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26 Feb 2009 : Column 976W—continued
Gun crime
Violent crime
Sex Offenders Register
Alcohol AND disorder OR violence
Drugs AND classification
Antisocial behaviour
Not interested in individual incidents/arrests unless the article comments on a wider problem/issue or the Government’s response.
Crime statistics
Immigration (all regional and local cuttings)
Immigration OR migration
Immigrant OR migrant
Ignore articles about other forms of migration, e.g. birds
Asylum seeker
Asylum
Only in an immigration context
Border AND control OR security
Illegal worker OR illegal working
Points Based System
Refugee
Human OR people trafficking
People smuggling
Identity etc. (regional dailies only)
Identity card OR ID card
Identity fraud
National Identity Scheme
Regional passport office
Passport AND interview
Not interested in stories that just contain the word ‘passport’
Family records centre
National Offender Management Service (NOMS)—Prisons and Probation—used until the creation of MoJ in May 2007
The National Offender Management Service runs 140 prisons in England and Wales and supervises the contracts held by the companies Serco, Securicor, UKDS, Premier Prisons, Reliant Custodial Services and GSL which run the private prisons and court escort services. All stories relating to or mentioning these prisons in any way are to be cut. These might include stories about suicides (self-inflicted deaths), escapes, absconds, assaults, riots and other such incidents within prisons, visits to prisons by Ministers or VIPs, charity events, educational or recreational activities of prisoners/prison staff and work initiatives undertaken within prisons.
All stories with any reference to prisons policy.
Any major story relating to the Scottish Prison Service or the Northern Ireland Prison Service, the chief inspector of prisons (HMCIP) or inspector of probation (HMIP).
Any story mentioning the following organisations:
UNLOCK
Prison Officers’ Association (POA)
Prison Governors’ Association (PGA)
National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders (NACRO)
The Howard League for Penal Reform
The Prison Reform Trust
Smart Justice
Parole Board
Stories mentioning the prison related activities of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Prisons (HMCIP), Group4, UK Detention Services (UKDS) or any other company interested in tendering for custodial contracts from the Prison Service.
The other organisation which comes under NOMS is the National Probation Service. All stories relating to the management of offenders in the community are to be cut.
Life sentence prisoners are of particular interest; keywords to look out for include:
Life imprisonment
Lifer
Life sentence
Automatic life sentence
Murder/Murdered
Killer/Murderer
Manslaughter
Her Majesty’s pleasure
Discretionary lifer/Discretionary Lifer Panel
Detained for life
Section 2 Crime Sentences Act
Parole Board
Life licence
Life licensee
Deportation
Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress has been made in agreeing arrangements with other countries to protect the human rights of individuals deported from the UK to those countries in the last 12 months; and if she will make a statement. [255249]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 9 February 2009]: A memorandum of understanding concerning the provision of assurances in respect of persons subject to deportation on grounds of national security was signed with Ethiopia on 12 December 2008.
Copies of the memorandum of understanding, and the associated side letters, have been placed in the Library of both Houses and on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website.
Deportation: Peterborough
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many residents of Peterborough constituency are awaiting determination of an application for indefinite leave to remain; and if she will make a statement. [249216]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 20 January 2009]: The number of applicants that are awaiting determination in respect of their applications for indefinite leave to remain in the Peterborough constituency is 185.
Detention Centres
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the Answer of 16 October 2008, Official Report, column 1435W, on mobile detention centres; what the (a) cost and (b) outcomes of the Northampton pilot have been; and if she will make a statement. [254552]
Mr. Woolas: The aim of the mobile detention pilot was to test a vehicle with both detention and detainee transport capabilities in a range of operational scenarios to assess how it complements the existing fleet of vehicles. The pilot ran in the East Midlands between 29 September and 31 October 2008.
The Mobile Detention Facility provides UKBA officers with a secure ‘field’ location in which to interview suspected immigration offenders, detain them for a short period of time and then transport them as appropriate
to their next destination, for example, to an Immigration Reception Centre or Immigration Removals Centre, without relying on the availability of police resources or the deployment of UKBA escorting contractors to do this.
During the five week pilot, 22 foreign nationals were encountered of which 14 were interviewed further as suspected immigration offenders of which six were subsequently identified as such and transported to an Immigration Removals Centre. These individuals were processed more quickly using the Mobile Detention Facility capabilities than would otherwise have been the case.
In addition to this direct benefit, the provision of UKBA staff in the liveried vehicle at remote locations allowed for direct interaction with lorry drivers and members of the public to promote the work of UKBA, raise awareness about deterring so called ‘lorry drops’ and provide a conduit for the collation of additional intelligence to help secure the UK border.
The cost of this pilot was from within existing resources and is commercial in confidence in light of the contractual Non-Disclosure Agreement in place with the vehicle’s provider.
Detention Centres: Detainees
John McDonnell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) adult females, (b) adult males and (c) children were detained in an immigration removal centre in each year since 2000. [258268]
Mr. Woolas: The requested information is not available; the Home Office has however published the number of adults and children recorded as leaving detention in the UK solely under Immigration Act powers between January 2005 and September 2006. Information outside this time period is not available.
National Statistics on how many females, males and children are detained on a quarterly snapshot basis is available in table 10 of the Control of Immigration Quarterly Statistical Summary United Kingdom publication at:
and from the Library of the House.
Geert Wilders
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department under what powers she prohibited Mr. Geert Wilders from entering the UK. [258672]
Mr. Woolas: The Secretary of State considered that in her opinion Mr. Wilders' presence in the UK would pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society. She asked that her view be taken into account if Mr. Wilders sought admission to the UK. When Mr. Wilders attempted to enter the UK on 12 February 2009, the immigration officers who considered his entry were satisfied that his exclusion was justified on grounds of public policy and/or public security, in accordance with regulation 21 of the Immigration (European Economic Area) Regulations 2006. He was therefore refused admission to the UK under regulation 19 of the same regulations.
Immigration: Peterborough
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in the Peterborough City Council administrative area are appealing against refusal to grant indefinite leave to remain; and if she will make a statement. [257968]
Mr. Woolas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 23 February 2009, Official Report, column 146W, on deportation: Peterborough.
Offenders: Deportation
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons the UK Border Agency does not collate information on the number of prisoners returned under the early removal scheme. [254026]
Mr. Woolas: Details relating to the number of foreign national prisoners who have either been deported or removed under the Early Removal Scheme is held, however, due to known data quality issues, it is not possible to centrally collate that information. This means that in order to provide that information, it would be necessary to examine individual case files at disproportionate cost.
In her letter of 23 July 2008 to the Home Affairs Select Committee, the chief executive of the UK Border Agency advised that around a fifth of all foreign national prisoners who are deported or removed, are removed from prison an average of 180 days prior to their release date. A copy of her letter is available in the Library of the House.
Police: Herefordshire
Mr. Keetch: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many police officers there were in Herefordshire constabulary in (a) 1997 and (b) 2007; what estimate she has made of the number of police officers there will be on 31 December 2009; and if she will make a statement. [258300]
Mr. Coaker: Herefordshire falls within West Mercia constabulary, whose full-time equivalent police officer strength was 2,040 as at 31 March 1997 and 2,400 as at 31 March 2007. Figures exclude officers on career breaks and maternity/paternity for like-for-like comparison between the two years requested.
Information on police authority projections of police service strength is not routinely collected. It is for chief constables and police authorities to decide how best to use the resources available to them when setting levels of police officers, staff and PCSOs.
Security Guards: National Insurance
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many security industry employees who applied to the Security Industry Authority for registration were found to have used false national insurance numbers in their applications in each of the last three years. [254417]
Mr. McNulty: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested is not available. However, I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 15 July 2008, Official Report, column 323W.
Terrorism
Patrick Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many major terrorist plots were disrupted by bodies for which her Department is responsible in each of the last five years. [254792]
Mr. Coaker: The information is not currently held in the format requested.
As the director general of the Security Service has made clear, the Security Service is currently tracking 30 terrorist plots, comprising of 200 groupings or cells and totalling around 2,000 individuals.
In 2008, 50 people have been convicted in 18 significant terrorism cases. Of these 50, 21 individuals pleaded guilty.
In 2007, 36 individuals were convicted in 14 significant terrorism cases. 21 of these individuals pleaded guilty.
UK Border Agency: Lost Property
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 18 November 2008, Official Report, column 329W, on the UK Border Agency: lost property, how many files the figure of less than 0.2 per cent. represents; how many principal immigration case files the UK Border Agency holds; and from which date that file holding commences. [258700]
Mr. Woolas: The figure of less than 0.2 per cent. represents around 17,300 files that are temporarily lost on the system out of a total holding of 9.9 million files. The files in storage date back to 1950, with earlier dates having been retained by the National Archives or have subsequently been securely disposed of.
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