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7 July 2008 : Column 1244W—continued
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) civil servants, (b) permanent staff and (c) temporary staff work for (i) her Department and (ii) its agencies. [215040]
Mr. Byrne: Details of permanent and temporary staff numbers for Home Office HQ, UKBA, IPS and CRB can be found on page 98 of the 2008 Home Office departmental report. The report is available on the Home Office website at the following address:
Dogs
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will provide a breakdown of the training and running costs for her Department and its agencies associated with products of animal origin detector dogs and their handlers in each of the last five years. [215031]
Mr. Byrne: Details of the number of products of animal origin detector dogs and a breakdown of training and running costs associated with these dogs and their handlers for the years 2003 to 2007 inclusive are as follows:
| Number of dogs | Cost of outsourced training per course for up to four handlers (including supply of dogs) (£) | In-house training (four months per dog) (months) | Cost of acquiring dogs (some dogs were gifted to the Department) (£) | Running costs (handler, food, vet, transport, etc.) (£) | |
| (1) No dogs acquired (2) No outsourced training (3) No in-house training | |||||
This represents hard costs of:
| £ | |
The number of dogs column relates to dogs and handlers in situ in those years.
Driving Under Influence: Testing
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what guidance she issues to police forces on (a) training given to police officers in undertaking (i) field impairment tests and (ii) preliminary impairment tests and (b) the frequency of refresher training; and if she will make a statement. [214752]
Mr. McNulty: The Home Office does not issue formal guidance to police officers nationally on field impairment tests, or refresher training. The Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Department of Transport run a mandatory field impairment test (FIT) and drug recognition training (DRT) for police officers who wish to be authorised to conduct impairment testing in compliance with the Road Traffic Act 1988. Successful completion is based on the candidate's ability to pass an exam and demonstrate competence in impairment testing.
Currently, only Hampshire Constabulary and Northamptonshire police are authorised by ACPO to provide formal FIT and DRT to police officers.
Emergency Calls
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what her policy is on whether the 999 emergency telephone number may be used to report all categories of crime; and if she will make a statement; [215714]
(2) what recent guidance her Department has issued to police forces on the categories of crime which may be reported via the 999 telephone number. [215727]
Mr. McNulty: National call grades and definitions for use by the Police Service are covered by the Association of Chief Police Officers' National Call Handling Standards (NCHS). The standards indicate some minor crimes (for example, a stolen mobile telephone, vandalism, graffiti, abandoned cars and less serious types of antisocial behaviour) can be reported to the police through alternative mediums such as police force websites, confidential telephone hotlines or in person.
The NCHS does not record the category of crime, but is designed to assist police call handlers define whether contact made should be treated as emergency or a non-emergency. An emergency response will invariably result in an immediate police response; a non-emergency contact means that the police response may not be immediate, and may encompass a range of solutions, some of which will not involve the attendance of a police officer at the scene.
Entry Clearances
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people identified by her Department as having been ineligible for a visa for entry into the United Kingdom were subsequently granted a visa incorrectly in the last five years and then (a) were apprehended at port, (b) were granted entry into the UK and subsequently apprehended, (c) entered the UK and are at large and (d) of whereabouts unknown. [215094]
Mr. Byrne: The information requested could be obtained by the detailed examination of individual records only at disproportionate cost.
Food
Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by her Department on (a) food and (b) food of British origin in each of the last five years. [214911]
Mr. Byrne: The Home Office accounting systems do not identify separately the cost of food, nor the country of origin, so this information could not be obtained without incurring disproportionate cost.
Fraud: Social Security Benefits
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was recouped in fines for benefit fraud in England and Wales in each of the last two years (i) in total and (ii) broken down by region. [215023]
Maria Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
There were 15,088 successful prosecutions for benefit fraud and sanctions by the Department for Work and Pensions and local authorities in 2005-06 and 12,605 in 2006-07, the latest years for which figures are available.
It is not possible, using current IT systems, to break down the value of financial penalties imposed or subsequently collected for individual offences.
Immigration
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the UK Border Agency will make a decision on the immigration status of Mr. Christian Ofori-Addo of Torquay. [206678]
Mr. Byrne: I wrote to the hon. Member on 1 July 2008.
Immigration Controls
Mr. Lilley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which categories of immigration will not be covered by the points-based system. [214761]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 30 June 2008]: The points-based system will rationalise and simplify our existing system for controlling immigration by migrants who wish to work or study in the UK, so that only the migrants we need are allowed to come to Britain.
The new system will not cover immigration routes that are unrelated to work or study. Thus it will not apply to visitors or to those applying as the family members of people settled in the UK, such as spouses. It will not apply to people seeking asylum or humanitarian protection here, or to those applying to stay into the UK after service with HM forces.
Finally, there are several routes on which consultation is ongoing outside the PBS. These are Commonwealth citizens seeking to come here under the UK Ancestry provisions, people applying to stay here under the Long Residence Rules, those exercising rights of access to a child and retired persons of independent means.
Mr. Quentin Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she plans to create a dedicated EU passports channel at the UK border and immigration control points in the (a) Gare du Midi, Brussels and (b) Gare du Nord, Paris; and if she will make a statement. [215091]
Mr. Byrne: The UK Border Agency currently operates four control points at the Eurostar terminal at Brussels Gare du Midi and six control points at the terminal at Paris Gare du Nord. In view of increasing passenger numbers the Gare du Nord is currently being redeveloped to provide eight control points.
The efficiency of passenger clearance at the UK border is kept under review, and changes are made where they are considered to benefit passenger throughput, without having an adverse impact upon border security. The majority of passengers travelling to the UK on Eurostar services from Brussels and Paris are nationals of EU countries and all passengers, including those who are non-EU nationals, can be dealt with quickly without any segregation. There is consequently no dedicated EU channel at either station and currently no plan to introduce such a channel.
Immigration Officers: Heathrow Airport
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what minimum staffing levels her Department has put in place for front line immigration officers at Heathrow Airport; and on how many shifts these levels have not been met in the last 12 months. [214578]
Mr. Byrne: Staffing requirements for all ports, including Heathrow, are calculated using a workforce planning methodology which takes into account information provided by port operators on scheduling, predicted passenger loads and nationalities, and estimates of transaction times. Therefore every shift size is calculated individually.
If there are a large number of cases being handled by a particular terminal, or a number of flights arrive together unexpectedly, local managers will seek to re-deploy staff from other tasks or from other terminals to meet the additional demand.
There are some 13,000 different sized shifts per year at Heathrow and so the exact statistics which have been requested could be provided only at a disproportionate cost to the business. It is also possible that this information could prove useful to those people seeking to circumvent our border controls, and so to release it might compromise the security of the UK border.
Immigration: Heathrow Airport
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the capacity is of the short-term holding facility at Heathrow Airport; and on how many occasions it has been (a) reached and (b) breached. [214577]
Mr. Byrne: The capacity of each of the short-term holding facilities at Heathrow airport is as follows:
| Number | |
The remainder of the information is not readily available and provision of a reply would be at disproportionate cost.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will hold discussions with her Sri Lankan counterpart on preventing the transfer of funds from the UK to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka. [215000]
Mr. McNulty:
The Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam (LTTE), also known as the Tamil Tigers, have been listed as proscribed as a terrorist organisation from 2001 under the Terrorism Act 2000. It is a criminal offence for a person to belong to or to invite support for the LTTE in the UK. The UK Government is in contact
with the Sri Lankan authorities, law enforcement agencies and other Government Departments concerning preventing the transfer of funds from this country to the LTTE in Sri Lanka.
Members: Correspondence
Robert Key: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the Minister of State (Borders and Immigration) plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Salisbury of 9 May 2008 on the visit of a Cambodian national to the UK. [214455]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 1 July 2008]: The Chief Executive of the UK Border Agency replied to the hon. Member for Salisbury on 27 June 2008.
Tony Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when her Department plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Manchester Central of 25 April 2008, re TB, reference M7953/8. [216035]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 3 July 2008]: The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Meg Hillier) wrote to my hon. Friend on 2 July 2008.
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