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10 Mar 2009 : Column 298W—continued
Departmental Correspondence
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many letters from members of the public to her Department had not been replied to after more than (a) one month and (b) three months at the latest date for which figures are available. [251612]
Mr. Woolas: On 27 January 2008, 28 letters from members of the public had been awaiting a reply for more than one month. A further 24 public letters had been awaiting a reply for more than three months.
Departmental Public Appointments
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information her Department holds on the number of persons appointed to executive positions in bodies for which her Department has responsibility in the last five years who previously had careers in the banking industry. [261235]
Mr. Woolas: The information is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Departmental Rail Travel
Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost to her Department was of travel by train by its staff in each year since 1997. [261183]
Mr. Woolas: The Department's expenditure on train travel is set out in the following table.
| £000 | ||
| Home Office | Identity and Passport Service | |
| (1) Not known. | ||
The Home Office figures for 1996-97 to 2006-07 include expenditure for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) and the Office of Criminal Justice and Reform (OCJR), which transferred to Ministry of Justice on 1 April 2007: these figures could not be deducted from the Home Office total without incurring disproportionate cost.
Of the Department's agencies, expenditure on rail travel in the Identity and Passport Service could not be identified separately until February 2002. The information for the years 1996-97 to 2001-02 could not be provided without incurring disproportionate cost. Criminal Records Bureau cannot identify rail expenditure without incurring disproportionate cost.
Departmental Training
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what her Department's policy is on holding departmental away days outside her Department's buildings. [262027]
Mr. Woolas: There is no central policy on holding departmental away days outside the Department's buildings.
Departmental Translation Services
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many language translators are employed in each of her Department’s Executive agencies; and what the cost of translating services provided by such people was in the latest period for which information is available. [257154]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office headquarters (HQ) and the UK Border Agency (UKBA) do not employ any language translators or interpreters; translators are hired as and when a specific need exists. It is not possible to provide the cost of the translating services used by HQ and UKBA without incurring a disproportionate cost.
The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) employ four examiners who, among other things, deal with applications and inquiries submitted in Welsh. The salary scale for examiners ranges from £15,977 to £17,459. IPS also paid £2,785 for external translating services in the 2008-09 financial year up to the end of December 2008.
The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) employs one Welsh translator at executive officer grade; the salary scale for an executive office in CRB is £19,829 to £24,789.
Deposited Papers
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make it her policy when placing material in the Library in response to a parliamentary question to supply a copy of the material to the hon. Member who tabled the question; and if she will make a statement. [247975]
Mr. Woolas: It is our practice to provide a copy to the hon. Member.
Drugs: Crime
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information her Department has collected on the relationship between retail theft and (a) drug and (b) alcohol addiction; and if she will make a statement. [260061]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The relationship between any crime and drug or alcohol misuse is complex. There is some evidence which points to the relationship between acquisitive crimes and drug misuse. The links between acquisitive crime and alcohol are less clear in the current evidence base. The information held by the Department does not focus specifically on retail theft, but focuses on the broader categories of ‘theft’ or ‘acquisitive crime’.
The Department has commissioned a number of studies which provide information on the relationship between acquisitive crime and drug/or alcohol use. In addition, monitoring data from the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) are routinely collated.
The Arrestee Survey: provides information on arrestees’ self-reported offending while using drugs and reported crimes committed in order to buy/get hold of drugs. The survey also provides data for the number of arrestees who are assessed on the basis of a validated tool as being ‘alcohol dependent’.
The Drug Treatment Outcomes Research Study: is a representative study of drug treatment-seekers in England and Wales. The findings from this survey provide information on the number of treatment-seekers who had committed offences prior to interview, the number committing offences in order to buy drugs, and the numbers committing offences while under the influence of drugs.
The Offending Crime and Justice Survey, a survey of offending among young people in the general population, asks whether offenders who had committed ‘other thefts’ (including retail but not limited to) had taken alcohol or drugs at the time of the offence.
The Drug Interventions Programme provides information on the number of positive drug tests (class A, specifically heroin, crack and cocaine) in 107 basic command units (BCUs) for those arrested and charged with a number of trigger offences, including theft.
Drugs: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which schemes have received funding under the Communities Against Drugs
Initiative in the Hemel Hempstead constituency in each year since 1997; how much was received under each scheme; and what targets were set relating to crime reduction under each scheme. [261180]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Communities Against Drugs (CAD) initiative was launched in April 2001. It was designed to provide funding to local areas to implement action to tackle local drugs issues. Under the initiative, Dacorum borough council received £108,500 in 2001-02 and in 2002-03.
From 2003-04 CAD funding, the Partnership Development Fund and the Safer Communities Initiative Fund were combined to create the Building Safer Communities Fund (BSC). The BSC was designed to enable local crime and drugs partnerships to take a more flexible approach to the use of funds to reduce crime and other drug-related problems. Under the BSC scheme, Dacorum received £147,372 in 2003-04 and £151,056 in both 2004-05 and 2005-06.
In 2005-06 the BSC fund formed part of the Home Office contribution to the Safer Stronger Communities Fund (SSCF), a joint Communities and Local Government (CLG)-Home Office funding stream aimed at tackling crime, drugs and antisocial behaviour, empowering communities, improving the condition of streets and public spaces and prioritising the most deprived neighbourhoods. SSCF was paid, through CLG, to unitary and top-tier authorities.
From April 2008, SSCF has formed part of the Area Based Grant (ABG). The ABG is paid, through CLG, to local authorities on a three-year basis, in the form of a general non-ringfenced revenue grant, providing local authorities with certainty and flexibility of funding to meet local priorities.
Drugs: Misuse
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals aged over 65 years resident in each (a) London borough and (b) Government Office region were arrested for possession of either class A or class B drugs in the last five years. [261525]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The information requested on arrests is not collected centrally.
The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, which includes drug offences.
From these centrally reported data we are not able to identify specific offences from within the main offence groups.
Entry Clearances
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many elected representatives from other democratic countries have been refused entry to the UK since 2000. [259952]
Mr. Woolas:
It is not possible to provide definitive figures on the number of democratically elected representatives of other countries that have been refused
entry between 2000 and 2008. This information can be obtained only by the detailed examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 23 February 2009, Official Report, column 152W, on entry clearances, what the (a) maximum, (b) minimum and (c) average processing time was for those applications not processed within the public service agreement target times; and if she will make a statement. [260760]
Mr. Woolas: In financial year 2007-08 we only measured visa processing times against PSA targets. We did not monitor performance outside these targets. New customer service standards for visa processing times were introduced in January 2009 and are published on the Border Agency's Visa Services website, together with actual monthly processing times for each visa-issuing post. These are end-to-end processing times which include processing at Visa Application Centres (run by our commercial partners) as well as processing at Visa Sections.
Former Ministers: Security
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the cost of providing special protection for former Ministers in the UK was in 2007-08. [259953]
Mr. Coaker: I refer the hon. Member to my reply of 5 March 2009, Official Report, column 1779W.
Genetics: Databases
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate her Department has made of the number of cases where (a) fingerprints, (b) DNA and (c) a photograph have been entered on to the Police National Computer as a result of the issuing of penalty notices for disorder. [260071]
Mr. Alan Campbell: This information is not held centrally.
Identity Cards
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many identity cards had been issued by her Department at the latest date for which figures are available. [259951]
Mr. Woolas: As at 26 February 2009, 10,596 identity cards had been issued to foreign nationals.
Immigration: Data Protection
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedures her Department uses to authorise officials to access electronic files and databases relating to an individual’s (a) immigration status, (b) asylum application and (c) passport application; and if she will make a statement. [253863]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office has secure process for granting access to computer systems for immigration and asylum. Computer systems, including processes for granting access, go through an accreditation process led by the Department of Security Unit.
Immigration: Ethiopia
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many Ethiopian citizens and their dependants (a) were removed or deported and (b) left the UK voluntarily as a result of (i) an unsuccessful application for asylum and (ii) a breach of immigration conditions in (A) each of the last five years and (B) at the latest date in 2009 for which figures are available; and if she will make a statement. [258994]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 26 February 2009]: The Home Office publishes statistics on the number of persons removed, including voluntary departures, from the UK on a quarterly and annual basis. National Statistics on immigration and asylum are placed in the Library of the House and are available from the Home Office’s Research, Development and Statistics website at:
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