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12 Oct 2009 : Column 591W—continued
UK Border Agency
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire of 29 June 2009, Official Report, column 71W, on immigration controls, how many UK Border Agency call centres are in operation in each location. [290904]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 9 September 2009]: UKBA operates 41 call centres, located in 39 countries. Some call centres service more than one country. Countries which are not covered by these call centres but which have a visa application centre based at the embassy or high commission operate an "in-house" telephone service.
With the exception of the UK (which has call centres in Liverpool, Sheffield and Croydon), the operation of all other call centres is outsourced as follows:
CSC Worldbridge operates three call centres, located in Brazil (servicing the Americas), Algeria (servicing North Africa and the Middle East) and Hungary (servicing Europe).
VFS Global operates 34 call centres in the following countries:
Bahrain
Oman
Bangladesh
Pakistan
China
Philippines
Ethiopia
Qatar
Ghana
Russia
India
Saudi Arabia
Indonesia
Singapore
Japan
South Africa
Kazakhstan
South Korea
Kenya
Sri Lanka
Kuwait
Syria
Malawi
Taiwan
Malaysia
Thailand
Mozambique
UAE
Namibia
Uganda
Nepal
Ukraine
Nigeria
Zimbabwe
Call Centre Services Pty Ltd operates one call centre in Australia for callers from Australia / New Zealand.
UK Border Agency: Foreigners
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many foreign national prisoners bailed by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal were being monitored by the UK Border Agency in August 2009; [291423]
(2) how many foreign national prisoners bailed on release from custody the UK Border Agency was monitoring in August 2009. [291424]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 16 September 2009]: The chief executive of the UK Border Agency updated the Home Affairs Select Committee on this subject in July, and is due to give a further update in October. This letter will be made available in the House Library.
UK Border Agency: Return and Reintegration Programme
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the budget of the UK Border Agency for 2009-10 has been allocated to the Return and Reintegration programme. [290908]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 9 September 2009]: 0.93per cent. of the 2009-10 full year gross budget of £2,146.1 million has been allocated by the UK Border Agency to the Returns and Reintegration Fund. This is a cross-Government fund and is also supported by FCO, DFID and the Ministry of Justice.
UK Citizenship
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been stripped of UK citizenship under the provisions of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2005 as referred to in the 12-point plan announced by the then Prime Minister in August 2005, in each quarter since the Act came into effect. [291303]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 16 September 2009]: Since its amendment by section 56 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, orders have been issued under section 40 of the British Nationality Act 1981 against three people, depriving them of their British citizenship. The first occurred in the third quarter of 2006, another in the final quarter of 2007 and the third individual had an order made against them in the second quarter of 2009.
Vetting
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what further steps are required for the Independent Safeguarding Authority's vetting and barring scheme to become fully operational. [289343]
Mr. Hanson: The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) is currently working towards the implementation of the next two significant phases of the vetting and barring scheme.
From 12 October 2009 the extension of the barring regime to all regulated activities will come into force. The ISA is planning for a significant increase in workload, ensuring that all relevant systems, staff and training requirements are in place. IT systems will be enhanced to support these changes.
From July 2010 applications and monitoring under the vetting and barring scheme will commence. The ISA is working closely with key partners and suppliers to
ensure the new IT system and associated interfaces are in place and fully tested for July 2010.
Steps are also being taken to ensure an effective interface with the equivalent Scottish scheme.
Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which posts will require registration with the Independent Safeguarding Authority under the vetting and barring scheme. [289344]
Mr. Hanson: Under the vetting and barring scheme individuals apply to become registered with the scheme under section 24 of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. Those individuals seeking to work in either regulated or controlled activities with children or vulnerable adults, as specified under the Act, will need to apply to be registered, as the scheme is phased in.
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of (a) standard checks and (b) enhanced checks by the Criminal Records Bureau took longer than (i) 10 days, (ii) four weeks and (iii) eight weeks to complete in each year since 1997. [290333]
Alan Johnson: Information is not held in the format requested. The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) operates to a set of published service standards (PSS) which include to issue 90 per cent. of standard disclosures within 10 days and 90 per cent of enhanced disclosures within 28 days.
The following table illustrates the CRB's performance against the PSS since inception in 2002.
| Published service standards | ||||
| Standard | Enhanced | |||
| Financial year | Target | Performance (percentage) | Target | Performance (percentage) |
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the longest time taken to respond to an application for an (a) standard and (b) enhanced check by the Criminal Records Bureau was in each year since 1997. [290363]
Alan Johnson: The disclosure process comprises broadly several stages involving the applicant, the registered body (RB) (the organisation that handles the application on behalf of an employer), the CRB and the police. Each stage is reliant on the accuracy of the data provided by the applicant and the subsequent verification of these data by the RB from the outset.
A number of factors can cause delays, including the length of time it can take for an employer to deal with the initial application; the accurate completion of the application form; the clarity of the information provided; the existence of conviction or non-conviction information and the operational effectiveness of the disclosure units of the police forces involved in the enhanced disclosure process following recent high volumes of applications.
The majority of applications spend between three and four days at the CRB and analysis undertaken by the bureau has shown that the majority of delays that occur do so before the CRB receives an application and after it has been sent to the police.
The CRB has set up an improvement plan with its delivery partners, including the police forces, to address the problems associated with delays. This is aimed at maintaining a balanced output of applications on the system whilst also reducing the number of aged cases. This work has started to show an improvement in turnaround times but the CRB will continue to monitor forces performance in line with its own performance.
Where applications are returned to customers to acquire further information, reminders are issued but some customers can fail to provide this information or withdraw their application from the bureau's systems where they no longer require their disclosure.
The following table provides details of the longest time taken for the completion of a CRB standard and enhanced disclosure in each year since the inception of the bureau. The figures have been calculated based on the date the disclosure was issued in each year, counting back from the date of completion
It is likely that these applications will have been referred back to the applicant/RB; the delays in issue are not necessarily representative of the bureau's performance.
| Financial year | Longest time taken in days- enhanced disclosure | Longest time taken in days- standard disclosure |
Vetting: Voluntary Work
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions he has had with charities on the possible effects of the vetting and barring scheme on trends in the level of volunteering; and if he will make a statement. [291814]
Mr. Hanson: Implementation of the vetting and barring Scheme includes a programme of consultation with the voluntary sector through a specific consultation group and a wide range of stakeholder events. The free application for unpaid volunteers has been welcomed along with the reduction in bureaucracy arising from the continuous monitoring element of the scheme. Consultation has not indicated that the scheme is likely to damage levels of volunteering. A number of voluntary sector organisations including Children England, Volunteering England and the Children's Society have indicated that they believe the scheme to be an appropriate response to safeguarding concerns that should not impact adversely on volunteer numbers.
Young Offenders
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of incidents of (a) wounding, (b) assault without injury, (c) assault with minor injury and (d) robbery recorded in the British crime survey were identified by the victim as being carried out by offenders of school age and under, in each of the last 10 years. [289593]
Alan Johnson: The following table shows the percentage of offenders who were perceived to be of school age and under by victims of violent incidents from the British crime survey (BCS) for surveys between 1999 and 2008-09.
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