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20 Apr 2009 : Column 225W—continued
Published statistics on immigration and asylum are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate website at:
Research, Information and Communication Unit
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the budget of the Research, Information and Communication Unit (a) has been in each year since it was established and (b) is planned to be in each of the next three years. [268062]
Mr. Coaker: RICU costs were not separately identified until the 2008-09 financial year; formative team (salary) costs from June 2007 to March 2008 were counted against PREVENT. The RICU budget allocations for the CSR period are currently:
| £ million | ||
| 2008-09 | 2009-10 | |
In 2008-09 the FCO and CLG budget allocations were subsequently reduced in line with 2008-09 forecasts to £0.8 million and £0.7 million respectively; an outturn figure for 2008-09 is not yet available. Funding levels for 2010-11 have not yet been settled by FCO, HO and CLG. The current CSR period runs to 2010-11, funding for Departments outside this period has not been confirmed.
Salvia Divinorum
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what research her Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated on the health effects of salvia divinorum; and if she will make a statement; [268961]
(2) if she will classify salvia divinorum as an illegal drug. [268962]
Mr. Woolas: My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has recently written to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs requesting that it provide advice to Government on the availability and harms of psychoactive legal alternatives to illegal drugs, so called “legal highs”, with a particular focus on protecting young people. I fully anticipate that this work will include salvia divinorum. The Government's position on its control will be informed by Advisory Council's advice.
Sexual Offences
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many (a) complaints and (b) items of correspondence have been received by (i) her Department and (ii) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary on historical sex abuse investigations in the UK in each year since 2001; [259301]
(2) how many (a) complaints and (b) items of correspondence (i) her Department and (ii) Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary has received in respect of historical investigations of allegations of sex abuse in each year since 2001. [268773]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office does not hold this information.
Sir Fred Goodwin
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether her Department has specific arrangements to provide security at the home of Sir Fred Goodwin. [268946]
Mr. Woolas: It is long established policy not to comment upon matters of personal protective security and their associated costs. Disclosure of such information could compromise the integrity of those arrangements and affect the security of the individuals concerned.
Terrorism
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the breakdown is of the aggregated expenditure of £140 million allocated to the key deliverables of the Counter-Terrorism Programme 2008-09, as referred to on page 12 of the United Kingdom Strategy for Countering International Terrorism, Cm 7547. [268063]
Mr. Coaker:
The United Kingdom Strategy for Countering International Terrorism contains several statements about funding. The £140 million referenced in the question relates to key deliverables for prevent 2008-09 managed by a number of Government Departments and bodies such as the police. Increasingly,
spend by a much wider range of Departments, in particular the Home Office, cannot be broken down by activity without revealing sensitive information about our capabilities.
Terrorism: Ashford
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions she has had with (a) businesses and (b) community representatives in Ashford on Operation Argus. [267895]
Mr. Coaker: A “Project Argus” event for members of the retail community in Ashford, which included local authority and emergency services representatives, was held on 12 February 2008. In addition, local police counter-terrorism security advisers have delivered counter-terrorist protective security advice to 13 businesses in Ashford during the last 18 months.
Discussions are taking place with business and community representatives to hold a “Project Argus” night time economy event in May this year.
Terrorism: Coventry
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps her Department has taken to counter terrorist activity in Coventry. [268764]
Mr. Coaker: The Government have recently refreshed CONTEST, its counter-terrorism strategy, which has four strands: Pursue, Prepare, Protect and Prevent. The following work is being taken forward by local partners in Coventry with the support of national agencies:
I understand that a Prevent Working Group has been developed in Coventry, made up of senior representatives from the police, council, universities, colleges and other public agencies, which will meet for the first time this month.
Coventry has recently developed a communications strategy to help mainstream messages to counter extremism. The local authority is also currently developing a programme of activities for young people from diverse communities, which explores issues of identity, challenging extremist ideology, and provides support to the most vulnerable.
Prepare activity in Coventry is driven through the well established partnership of the Coventry Local Resilience Forum. This group is responsible for the development of the Local Community Risk Register which works to mitigate risks and threats within the area through prioritising planning, training and exercising activities.
Through NaCTSO (the National Counter Terrorism Security Office) and Project ARGUS we have provided advice and an awareness-raising programme to staff in all the main five shopping areas in Coventry (West Orchards, Cathedral Lane, Cross point, Lower Precinct and Tesco Arena), theatres and cinemas, the Transport Museum, Coventry FC and delegates from the night-time economy. For more information on NaCTSO and Project ARGUS visit
There are two planned Project Griffin events at Warwick University on 7 May 2009 and 28 May 2009. Project Griffin is a police initiative bringing together and coordinating the resources of the police, emergency services, local authorities, business and the private sector security industry. For more information on Project Griffin visit
More generally at all UK airports we are strengthening the arrangements for security planning, with clear proposals set out in the Policing and Crime Bill.
The key stakeholders at Coventry and other airports will have statutory responsibility for carrying out a joint threat and risk assessment and for preparing a comprehensive security plan setting out the actions being taken to address the risks at their airport. The costs of the police resources identified in that plan would then feature in a separate agreement about reimbursement between the operator, police force and the police authority.
Terrorism: Deportation
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals have been deported to (a) Jordan, (b) Libya and (c) Lebanon on national security grounds since July 2008. [262576]
Mr. Coaker: No one has been deported to the countries concerned on national security grounds since July 2008.
Theft
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences of (a) shoplifting, (b) robbery of business property and (c) theft by an employee were recorded by police in the quarter October to December in each of the last 10 years. [269232]
Jacqui Smith: Quarterly information for the requested offences is only available from 2001-02 onwards and the available data for the October to December quarters are given in the table. Statistics for October to December 2008 will be available following the publication of the quarterly update on 23 April 2009.
| Selected offences recorded by the police in England and Wales | |||
| Number of offences | |||
| October to December each year | Shoplifting | Robbery of business property | Theft by an employee |
| (1) Includes British Transport Police from this quarter onwards. | |||
UK Border Agency: Finance
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the budget for the Advisory Panel on Country Information of the UK Border Agency and its predecessor was in each of the last three years. [241796]
Mr. Woolas:
The Home Office met all costs for running the Advisory Panel on Country Information (APCI) until the function was transferred to the new independent chief inspector of the UK Border Agency in April 2008. The Chair and members of the APCI were unpaid and expenditure was limited to research costs for evaluating
Home Office country information material, recruitment of members and the expenses associated with meetings. These were approximately as follows for the years 2005 to 2008:
| APCI Expenditure 2005-2008 | |||
| 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
| Notes: 1. Costs exclude VAT 2. Figures rounded to nearest £10 | |||
UK Border Agency: Manpower
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the UK Border Agency spent on frontline border staff in 2008. [269223]
Mr. Woolas: The latest financial year for which accounts are available is 2007-08. Border Control was the operational directorate which included all frontline border staff in that year, and its pay costs were £161.2 million.
It is not possible to breakdown those costs into frontline operational staff and support staff.
Vetting
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time taken by each police force was to respond to inquiries from the Criminal Records Bureau as part of routine disclosures in 2008-09. [269697]
Mr. Woolas: Data concerning the average time taken to complete a disclosure by police force area are not collated by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of record checks processed by the Criminal Records Bureau in each police force area had comments from chief police officers on otherwise clean reports in 2008-09. [269699]
Mr. Woolas: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not collate data on the number of disclosures which contain comments from chief police officers but which do not contain any data from the Police National Computer (PNC), Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) or Department of Health (DOH).
Vetting: Maladministration
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many of those incorrectly designated as having a criminal conviction by the Criminal Records Bureau since the bureau's inception are aged (a) under 18, (b) 19 to 25, (c) 26 to 40, (d) 41 to 60, (e) 60 to 65 and (f) 65 years and over; [262335]
(2) how many of those incorrectly designated as having a criminal conviction by the Criminal Records Bureau since the Bureau's inception are (a) male and (b) female. [262474]
Mr. Coaker: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) has issued over 18 million disclosures since its inception in 2002. The following table represents the number of disclosures issued to applicants that had been matched to a record held on the Police National Computer (PNC) which had been challenged and subsequently upheld, broken down by age groups and gender.
| Gender | |||
| Age group | Male | Female | Total |
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