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24 Mar 2010 : Column 336W—continued
The information has been provided from local management information and is not a National Statistic. As such, it should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change.
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which British nationality application forms may be requested over the telephone. [322989]
Mr. Woolas: Of the 16 application forms used for British nationality only forms AN and MN1 may currently be requested by telephone. The others are available by downloading from the UK Border Agency website.
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications by children for British nationality were made in each of the last three years. [322990]
Mr. Woolas: The following table provides the current number of children applying for British nationality made in the last three years.
| Minor applications for British citizenship received 2007-09 | ||
| Case type | Number of persons | |
| (1) Provisional figures. Notes: 1. Figures are rounded to the nearest five. 2. Minor children are all children under 18 years old. | ||
The information has been provided from local management information and is not a National Statistic. As such, it should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change.
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people requested nationality application forms by telephone in each of the last three years. [322991]
Mr. Woolas: There are no records of the number of people requesting nationality application forms by telephone. The number of calls answered in response to requests for application forms were:
| Number | |
The information has been provided from local management information and is not National Statistic. As such, it should be treated as provisional and therefore subject to change.
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the decision was taken not to supply hard copies of British nationality application forms AN and MN1 and related guidance notes to people requesting them on the telephone; and what the reasons were for the decision. [322993]
Mr. Woolas: The decision not to continue to supply hard copies of nationality forms AN and MN1 was taken on 12 February 2010. Most nationality forms are already available only by downloading from the UK Border Agency website and work is underway towards online application. Most applications are already made on forms accessed from the website. Discontinuing the supply of hardcopy forms AN and MN1 will save the agency in excess of £500,000 per annum.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer of 20 July 2009, Official Report, column 895W, on empty property, what (a) residential and (b) business properties his Department (i) owns and (ii) rents overseas; in which locations; and what the cost of those properties was to his Department in the latest period for which figures are available. [320904]
Mr. Woolas: My Department including its executive agencies does not own any overseas property. The UK Border Agency rents residential and business properties on the continent for use by officials who operate from ports, terminals and office sites. Landlord and other costs of these properties from available information for 2008-09 were £3.6 million.
The UK Border Agency also operates from Foreign and Commonwealth Office embassies and high commissions around the world for which my Department paid the FCO £16.2 million in 2008-09 for property and related services, excluding non-cash cost of capital and depreciation.
Departmental Disciplinary Proceedings
Barry Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) disciplinary and (b) capability procedures have been (i) initiated and (ii) completed in his Department in each of the last five years; how much time on average was taken to complete each type of procedure in each such year; how many and what proportion of his Department's staff were subject to each type of procedure in each such year; and how many and what proportion of each type of procedure resulted in the dismissal of the member of staff. [320620]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Office has clear policies and procedures in place for managing unsatisfactory performance and for investigating misconduct under a revised disciplinary policy introduced on 6 April 2009. These may result in dismissal of an individual. These policies are compliant with employment legislation and any dismissal will follow the published procedures which are available to all staff.
The following table sets out information held in relation to formal disciplinary procedures that have been recorded centrally in the Home Office (excluding its agencies) in each of the last five years.
The Information relating to formal disciplinary procedures contained in this answer is drawn from centrally held records within Home Office HR which are populated with information provided by Line Managers and Human Resource Advisers. While every effort is made to ensure that the information provided by the business is input in a timely manner, some records are added retrospectively.
We are unable to provide details of when each procedure was (i) initiated and (ii) completed or how much time on average was taken to complete each procedure as full details of this information is not held centrally and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
We are unable to provide information in relation to capability procedures (which we have interpreted as formal unsatisfactory performance procedures) as there were fewer than five procedures in each year. Further information is therefore withheld on grounds of confidentiality.
Departmental Food
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will take steps to ensure that the meat and dairy products procured by his Department and its non-departmental bodies are free range or produced to standards equivalent to those of the RSPCA Freedom Food scheme. [323064]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Department including its NDPBs follows guidance issued by DEFRA's Public Sector Food Procurement initiative on procuring meat and dairy products. The guidance shows how the Department can specify higher animal welfare standards, including farm assurance schemes and higher level schemes such as the RSPCA's Freedom Foods Standard.
The Department's regional facilities management contracts provide for a range of services including catering and the contracts specify that the Contractor complies with Government guidance on sustainable food and farming in delivering the contract.
Departmental ICT
Anne Main: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with which external IT contractors his Department has contracts with a monetary value of over £1 million. [320883]
Mr. Woolas: The Home Department manages its supplier base in line with public and private sector best practice, including maintaining up to date records on spend by supplier. The Home Office and UKBA have current IT contracts in place with 10 IT contractors with a monetary value of over £1 million. The list of contractors is as follows:
Home Office and UKBA IT suppliers
Atos Origin
CSC
Fujitsu
Hewlett Packard
IBM
Morse
Raytheon
Savvis
Serco
Specialist Computer Centres
Departmental Languages
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department received coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months; what expenditure his Department incurred in providing such coaching; and in what languages such coaching was provided. [320544]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is as follows:
(a) No Home Office Ministers have attended coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months.
(b) There is no central mechanism for recording coaching in a foreign language for Home Office staff; to gather this information would incur a disproportionate cost. Where there is a business need, particularly for staff involved in EU and international business, language training is available and paid for out of local training budgets.
Departmental Location
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much his Department spent on the relocation of staff from posts in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point constituency in each of the last five years. [321427]
Mr. Woolas: For the period for which information is available (July 2007 onwards), no staff from the Home Department (excluding its agencies) have been located in (a) Essex or (b) Castle Point constituency. As a consequence, the Department has not incurred any expenditure on the relocation of staff posts from these locations.
Departmental Ministerial Policy Advisers
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham (Mr. Maude) of 12 November 2009, Official Report, column 625W, on ministerial policy advisers, what activities the special envoy on youth violence and knife crime has undertaken to date. [323648]
Mr. Alan Campbell: I can confirm the following activities undertaken by Richard Taylor, the special envoy on youth violence and knife crime.
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