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22 Feb 2010 : Column 386W—continued
UK Border Agency: Manpower
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average length of service at the UK Border Agency has been of (a) case-owners and (b) casework team leaders (i) in Cardiff and (ii) nationally in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [316217]
Mr. Woolas: UK Border Agency staffing data held are collated by grade only and not by role. Therefore average length of service of these roles is not available.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of UK Border Agency legal staff (a) in Cardiff and (b) nationally are qualified (i) solicitors, (ii) barristers and (iii) para-legal staff; and if he will make a statement. [316220]
Mr. Woolas: There are no staff of the UK Border Agency based in Cardiff whose role is to provide legal services. General advice on procedure and current case law is provided through teams outside the Wales and South West of England region and are staffed by policy specialists. Bespoke legal advice is commissioned from the Home Office Legal Advisers Branch, Treasury Solicitor or independent Counsel as required.
Home Office Presenting Officers, who appear for the Secretary of State in the vast majority of represented appeals before the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, are not required to hold a legal qualification.
No data are held on whether staff employed by UK Border Agency hold these qualifications.
UK Border Agency: Standards
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what mechanisms are in place to ensure the consistency of immigration application decisions taken by different UK Border Agency offices; and if he will make a statement. [316332]
Mr. Woolas: The Department has in place a number of measures designed to ensure the consistency of asylum decisions. All applications are considered against centrally produced guidance and new caseowners receive uniform national training before they begin to deal with cases. Audit and quality control processes are in place and issues arising from the audits are promulgated nationally every month. Consistency is promoted through regular meetings of both regional asylum managers and senior asylum caseworkers who use a variety of networks to help ensure that best practice is shared and promoted nationwide.
UK Border Agency: Termination of Employment
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of UK Border Agency case owners based in Cardiff have had their contracts terminated for each reason in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [316218]
Mr. Woolas: UK Border Agency staffing data are held by grade and not by role. So it is not possible to answer the question as asked. In respect of all staff in Cardiff, contracts have been terminated as follows:
| Termination of contract in Cardiff | |
| Number | |
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what proportion of UK Border Agency case owners had their contracts terminated for each reason in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [316219]
Mr. Woolas: UK Border Agency staffing data are held by grade and not by role. So it is not possible to answer the question as put. In respect of staff across the agency, contracts have been terminated as follows:
| Leaving reason | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 |
|
Discharge on inefficiency grounds during a probationary or trial period | |||||
| (1) Five or less. | |||||
UK Border Agency: Training
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) equality and (b) cultural awareness training is (i) compulsory and (ii) made voluntarily available for UK Border Agency employees; and if he will make a statement. [316216]
Mr. Woolas: A range of learning vehicles on equality and cultural awareness are available to UK Border Agency staff. These can be delivered by e-learning, workshops and DVDs. All permanent UKBA staff are required to complete diversity e-learning.
Vandalism
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of vandalism have been reported in (a) England, (b) Suffolk, (c) Bedfordshire, (d) Cambridgeshire, (e) Essex, (f) Hertfordshire and (g) Norfolk in each year since 1997. [314884]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The available information relates to offences of criminal damage recorded by the police and is given in the following tables.
| Table 1: Offences of criminal damage recorded in selected police force areas, 1997 | |
| Police force area | Number of offences |
| Table 2: Offences of criminal damage recorded in selected police force areas, 1998-99 to 2001-02( 1, 2) | ||||
| Number of offences | ||||
| Police force area | 1998-99 | 1999-2000 | 2000-01 | 2001-02 |
| (1) The coverage was extended and counting rules revised from 1998-99. Figures from that date are not directly comparable with those for 1997. (2) The data in this table is prior to the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for later years. | ||||
| Table 3: Offences of criminal damage recorded in selected police force areas, 2002-03 to 2008-09( 1) | |||||||
| Number of offences | |||||||
| Police force area | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 |
| (1) The data in this table takes account of the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in April 2002. These figures are not directly comparable with those for earlier years. (2) Excluding British Transport police. | |||||||
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