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8 May 2009 : Column 470W—continued

National Indicator 56: Obesity among primary school age children in year 6 :


8 May 2009 : Column 471W

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Mr. Baron: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to his Department’s publication Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives: One Year On, which primary care trusts chose child obesity as a World Class Commissioning target. [273808]

Dawn Primarolo: A third of all primary care trusts (PCTs) chose childhood obesity as one of their health outcomes. The Department does not hold data on the measures selected by each PCT. The information is available on individual PCT websites.

Home Department

Members: Correspondence

Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to reply to the letter of 2 March 2009 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, on Mr Hazem Abu Shaban. [271026]

Jacqui Smith: I wrote to the right hon. Member on 27 April 2009.

Vetting

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the UK Central Authority passes on information it holds to the relevant authorities when individuals apply for jobs working in (a) the Passport Service, (b) the UK Border Agency, (c) her Department, (d) the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, (e) the Police Service as (i) civilian support and (ii) warranted constables, (f) the Criminal Records Bureau, (g) the Greater London Authority, (h) local authorities children's departments, (i) local authority finance departments, (j) local authority electoral administration offices, (k) local authority social services departments, (l) the Pension Service, (m) the Criminal Cases Review Commission, (n) the Prison Service, (o) the Court Service and (p) the Crown Prosecution Service are vetted for crimes committed outside the United Kingdom. [243143]


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Mr. Malik: The United Kingdom Central Authority for the Exchange of Criminal Records adds conviction information onto the Police National Computer (PNC) in relation to UK citizens where this has been provided by other countries. The PNC will also contain any information about crimes committed in the United Kingdom by foreign nationals.

Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether (a) British and (b) foreign nationals working (i) as security guards in government buildings and departments, (ii) as police community support officers, (iii) in the Passport Service, (iv) in the UK Border Agency, (v) in her Department, (vi) in the Serious Organised Crime Agency, (vii) in the Police Service as (A) civilian support and (B) warranted constables, (viii) in the Criminal Records Bureau, (ix) for the Greater London Authority, (x) in local authorities children's departments, (xi) in local authority finance departments, (xii) in local authority electoral administration offices, (xiii) local authority social services departments, (xiv) in the Pension Service, (xv) in the Criminal Cases Review Commission, (xvi) in the Prison Service, (xvii) in the Court Service and (xviii) in the Crown Prosecution Service are vetted for crimes committed outside the United Kingdom. [243144]

Mr. Malik: For reasons of cost, I am only able to answer this question on behalf of the Home Office. It is Home Office policy to ensure that all recruits satisfy identity, background, right to work and unspent criminal conviction record checks including, for UK nationals, details of criminal convictions for recordable offences which have been notified to the UK authorities by either EU member states or through Interpol channels. This fully complies with the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) issued by the Cabinet Office. In addition, using Home Office records, details are verified to ensure that any applicant has the right to work and that there are no integrity concerns. In addition, enhanced disclosures provided by the Criminal Records Bureau or Disclosure Scotland are required for those Home Office staff who work with children or vulnerable adults. We require information about both spent and unspent convictions for staff that are employed in a National Security Vetting (NSV) post.

When a foreign national seeks employment with the Home Office we seek to establish whether the individual has a criminal record in the UK as well as in their country of origin. It is not always possible to obtain this information from overseas. As set out in the Government Response to Sir Ian Magee's Review of Criminality Information published on 4 December 2008, we aim to improve the sharing of electronic information and to prioritise agreements on the sharing of criminality information for employment vetting and barring purposes with other EU countries.

Outside the EU we are taking a risk based approach to identify those countries that need to be a priority for information exchange for this purpose. However, in most cases where individuals have lived abroad during the preceding three years, if we cannot obtain a confident assessment about the absence of criminal records, the individual concerned will not be permitted to work in the Home Office and will be rejected on residency grounds.


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Vetting: Maladministration

Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what the ethnicity of those people who have been incorrectly designated as having a criminal conviction by the Criminal Records Bureau since the Bureau’s inception is; [262472]

(2) how many of those incorrectly designated as having a criminal conviction by the Criminal Records Bureau since the Bureau’s inception have received compensation; and how much has been awarded in compensation. [262473]

Mr. Malik: The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) does not capture the ethnicity of applicants applying for disclosures. This information is not relevant to any of the searches done against the police national computer (PNC) or other data sources.

The CRB operates a redress scheme in line with Cabinet Office guidelines. Where there is evidence of maladministration on the part of the bureau when processing a disclosure application, a consolatory payment is made to the applicant. Information regarding how many applicants have received a consolatory payment following an incorrect match to a record held on the PNC and how much was awarded is not available.

Innovation, Universities and Skills

Adult Education

Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many new learning places he estimates will be created by implementation of the proposals in the Learning Revolution White Paper. [272757]

Mr. Simon: We are confident that the range of initiatives announced in The Learning Revolution White Paper will both increase the number of learning opportunities and help people access the many and varied kinds of learning that are already available. Adults want to learn in different ways—through structured classes and through libraries, museums, self-organised groups, membership organisations and on-line.

Our goal is that all adults are able to access a wide range of informal learning opportunities and that learning experiences are better joined-up so that people can pursue their interests. The “Learning Revolution” sets out proposals that will help achieve this goal, including increasing the availability of free and low cost spaces for learning, launching a £20 million transformation fund to reach out to new and different learners through partnership and innovation, setting up a support package for local learning champions and harnessing the potential of broadcasting and technology to support and enhance learning.

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