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22 Oct 2008 : Column 445W—continued
Immigration Controls
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will publish the target times for passengers to be processed through immigration controls at (a) Heathrow, (b) Gatwick and (c) Stansted airports. [163785]
Mr. Woolas: We recognise that we have a responsibility to process genuine passengers without delay but the safety and security of the public is our priority.
The introduction of Service Level Agreements (SLA) is key to our commitment to improve the passenger arrival experience. SLAs will include standards on key metrics, such as queuing benchmarks. The agreements will be published and reviewed annually.
As part of the SLA negotiation process, we are working closely with airport and airline operators to reach agreement on the most effective way to measure queues at operational locations. There are currently arrangements in place at selected ports to benchmark performance. The three ports referred to in your question are using a 45 minute (non-EEA) and 25 minute (EEA) queuing time as such a benchmark. This is the maximum wait time in which we aim to process passengers and in turn informs staff deployment, as well as informing considerations on further investment. We are clear that the averages are well within these benchmarks but will continue to work on reducing the occasions where those figures are exceeded.
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were granted leave to remain in the United Kingdom through the long-term residence concession in each of the last five years. [225104]
Jacqui Smith: The provision to grant indefinite leave to remain (ILR) on the basis of long-term residence was introduced into the immigration rules in April 2003. Prior to this, a person could be granted ILR on a discretionary basis under the Long Residence concession.
Statistics on persons granted ILR under the Long Residency concession/immigration rules, in each of the years 2003 to 2007, are provided in the following table.
| Grants of indefinite leave to remain under the Long Residency concession/immigration rules, excluding EEA nationals and Switzerland( 1) , 2003 to 2007, United Kingdom | |||||
| Number of persons | |||||
| Category of grant | 2003 | 2004( 2) | 2005 | 2006 | 2007( 3, 4) |
| (1) Data from 2003 exclude dependants of EEA and Swiss nationals in confirmed relationships granted permanent residence. (2) Includes nationals of the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia before 1 May 2004, but excludes them from this date. (3) Excludes nationals from Bulgaria and Romania from 1 January 2007. (4) Provisional. (5) 10/14 years continuous residence. (6) Includes persons granted settlement following application under the regularisation scheme for overstayers. (7) Excludes dependants granted settlement in-line. Note: Data rounded to the nearest five. | |||||
Members: Correspondence
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to answer the letter to her of 1 September from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on Mrs. N. Akhtar. [225956]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to my right hon. Friend on 15 October 2008.
Olympic Games 2012: Security
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what funding her Department has allocated for (a) the policing and security of and (b) immigration work associated with the London 2012 Olympics. [227535]
Mr. Coaker: The total agreed envelope for additional Olympic 2012 policing and wider security spending is £600 million. The Home Office is likely to be the major contributor to this but money will be drawn from a number of different Departments. The £600 million envelope excludes spending being met by the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) and the London 2012 Organising Committee (LOCOG) for requirements that fall within their remits.
A costed safety and security plan for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is currently being prepared. The plan will detail additional expenditure, including any that relates to immigration, policing and security, to ensure a safe and secure games. I anticipate that work on the costed security plan will be completed by the end of this year.
Passports
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passport applications were rejected in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) processing office and (b) reason for rejection. [225103]
Jacqui Smith: The information provided shows the number of applications that have been failed for nationality reasons and all other rejections.
| 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | Total | |
Police: Leicestershire
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers and police community support officers are employed in Leicestershire constabulary. [228398]
Mr. Coaker: Leicestershire constabulary employed 2,241 police officers and 212 police community support officers as at 31 March 2008. These figures are both calculated on a full-time equivalent basis. These and other related data are published annually as part of the annual Police Service Strength Home Office Statistical Bulletin. The latest bulletin can be found at:
and bulletins for previous years are available in the House of Commons Library.
Police: Pensions
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the implications of the deficit in the Police Contributory Pension Fund. [229197]
Mr. Coaker: The Police Pension Scheme 1987 and the New Police Pension Scheme 2006 are both unfunded, so when benefits fall due for payment they are met from Government revenues. There is no actual pension fund or deficit. However, in any particular year, income from pensions contributions from police authorities and police officers is used to offset the costs of paying benefits to pensioners.
Police: Stun Guns
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will ensure that police officers armed with stun guns only use them in exceptional circumstances and after approval from a senior officer has been obtained. [227809]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 20 October 2008]: The police use of Taser is limited to trained officers in accordance with Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidance. That guidance is clear that Taser use is currently restricted to authorised firearms officers (AFOs) where a firearms authority has been granted in accordance with criteria laid down in the ACPO Manual of Guidance on Police Use of Firearms. In addition AFOs are able to deploy Taser in operations or incidents where the use of firearms is not authorised, but where they are facing violence or threats of violence of such severity that they would need to use force to protect the public, themselves or the subject. A trial of the deployment of Taser in 10 police forces to specially trained police units not composed of firearms officers, for use when facing similar threats of violence, is currently being evaluated. The use of Taser in the trial is subject to the authority level of the appropriate authorising officer, thus placing it at the same authority level as for a firearms incident.
Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what advice she has issued to police on the use of stun guns against farm animals; and if she will make a statement. [227810]
Mr. Coaker [holding answer 20 October 2008]: The Home Office has issued no guidance to police on the use of Taser against farm animals. The police use of Taser is governed by Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) guidance.
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