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23 Mar 2009 : Column 112W—continued
Borders: Personal Records
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions her Department has had with airline operators on the cost they will incur in modifying systems to comply with the data requirements under the e-Borders programme. [264191]
Mr. Woolas: The e-Borders Programme has engaged with carriers from its inception, and continues to have ongoing consultations with the industry. A regulatory impact assessment was undertaken between August and October 2007, in which carriers had the opportunity to highlight the costs that would fall to them in connection with discharging their e-Borders obligations.
The programme has developed a wide range of methods to enable the carriers to transmit data to the e-Borders system. These have been created to align, as far as possible, with industry standards and current data transmission methods.
This allows carriers to continue to use systems already in use for transmitting data to other countries who collect passenger data, e.g. US and Spain, and has minimised the need to develop new systems.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what percentage of passenger movements she estimates will utilise full passenger name record data checks in (a) 2009, (b) 2010, (c) 2011, (d) 2012, (e) 2013 and (f) 2014. [264192]
Mr. Woolas: Other passenger information (OPI) is known in the airline industry as passenger name record data and relates to details collected for a carrier’s own commercial purposes. It may include information such as passenger’s name, address, telephone number, ticketing information and travel itinerary.
There are currently no plans to collect OPI data for every passenger movement; however, it will be collected incrementally over five years to reach a maximum of 100 million passenger movements by the end of December 2013.
Currently, e-Borders obtains and processes advance passenger information (API) provided by carriers. This includes details available from travel documents such as a passport and scheduled departure and arrival information.
The e-Borders Programme remains on track to meet the milestone of capturing 60 per cent. (equivalent of 120 million passenger movements) of all passenger movements by December 2009.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of implementing the authority-to-carry element of the e-Borders programme. [264193]
Mr. Woolas: The long-term vision of the UK Border Agency is to establish the capability to automatically deny authority to carry (ATC) at the point of check-in to certain categories of individuals seeking to travel to the UK. The e-Borders programme will provide the ATC capability.
There will be a manual trial period to assess the benefits, impact and costs for the ATC capability. Following this trial, consideration will be given to the funding required.
Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of implementing the passenger name record element of the e-Borders programme. [264194]
Mr. Woolas: The total cost of the other passenger information (OPI) element of the e-Borders contract is £89,025,118.
Departmental Data Protection
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many times (a) her Department and (b) the UK Border Agency lost or misplaced databases containing data on (i) British citizens and (ii) foreign nationals in each year since 1997; and what information relating to how many people was held on each such database. [240937]
Mr. Woolas: Since November 2007, any personal data losses are reported to the Information Commissioner. Home Office data is not available for earlier years.
The Home Office has publicised details of personal data-related incidents notified to the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2007-08 in its resource accounts published in August 2008. In the first half of 2008-09 a
notification was made to the Information Commissioner regarding the PA Consulting data loss incident.
The Identity and Passport Service has published details of the personal data-related incidents notified to the Information Commissioner’s Office in 2007-08 in its annual report and accounts published on 26 June 2008. In the first half of 2008-09 no notifications were made to the Information Commissioner.
The Criminal Records Bureau did not report any notification of loss or mishandling of any personal data to the Information Commissioner’s Office for the period 2007-08 or for the first half of 2008-09.
Mr. Vara: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when her Department appointed a senior information risk owner in accordance with the report, Data Handling Procedures in Government and the accompanying document Cross-departmental Actions: Mandatory Minimum Action; when the appointment was made; and what grade the person holds within the Department. [245364]
Mr. Woolas: The senior information risk owner (SIRO) for the Home Office was appointed in April 2005. She is a board level director-general. The role fully accords with the recommendations contained in the report on Data Handling Procedures in Government published in June 2008.
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will place in the Library a copy of her Department's IT security hierarchy. [259806]
Mr. Woolas: Information is a key asset to Government and its correct handling is vital to the delivery of public services and to the integrity of HMG. The Security Policy Framework, the Data Handling Report and the National Information Assurance Strategy produced by the Cabinet Office provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place a set of mandatory measures which Departments must adhere to.
It is not in the interest of the security of the Department, or that of the public, to disclose detailed information pertaining to electronic breaches of security of Department’s IT systems. Disclosing such information would enable criminals and those who would attempt to cause disruptive threats to the Department to deduce how to conduct attacks and therefore potentially enhance their capability to carry out such attacks.
Detainees: Children
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children have been held in immigration removal centres for a period of more than (a) two weeks, (b) one month, (c) two months and (d) six months in 2008; and if she will make a statement. [263892]
Mr. Woolas: The requested information is not held centrally and would be available through the detailed examination of individual case files only at disproportionate cost.
The following table shows the numbers of children detained within the UK Border Agency detention estate solely under Immigration Act powers on a snapshot basis as at the last Saturday of each quarter of 2008, broken down by length of detention.
National Statistics on children detained solely under Immigration Act powers on a snapshot basis are published quarterly. This information is published in tables 9-11 of the Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary, United Kingdom bulletins which are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office’s Research, Development and Statistics website at:
Children are detained only in the following limited circumstances: most usually, as part of a family group whose detention is considered necessary; exceptionally, when unaccompanied, while alternative care arrangements are made and normally just overnight; to facilitate supervised escort of an unaccompanied child, who is being removed, from his/her normal place of residence
to the port where removal will take place—detention occurs only on the day of the planned removal to enable the child to be properly and safely escorted to his/her flight and/or to their destination; and in exceptional circumstances where it can be shown that an ex-foreign national prisoner aged under 18 poses a serious risk to the public and a decision to deport or remove him/her has been taken.
The Government’s stated policy on detention of families with children is set out in the 1998 White Paper “Fairer, Faster and Firmer—A Modern Approach to Immigration and Asylum”. In all cases there is a presumption in favour of temporary admission or temporary release and all reasonable alternatives to detention are considered before detention is authorised.
| Children( 1) recorded as being in detention in the United Kingdom solely under Immigration Act powers, by length of detention as at the last Saturday of each quarter in 2008( 2,)( )( 3) | ||||
| Number of children( 1) | ||||
| Length of detention( 4,)( )( 5) | 29 March | 28 June | 27 September | 27 December |
| (1) People recorded as being under 18 on the last Saturday of each quarter. These figures will overstate if any applicants aged 18 or over claim to be younger. (2) Figures rounded to the nearest 5 (— = 0, * = 1 or 2), may not sum to the totals shown because of independent rounding and exclude persons detained in police cells, Prison Service establishments and those detained under both criminal and immigration powers. (3) Figures include dependants. (4) Relates to most recent period of sole detention. (5) Two months is defined as 61 days; four months is defined as 122 days; six months is defined as 182 days. | ||||
Domestic Violence: Cumbria
Mr. Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases of domestic violence in (a) Cumbria and (b) Copeland constituency have been reported to Cumbria Police in each year since 1997. [263427]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office has collected the number of recorded domestic violence incidents for police force areas since 2003-04, before that the figures were collated by HMIC.
The figures for Cumbria police force are included in the following table, the data for Copeland constituency are not held centrally.
| Recorded DV incidents in Cumbria | |
| Number | |
Drugs: Crime
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1279W, on drugs: crime, for what reasons the police do not record possession offences by drug type for drugs other than cannabis. [262495]
Jacqui Smith: Offence categorisations as used in police recorded crime have always been broader than those used in court proceedings and the detailed returns on cautioning. From 1 April 2004, it was agreed that recorded offences of cannabis possession be separated from other drug possession offences to better monitor the use of police powers to issue cannabis warnings. It has not been considered necessary to record more detailed breakdowns on other drug possession offences as overall detection rates for these offences are high.
Information on court proceedings and cautioning give a good picture of the extent of other drug possession offences that come to the attention of the police by type of drug.
Dual Nationality
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many holders of British passports hold dual nationality, broken down by other nationality. [264660]
Mr. Malik: This information is not held centrally.
Entry Clearances: South Africa
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average processing time for family reunion visas where the application has been made from a UK overseas mission in South Africa was in the latest period for which information is available. [261979]
Mr. Woolas: UK Border Agency Customer Service Standards for processing settlement visa applications (which include family reunion applications) are to complete 95 per cent. of applications in not more than 12 weeks (60 working days) and 100 per cent. in not more 120 working days. Processing times for settlement visas at our Visa Application Centre in Pretoria in the last quarter of 2008 were as follows:
| Settlement (Percentage) | Days |
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