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10 Nov 2008 : Column 802W—continued
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals within the Greater Manchester Police Authority aged (a) under 13, (b) between 13 and 15, (c) between 16 and 18 and (d) between 19 and 21 years old have a sample on the national DNA database. [232303]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Information held on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) is recorded on the basis of the police force which took the DNA sample. The address of the person sampled is not recorded. Thus, the figures for the Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Authority area include people from outside the GMP Authority area who were arrested and sampled by GMP; and exclude people from the GMP area who were arrested and sampled by police forces elsewhere.
The table gives the number of subject profiles held on the NDNAD taken by GMP for the age ranges requested, as at 30 October 2008. The figures given are for current ages, not the age on the date the sample was taken.
The number of profiles is not the same as the number of individuals. This is because a number of subject profiles on the NDNAD are replicates, that is, a profile for a person has been loaded to the NDNAD on more than one occasion. This may arise for a number of reasons, such as a person giving a different name on different occasions they are arrested, or because of upgrading of profiles from the SGM to the SGM Plus profiling system. It is estimated that 13.3 per cent. of the subject profiles held on the entire NDNAD are replicates.
However, this rate may vary between police forces, so figures for the number of individuals are not given for particular forces.
| Current age | Total subject sample profiles |
Identity and Passport Service
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 17 October 2008, Official Report, column 1539W, on the Identity and Passport Service, how much was paid out in compensation by the Identity and Passport Service in each of the last five years. [232350]
Meg Hillier: Compensation payments made to the public by the Identity and Passport Service in each of the last five financial years are as follows:
| £ | |
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 17 October 2008, Official Report, column 1539W, on the Identity and Passport Service, what account she took of the passports stolen on 28 July in formulating the answer; and if she will make a statement. [232351]
Meg Hillier: The blank passports stolen on 28 July in Manchester were bound for RAF Northolt for onward delivery to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) overseas consular posts via diplomatic bag. The transport arrangements are the responsibility of the FCO. The Identity and Passport Service were made immediately aware of the loss and have been working closely with FCO on preventative action and the ongoing police investigation.
A joint letter was sent on 1 August to the Chairmen of the Home and Foreign Affairs Select Committees by the permanent secretaries of the FCO and the Home Office explaining the measures FCO are putting in place to increase security for the transport of passports to overseas posts.
Illegal Immigrants: Employment
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many on-the-spot fines have been imposed on employers using illegal immigrant labour since February 2008; and how many illegal immigrants have been removed from the UK as a result of operations leading to such fines. [231586]
Mr. Woolas: To date 1,012 notices of liability for a civil penalty have been issued since the implementation of the new civil penalties regime in February 2008. Figures provided from the database do not constitute part of National Statistics and should be treated as provisional as they are subject to change.
The United Kingdom (UK) Border Agency does not hold data in the format requested on those encountered working illegally that have been removed from the UK. Published information on removals is provided in the quarterly asylum statistics. The most recent figures can be accessed at:
and are also available from the Library of the House.
Immigration
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration is made of the status of a marriage of a foreign national to a British national under Sharia law completed outside the UK in dealing with an application for residency. [231862]
Mr. Woolas: Those applying for leave to enter or remain in the UK on the basis of their marriage to a British national must satisfy the UK Border Agency that they are validly married to their sponsor. In order for a marriage contracted overseas to be valid in the United Kingdom it must meet three criteria:
1. The type of marriage must be one recognised in the country in which it took place;
2. The marriage must have been properly executed so as to satisfy the requirements of the law of the country in which it took place; and
3. There must have been nothing in the law of either party’s domicile that restricted his or her freedom to enter into the marriage.
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what effect the divorce of a foreign national from a British national under Sharia law would have on an individual’s residency status. [231899]
Mr. Woolas: The only valid way of divorcing in the United Kingdom and Islands is by obtaining, on application, a decree from a civil court. The recognition of overseas divorces is considered under the provisions of the current legislation—the Family Law Act 1986—which came into force on 5 April 1988.
Immigration: Criminal Records
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Answer of 23 October 2008, Official Report, column 514W, on immigration: criminal records, what the policy is of the Government on the grant of indefinite leave to remain under the legacy exercise to individuals with criminal convictions; where (a) on the website referred to and (b) elsewhere the policy is explained; and for what reason her Answer did not set out the Government’s policy. [233093]
Mr. Woolas
[holding answer 4 November 2008]: The Case Resolution Directorate applies a range of existing UK Border Agency policies when considering cases within the legacy. All cases within the legacy are checked for criminality before any decision is made. Deportation
of individuals with criminality is considered in line with Chapters 11 to 15 of the published Enforcement Instructions and Guidance on the UK Border Agency’s website at:
If there is criminality, but deportation is not pursued and there are no outstanding applications or asylum or human rights issues, consideration will be given to criminal records in line with the extenuating circumstances as described in Chapter 53 of the published Enforcement Instructions and Guidance on the UK Border Agency's website at:
http://www.homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk/ind/manuals/enforcement guidance/Resources/Detention_and_Removals/Guidance/Chapter53.doc
Copies of the chapters referred to will be placed in the House Library.
Immigration: Detainees
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the longest period of time that an individual has been detained in an immigration removal centre is. [233313]
Mr. Woolas: Information of this kind is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Although under UK immigration law there are no fixed limits on the length of detention, there is a requirement to keep it to the minimum period necessary for the purpose for which it was authorised in line with article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights and associated jurisprudence.
National Statistics on detention are published annually and quarterly in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin Control of Immigration which is available in the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at:
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of time an individual was detained in an immigration removal centre was in each of the last three years. [233332]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is not available for the time period requested and could be obtained only through the examination of individual case files at disproportionate cost.
Following a change in the computer system in which information is collected; statistics on all persons recorded as leaving detention in the UK solely under Immigration Act powers by length of detention are not available after September 2006. Information up to that date for each year is available from the Library of the House and in Table 9.4 of each year's Asylum Statistics United Kingdom publication published each August:
Immigration: Educational Institutions
Chris Huhne:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been (a) prosecuted for and (b) found guilty of offences relating
to breaches of immigration law by educational institutions in each year since 1997, broken down by offence. [233324]
Maria Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
The number of ‘other’ offenders (i.e. companies, public bodies, etc.) proceeded against at magistrates courts and found guilty at all courts, for all immigration offences in England and Wales, from 1997 to 2006 are given in the tables. Data for 2007 will be available in late November 2008.
The Court Proceedings Database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform does not separately identify educational institutions from other public bodies or companies within the ‘other’ offender category.
The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
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