| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
16 Dec 2009 : Column 1387W—continued
| Number of asylum seekers( 1, 2) , including dependants, in receipt of support, in York and Yorkshire and the Humber, 2002-08, as at end of December( 3) | |||
| Subsistence only | Accommodation and subsistence( 4) | Total | |
| (1) Figures rounded to the nearest 5 (- = 0, * = 1 or 2) and may not sum to the totals shown due to independent rounding. (2) Excludes unaccompanied asylum seeking children and those in initial accommodation. (3) Provisional figures. (4) Includes disbenefited cases. | |||
Databases: EC Law
Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the data breach notification requirements in the EU E-privacy Directive will be transposed into UK law; what sanctions are available under current law against organisations or individuals who breach data privacy; and if he will make a statement. [306537]
Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.
The Department was pleased at the successful conclusion to the two year review of the European Electronic Communications Framework last month. This included adoption of the so-called citizen's rights amending directive which improves existing regulations on privacy and electronic communications (Directive 2002/58/EC). Officials in BIS are embarking on a major consultation and transposition exercise that will see these revisions, including the new requirements for data breach notification, implemented into UK law over the next 18 months.
These revisions introduce a new, specific definition of "personal data breach", which includes accidental loss; and the article on data security has been significantly expanded to address issues of access to, storage of, transmission and processing of such personnel data. The competent national authority (Information Commissioner's Office) will now be able to audit the security policies of operators and any breach of personal data requirements will have to be notified to the authority and individuals concerned.
At the current time, organisations and individuals can be subject to enforcement orders and sanctions under the provisions of the Data Protection Act (DP A) 1998, following prosecution in a magistrates or crown court (£5,000 in the former, unlimited in the latter). In 2010, provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 take effect whereby the Information Commissioner could also issue a monetary penalty for a breach of data privacy provisions in that Act.
The revised e-Privacy Directive contains a new article which specifically addresses investigation and enforcement of the improved regime and provides for penalties, including criminal sanctions, that are both proportionate and dissuasive. The Department will be consulting consumers, operators and other stakeholders on developing this regime over the next 18 months.
Departmental Art Works
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on art works in the last 12 months. [306441]
Mr. Woolas: There has been no expenditure on art by the Department at its HQ at 2 Marsham street over the last 12 months. Information on any possible expenditure on art elsewhere is not held centrally.
Departmental Legal Costs
Pete Wishart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what expenditure his Department and its agencies have incurred on external legal advice and representation in each year since 1997; and for what purposes such professional services have been commissioned. [300576]
Mr. Woolas: The requested detail for years 1996-97 to 2001-02 is not available. However, the Department's expenditure on external legal services for 2002-03 to 2008-09 is set out in the following table.
Home Office numbers for the years 2002-03 to 2006-07 include the National Offenders Management Service and the Office of Criminal Justice Reform which transferred from the Home Office to Ministry of Justice on nine
May 2007. These costs could not be identified separately without incurring disproportionate cost.
This figure does not include the cost to the Home Office of litigation or other legal services provided by the Treasury Solicitor or elsewhere within Government.
The purposes for which such services have been commissioned relate principally to legal advice, such as advice on commercial projects.
Legal costs are incurred in accordance with guidance, issued by Attorney-General, on what constitutes core Government business and the use of the private sector for government legal work.
| Home Office expenditure on external legal services, | |||||||
| £ thousand | |||||||
| 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | |
Departmental Procurement
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether there has been any nugatory cost to (a) his Department and (b) its agencies arising from tendered procurement in circumstances where the tender process has been cancelled prior to the award of the contract in the last five years. [303713]
Mr. Woolas: From best available records in the last five years the Home Department and its executive agencies have not incurred any nugatory bid costs from suppliers where tender processes have been cancelled prior to the award of contract. Nugatory costs for staff time and other associated costs are not recorded centrally and a search of individual records for any available information could be undertaken only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Rail Travel
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what date he last travelled by train in the course of his official duties. [301207]
Alan Johnson: I last travelled by train on Tuesday, 1 December 2009.
Departmental Training
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much (a) his Department and (b) its agencies spent on away days in the last 12 months; and what the (i) subject and (ii) location of each away day was. [306759]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office accounting system does not separately identify expenditure on staff away days. To provide the requested detail would incur disproportionate cost.
Detention Centres
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many transfers of detainees between immigration detention centres have been made in each month in 2009. [301237]
Mr. Woolas: The following table shows the number of transfers from one immigration removal centre to another of individuals detained under Immigration Act powers.
| Month of transfer | Number of transfers |
The data are management information only and have not been subject to the detailed checks that apply for National Statistics publications. These figures are provisional and are subject to change.
National Statistics on persons held in detention solely under Immigration Act powers on a snapshot basis are published quarterly in the Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary, United Kingdom bulletins. These are available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office's Research, Development and Statistics website at:
Tables 8a and 8b of the Second Quarter 2009 Summary includes, from January 2009, the number of people entering detention.
The UK Border Agency seeks to minimise movements within the detention estate in the interests of providing a settled regime and the efficient use of escorting resources. Movement of detainees around the estate is required for operational reasons, most often to:
Position detainees close to airports prior to removal
Position detainees for court appearances
Position detainees for hospital appointments
Position detainees for embassy/documentation interviews
To facilitate the movement of detainees to more secure locations for security/behavioural reasons.
Ensure that bed space capacity in all 11 immigration removal centres are fully utilised.
Foreign Workers
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the effects of numerical limits on temporary migration. [300489]
Mr. Woolas:
The Government's view is that a numerical limit, or 'cap', on temporary migration is not the most effective way of managing migration. Rather, our view is that the points based system is the best and most
robust way of controlling the numbers of people coming to the UK from outside Europe without preventing the admission of migrants with specific skills that the UK economy needs.
We have already demonstrated the system's flexibility through putting a stop to low skilled labour entering the UK from outside Europe by suspending Tier three, as well as well as tightening up labour market testing requirements for Tier 2.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |