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10 Mar 2010 : Column 359W—continued
Departmental Data Protection
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 18 January 2010, Official Report, column 29W, on departmental data protection, what activities constituted inappropriate use of information in each case of disciplinary action and dismissal. [313461]
Alan Johnson
[holding answer 26 January 2010]: Further to my answer of 18 January 2010, Official Report, column 29W, that confirmed that UK Border Agency (UKBA) and Identity and Passport Service (IPS) staff had been subject to disciplinary action and dismissal for inappropriate use of information obtained from an immigration database and/or an identity card or passport database, I can confirm that in respect of UKBA the activities which constituted inappropriate
use of information and the numbers subject to disciplinary action or dismissal are as follows:
Falsified records and manipulated Home Office systems: 5
Unauthorised access to a database or allowing another person to use their log in: 6
It is UKBA policy not to disclose any personal information or to provide a further breakdown of the numbers of staff below five where this may potentially reveal to a third party the identity of the individuals involved.
We have therefore provided a total of the staff disciplined for each activity recorded which constituted inappropriate use of information.
IPS records do not specify the activities involved in each particular case.
Departmental Pay
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the (a) average and (b) highest non-consolidated performance-related payment was in cash terms for senior civil servants in his Department in each of the last five years. [305959]
Mr. Woolas: The criterion for awarding senior civil servants (SCS) with performance related bonuses is set by the Prime Minister following independent advice from the senior salaries review body (SSRB). The level of payments takes into account a number of factors including individual performance against agreed priority business objectives and targets. Bonuses reward and provide incentives for in-year delivery of key results. Over the three years of SR 04 the Home Office met all its PSA objectives.
The following table shows the average (mean) and highest non-consolidated end-of-year performance-related bonuses for the SCS in the Home Office for the performance years 2005-06, 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09. We are unable to give information from previous years as these records are not held centrally and it is not possible to provide the information required without incurring disproportionate costs.
| Average (mean) and highest end-of-year performance-related, non-consolidated bonuses paid for the last four performance years | ||
| Performance year | Average (£) | Highest (£) |
Departmental Theft
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what items valued at above £100 were reported as stolen from his Department's buildings or premises in the last 12 months. [317832]
Alan Johnson: To gather the information required would incur disproportionate costs.
Emergency Calls: Hoaxes and False Alarms
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of 999 calls responded to by the police in England and Wales were found to be hoaxes in the last year for which figures are available. [320549]
Alan Johnson: A figure for the proportion of 999 calls responded to by police forces in England and Wales found to be hoaxes is not available. Data are available through the annual data return on the number of incidents recorded by police forces in the category 'hoax calls to emergency services' as defined within the national incident category list (NICL). However, not all calls in this category will have come through the 999 system.
The number of incidents recorded by police forces in the category 'hoax calls to emergency services' as defined within the national incident category list (NICL) for 2008-09 was 135,491. The data are normally for management information only and are not subject to the detailed checks that apply for national statistics publications. They are provisional and may be subject to change. The data represent calls for service as recorded by police forces under the relevant categories and may be subject to local variation in reporting and classifying.
Entry Clearances: Fraud
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people have been issued with the maximum sentence of a 10-year travel ban to the UK for attempting to use false documents in order to obtain a visa in each of the last 10 years. [318705]
Alan Johnson: In 2008, the Immigration Rules were amended to allow applications for entry clearance, leave to enter or leave to remain to be refused on the grounds that the applicant had previously breached UK immigration law (paragraph 320(7B)). Among those affected are people who have used deception (e.g. false documents) when applying for entry clearance in the last 10 years.
We are currently unable to identify from central records entry clearance applications that have been refused under a particular paragraph of the Rules. We therefore cannot say how many people have so far been refused entry clearance under paragraph 320(7B). However, all persons who have previously used deception in an application for entry clearance are effectively banned from the UK, unless the deception took place more than 10 years ago.
Identity Cards
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 26 January 2010, Official Report, column 819W, on passports, what proportion of the estimated 49 million products to be issued between April 2012 and March 2017 he estimates will be identity cards. [315002]
Alan Johnson: The current underpinning assumptions used for planning purposes in preparing the cost report indicate that approximately 49 million products will be issued over the period April 2012 to March 2017 of which we expect approximately 32 million passports and 17 million identity cards. These are total product volumes, including transactions associated with the replacement of lost or damaged items, but excluding transactions that do not require product issuance, such as changes of address.
It is Government policy that the public will be able to purchase a passport or an identity card or both. As such, the product mix of identity cards and passports depends on a number of factors including: the economic
environment; the relative cost of the products to the public; and travel patterns, all of which can vary over time. The IPS cost report provides total product volumes predictions that attempt to take account of these variables and the figures given above are exactly in line with the 10-year financial projections in the October 2009 cost report.
Illegal Immigrants
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people employed (a) on his Department's premises and (b) by an agency of his Department were found to have been working illegally in the UK in each year since 1997. [317546]
Alan Johnson: Table 1 sets out the number of people employed on the Department's premises or by an agency of the Department since 2002. Data from before 2002 are not held.
| Incident | |
Illegal Immigrants: Greater London
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in (a) the London Borough of Bexley and (b) Greater London have been prosecuted for offences related to the employment of people who did not have permission to work in the UK since 1997. [321056]
Claire Ward: I have been asked to reply.
The number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts in the Metropolitan police force area for offences of employing a person subject to immigration control without permission to work from 1997 to 2008 (latest available) are given in the table as follows. Court proceedings data are not available at local authority area level.
Prosecution data for the criminal offence of employing a person without permission to work are not representative of the totality of UK Border Agency enforcement action against illegal migrant working. The criminal offence in the Asylum and Immigration Act 1996 was replaced with a system of civil penalties in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. So far, the UK Border Agency has issued over 3,800 financial penalties nationwide to employers found to have employed persons subject to immigration control without the right to work, having failed to comply with the requirement to perform specified document checks.
Data for 2009 are planned for publication in the autumn, 2010.
| Number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts in the Metropolitan police force area for offences relating to employing a person knowing that they are subject to immigration control, 1997 to 2008( 1, 2, 3) | |
| Employing a person subject to immigration control who has attained the age of 16; Employing a person knowing that they are subject to immigration control who has not been granted leave to enter or remain, or whose leave to remain is invalid etc. | |
| (1 )Includes offences under: Asylum and Immigration Acts 1996 and 1999; Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. (2 )The statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been found guilty of two or more offences the principal offence is the offence for which the heaviest penalty is imposed. Where the same disposal is imposed for two or more offences, the offence selected is the offence for which the statutory maximum penalty is the most severe. (3 )Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative data systems generated by the courts and police forces. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services-Ministry of Justice. | |
Immigrants: Detainees
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) child asylum seekers and (b) children of asylum seekers of each age group from each country have been held in immigration detention prior to deportation at each location in each year since 1997. [319776]
Alan Johnson: The information is not held centrally and could only be provided by checking individual records over the period requested at a disproportionate cost.
Police: Bureaucracy
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many forms were required to be completed by police officers and police staff, on average, to process an individual arrest in the most recent year for which figures are obtainable; [320551]
(2) if he will estimate the number of police officers and staff that were required to process the average arrest for the most recent year for which figures are obtainable; [320552]
(3) how long it took on average to process an individual arrest in the most recent year for which figures are obtainable. [320553]
Alan Johnson: Data on the time taken and number of staff required to process an arrest are not reported to the Home Office.
A Custody Record is the only "form" which the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) and the codes of practice require to be completed in all arrests at designated stations. Statutory responsibility for their accuracy and completion fall to the custody officer, not the arresting officer. Additional forms required depend upon the individual circumstances of particular cases and therefore it is not possible to accurately estimate the average number of forms involved in each arrest.
Terrorism: Stop and Search
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 11 January 2010, Official Report, column 702W, on terrorism: stop and search, if he will place in the Library a copy of the (a) National Policing Improvement Agency guidance on stop and search powers, (b) letter to all chief constables whose forces had standing section 44 authorisations and (c) guidance of 15 December 2009 on photography in public places. [319743]
Mr. Hanson: The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) guidance on stop and search powers is available publicly on the NPIA website. The Metropolitan Police Service guidance is also available on the MPS website. My letter to all chief constables whose forces had section 44 authorisations was made public at the end of 2009. All three of these documents will be placed in the Library.
Children, Schools and Families
Children: Databases
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families for how long (a) unique pupil numbers and (b) unique learner numbers are held after a child leaves secondary education. [319610]
Mr. Coaker: Unique pupil numbers (UPN) are used to facilitate the tracking of pupils' movement and progress within the maintained school system in England. The number is allocated to each pupil according to a nationally specified formula on their first entry to school and is a unique identifier, which is intended to remain with them throughout their school career.
The unique learner number (ULN) is a 10-digit identifier which is allocated by the Learning and Skills Council to pupils in schools in England in year 9 as they approach their 14th birthday. Pupils will retain the same ULN for accessing details of their education and skills participation and achievement through and beyond their post-14 school career.
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