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3 Dec 2009 : Column 885W—continued
Asylum: China
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for political asylum his Department has received from individuals from China citing their Tibetan origin as a reason for seeking asylum in each year since 1997. [302634]
Mr. Woolas: The requested information relating to Chinese nationals is not collated and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost through the examination of individual case records.
Information on asylum and settlement, including figures on Chinese nationals, is published annually and quarterly. Annual statistics for 2008 and statistics for Q3 2009 are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate web site at:
Crime
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) criminal offences and (b) civil offences at all levels (i) were committed and reported and (ii) are estimated to have been committed but not reported in the last year for which figures are available. [303434]
Mr. Alan Campbell [holding answer 1 December 2009]: The British Crime Survey (BCS) gives a count of criminal offences experienced by adults resident in households in England and Wales. For the crime types that it covers, the BCS provides a better guide to the level of crime as it includes those that are not reported to the police, or recorded by them. As such, the BCS asks victims whether an incident had been reported to the police, or whether the police came to know about it another way, and is therefore able to estimate reporting rates.
The 2008-09 BCS estimates that there were approximately 10,687,000 crimes. The survey estimated that the police came to know about 41 per cent. of such incidents and conversely, 59 per cent. went unreported. The BCS does not cover civil offences and thus comparable figures are not available.
Crime: Closed Circuit Television
James Brokenshire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what recent estimate he has made of the number of crimes detected in which evidence from closed circuit television was the primary factor in the last 12 months; [301791]
(2) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of closed circuit television in (a) preventing and (b) prosecuting crime. [301792]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The most recent and most robust assessment of the international evidence on the impact of CCTV was a 2008 systematic review published by the Campbell Crime and Justice Group. The review was part funded by the Home Office. The review found that CCTV has a modest but statistically significant crime reduction effect; is most effective in reducing crime in car parks; is most effective when targeted at vehicle crimes (largely a function of the successful car park schemes); and is more effective in reducing crime in the UK than in other countries. The review concludes that CCTV is an effective crime prevention measure in public spaces, but, in contrast to its current broad application, should focus only on the specific targets against which it is shown to be most effective.
Further work is under way to strengthen the evidence base including work by the National Policing Improvement Agency and Cheshire Constabulary to provide a qualitative analysis of recorded crime data and case files in Cheshire to determine the value of CCTV to investigations.
Departmental Consultants
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many external consultants work for his Department. [303233]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Department's commercial objectives require consultancy services to be commissioned in terms of defined output, not in terms of the individuals assigned by the firms. The Department does not hold information on individual consultants.
The Home Department uses a wide range of firms, from small specialist companies with niche expertise and few employees, to global multinational organisations offering a broad spectrum and substantial depth of consultancy expertise.
Departmental Contracts
Mr. Touhig: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what criteria his Department use in determining the award of contracts; and how much his Department has spent on the advertisement of tenders for Government contracts since 1997. [303133]
Mr. Woolas:
The Home Department awards contracts in competition according to the EU Procurement Directives based on value for money. Use is made of criteria linked
to the subject matter of the contract to determine that an offer is the most economically advantageous tender including quality, price, technical merit, aesthetic and functional characteristics, environmental characteristics, running costs, cost effectiveness, after sales service, technical assistance, delivery date and delivery period and period of completion.
A search of records since 1997 for expenditure on the advertisement of tenders for contracts would incur disproportionate cost, however, from best available records the Department since 2006 has spent £3,495 excl. VAT on advertising tenders.
Tenders, subject to EU Procurement Directives thresholds, are advertised at no cost in the Official Journal of the EU. OJEU notices can be created within the Home Office eSourcing Tool (PCT) and submitted directly for publication in the Official Journal of the EU.
Departmental Databases
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what databases for which his Department is responsible have been subject to confirmed security breaches in each of the last five years. [301263]
Mr. Woolas: The Security Policy Framework, the Data Handling Report and the National Information Assurance Strategy produced by the Cabinet Office provide a strategic framework for protecting information that Government handle and put in place a set of mandatory measures to which departments must adhere.
It is not in the interest of the security of the department, or that of the public, to disclose detailed information relating to electronic breaches of security of departmental IT systems. Disclosing such information would carry a significant risk of enabling criminals and those who would attempt to cause disruptive threats to the department to deduce how to conduct attacks and therefore potentially enhance their capability to carry out such attacks.
To help defend against electronic attack, it is standard good information security practice not to comment on such incidents.
Departmental Taxis
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many miles (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have travelled by taxi in the course of their official duties in each year since 1997; and at what cost to the public purse in each such year. [302710]
Mr. Woolas: As we do not waste taxpayers' money on pointless bureaucracy, information relating to how many miles (a) Ministers and (b) officials in the Home Office have travelled by taxi in the course of their official duties in each year since 1997 is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Trainings
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what training sessions were attended by (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers in his Department at public expense in each of the last three years. [301376]
Mr. Woolas: Training is provided to Ministers and special advisers as part of their induction and continuing development in order to carry out their respective duties effectively under the Ministerial Code and the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers. Details of training provided to Government Ministers by the National School of Government are publicly available and can be found at:
Deportation: Security
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the estimated cost of security guard escorts for forced removals and deportations from the UK (a) was in each year from 2006-07 to 2008-09 and (b) is in 2009-10; and what proportion of those costs are attributable to outsourced or agency staff in each of those years. [302531]
Mr. Woolas: The UK Border Agency has contracts with private suppliers to escort individuals removed from the United Kingdom. The value of contracts is commercially sensitive due to ongoing procurement activity and cannot therefore be disclosed.
The value of contracts to escort individuals removed from the United Kingdom in 2006-07 and 2007-08 was:
| £ million | |
Entry Clearances
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) postal and (b) premium applications for further leave to remain have been made under Tier 4 of the points-based immigration system since 5 October 2009; and how much revenue has accrued from fees for applications of each type since that date. [301660]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 25 November 2009]: The number of postal applications made for further leave to remain under Tier 4 of the points-based immigration system during the period 5 October 2009 to 22 November 2009 is 36,251. The value of these applications is £12,939,465.
The number of premium applications for further leave to remain made under Tier 4 of the points-based immigration system during the period 5 Oct 2009 to 22 November 2009 is 3,369. The value of these applications is £1,903,485.
The amount of revenue earned from fees from caseworking activities in respect of postal applications for further leave to remain made under Tier 4 of the points-based immigration system during the period 5 October 2009 to 22 November 2009 is £5,829,453.
The amount of revenue earned from caseworking activities in respect of fees for premium applications for further leave to remain made under Tier 4 of the points-based immigration system during the period 5 October 2009 to 22 November 2009 is £1,962,245.
This information is derived from internal management information systems. All figures from this source are provisional and subject to audit and amendment.
Entry Clearances: Overseas Students
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many students from each European Union member state have come to the UK to study in the last five years. [301425]
Mr. Lammy: I have been asked to reply.
The latest information from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) on entrants to UK Higher Education Institutions from EU countries is shown in Table 1.
| Table 1: EU domiciled entrants( 1) by country of domicile: UK higher education institutions( 2 ) : Academic years 2003-08 | |||||
| EU c ountry of domicile | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
| (1) Covers entrants to all levels and modes of study. (2) Excludes the Open University due to inconsistencies in their coding of entrants across the time series. (3). 2007 EU accession country. (4) 2004 EU accession country Notes: Figures are based on a HESA standard registration population and have been rounded to the nearest five. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) | |||||
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