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19 May 2008 : Column 108W—continued
Hotels
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much (a) her Department and (b) each of its agencies spent on hotel and other such accommodation for staff (i) in the UK and (ii) abroad in each of the last five years. [200489]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office's, Identity and Passport Service's (IPS) and the Criminal Records Bureau's (CRB) recorded expenditure on accommodation is shown in the following table.
| Expenditure on accommodation | ||||||
| £000 | ||||||
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | ||
The figures for the United Kingdom Border Agency (UKBA) are included within those of the Home Office's shown in the table.
CRB cannot provide a UK/overseas split without incurring disproportionate cost.
Figures for the Home Office accommodation for 2003-04 and for UK accommodation 2004-05 were included in subsistence account codes and cannot now be separately identified.
The Department expects all official travel, and the associated accommodation, to be undertaken 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.
Human Trafficking: Children
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of children identified as subjects of trafficking were granted (a) asylum or (b) leave to remain in each of the last five years. [205466]
Mr. Byrne: Information on how many children identified as subjects of trafficking were granted asylum or leave to remain on other grounds is not available and could be available only by examination of individual case records at disproportionate cost.
Immigration
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) families and (b) individuals, including dependants, were allowed to remain in the United Kingdom under the seven year concession policy operated by the Border and Immigration Agency in each of the last five years. [205450]
Mr. Byrne: Over the years, a number of families and individuals have benefited from the provisions of the seven year child concession. However, the information on how many families and individuals have been allowed to remain in the UK under the policy is obtainable only at a disproportionate cost. It is not possible to identify these cases from others granted leave outside the rules without a manual examination of individual case files.
Immigration Officers
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Border and Immigration Agency paid in overtime to immigration officers in each year since 1997. [193132]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested for the whole period 1997-2007 can be provided only at disproportionate cost. The total pay bill for the 12 months period up to November 2007 was £515,556,285 of which £8,622,836 accounted for overtime payments. This excludes any travel time or premium payments which may also count as overtime. The figures cover all grades including immigration officers. Overtime is monitored by business finance teams.
Immigration: Detention Centres
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether mobile detention centres have been used in (a) pre-planned Border and Immigration Agency or UK Border Agency raids and (b) at the request of local constabularies following the apprehension of suspected illegal immigrants; [205458]
(2) how many suspected illegal immigrants have been apprehended by mobile detention centres; [205459]
(3) how many man hours have been spent in the operation of mobile detention centres; [205460]
(4) how much has been spent on procurement of mobile detention centres; [205461]
(5) for how many hours mobile detention centres have been in operation since January 2008; [205462]
(6) how many mobile detention centres were operational in April 2008. [205463]
Mr. Byrne: UKBA recently piloted the use of a short-term holding facility at small south coast sea ports, primarily Poole. During this period, the merit of using this type of facility for both pre-planned operations and to apprehend illegal immigrants was considered. A version of this vehicle, informed by the earlier pilot but with a different specification is currently being developed to meet the needs of our enforcement teams. UKBA is on track to pilot the new vehicle during autumn 2008 in the Northampton area. Funding for this trial will be from within existing resources and is commercial in confidence.
Licensing Act 2003: Prosecutions
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prosecutions there were under section 149 of the Licensing Act 2003 in each year since its entry into force. [206103]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 16 May 2008]: The number of prosecutions under section 149 of the Licensing Act 2003 are contained within the following table. Additionally, there were 104 penalty notices for disorder (PNDs) issued under section 149 of the Licensing Act 2003 in 2005, and a further 133 PNDs issued in 2006.
| Number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates courts for offences under section 149 of the Licensing Act 2003, England and Wales, 2005( 1) to 2006( 2,3) | ||
| Year | Number | |
| (1) The Licensing Act 2003 came into effect from 24 November 2005. There were no prosecutions under section 149 of the Act in that year. (2) These data are on the principal offence basis. (3) Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: CJEA-OCJR | ||
Offenders: Deportation
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what measures she has implemented to assess the effectiveness of the policy of deporting foreign prisoners on completion of their sentences; and if she will make a statement. [205367]
Mr. Byrne
[holding answer 13 May 2008]: We have made it perfectly clear that our objective is that foreign national prisoners should face deportation when they
meet the relevant criteria and that deportation should happen as early as possible in their sentence. Over 4,200 foreign national prisoners have been removed or deported from the UK in 2007. This means that the UK Border Agency has removed over 80 per cent. more foreign national prisoners than in 2006.
From this summer the agency will begin commencement of the automatic deportation provisions contained in the UK Borders Act 2007. The Act places a duty on the Secretary of State to make a deportation order in respect of a non-European economic area national who has been sentenced to either a period of imprisonment of at least 12 months or a period of imprisonment of any length for a particularly serious offence, as listed under section 72 of the Nationality and Asylum Act, 2002). The provisions enable the agency to speed up the removals process by ensuring that unless the foreign criminal has an arguable asylum or human rights claim, they will only have a right of appeal from outside the UK.
Passports: Interviews
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many personal passport interviews have been held in each passport interview office. [202249]
Jacqui Smith: During the past 12 months there has been a gradual build-up in capacity of the interview office network to ensure operational safety and maintenance of high customer service standards during the roll-out. The following shows the number of interviews conducted during this period of roll-out of the new capability:
| Interview office | Passport interviews completed |
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