| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
9 Nov 2009 : Column 28W—continued
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers were subject to age assessment procedures in each of the last five years. [297611]
Mr. Woolas: The number of individuals whose age was officially recorded as "disputed" in the annual UK asylum statistics was as follows:
| Age disputed cases | |
| These figures will not include all those whose age has been assessed, as we do not record initial "visual" assessments on arrival, either by UKBA staff or social workers assisting them; nor do we record when local authorities conduct age assessments for their own purposes. | |
Asylum: Children
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from each ethnic group in each local authority area were being looked after by local authorities on the latest date for which figures are available. [297490]
Mr. Woolas: Data on the specific ethnic group of asylum seeking children are not held centrally.
Asylum: Liverpool
Richard Ottaway: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the oral answer of 26 October 2009, Official Report, column 13, on asylum applications, whether he plans to end the provision of facilities in Liverpool for face-to-face interviews in respect of applications for asylum. [297458]
Mr. Woolas: With effect from 14 October 2009 Liverpool was re-designated to accept further submissions in person and with face-to-face interviews but will no longer accept initial applications for asylum or conduct face to face screening interviews. There is a transitional arrangement until March 2010, to screen the initial asylum applications for a small number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children.
Borders: Personal Records
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many contracts let by his Department in the last 12 months were related to the e-borders programme; and what the monetary value of each such contract was. [297619]
Mr. Woolas: In the last 12 months, there have been no new contracts let which relate to the e-Borders programme.
Closed Circuit Television
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the proportion of publicly-owned closed circuit television systems which comply with (a) relevant British Standards Institute standards and (b) provide images of a quality suitable for use as evidence in court. [297147]
Mr. Alan Campbell: None. Compliance with the relevant British Standards Institute standards is a matter for local installers and users of CCTV. The National CCTV Strategy focuses on standards, better training, improved partnership working and more co-ordinated use of technology. We will work with partners at national and local level to ensure that best use is made of CCTV to help prevent and detect crime and to help bring offenders to justice.
Community Resolutions
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many community resolutions have been issued in (a) Staffordshire and (b) England since the inception of the scheme. [296818]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The information requested is not collected centrally. Community resolutions are not an identified method of detection in the police recorded crime statistics collected by the Home Office.
Departmental Advertising
Mr. Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on advertising (a) in the printed press, (b) on television and (c) on radio in each of the last three years. [295207]
Mr. Woolas: The following table outlines Home Office spend on advertising in (a) the printed press, (b) on television and (c) on radio in each of the last three years.
During this time, the advertising addressed the important issues of acquisitive crime reduction, alcohol harm, child protection on the internet, community safety, domestic violence, drug misuse, human trafficking, immigration, knife crime, police community support officers and immigration.
This advertising spend amounts to less than 1 per cent. of the Home Office overall budget. In order to match resources to priorities we focus on where we will get the most impact and value and where we will deliver the greatest return on investment.
Recruitment advertising is not done centrally but carried out across the Department and hence spend could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
| £ | |||
| Media | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
Departmental Correspondence
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his Department's policy to use two-sided printing for its correspondence; and whether he has made an estimate of the potential savings in respect of paper use consequent on the implementation of such a policy. [291880]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office is working to reduce all forms of waste, in line with the Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate targets. Accordingly a wide range of initiatives are currently in place within the Department to minimise the use of paper. Specific examples include: setting printers to print double sided by default, making some Home Office publications available only online and encouraging staff to avoid printing e-mails. Single sided printing may sometimes be appropriate and this is an issue we shall continue to focus on.
It is not possible to provide estimated savings generated by the adoption of a policy of two sided printing for correspondence, as records on print volumes are not held centrally.
Deportation
Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have taken up (a) facilitated return and (b) assisted voluntary return in each of the last five years. [297083]
Mr. Woolas: The chief executive of the UK Border Agency has provided the Home Affairs Committee with regular updates on the number of foreign nationals removed under the facilitated returns scheme (FRS) since its launch in October 2006.
Statistics on the number of foreign nationals removed under the Assisted Voluntary Returns programme for the last five years can be found at:
Deportation: Northern Ireland
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been deported from Northern Ireland in each year since 2005; and for what reasons. [297646]
Mr. Woolas: Information relating to the number of individuals deported from a specific area within the UK as well as the reason for deportation can be obtained only through the detailed examination of individual case files which would incur a disproportionate cost.
The chief executive of the UK Border Agency writes to the Home Affairs Committee on a regular basis with the most robust and accurate information on immigration issues. Copies of the letters can found in the Library of the House.
Entry Clearances
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for visas to enter the UK were refused in each of the last five years. [296209]
Mr. Woolas: The total number of visa applications refused in each of the last five calendar years is shown in the following table:
| Applications received | Applications refused | Percentage refused | |
| Note: The data are unpublished and should be treated as provisional. Source: Central Reference System. | |||
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent estimate he has made of the number of people resident in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford and (b) the London borough of Bexley who do not have leave to remain in the United Kingdom. [297094]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is not available. By its very nature, illegal immigration is exceptionally difficult to quantify and no government has previously been able to produce a definitive figure for the number of people who are in the country illegally.
By next year, the phased implementation of e-borders will ensure that the vast majority of non-EEA nationals will be counted in and out of the UK, with all such movements being counted by 2014.
Local immigration teams are being established to serve every community in the UK. Each team will work closely with police, local authorities and many other local partners to target immigration crime, including working to detect and remove those who have overstayed. The local immigration team covering the London borough of Bexley (including Bexleyheath and Crayford) began operating on 14 September 2009.
Entry Clearances: Children
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children were granted a visa to enter the UK in each of the last five years. [296210]
Mr. Woolas: The total number of children (i.e. persons aged under 18 on the date of application) granted a visa to enter the UK in any visa category in each of the last five calendar years is shown in the following table:
| Issued | |
| Note: The data are unpublished and should be treated as provisional. Source: Central Reference System. | |
Entry Clearances: Fees and Charges
Sir Peter Soulsby: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria govern the currency exchange rates used in High Commissions and embassies in relation to fees charged for visas. [297186]
Mr. Woolas:
Visa fees are payable in local currency. The principles for conversion are set by the Consular Fee Regulations (1981) which allow for the rate of
exchange to be adjusted in the interests of administrative efficiency. This is mainly to avoid frequent changes in fees, and to help in giving change, and is the agreed way of translating fees set in sterling by Parliament into local currency. The consular rate of exchange is based on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's corporate exchange rate, from which it may vary by up to 10 per cent., and it is kept under regular review to ensure that it stays within the required range.
Entry Clearances: Pakistan
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applicants from Pakistan for family settlement visas have won appeals against refusal which have not yet been implemented. [291872]
Mr. Woolas: The Visa Section in Islamabad has a total of 1,870 settlement visa cases which require further processing following the allowing of an appeal. There are further cases (less than 20) in the UK Visa Section, which has processed Pakistan settlement visa applications since 1 February 2009.
Upon notification of the appeal decision, and before the issue of a visa, checks will be made to ensure the applicant still wishes to travel and that there have been no material changes in his circumstances since the original decision.
Forensic Science Service
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions have taken place between the Chief Executive of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) and his Department on the future of the FSS since July 2009. [296011]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 27 October 2009]: As shareholder in the FSS Ltd., it is normal practice for the Home Office Minister to hold regular bilateral meetings with the chairman of the FSS (who held the post of executive chairman, covering both the chairman and CEO roles until earlier this month) and the chief executive. They have met once since July.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many cases each Forensic Science Service centre dealt with in each of the last five years. [296013]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 27 October 2009]: Each of the Forensic Science Service laboratories has dealt with the following number of cases in each of the last five years.
| 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |