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1 Jun 2009 : Column 143W—continued
Asylum
Mrs. Ellman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people are awaiting decisions as part of the legacy process; and how long on average those people have been waiting for a decision. [274163]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 11 May 2009]: As of 9 January the UK Border Agency had concluded 155,500 older asylum cases. The previous Home Secretary informed Parliament in July 2006 of
“the Immigration and Nationality Directorate’s case load of around 400,000 to 450,000 electronic and paper records”.
These include duplicate cases, and cases of individuals who have since died or left the country, or are now EU citizens, therefore it is not possible to provide an accurate assessment of how many cases are awaiting decisions. The chief executive of the UK Border Agency will update the Home Affairs Select Committee on case conclusion progress in the summer.
To obtain the information requested about average waiting times of legacy cases would involve a detailed examination of individual case records which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of time between an application for asylum and a final decision was in each of the last five years. [274608]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 11 May 2009]: Data on conclusion performance by year of application are only available from the introduction of end-to-end processing of new asylum applications in April 2006. Prior to that date, performance targets were based on the length of time it took to reach an initial decision on an asylum application, rather than the length of time it took to conclude a case.
The PSA Delivery Agreement 3, Indicator 2 refers to the reduction in the time to conclusion of asylum application. The measure is to ensure a target percentage of cases should be resolved within six months as per the following:
35 per cent. by end of April 2007;
40 per cent. by end of December 2007;
60 per cent. by end of December 2008;
75 per cent. by end of December 2009;
90 per cent. by end of December 2011.
The method of reporting against the target is based on the performance of the specific monthly cohort of cases reaching six months. Hence all reporting is done against a six months timeframe. A cohort is specified as those new applications received between one and 31 of each month.
The conclusion measurement requires applications to be granted asylum or some form of leave to remain in the UK, allowed at appeal or removed within 182 days (six months) to be counted as concluded.
Performance against the targets has been published in National Statistics as follows:
38 per cent. of new applications received in September 2006 were concluded in six months by the end of by April 2007;
46 per cent. of new applications received in June 2007 were concluded in six months by the end of December 2007;
62 per cent. of new applications received in June 2008 were concluded in six months by the end of December 2008.
Published information is not available in relation to conclusion of applications in timescales other than six months.
Asylum: Finance
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much her Department spent on section 4 support in each of the last 10 years. [258002]
Mr. Woolas: The costs of this support have been as follows:
| Financial year | £ million |
No separate records of expenditure under Section 4 were maintained prior to 2003-04.
Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what payments the UK Border Agency makes to a single asylum seeker whose application is being processed in (a) the UK and (b) France; and what accommodation is provided for asylum seekers whose cases are under consideration in (i) the UK and (ii) France. [274413]
Mr. Woolas: Not all asylum seekers in the United Kingdom are eligible for asylum support but those who do need support to avoid destitution may be provided with it under section 95 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 until their asylum claim is determined. Support takes the form of subsistence or accommodation or both, as necessary. Accommodation is provided on a “no-choice” basis in one of the designated areas in which there is a ready supply of accommodation.
Subsistence rates for single people per week are currently:
Single parent aged 18 or over—£42.16
Single person aged 25 or over—£42.16
Single person aged 18 or over, but under 25—£33.39
Single person aged 16 or over but under 18—£36.29 (paid to parent/guardian)
Single person under 16—£48.30 (Paid to parent/guardian)
A woman who is pregnant or who has children under the age of three, is entitled to extra payments.
The UK Border Agency does not make payments to support asylum seekers in France.
British Nationality
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2009, Official Report, column 1211W, on British nationality, when she will place in the Library a copy of the letter and attachments; what the reasons are for the time taken to place the letter in the Library; and if she will make a statement. [259199]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 5 March 2009]: There has been a delay in depositing the letter due to an administrative oversight. It will now be placed in the House of Commons Library.
Crime: Motor Vehicles
Jim Dowd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps are being taken to tackle car cloning in London. [272717]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Metropolitan police service has a well established and successful Stolen Vehicle Unit, and it has had considerable success working with other partners to tackle vehicle crime, including cloning, in London.
The Home Office is also committed to supporting the ACPO Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS), which has a national role in tackling vehicle crime, including sharing intelligence with forces. It works closely with regionally based police colleagues, including the Metropolitan police, in relation to vehicle crime.
The efforts that we have made in partnership with police and colleagues in the vehicle insurance, vehicle manufacturing and other areas has proved successful.
From 1997 to 2007-08 we have seen a reduction of 66 per cent. in vehicle crime.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken to reduce the level of vehicle crime in Coventry in the last 12 months. [276688]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government are committed to ensuring that the response to motor vehicle crime is as effective as possible.
The Home Office is committed to supporting the ACPO Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service (AVCIS), based at Ryton on Dunsmore, which has a national role in tackling vehicle crime, including sharing intelligence with forces. It works closely with regionally-based police colleagues in all 43 forces in England and Wales and has strong relationships with other key partners including the Serious Organised Crime Agency and HM Revenue and Customs, as well as partners in the private sector, in relation to vehicle crime.
There are also local initiatives in Coventry to tackle vehicle crime such as: vehicle decoy operations targeted in crime hot spots; a campaign to target the theft of satellite navigation systems, including covert sting operations and publicity; police community support officers checking vehicles with property left on show and providing advice to shoppers and those working in the city centre; advice to businesses on increasing security on their premises (e.g. CCTV and additional patrols); vouchers for vehicle crook locks distributed to the owners of older vehicles which do not benefit from security within their design; and offender management schemes that target known prolific offenders.
The efforts that we have made in partnership with police and colleagues in the vehicle insurance, vehicle manufacturing and other areas, has proved successful. From 1997 to 2007-08 we have seen a reduction of 66 per cent. in vehicle crime.
Crime: North Yorkshire
Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes (a) were committed and (b) resulted in convictions in North Yorkshire in each of the last five years. [277063]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Information is not available in the form requested as it is not possible to track individual offences through to their outcome at court. The available information relates to the number of offences recorded by the police in North Yorkshire in each financial year. Convictions data are based on the number of offenders and have been provided by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform. These data are published on a calendar year basis and are counts of persons classified by their principal offence. For these reasons the two datasets are not directly comparable.
Table 1 gives the number of offences recorded by the police in North Yorkshire and table 2 provides data on the number of offenders convicted.
The data in table 2 are on the principal offence basis. The figures given in the table on court proceedings relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offence for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences, the offence selected is the one for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe.
Court proceedings data for 2008 will be available in the autumn of 2009.
| Table 1: Offences recorded by the police in North Yorkshire | |
| Number | |
Crime: Statistics
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what data on crime at lower layer super output area level her Department collects. [275486]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office’s British crime survey (BCS) is a representative survey of households resident in England and Wales designed to collect information on crimes experienced in the last year. The BCS is an address-based sample but information collected is not reported below police force area level as the sample is too small to provide reliable estimates at lower geographical levels.
To protect the confidentiality of respondents personal details, such as address and postcode, are not supplied to the Home Office by the survey contractor.
The Home Office also collects information on crimes recorded by the police.
Experimental statistics based on a special collection from some police forces has been published at middle super output area level. The most recent data currently published are for 2005-06 and can be found on the Neighbourhood Statistics website at:
In future, the Home Office data hub will receive individual crime records from police forces in England and Wales. The system is currently being tested and test data extracts have been received from 28 forces. It is planned that the system will be fully operational by the end of the financial year 2010-11. Assessments of the quality of these data will need to be made but the current intention is to publish data at middle super output area level where possible, subject to quality issues and adherence to protocols for official statistics.
Crimes of Violence: Coventry
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department has taken to reduce the level of violent crime in Coventry in the last 12 months. [276691]
Mr. Alan Campbell:
The Government nationally have been over the last 12 months implementing a wide ranging programme as set out in the Tackling Violence Action Plan published in February 2008. We are reviewing
and refreshing that plan particularly to focus on the key priorities of serious youth violence and violence against women.
Examples of steps taken in Coventry include:
Coventry was allocated £335,669 basic command unit funding for 2008-09 which is to help deliver crime and disorder reduction locally, promote partnership working, and to assist in the delivery of the objectives set out in the Government’s Public Service Agreements for 2008 to 2011.
Coventry Community Safety Partnership received funding of £81,540 to support a tackling violent crime programme designed to reduce violent crime and fear of crime and increase public confidence. A range of tactical interventions were deployed over the Christmas 2008 period, which achieved a 4.9 per cent. reduction in overall crime, against an anticipated 2 per cent. reduction target.
Coventry has been designated as an alcohol priority area and is receiving funding from the Home Office for enforcement and a communications campaign.
Work is also ongoing to strengthen Coventry’s multi-agency approach to licensing enforcement.
Coventry's health services produce fortnightly data which are then sent to the police and other partners through the partnerships' Active Intelligence Mapping arrangements, which enables regular and appropriate deployment of operational resources.
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