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19 May 2009 : Column 1297W—continued
Prisoners: Repatriation
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many non-UK nationals in UK prisons she expects to be deported in the next 12 months; [273854]
(2) how many non-UK nationals in UK prisons were deported in (a) 2006-07 and (b) 2007-08. [273855]
Mr. Woolas: The chief executive of the UK Border Agency has written to the Home Affairs Select Committee on a regular basis in order to provide all of the most robust and accurate in formation on the subject of foreign national prisoners and deportation. She advised the Committee that in 2007 the agency deported or removed a record 4,200 foreign national prisoners, exceeding the Prime Minister’s target. In 2008 the UK Border Agency established a new record by deporting or removing 5,395 foreign national prisoners, which was reported in the quarterly asylum and immigration statistics.
Copies of her letters are available in the Library of the House. She will continue to update the Committee as required. In its business plan for 2009-10 the UK Border Agency has confirmed that it will continue to deport or remove record numbers of foreign national prisoners.
Repatriation: Finance
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what expenditure her Department has incurred on the provision of financial incentives to foreign national prisoners to serve the remainder of their sentence in their country of origin (a) since the inception of the scheme and (b) in 2008-09; [275520]
(2) how much on average foreign national prisoners received in reintegration support in 2008; [275521]
(3) what expenditure her Department has incurred on reintegration support in each of the last three years; [275522]
(4) how many prisoners at each prison have been offered financial incentives to serve the remainder of their sentence in their country of origin since the inception of that incentive scheme; [275531]
(5) how many prisoners have received reintegration support more than once in the last five years; [275552]
(6) how many foreign national prisoners have been repatriated to their country of origin under the reintegration scheme since the scheme's inception. [276226]
Mr. Woolas: The facilitated returns scheme was launched in October 2006 as an incentive to persuade foreign prisoners to return voluntarily to their own country. The scheme offers a package of reintegration assistance to the individual, however no financial incentives are offered. The only cash the individual receives is the standard £46 discharge grant provided to all prisoners, including British nationals. The level of assistance offered is variable and is dependant upon the individual circumstances of each case. Around half of those who are removed under the provisions of the scheme receive reintegration assistance. There has been only one instance where an individual who has been transferred to a prison within the country of origin has been provided reintegration assistance.
Details of the scheme are available in all UK prisons where foreign national prisoners are serving their sentence. Although they are also verbally advised of the scheme, it is not possible to provide data on the numbers of individuals who have been offered the scheme. It remains open to them to make such an application. Once removed from the UK under the scheme's provisions, they are excluded from re-entering the UK. As such it is only possible to benefit from the scheme once.
The chief executive of the UK Border Agency has written to the Home Affairs Select Committee on a regular basis in order to provide all of the most robust and accurate information on foreign national prisoners and deportation, including the successes seen through the use of the facilitated returns scheme.
In her letter of 23 July 2008 she advised that the scheme, which has generated significant savings and accounted for around 25 per cent. of all foreign prisoner removals in 2007, has resulted in nearly 1,800 foreign prisoners being removed from the UK. In the first year of the scheme (October 2006 to October 2007) the agency spent around £350,000, inclusive of administrative costs. For the same period around 880 removals were made under the scheme which generated considerable savings in detention costs alone.
Copies of her letters are available in the Library of the House. The chief executive will continue to write to the Committee with further updates on the scheme and other data on the deportation of foreign national prisoners.
Serious and Organised Crime Agency: Disciplinary Proceedings
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many disciplinary offences by Serious and Organised Crime Agency staff have been recorded in each month since March 2006. [272739]
Jacqui Smith: The Serious Organised Crime Agency was formed in April 2006. The number of cases since April 2006 in which a disciplinary offence was recorded in a SOCA officer’s personnel file are in the following table.
| Number | |
| Note: Where a month is not listed, no disciplinary findings were made during that month. | |
Terrorism
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) statutory instruments, (b) departmental circulars, (c) consultation documents and (d) other documents she (i) has issued since February 2008 and (ii) plans to issue in the next two years consequent on the provisions of counter-terrorism legislation passed since 1984; and if she will make a statement. [273978]
Mr. Coaker: Since February 2008 the following statutory instruments have been made by the Home Office in relation to the Terrorism Act 2000, the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, the Terrorism Act 2006 and the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008:
The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) Order 2008, made on 23 June 2008.
The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Amendment) (No. 2) Order 2008, made on 17 July 2008.
The Terrorism Act 2000 (Proscribed Organisations) (Name Change) Order 2009, made 5 March 2009.
The Terrorism Act 2006 (Pre-charge Detention) (Renewal) Order 2008 made on 24 July 2008.
The Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 (Commencement No. 1) Order 2008, made 23 December 2008.
The Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 (Commencement No. 2) Order 2009, made 19 January 2009.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (Continuance in force of sections 1 to 9) Order 2008, made 3 March 2008.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (Continuance in force of sections 1 to 9) Order 2009, made 5 March 2009.
The Terrorism Act 2000 (Code of Practice for Examining Officers) (Revision) Order 2009, made 26 February 2009.
The Home Office plans for future statutory instruments are published quarterly at:
The only departmental circular published by the Home Office since February 2008 in relation to the above legislation was Home Office Circular 027/2008 which was issued on 2 December 2008 and deals with the authorisation process under the stop and search powers at section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. It is intended that there will be Home Office circulars issued in relation to the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 during the course of 2009.
A formal 12 week consultation was carried out in the summer of 2007 on schedule 7 to the Terrorism Act 2000 (Code of Practice for Examining Officers). The consultation was published on the Home Office website on 4 June 2007. The Home Office will consult on changes to the various police and criminal evidence codes arising from the provisions in the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 in due course. It is also intended that there will be a consultation on amending the list of pathogens and toxins contained in schedule 5 of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 in the next two years.
Information relating to ‘other documents’ can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
UK Border Agency
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) whether during the recruitment process individuals applying for positions at the UK Border Agency are asked whether they are members of a political party; [252406]
(2) whether individuals applying for positions at the UK Border Agency are asked about membership of a political party during the recruitment process. [250181]
Mr. Woolas: No. Civil servants are required to act impartially and follow the Civil Service Code.
Work Permits
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many work permits the UK Border Agency has issued to software developers from each country of origin in the last six months. [275099]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is not centrally recorded.
Work and Pensions
Carers
Paul Rowen: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on implementation of the National Carers Strategy 2008; and if he will make a statement. [275467]
Jonathan Shaw: To support the implementation of National Carers Strategy objectives, Ministers from all the signatory Departments have maintained close working relationships. To support this an inter-ministerial meeting is planned for early June.
Children: Maintenance
Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in what percentage of cases in which 40 per cent. of a parent's income had been assessed as the liability for child maintenance arrears the Child Support Agency has identified (a) delays and (b) other instances of maladministration attributable to it in the last year for which figures are available. [270498]
Kitty Ussher: I have consulted with the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission who are now responsible for the Child Support Agency. They have confirmed that the information requested is not available.
John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what factors underlie the time taken to release to Mona McNamara by the Child Support Agency monies collected from the non-resident parent in December 2008 and January, February, March and April 2009. [274812]
Kitty Ussher [holding answer 13 May 2009]: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have therefore asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Council Tax Benefits
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of council tax benefit claimants of working age who have capital assets of between £6,000 and £16,000; and if he will make a statement. [272662]
Kitty Ussher: As at May 2004, the most recent available information, there were 9,000 council tax benefit recipients under 60 years of age with capital assets between £6,000 and £16,000 in Great Britain.
Notes:
1. The figures are based on a 1 per cent. sample and are therefore subject to a degree of sampling variation.
2. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.
3. The figures have been rounded to the nearest thousand.
4. Council tax benefit figures exclude any single adult rebate cases.
5. From February 2007, DWP has been collecting more detailed HB/CTB data electronically from local authorities. Over time this will improve the accuracy, timeliness and level of detail available in the published statistics. However, until the new data have been fully quality assured to National Statistics standards, the most recent detailed statistics available are for May 2004.
Source:
Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Annual 1 per cent. sample taken in May 2004.
Departmental Correspondence
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what procedure his Department follows for dealing with complaints received (a) by e-mail, (b) by post, (c) by telephone and (d) via his Department's website. [274514]
Jonathan Shaw: The Department for Work and Pensions and its agencies deal with all complaints on an equal basis, however they are made. How they are dealt with will depend on whether the complaint is about a decision on entitlement, for which there is generally a right of appeal, or about the manner in which the service is delivered.
For example, customers who are dissatisfied with any statutory decision made by Jobcentre Plus can appeal. In the first instance, the decision is reviewed by another decision-maker. If the decision remains unchanged after the review, Jobcentre Plus sends the case to the Tribunals Service as part of the appeal process. The Tribunals Service are responsible for administering the appeals process and contact customers about the hearing, which may be held in person or by correspondence.
Jobcentre Plus treats decisions complained about in correspondence as an appeal and automatically reconsiders the decision. Where appropriate, Jobcentre Plus contacts the customer for further information to support the appeal process.
Most complaints about the service provided can be resolved straightaway by the person dealing with the customer and each of the Department's agencies seeks to achieve this. Each has a clear and simple process for dealing with customer complaints and details of this are contained in their leaflets.
Where failings are identified we provide appropriate redress, which might typically include an apology, correction of any error and, where appropriate, financial redress.
Where a customer is not satisfied with the response given to their complaint they can ask for a review of the complaint and any redress given. This will first be by a senior manager and, if the customer remains dissatisfied, by the chief executive of the agency concerned.
If the customer remains dissatisfied, he or she can ask the independent case examiner (ICE) to review matters. A request for ICE to investigate should be made within six months of the chief executive's response.
The ICE will consider complaints about service delivery, though not matters of law or Government policy. He will review the papers and attempt to mediate. If this is not possible he will report his findings and inform the customer of their right to ask a MP to refer the matter to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman.
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