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8 Dec 2009 : Column 222W—continued
Entry Clearances: Overseas Students
Bill Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there are plans to change the student visa process; and if he will make a statement. [301427]
Mr. Woolas: There are no current plans to change the student visa process introduced on 31 March 2009 with the introduction of tier 4 of the points based system. A review of certain aspects of the system was announced on 12 November.
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for entry to the UK under the points-based immigration system had been made by overseas students on the latest date for which figures are available; how many such applications were granted, and in respect of how many such applications the customer service standards set by his Department in relation to such applications were not met. [303281]
Mr. Woolas: The number of visa applications for entry as a student under tier 4 of the points based system that were (a) received, and (b) refused, since the implementation of tier 4 on 31 March to September 2009 was 245,915 and 36,434, respectively.
Processing times for tier 4 applications against UK Border Agency customer service standards are shown in the following table.
Information about processing times for the various categories of visa applications at each of our visa application centres overseas is available on the Visa Services website
| PBS tier 4 visa application processing times | ||
| Percentage | ||
| Customer service standard | Global processing times Apr il to October 20 09 | |
| Note: These data are unpublished and should be treated as provisional. Source: Central Reference System | ||
Firearms: Injuries
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) the North East and (d) Middlesbrough, South and East Cleveland constituency were (i) fatally and (ii) non-fatally wounded by a firearm in each year since 1997. [302928]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Available information relates to crimes recorded by the police in which firearms (excluding air weapons) were reported to have been used, resulting in fatal and non-fatal injury in England and Wales, England, the North East region and Cleveland police force area. Constituency level data are not collected centrally. Data for the period 1997-98 up to and including 2007-08 are given in the following table. Figures for 2008-09, including a breakdown by police force area, will be published on 21 January 2010.
Firearms are taken to be involved in a crime if they are fired, used as a blunt instrument or used as a threat.
Fraud: Credit Cards
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of credit card fraud relating to remote gambling websites have been recorded in each of the last 10 years. [303707]
Mr. Alan Campbell:
The information requested is not available centrally. Offences of credit card fraud relating to remote gambling websites are included in Home Office offence classification 53C 'Fraud by false
representation; cheque, plastic cards and online bank accounts'. These offences cannot be separately identified from other offences recorded within that offence classification.
Homophobia: Crime
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many crimes of violence against the person with a homophobic motive there have been in (a) Merseyside and (b) Wirral in the last (i) six months, (ii) 12 months, (iii) two years and (iv) five years. [304228]
Mr. Alan Campbell: There has not been a recent assessment of conviction rates for those accused of crimes of violence with homophobic motives in Merseyside.
In September 2009 we launched the Cross-Government Hate Crime Action Plan which contains a number of action points designed to reduce numbers of crimes of violence across all five hate crime strands, including sexual orientation. In particular, it commits the Home Office to produce guidance for Crime and Disorder Partnerships on preventing and responding to hate incidents and hate crimes.
There is also a range of activity taking place in the North West to combat hate crime targeted at lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals. For example, bar owners and door staff in and around the areas of Liverpool frequented by LGB communities have recently received hate crime awareness-raising training.
Further, Liverpool's Hate Crime Reduction Forum which brings stakeholders together from across Liverpool to address all strands of hate crime, funded the As One programme which was an educational awareness programme focused on youth centres in the Kensington area encompassing antisocial behaviour and diversity awareness.
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