheme (WRS) and Bulgarian and Romanian nationals taking employment in the United Kingdom since those countries joined the EU in 2007. These data are published quarterly in two separate reports: the Accession Monitoring Report and Bulgarian and Romanian Accession statistics, both of which include regional and sector breakdowns.
A further breakdown of the WRS figures by local authority (based on employer’s address) is available for local authorities.
The most recent publications, relating to the last quarter of 2007, were published on 26 February 2008 and are available on the Border and Immigration website:
I will make copies available in the House Library.
The data in these publications are based on Management Information, are provisional, and may be subject to change. The data are not National Statistics.
Independent Police Complaints Commission
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints the Independent Police Complaints Commission has (a) received, (b) investigated and (c) upheld in each of the last 10 years, broken down by police force against which complaints were made. [189139]
Mr. McNulty: Responsibility for the collation and publication of complaints against the police rests with the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
Merseyside Police: Modernisation
Mr. Frank Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answers of 25 February 2008, Official Report, column 2252W, on Merseyside Police: modernisation, whether the
restructuring of the personnel, finance, marketing and audit staff of Merseyside Police has been notified to her by the Chief Constable of Merseyside Police. [188610]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 22 February 2008]: Merseyside police have commissioned a review of support functions which has yet to conclude. Decisions on such a review are a matter for the chief constable in consultation with the Merseyside police authority.
Opium: Crops
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 19 February 2008, Official Report, columns 585-6W, on opium: crops, what tonnage of opium crop was produced from each location in each year. [189725]
Mr. Coaker: Information on the tonnage of opium crop produced at each location each year is not available. Details of the total annual of crop produced each year are held, as follows:
| Total crop grown (tonnes) | |
| (1) No crop—research only. | |
Passengers: Personal Records
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what role she expects passenger name record data to play within the Government’s e-Borders programme. [188652]
Mr. Byrne: Passenger name record data are included within the Other Passenger Information (OPI) which will be electronically collected from carriers for a sub-set of passenger journeys. The data will be used by the Agencies (e-Borders is a joint project, led by the Border and Immigration Agency in partnership with HM Revenue and Customs, UKvisas and the police service, working with the security and intelligence agencies) to perform risk assessments of the passengers prior to their entry to the UK.
This analysis will, in the first instance, use automated rules based systems. Where a potential match is identified trained officers will undertake a final assessment before issuing an alert to the relevant agency. It is expected that carriers will be required to provide these data initially 24-48 hours in advance of departure to facilitate advanced risk assessments to be made.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information will be included within the category of other passenger information within the Government’s e-Borders programme. [188642]
Mr. Byrne: e-Borders intends to capture reservations information that is available from travel industry booking systems. Details of the other passenger information to be collected are detailed in the Immigration and Police (Passenger and Service Information) Order 2008 which was laid before Parliament on 10 January 2008.
The duty to share this information (Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006 (Duty to Share Information and Disclosure of Information for Security Purposes) Order 2008) was passed by the House of Commons on 19 February and will be debated in the other House on 25 February.
Passports: Interviews
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department and its agencies have spent on interpreters and translators for use in passport interview centres since interviews commenced. [181665]
Meg Hillier: Since interviews for first time passport applicants commenced in July 2007, the Identity and Passport Service has spent £106,108 on interpreters and translators for use in passport interview centres.
Police Authorities: Westminster
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which (a) police authority area, (b) police force area and (c) criminal justice area each Westminster parliamentary constituency is in for reporting purposes. [188514]
Mr. McNulty: With the exception of the seat of the Cities of London and Westminster, all constituencies in England and Wales will be in co-terminal police areas, police authority areas and criminal justice areas, which will have the same name. For example, the seat of Epsom and Ewell is within the Surrey police area, the Surrey police authority area and the Surrey criminal justice area.
The seat of the Cities of London and Westminster is unique as it shares two police areas and two police authority areas, namely the Metropolitan area and that of the City of London. It falls within the London criminal justice area.
I have placed in the House Library a full list of the police area, police authority area and the criminal justice area of each constituency in England and Wales.
Police: Bureaucracy
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her policy is on reducing administrative burdens on the police; and if she will make a statement. [186903]
Mr. McNulty:
I refer the hon. Member to the statement given by my right hon. Friend, the Home Secretary, on 7 February 2008, Official Report, columns 1440-51, relating to Sir Ronnie Flanagan's Independent Review of Policing, published on
Thursday 7 February 2008. The report details a number of recommendations on tackling bureaucracy in policing, and forms a major programme of work designed specifically to free up operational police officers to spend more time on front line duty. This programme will be taken forward by the Home Office, the National Policing Improvement Agency, the Association of Chief Police Officers and the wider criminal justice system community.
Police: Cheshire
Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) police officers and (b) police community support officers were employed in (i) Cheshire and (ii) Warrington in each year since 1997. [189487]
Mr. McNulty [holding answer 26 February 2008]: Warrington was a Basic Command Unit (BCU) of Cheshire police up to March 2005. From April 2005, the Cheshire police BCUs were consolidated from six (Chester and Ellesmere Port, Congleton and Vale Royal, Crewe, Halton, Macclesfield and Warrington) to three (Eastern, Northern and Western). Therefore from April 2005 onwards Warrington falls within the Northern Area BCU of Cheshire police.
The available data are given in the following tables.
| Police strength( 1) (FTE)( 2) within Cheshire police force area as at 31 March 1997 to 31 March 2007 | ||
| As at 31 March: | Police officers( 3) | PCSOs( 4) |
| (1) This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items. (2) For police officers only, full-time equivalent excludes those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. For police community support officers only, full-time equivalent includes those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. (3) For police officers only. Comparable strength (excludes those on career breaks, or maternity/paternity leave). The Police Numbers Task Force (2001) recommended that a clear presentation was made of the numbers of staff employed by police forces including those seconded into the force and those on any type of long or short term absence. These new calculations were first used in 2003, and are not comparable with data prior to March 2003. The police officered data from 2003 onwards used here are termed comparable because they have been calculated on the old basis to allow comparison. (4) Police community support officers were introduced in statute in 2002, therefore data is not available prior to 2002-03. | ||
| Police strength( 1) (FTE)( 2) within Northern area basic command unit of Cheshire police as at 31 March 2006 to 31 March 2007( 3) | ||
| As at 31 March: | Police o fficers | PCSOs( 4) |
| (1) This table contains full-time equivalent figures that have been rounded to the nearest whole number. Because of rounding, there may be an apparent discrepancy between totals and the sums of the constituent items. (2) Full-time equivalent includes those on career breaks or maternity/paternity leave. (3) Data have been collected at the basic command unit level from 2002-03 onwards. Northern area BCU existed from April 2005. (4) PCSO data have been collected at the basic command unit level from 2006-07 onwards. However, the Home Office Police Human Resources Unit carried out two separate collections of police community support officer data, and as at 30 June 2005 there were 46 PCSOs, and as at 30 June 2006 there were 44. | ||
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