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1 Feb 2010 : Column 80W—continued
Departmental Internet
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on its website in 2009-10. [313559]
Alan Johnson: The Home Office website is
The amount spent on the main site and Home Office sub-sites is forecast to be £762,000 for the 2009-10 financial year.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 18 January 2010, Official Report, column 32W, on departmental public expenditure, what forms of advertising the £2,453,007 spent in respect of the immigration points-based system was spent on. [313460]
Alan Johnson [holding answer 26 January 2010]: The introduction of the points based system (PBS) was a fundamental overhaul of our immigration system. In February 2008, the Home Office launched an advertising campaign to raise awareness of this among employers, and make them aware of their new obligations. The campaign consisted of three phases:
Phase one ran from 29 February to 31 March 2008. Advertising ran in national and trade press, on commercial radio and online.
Phase two: 21 July to 21 September 2008. This phase of the campaign included TV, radio, trade press, online and e-newsletter advertising, along with some direct mail (online and trade press continued into November).
Phase three: 19 January to 2 February 2009 consists of trade press advertising and online display advertising (trade and national press sites). There was also an online search optimisation programme that ran throughout January and February.
Jim Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what expenditure his Department has incurred on plans for the containment of the effects of nuclear, biological and chemical agent contamination in each of the last three years; and what estimate he has made of such expenditure in 2009-10. [313898]
Mr. Hanson: We do hold figures specifically on the containment of the effects of contamination. Expenditure on work to respond to and recover from a chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) terrorist attack, including containment of the effects of contamination, was: £57.5 million in 2007-08; £56.2 million in 2008-09; and £56.1 million in 2009-10 to date.
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many sessions of media training were organised for Ministers in his Department in each of the last three years. [312024]
Mr. Woolas: The number of media sessions that Ministers of the Home Department have attended over the last three years comes to a total of four.
DNA: Databases
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many samples not linked to a personal profile there were on the National DNA Database on the latest date for which figures are available. [313455]
Mr. Alan Campbell: If this question refers to the number of crime scene sample profiles on the National DNA Database (NDNAD) that have not matched to a subject sample profile, then at 31 December 2009, there were 354,132 crime scene sample profiles on the NDNAD which had been submitted by police forces in England and Wales. Of these, 144,522 had not matched with a subject profile.
The data provided are management information and have not been formally assessed for compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Entry Clearances
Dr. Evan Harris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of appeals against visa refusal decisions made by the (a) Nairobi and (b) Islamabad visa section were allowed in (i) January 2009, (ii) April 2009, (iii) July 2009 and (iv) October 2009. [312088]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is given in the following tables. Immigration statistics for October 2009 will be published on 25 February.
UKBA monitors closely the reasons why appeals were overturned and uses the information to improve decision making quality.
| Nairobi | ||||
| Allowed appeals | ||||
| Post | Report year | Report month | Number | Percentage |
| Islamabad | ||||
| Allowed appeals | ||||
| Post | Report year | Report month | Number | Percentage |
Entry Clearances: Overseas Students
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's guidance to immigration officials relating to admission policy at port of entry for students where the authenticity of the documentation supplied is under question. [311457]
Mr. Woolas: I have arranged for the general guidance available to Border Force Officers who encounter passengers presenting suspect passports and travel documentation, to be placed in the Library.
Where a Border Force Officer has concerns regarding the documentation presented by a passenger, they will refer to a specially trained Forgery Officer. If it is established that a document is not genuine, or that the passenger is not entitled to hold it, they will be refused leave to enter.
Mr. Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether applicants from South Asia for visas to study in the UK received a face-to-face interview prior to the issue of a visa from the beginning of December 2008 to December 2009. [311862]
Mr. Woolas: All applicants for a visa must attend a centre to provide fingerprints, photographs and other information. Our key principle is to lock in identity by biometrics. Entry Clearance Officers retain the option of requiring the applicant to attend an interview.
Entry Clearances: Tourism
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 18 January 2009, Official Report, columns 44-5W, on visas: tourism, what the pilot schemes demonstrated to be the single most important driver to encouraging tourist visa applications. [312867]
Mr. Woolas: The pilot schemes identified no single most important driver to encourage tourist visa applications.
EU Immigration
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of co-operation between his Department and EU institutions on immigration (a) policy and (b) operations. [311245]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office is continuously engaged in close and effective cooperation with the EU institutions.
In the last six months the Home Office has successfully negotiated the next five-year EU work programme on Justice and Home Affairs, known as the Stockholm Programme, which reflects many UK priorities in the area of immigration and asylum policy.
We also engage in valuable practical and operational co-operation with EU partners, for example:
access to the Eurodac database, which has allowed the UK to remove over 8,850 asylum seekers to other member states since 2004;
negotiation of Readmission agreements between the EU and third countries to effect returns of illegal immigrants;
joint operations to protect EU borders organised by Frontex, the European Border Agency;
participating in visits to Ghana, Nigeria, Belarus and Kenya to enhance dialogue on migration issues and leading the first successful 'cooperation platform on migration' with Ethiopia to help build its capacity to tackle illegal immigration and human trafficking.
Graffiti: Coventry
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps the Government have taken to reduce the incidence of graffiti in Coventry in the last 12 months. [313925]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Government have provided practitioners in all areas with a wide range of tools and powers to tackle anti-social behaviour including graffiti. For example we have introduced a ban on the sale of spray paints to under 16's in an attempt to tackle the source of the problem by taking away the means to graffiti. Local agencies can also take action against perpetrators by using a variety of antisocial behaviour interventions such as acceptable behaviour contracts and antisocial behaviour orders that can specifically prohibit individuals from doing certain things such as buying or possessing spray cans and visiting certain areas at certain times. We know that the tools and powers work and many areas are using them effectively to make a difference in local communities.
Coventry Community Safety Partnership has an overarching strategy and action plan to tackle and reduce antisocial behaviour (ASB) in the city, which has been developed and is delivered through a range of agencies who are members of a Coventry ASB strategic group. Coventry ASB Team utilises the full range of the tools and powers available to tackle antisocial behaviour. In addition Coventry's ASB action plan include tackling environmental crime, committed for example through fly tipping, graffiti and waste disposal: this is delivered by the enviro crime unit and city services action plans.
Homicide
Mr. Grieve: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many offences were recorded as homicide committed by a stranger attributable to quarrel, revenge or loss of temper in each year since 1997-98. [313335]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Available information is from the Homicide Index and relates to the number of homicides recorded by police in England and Wales (including British Transport Police where the offence was committed in England or Wales). The latest homicide chapter, published on 21 January 2010 and available at:
looks at the position as at 24 November 2009. Included within this is a breakdown of currently recorded homicides by relationship of victim to principal suspect and apparent circumstances of offence for the period 1998-99 to 2008-09 (Table 1.06). This is reproduced in the following table, extended to include offences recorded in 1997-98.
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