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11 Nov 2008 : Column 970W—continued
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2008, Official Report, column 1253W, on departmental data protection, what criteria are applied to decide whether it is in the public interest to comment on breaches of security. [195918]
Mr. Woolas: Except in exceptional cases, when it is in the public interest, it has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on breaches of security or the criteria used to decide such matters.
Departmental Information Officers
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many press and communications officers are employed by (a) her Department, (b) its non-departmental public bodies and (c) its agencies. [230042]
Mr. Woolas:
Press and communications officers in the Home Office are employed at the Senior Information, Information and Assistant Information Officer grades.
The following table gives details of the staff currently employed by the Department and its agencies in these grades.
| Press Officers | Communication Officers | Total | |
Other specialist and generalist staff across the organisation may have communications as a core part of their role, as good communication is integral to helping implement Government policy. However information on the numbers of staff in this category is not held centrally and could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.
Also data on staff employed by non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many full-time equivalent press officers (a) work and (b) provide assistance for her Department. [233519]
Mr. Woolas: Press officers in the Home Office are employed at the senior information (SIO) and information officer (IO) grades. The total number of full-time equivalent press officers currently employed by the Department is 37.89 (this figure includes six regional press officers employed by UKBA).
Ministers undertaking engagements outside of London may also for short periods of time be assisted by press officers employed by the Government News Network (GNN). This assistance is demand led and information on the total amount of time spent in terms of full-time equivalents is not held centrally and cannot be provided without incurring disproportionate cost.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) page hits and (b) visitors her Department’s website received in 2007-08. [233522]
Mr. Woolas: Page hits and visitors to www.homeoffice.gov.uk and its sub-domains for 2007-08 can be found in the tables placed in the House Library.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of maintaining her Department’s website (a) was in 2007-08 and (b) is forecast to be in 2008-09. [233523]
Mr. Woolas: Running costs for www.homeoffice.gov.uk in 2007-08 are £620,000 (excluding staff costs). Running costs for www.homeoffice.gov.uk in 2008-09 are anticipated to be £620,000 (excluding staff costs).
Costs for all Home Office sites are embedded in budgets across the Department and could be extracted only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Official Hospitality
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent on entertainment by her Department in 2007-08; and how much of that was for (a) food, (b) alcohol, (c) staff and (d) accommodation. [233517]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office systems do not separately identify the costs of food, alcohol, staff and accommodation related to entertainment separately and they could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
However we do retain records for hospitality provided by both civil servants and Ministers. The spend for 2007-08, the last 12 month period for which there are audited figures, was £58,156.
Home Office expenditure on official hospitality and entertainment conforms to departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, which complies with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety. Hospitality is defined as the provision of food, drink and entertainment of non civil servants where it is beneficial to the interests of the Department.
For the Department's agencies, the Criminal Records Bureau and the Identity and Passport Service’s spend could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Deportation
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of those listed as being removed from the UK in 2006 were removed at a port; and if she will make a statement. [183008]
Mr. Woolas: Of the 63,865 removals from the UK in 2006, 34,825 (55 per cent.) were persons refused entry at port and subsequently removed. This proves the success and strength of our border and juxtaposed controls. Figures are rounded to the nearest five and are provisional.
National Statistics on immigration and asylum are available from the Library of the House and the Home Office's Research, Development and Statistics website at:
Detention Centres
Ms Keeble: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to introduce mobile detention vans operated by the UK Border Agency on a national basis. [225928]
Mr. Woolas: The pilot of a mobile detention facility started in Northampton on 30 September and lasted for five weeks. The pilot covered the full range of operational scenarios our in-country enforcement officers face to test the facility's usefulness and how it complements, or adds to the existing fleet of vehicles available to the United Kingdom Border Agency.
The benefits will be assessed to determine whether the United Kingdom Border Agency wants to deploy additional vehicles of this specification in the future.
The mobile detention facility itself was adapted for this pilot from this existing fleet of vehicles, and on completion of the pilot it will continue to be available for operational tasking as required on a national basis.
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many sites her Department has identified as suitable for alternative to detention programmes for asylum seeking families; and when she expects those sites to become operational. [227551]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 20 October 2008]: One site in Scotland has already been identified as suitable for a future A2D pilot and the location and start date will be announced when contractual negotiations are complete.
Detention Centres: Finance
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the cost of detaining (a) an adult and (b) a person under 16 years in an immigration centre for one year, broken down by category of cost. [233310]
Mr. Woolas: We do not differentiate costs between an adult and a person under 16-years-old in our immigration removal centres (IRC). The estimated average cost of holding a single person in an IRC is £130 per day.
Drugs: Crime
Mr. Touhig: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people convicted of offences in England and Wales in the last year tested positive for illegal drug use upon arrest. [233220]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The information requested is not available.
The Home Office Drug Interventions programme (DIP) holds data on the number of people who test positive at arrest or charge in DIP intensive areas, and the offences for which they were arrested or charged. No information is available as to whether the individuals were convicted for the offence for which they were arrested or charged.
Drugs: Crime Prevention
Mr. Touhig: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crack house closures have taken place in each county in Wales in the last three years. [231607]
Mr. Alan Campbell: In the last three years, the information returned to the Home Office through the CDRP Survey for England and Wales shows that the county of Glamorgan issued three crack house closures (Cardiff city and county), Caernarfonshire issued one (Conwy county borough council), Monmouthshire issued two (Monmouthshire county council) and Denbighshire issued nine (Wrexham county borough council).
Genetics: Databases
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which private firms have successfully applied to use the national DNA database to help them develop computer programmes. [233401]
Mr. Alan Campbell: LGC and Cellmark have successfully applied for use of information from the national DNA database (NDNAD), to develop computer software to enhance use of the NDNAD and thus allow more suspects to be identified. Requests for the release of information must be approved by the NDNAD Strategy Board. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 lays down that DNA samples and the profiles derived from them can only be used for the purposes of prevention and detection of crime, the investigation of an offence, the conduct of a prosecution or, since April 2005, for the purposes of identifying a deceased person. In accordance with this, no information has been supplied to private firms to assist with the development of software for any other purpose. The information supplied from the NDNAD was anonymised, that is, no details that would enable individuals to be identified were supplied to the private companies.
Illegal Immigrants: Employment
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2008, Official Report, column 267W, on illegal immigrants: employment, how many (a) arrests have been made and (b) enforcement actions commenced in respect of illegal migrant workers in each year since 2005. [231274]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 28 October 2008]: The information requested is set out in the table at annex A.
Prior to April 2005 the UK Border Agency did not produce regular reports on numbers of individuals arrested. The data provided is management information. It may be subject to change and does not represent published national statistics.
| Annex A: Illegal working operational activity | ||
| Total enforcement visits | Number of arrests made | |
| Note: The data provided is management information. It may be subject to change and does not represent published national statistics. | ||
Immigration
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many foreign nationals married under Sharia law outside the UK (a) were granted residence and (b) took up residence in the UK during each of the last five years. [231861]
Mr. Woolas: When considering applications for leave to enter or remain staff in the UK Border Agency must satisfy themselves that the applicant is validly married to the sponsor. The type of marriage is not recorded and therefore statistics are not available. I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given on 10 November 2008, Official Report, column 803W.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what consideration her Department has given to abolishing unconditional leave to remain. [232981]
Mr. Woolas: We set out in the Green Paper “The Path to Citizenship” that there would be three routes to citizenship—economic, family and protection—and a clear three-stage journey through temporary residence, a new stage of probationary citizenship and then British citizenship or permanent residence. Consideration is being given to each stage.
Immigration: Community Work
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to proposals to allow migrants who take part in community work to serve a shorter period before getting a UK passport, which public sector agencies will monitor the validity of the community work. [233404]
Mr. Woolas: We want migrants who wish to make the UK their long-term home to integrate fully into our society and we want to reward migrants who make an effort to be active citizens with a quicker path to citizenship.
We have established a group with representatives from local government and the third sector to help us identify the most effective and practical way of implementing the proposal, including the most appropriate way we can verify that activities have taken place.
Immigration: Criminal Records
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many non-UK nationals with exceptional leave to remain were (a) granted and (b) refused the right of settlement in the UK in each year since 1997; and in how many cases a refusal was on the grounds of a criminal conviction in the UK. [233094]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 4 November 2008]: Grants of settlement 1997-2007 to persons previously granted exceptional leave to remain in the United Kingdom are published in Table 5.3 of the Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Control of Immigration Statistics United Kingdom 2007".
This publication is available in the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website at:
The Home Office does not collate statistics on the number of people with exceptional leave to remain who have been refused settlement in the UK and whether the reason for refusal was on the grounds of having a criminal conviction in the UK. The information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost by undertaking a search of case files of all individuals with exceptional leave to remain who have applied for settlement in the UK since 1997.
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