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6 May 2009 : Column 285W—continued
Immigration
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when she expects local immigration teams to be operational; [271358]
(2) what estimate she has made of the likely cost of local immigration teams in 2009; [271359]
(3) what role the police will play in local immigration teams; [271360]
(4) what recent discussions she has had with representatives of (a) local authorities and (b) police forces on the local immigration team scheme. [271361]
Mr. Woolas: Local immigration teams are being delivered as part of a rolling programme from 2009 to the end of 2011. Nine are already operational. We expect national coverage by operational local immigration teams to be in place by December 2011.
Local immigration teams will be delivered from within the UK Border Agency’s overall operational budget for the next three years.
These teams’ work will focus on the prevention and disruption of illegal activity and the arrest and removal of offenders. To disrupt illegal immigrants, the local teams will be backed by Immigration Crime Partnerships with the police. The police will work with immigration officers as equal partners in integrated teams to tackle organised immigration-related criminality as well as bringing a solution to those who are in the UK illegally and committing crime.
UK Border Agency regional directors are leading the discussions with stakeholders in their regions.
Immigration Controls
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications under the Highly-Skilled Migrants programme have been received in each year since the programme began. [272235]
Mr. Woolas: The following table shows the number of highly skilled migrant applications received in each year since the programme began.
| Number of highly skilled migrant applications received( 1) in each year 2002-08 | |
| Number | |
| (1) Figures include review applications. Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to nearest five. 2. The figures quoted are not provided under National Statistics protocols and have been derived from local management information and are therefore provisional and subject to change. | |
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many failed applicants under the Highly-Skilled Migrants programme have subsequently been deported; [272238]
(2) what the average cost of completing deportation proceedings against failed applicants under the Highly-Skilled Migrants programme was in the latest period for which figures are available. [272239]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office publishes statistics on the number of persons removed and departed voluntarily 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:
These statistics are categorised by asylum or non-asylum removals and it is therefore not possible to disaggregate the numbers of those who have been removed after a failed application under the Highly Skilled Migrants
Programme from the overall figures for removals without the examination of individual records at disproportionate cost.
Removals are delivered from within the UK Border Agency's overall operational budget. It is not possible to provide a figure for the average cost of removing a failed applicant under the Highly Skilled Migrants Programme because there are many different factors which may or may not be involved in the cost of a case (such as detention costs, travel costs, and the cost of escorting the individual in question). We are unable to disaggregate the specific costs and any attempt to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
The National Audit Office (NAO) gives a breakdown of the cost of typical asylum cases in 2007-08 in part four of its report ‘The Home Office Management of Asylum Applications by the UK Border Agency’ which was published on 23 January 2009. Although this refers specifically to asylum applicants, it provides an indication of the average costs of removing a person from the UK under a range of different circumstances. The report is available for viewing at:
However, the UK Border Agency aims to ensure removals are effected at the lowest available rate subject to operational needs.
Immigration: Fees and Charges
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will estimate revenue from charges for applications for (a) visas to the UK, (b) UK citizenship and (c) work permits in each of the next six financial years. [272256]
Mr. Woolas: In 2009-10, we estimate that we will raise £338 million from applications for visas, £81 million from British citizenship applications and £16 million from tier 2 leave to remain applications.
We will continue to set fees in a way which ensures those who benefit from the system make an appropriate contribution towards the end to end costs of the immigration system.
Immigration: Romania
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will hold discussions with representatives of the government of Romania on the number of people from that country who were refused entry to the UK on the grounds that their presence would threaten public policy, public security or public health since 2007. [268726]
Mr. Woolas: There are ongoing discussions with the Romanian Government, including at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in April, on various issues. HM Government have no current plans to meet with the Government of Romania on the number of Romanian citizens refused entry to the UK due to their presence being a threat to public policy, public security or public health. Any individual refused entry to the UK is dealt with on a case by case basis.
Immigration: Security Guards
David Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people applying for work as guards with the Security Industry Authority were asked to prove their immigration status in the latest year for which figures are available; how many of these did so; and how many of those found to be without the right to work (a) appealed, (b) appealed successfully and (c) had an appeal challenged by the UK Border Agency. [271831]
Mr. Coaker: All applications for licences to the Security Industry Authority (SIA) from non-European Economic Area nationals are automatically checked for the right to work by the UK Border Agency at the request of the SIA.
From 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2009, 28,892 checks were conducted. Of these, 25,165 were confirmed as having the right to work.
There were 3,727 who did not have the right to work, or where the UKBA had no trace of the applicant.
Out of the 3,727, a total of 1,196 contacted the SIA to claim that they had the right to work. Of these 1,041 were successful in having their right to work confirmed and 155 were unsuccessful. During the same period there were 27 appeals to the courts of which 20 were upheld, three were dismissed and four are awaiting a court ruling.
Iona School: Demonstrations
Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the cost to the public purse was of the recent police operation at the Iona School, Sneinton; and whether there is to be a charge to the public purse for the school's repair and refurbishment required as a consequence of the demonstration; [272095]
(2) whether charges have been brought in relation to the recent demonstration at the Iona School, Sneinton; and what reports she has received on whether demonstrators forced their way into the main school rather than adjacent units. [272468]
Mr. Coaker: I cannot comment on an ongoing investigation. The costs relating to a police operation is a matter for the chief officer of the force concerned.
The police have a duty to facilitate peaceful protest, but balanced against this is their duty to prevent the commission of offences.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what occasions the decision to include the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on the list of proscribed organisations has been reviewed in the last five years; and what criteria were applied to the review in each case. [271511]
Mr. Coaker: The list of proscribed organisations in schedule 2 to the Terrorism Act 2000 is kept under regular review.
It is Home Office policy to review the proscription of each organisation on the list at least once a year. The proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) was specifically reviewed twice during the period 2004 to 2005 and subsequently reviewed at least once in each of the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.
The proscription of the LTTE was additionally reviewed between October 2007 and January 2008 following receipt of an application for deproscription of the organisation. This application was refused.
At each annual review, officials consider whether the organisation in question is “concerned in terrorism” as defined in Terrorism Act 2000 and, if so, whether as a matter of discretion the organisation should remain proscribed.
Members: Correspondence
Sir Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Macclesfield of 23 March 2009, Ref M7032/9, UKBA Ref M1368250, on indefinite leave to remain, sent on behalf of his constituent Mrs Chatellon Matibag. [271435]
Mr. Woolas: The Deputy Chief Executive of the UK Border Agency replied to the letter on 24 April.
Metropolitan Police: Complaints
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many complaints have been made against police officers serving in the Metropolitan Police for concealing shoulder numbers in each of the last five years; [273050]
(2) how many police officers serving in the Metropolitan Police have been disciplined for concealing shoulder numbers in each of the last five years. [273051]
Mr. Coaker: These data are not held by the Home Office. The Metropolitan Police Service may be able to provide such information.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is responsible for the collation and annual publication of police complaints and discipline statistics. However, these statistics are not broken down to the level of detail requested.
National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding her Department has allocated to the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit in each year since its inception. [266956]
Mr. Coaker: Funding to the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit is managed on the behalf of the Home Office by the Association of Chief Police Officers Terrorism and Allied Matters (ACPO TAM). We do not disclose details of grants provided to individual units on security grounds.
Offenders: Deportation
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department spent on private contractors for escorted deportations in 2008. [263195]
Mr. Woolas: The value of contracts between the UK Border Agency and its escorting suppliers is commercially sensitive and cannot therefore be disclosed.
Police: Conduct
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many serving police officers in each police force area have (a) been subject to criminal proceedings, (b) been suspended from duty and (c) received written warnings for (i) misuse of the Police National Computer and (ii) other data protection offences in each of the last five years. [270580]
Mr. Coaker: The Home Office does not receive or collect such information. These are issues for individual forces.
Police: Costs
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will estimate the cost of policing (a) late alcohol licences and (b) football matches in each of the next six financial years. [272258]
Mr. Coaker: This information is not held centrally. Deployment of local policing resources is a matter for the chief constable and police authority to determine in light of local circumstances and operational priorities.
Police: Finance
Mark Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the budget of each police force in Wales was derived from central Government funding in each year since 1997. [272773]
Mr. Coaker: The information requested is set out in the following tables.
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