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12 Jan 2009 : Column 292W—continued
Illegal Immigrants: Employment
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her latest estimate of the number of foreign nationals working illegally in Northern Ireland is. [243695]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 15 December 2008]: Since the abolition of embarkation controls, which started in 1994, no government has ever been able to produce an accurate figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally and that includes those that might be working illegally.
By the end of December 2008, the majority of foreign nationals will be counted in and out of the country.
This is one part of the biggest shake up of border security and the immigration system in a generation which also includes the global roll-out of fingerprint visas, compulsory watch-list checks for all travellers from high risk countries before they land in Britain and ID cards for foreign nationals.
The UK Border Agency is committed to tackling illegal migrant working and will act on any intelligence it receives that a business is employing illegal workers. Equally, if an employer is found to be employing an illegal migrant worker and they have not ensured that the person has full entitlement to work in the UK, then they may be subject to a civil penalty of up to £10,000 or, in more serious cases, criminal prosecution. If convicted on indictment, the employer may face an unlimited fine and in some cases, imprisonment for up to two years.
Ilois: Immigration
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many former Chagossians have been granted British citizenship in the last 10 years. [245422]
Mr. Woolas: In the 10 years between 1998 and 2007, five people who were recorded as previously being residents of the British Indian Ocean Territories, formerly known as the Chagos Archipelago, applied for and were granted British citizenship in the United Kingdom. As usual this figure is rounded to five and is, at this stage, provisional.
Statistics on persons granted British citizenship are published annually in Home Office National Statistics statistical bulletins. These publications may be obtained from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics website:
Immigration Controls
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the cost in each of the next five years of reintroducing exit checks for all people departing the United Kingdom. [243521]
Jacqui Smith: The UK Border Agency is committed to extending exit controls in stages, based on risk, identifying who overstays, and counting everyone in and out of the UK, while avoiding delays to travellers, by 2014.
Over the next five years, the Agency will deliver the e-Borders programme, our primary mechanism for the delivery of this commitment. The cost of the programme over the next five years is set out in the following table. It is not possible to separate the costs of collecting outbound data from inbound data.
| £ million | ||||||
| 2008-09 | 2008-10 | 2008-11 | 2008-12 | 2008-13 | Total cost of programme over next five years | |
e-Borders is already receiving data for inbound and outbound services from a diverse range of carriers on some routes and has been since January 2005. This is supported by physical exit checks where operationally necessary.
Immigration: Airports
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times passengers arriving in UK airports on international flights have entered the country through the arrivals facilities for domestic flights in the last 12 months. [243615]
Jacqui Smith: The UK Border Agency is aware of 28 occasions when passengers from international flights were initially directed to a domestic arrivals area in the year since April 2008.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times arriving domestic passengers have been taken to international arrivals at each major UK airport in each of the last five years. [244175]
Jacqui Smith: The UK Border Agency does not routinely collect or store information on instances of domestic passengers being directed to international controls as this presents no risk to the security of the border.
Immigration: Appeals
Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of time taken following an immigration appeal tribunal hearing was to (a) notify in writing the decision to the applicant and (b) send written notification of indefinite leave to remain to successful applicants in the latest period for which figures are available. [243208]
Mr. Woolas: Information produced by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (AIT) shows that in the period April to November 2008 the average length of time taken following an Immigration Judge hearing to notify in writing the decision to the applicant was seven working days (for all case types including bails).
For the same period, the average waiting time from hearing date to notifying the applicant of the decision in reconsideration hearings was 13 working days.
Following promulgation of the decision all in country and out of country non asylum decisions are served by the AIT. In country decisions are deemed to be received within 48 hours, and out of country decisions within 28 days. All asylum determinations are sent to UKBA to serve within 28 days in accordance with the 2005 AIT Procedure Rules. On 15 October 2008 a new process to serve initial Regional Asylum Team determinations by post on receipt from the AIT was implemented. Determinations are served on the appellant/representative within 48 hours of being received. This process saves a significant amount of time and speeds up the Asylum process.
Information on the average length of time taken following an immigration appeal tribunal hearing to send written notification of indefinite leave to remain to successful applicants is not available. This could only be obtained at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case records.
Immigration: Detainees
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detainees in the Immigration Removal Centre at (a) Oakington, (b) Yarl’s Wood and (c) Dungavel have accessed legal advice since 2003. [244587]
Jacqui Smith: This information is not recorded either locally at the removal centres or centrally.
Justice and Home Affairs Council
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the written ministerial statement of 4 December 2008, Official Report, columns 9-11WS, on the Justice and Home Affairs Council, when the Government expects the EU to meet the United Nations Commission on Human Rights target for 10,000 Iraqi refugees to be offered protection in the EU; how many such refugees it is anticipated that (a) the UK and (b) other member states will accommodate; and whether the number that the UK plans to host is in addition to those to whom the Government has already agreed to grant humanitarian protection by virtue of their work for the armed forces. [244311]
Mr. Woolas: It was agreed at the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 27-28 November that EU member states will consider the resettlement of up to 10,000 Iraqi refugees. This target includes those already resettled or who member states have already planned to resettle under current plans. Participation is voluntary.
The UK has committed to resettling 1,000 Iraqi refugees over the course of two years. This number is already planned for by the UK and includes the 600 Iraqis that the UK Government have agreed to resettle because they worked for the British forces or Foreign and Commonwealth Office in Iraq, where they meet the established resettlement criteria. The UK will not be in a position to provide additional spaces to this.
European Union member states will be asked to make their intentions on resettlement of Iraqi refugees clear in the near future. To date, it is not known how many Iraqi refugees other member states will resettle.
Members: Correspondence
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she will reply to the letter to her of 20 October from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mrs. Naseem Ahmed. [241693]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 8 December 2008.
Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she will reply to the letter from the right hon. Member for Maidenhead of 23 October regarding her constituent Ms Ali. [244193]
Mr. Woolas: The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney, South and Shoreditch, (Meg Hillier) wrote to the right hon. Member on 9 December 2008.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to reply to the letter to her dated 30 October 2008 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Sehir Hussain. [246525]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 22 December 2008.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to reply to the letter to her dated 3 November 2008 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Luis Lamb. [246526]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 6 January 2009.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to reply to the letter to her dated 28 October 2008 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Benmeddah. [246530]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 5 January 2009.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to reply to the letter to her dated 7 November 2008 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Mr. Hidal Ibrahim Takroori. [246531]
Jacqui Smith: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 5 January 2009.
Metropolitan Police: Motor Vehicles
Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vehicles in use by the Metropolitan Police were manufactured outside the UK. [246713]
Mr. Coaker: Individual police forces make all their vehicle purchasing and leasing decisions locally, therefore, this information is not held centrally. This is a matter for the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis.
National Identity Card Scheme Strategic Suppliers Group
David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the companies which comprise the National Identity Card Scheme Strategic Suppliers Group have not signed the non-disclosure agreement. [243692]
Meg Hillier [holding answer 15 December 2008]: All five suppliers who comprise the strategic supplier group for the National Identity Scheme have signed a non-disclosure agreement.
National Identity Register
Mr. Todd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of (a) individual records on the National Identity Register which will require amendment and (b) amendments to the National Identity Register which will be submitted in each year. [242223]
Meg Hillier: It is estimated that around 14 per cent. of the addresses on the National Identity Register will be changed each year, together with a much smaller number of other changes to update individual records on the National Identity Register. The precise number of changes each year will depend on the number of entries held on the National Identity Register which can not be determined until it is in full operation.
National Policing Improvement Agency: Airwave Service
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Airwave handsets issued to the National Policing Improvement Agency have been lost in each year since their introduction; and how many handsets issued to the Agency have been disabled by the service provider through (a) loss, (b) breakage and (c) other reasons in each such year. [246189]
Mr. Coaker: The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) is not aware of any handsets issued to them having been lost since the NPIA legally vested in April 2007. In November 2008, two Airwave handsets were mislaid for approximately five hours. As a precautionary measure these were disabled from operating on the network.
Oakington Immigration Removal Centre
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many detainees (a) with and (b) without a criminal condition there are in Immigration Removal Centre Oakington. [244585]
Jacqui Smith: Oakington removal centre holds up to 408 detainees, foreign national ex-prisoners make up on average around one quarter of the centre’s population. Local management information shows that on 14 December 2008 there were 103 foreign national ex-prisoners in Oakington.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many of the male detainees in Immigration Removal Centre Oakington have family members being held in another immigration removal centre. [244586]
Jacqui Smith: We do not hold the data requested centrally.
However, it is the UK Border Agency’s policy to keep family members together.
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