| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
6 Apr 2010 : Column 1241W—continued
Kenya: Family Planning
Chris McCafferty: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to ensure adequate reproductive health and access to reproductive rights in Kenya, with particular reference to family planning and safe abortion services; and if he will make a statement. [325345]
Mr. Thomas: The Department for International Development's (DFID) Essential Health Services programme in Kenya is improving the quality of maternal and neonatal health services for 2.2 million poor Kenyans in rural areas. The support has increased the number of births at which a skilled birth attendant was present from 23 per cent. to 32 per cent. between 2006 and 2009.
DFID is supporting advocacy for safe motherhood and safe abortion through Kenya White Ribbon Alliance. We have helped increase access to modern contraceptive methods through the social marketing of family planning commodities such as oral contraceptives. DFID distributed 195 million condoms between 2002 and 2009. DFID support from 2009 to 2015 will avert 770,800 unwanted pregnancies in Kenya.
Opposition
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether his Department has undertaken costings of the policies of the (a) Conservative Party and (b) Liberal Democrat Party at the request of Ministers or special advisers in the last 36 months. [324241]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) has not investigated the cost of policies presented by the Conservative party, the Liberal Democrats or any other Opposition party.
Overseas Aid: Maternity Services
Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much of the additional £100 million to cut maternal deaths which the Government committed to at the Women Deliver conference in October 2007 has been provided to the United Nations Population Fund. [325549]
Mr. Michael Foster:
All of the £100 million announced at the Women Deliver conference in 2007 was committed to the United Nations Population fund (UNFPA) Global Reproductive Health Commodity Security Programme. The programme supports governments in Africa and in
South Asia to provide more contraception services and better health care and advice for girls, women and men who really need it. To date £25 million has been transferred to UNFPA as per the agreed payment schedule.
Palestinians: Overseas Aid
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent reports he has received on alleged restrictions imposed by Hamas on the activities of humanitarian non-governmental organisations operating in Gaza. [325659]
Mr. Michael Foster: Department for International Development (DFID) officials are in regular contact with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the UN and other donors about this issue. We assess that international NGOs and other humanitarian actors are generally able to carry out humanitarian activities, and that they have been able to successfully rebuff isolated attempts by elements of Hamas to interfere with aid delivery. However, we remain concerned that increasingly close scrutiny and accumulation of minor restrictions on NGO activity by Hamas will have the effect of impeding ongoing humanitarian aid. We will continue to support efforts by humanitarian agencies to protect their ability to assist Gazan civilians on the basis of need.
St Helena: Wrecks
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if his Department will assist the St Helena government in removing the fuel, oil and ammunition from RFA Darkdale after its sinking in James Bay, St Helena; and if he will make a statement. [325668]
Mr. Michael Foster: The Department for International Development (DFID) provides financial and technical assistance to the St. Helena Government to allow it to manage its own affairs. We have recently agreed a budget of up to £26.15 million for St. Helena for financial year 2010-11. This did not include any additional assistance for removing the fuel, oil and ammunition from RFA Darkdale.
Sudan: Politics and Government
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent reports he has received on the humanitarian situation in Sudan; and if he will make a statement. [325025]
Mr. Thomas: The Department for International Development (DFID) receives regular reports from the United Nations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). We are particularly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Darfur and southern Sudan.
In Darfur, despite recent progress on peace talks between the Government and rebel groups, fighting has continued between the Sudanese armed forces and a faction of the Sudanese Liberation Army rebel group in the Jebel Mara region. This will have humanitarian consequences for civilians. We continue to urge both sides to immediately cease hostilities and allow access to the area by humanitarian agencies.
In southern Sudan inter-tribal violence which displaced 390,000 people during 2009 has continued. Poor rains and high prices are fuelling food shortages. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) report that 1.6 million people face acute food shortages in 2010, and a total of 4.3 million people will be food insecure this year.
The UK is the largest European bilateral donor to Sudan, providing some £50 million in humanitarian support this year.
Home Department
Animal Welfare: Arrests
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many arrests there have been for offences in connection with animal welfare in North Shropshire since 1997. [325422]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The information on arrests is not collected centrally.
The arrests collection held by the Home Office covers arrests for recorded crime (notifiable offences) only, broken down at a main offence group level, covering categories such as violence against the person and robbery.
The offence in connection with animal welfare is not a notifiable offence and does not form part of this collection.
Asylum: Standards
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the average time was between a person claiming asylum on arrival in the UK and a final decision being made on their application in the latest period for which figures are available. [323021]
Mr. Woolas [holding answer 22 March 2010]: The public service agreement (PSA) Delivery Agreement 3, Indicator 2 refers to the reduction in the time to conclusion of asylum application. The measure is to ensure a target percentage of cases should be resolved within six months.
The method of reporting against the target is based on the performance of the specific monthly cohort of cases reaching six months. Hence all reporting is done against a six-month timeframe. A cohort is specified as those new applications received between 1 and 31 of each month.
The conclusion measurement requires applications to be granted asylum or some form of leave to remain in the UK, allowed at appeal or removed within 182 days (six months) to be counted as concluded.
Performance against the targets has been published in National Statistics as follows:
61 per cent. of new applications received in June 2009 were concluded in six months by the end of December 2009.
Published information is not available in relation to conclusion of applications in timescales other than six months.
British Nationality
Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will reinstate the telephone line for people to request British nationality application forms. [322992]
Mr. Woolas: The contract for despatching applications forms in response to telephone requests expires on 31 March 2010. There are no plans to renew it. Forms and guides are available from the UK Border Agency website.
British Nationality: Assessments
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people of each (a) age group and (b) nationality passed the British citizenship test in each month of 2009. [303820]
Mr. Woolas: The Knowledge of Life (KOL) requirement was introduced in November 2005 for citizenship applications. In April 2007, the Home Office extended the KOL test to those applying for settlement in the UK. In 2009, 193,645 applications for British citizenship were made.
A breakdown of this information has been placed in the House Library.
Burglary: Shropshire
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent steps his Department has taken to reduce the number of burglaries in Shropshire. [325416]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Tackling burglary is the responsibility of local community safety partnerships.
During 2009-10 the Government have supported the work of community safety partnerships by investing £15 million in the Securing Homes: Action Against Burglary programme to prevent and tackle burglary across England and Wales. The elements of the programme which included Shropshire included:
free burglary information and advice packs for victims of burglary and their immediate neighbours;
a campaign to raise awareness of how to avoid becoming a victim of distraction burglary;
new partnerships with the National Union of Students and Age UK to target advice appropriately at those most at risk of or concerned about burglary.
The Home Office also ran a national publicity campaign Don't Advertise Your Stuff to Thieves earlier this year drawing the public's attention to the simple steps they could take to avoid becoming victims of burglary.
We are also keeping pressure on prolific and persistent burglars through offender-based interventions such as the Drugs Intervention Programme (DIP) and the Prolific and Priority Offender (PPO) programme and Integrated Offender Management (IOM). PPO and DIP are in place in every local authority area in England and Wales and IOM approaches are being adopted across the country.
Shropshire are currently in the process of setting up a local IOM pilot.
Community Safety Accreditation Schemes
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in which local authority and police force areas (a) local authority employees and (b) private companies have been authorised to issue fixed penalty notices under the Community Safety Accreditation scheme. [324777]
Mr. Alan Campbell: The Home Office only holds information on police forces that operate the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (CSAS). The Home Office does not collect information on the local authority areas in which CSAS operates. Nor does it collect information on the local authorities and private companies in which police forces have granted employees the power to issue fixed penalty notices under CSAS. The decision as to which employees are granted powers is for individual police forces that operate CSAS.
However, the Home Office conducted a national audit of CSAS in 2009 which found that the following police forces had designated accredited persons with the power to issue fixed penalty notices. Avon and Somerset constabulary and British Transport police have designated the power to issue penalty notices for disorder, but not fixed penalty notices.
Cheshire
Cleveland
Devon and Cornwall
Durham
Gwent
Hampshire
Hertfordshire
Kent
Lancashire
Leicestershire
Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Nottinghamshire
Suffolk
Warwickshire
West Mercia
West Midlands
Convictions
Paul Holmes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) males and (b) females aged (i) under 16, (ii) between 16 and 19, (iii) between 20 and 25, (iv) between 26 and 30, (v) between 31 and 40, (vi) between 41 and 50, (vii) between 51 and 60 and (viii) over 60 years have been (A) cautioned, (B) proceeded against and (C) issued with a penalty notice for disorder for being drunk and disorderly in each police force area in the last 12 months. [325281]
Mr. Alan Campbell: Information showing the number of offenders cautioned for offences of being drunk and disorderly, by age group and police force area, England and Wales, 2008 (latest available) can be found in Tables one and two. The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates' courts for these offences are given in Tables three and four. The number of offenders issued with a penalty notice for disorder (PND) can be viewed in Tables 5 and 6.
Cautions, court proceedings, and PND data for 2009 are planned for publication in the autumn 2010.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |