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22 Jun 2010 : Column 146W—continued
Departmental Mobile Phones
Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which Ministers in her Department have been issued with (a) a Blackberry, (b) an iPhone, (c) another make of mobile telephone and (d) a personal digital assistant supplied by the Department. [1427]
Nick Herbert: Six BlackBerrys and two mobile phones have been issued to Ministers in the Home Office. We do not issue iPhones or personal digital assistants.
Departmental Official Residences
Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any domestic properties in the gift of the Government have been allocated to the use of Ministers in her Department. [1802]
Nick Herbert: No Home Ministers in the Home Office have been allocated a residence.
Departmental Pay
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was paid in bonuses to civil servants in her Department in 2009-10. [2178]
Nick Herbert: An element of the overall pay award for the Home Office is allocated to non-consolidated variable pay related to performance. These payments are used to drive high performance and form part of the pay award for members of staff who demonstrate exceptional performance, for example by exceeding targets set of meeting challenging objectives.
Non-consolidated variable pay awards are funded from within existing pay bill controls and have to be re-earned each year against pre-determined targets and, as such, do not add to future pay bill and pension costs. The percentage of the pay bill set aside for performance-related awards for the senior civil service is based on the recommendations of the independent senior salaries review body.
Non-consolidated end-of-year performance payments made in the 2009-10 financial year (in relation to the 2008-09 performance year) amounted to £5.69 million, (approx 0.69% of the pay bill 2009-10). Up to 0.3% of the pay bill is allocated for non-consolidated special payments to reward exceptional in-year performance. In the 2009-10 financial year this amounted to £1.39 million, less than 0.2% of salary costs.
Departmental Reviews
Andrew Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the answer of 8 June 2010, Official Report, column 137W, on Government departments: reviews, what reviews her Department is undertaking; and what the (a) purpose and (b) timescale of each is. [2591]
Nick Herbert: I refer the hon. Member to the previous answer given by the right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Sir George Young) on 8 June 2010, Official Report, column 137W. My Department will bring forward detailed information about these reviews in due course.
Departmental Translation Services
Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what (a) documents and (b) other information for which (i) her Department and (ii) its associated public bodies are responsible are published or provided in the UK in languages other than English; for what reason each such publication is required to be made available in a language or languages other than English; and what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of the translation work so incurred in the latest period for which figures are available. [1774]
Nick Herbert: Providing translated information where it will assist the public to access information and provide help and support is always considered when producing publications.
The Welsh Language Act (1993) is complied with when communicating with citizens of Wales.
We are unable to provide information about the number of translated publications or the costs incurred through translation work on the grounds of disproportionate cost.
Deportation: Offenders
Mr Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the written ministerial statement of 25 April 2006, Official Report, columns 37-38WS, on deportation and removal of foreign nationals, how many of the 1,023 foreign national criminals released from prison referred to in the statement are unaccounted for. [3758]
Damian Green: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 16 June 2010, Official Report, column 432W.
Detention Centres: Children
Mr Spencer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what estimate she has made of the number of children detained for immigration purposes in (a) 1997 and (b) the latest year for which figures are available. [3108]
Damian Green [holding answer 21 June 2010]: The requested information is not available. The published statistics on persons detained as at specific dates in 1997 related to asylum applicants only and did not separately identify children.
The latest published statistics show there were 30 people detained solely under Immigration Act powers recorded as being less than 18 years of age as at 31 March 2010. In 2009, 1,065 children entered detention solely under Immigration Act powers; this information was published for the first time in 2009.
This information relating to 2010 is available in tables 3.5 to 3.8 of the Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary, United Kingdom, January to March 2010 and the information relating to 2009 is available in
table 9.2 of the Control of Immigration: Quarterly Statistical Summary, United Kingdom, October to December 2009 available in the Library of the House and the Home Office's Research, Development and Statistics website at:
I recently announced a review into the detention of children for asylum purposes so it can be brought to an end this summer. We have already ended the overnight detention of children at Dungavel.
Homicide: Cumbria
Mr Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what discussions she has had with the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on the composition of the ACPO peer review group on the shooting in Cumbria; what information her Department holds on (a) the membership of the panel and (b) the date on which the review will be completed; and if she will arrange for the report of the review to be laid before Parliament when published. [2991]
Nick Herbert: The Home Secretary has discussed with the ACPO President, Sir Hugh Orde, the peer reviews into the tragic events in Cumbria requested by the chief constable of Cumbria Constabulary, Craig Mackey. There will be three peer reviews covering firearms licensing, the firearms response and the firearms tactics and manual. The reviews will be led by the respective ACPO leads for these business areas.
Terms of reference and timescales are currently being agreed. The reports will be made public and I will ensure they are made available to the House.
Identity Cards
Mr Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in Bexleyheath and Crayford have purchased an identity card. [3307]
Damian Green: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 16 June 2010, Official Report, column 434W.
Marriage: Homosexuality
Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will bring forward proposals to enable gay people to marry. [2117]
Lynne Featherstone: Currently, same-sex couples can enter a civil partnership under the Civil Partnership Act 2004 which gives them the opportunity to obtain legal recognition of their relationship. Couples who register their civil partnerships gain vital rights and protections, similar to married couples. Civil partnership registrations are entirely secular in nature and, as with civil marriage, prohibited from taking place on religious premises, or containing any religious language. An amendment made to the Equality Act 2010 removed the express prohibition on civil partnerships taking place on religious premises.
This Government are committed to supporting civil partnerships. This week, the Prime Minister launched Working for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Equality, an ambitious programme of work to tackle outdated prejudices and ensure equal chances for everyone, whatever their sexual orientation or gender identity. It contains a commitment to talk to those with a key interest in this issue about what the next stage should be for civil partnerships, including how some religious organisations can allow same-sex couples the opportunity to register their relationship in a religious setting if they wish to do so.
Members: Correspondence
Alan Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when she plans to reply to the letter of 9 June 2010 from the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle on crime statistics. [3186]
Mrs May [holding answer 21 June 2010]: I have replied to the letter in question. I refer you to my letter of 17 June 2010.
PCSOs: Certificate in Policing
Mr Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to develop an accreditation scheme for police community support officers under the Safe and Confident Neighbourhood Strategy document of February 2010. [3219]
Nick Herbert: The National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) and Skills for Justice have written to Chief Officers and Force Training Managers announcing the introduction of the new qualification/accreditation for Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in England and Wales. The Level 3 Certificate in Policing (Police Community Support Officers) is a non-mandatory and national qualification for PCSOs.
Police Authorities
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the presumed hours of work are for remunerated (a) chairs and (b) vice-chairs of police authorities. [2682]
Nick Herbert [holding answer 16 June 2010]: The Home Office does not set or monitor hours of work for chairs or vice-chairs of police authorities.
Police: Bureaucracy
Richard Harrington: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations she has received on the annual proportion of time spent by police officers on administrative tasks. [2883]
Nick Herbert: Since the election, my ministerial colleagues and I have had several discussions with a range of policing partners on the need to reduce bureaucracy for the police service. The Government are clear that the police should focus on police work not paperwork, and the Home Office is now engaged in a programme of action to deliver this commitment.
The introduction of directly-elected individuals will release police forces from centrally imposed burdens, making the police accountable to the right people-the public they serve. We will reform the performance management framework for policing, to let the police get on with their jobs as professionals.
We will support greater professional responsibility, enabling officers to use their discretion to decide how incidents are dealt with and how crimes are actually recorded and we will take action to return charging decisions for minor offences to police officers. RIPA and PACE processes will be reviewed to see where we can minimise the bureaucracy involved. We also propose to amend the health and safety rules that can prevent police officers from intervening and protecting the public.
We will cut red-tape, and are working to identify those processes that are unnecessarily time-consuming for police officers and support staff. This includes looking at those processes in the wider Criminal Justice System that generate bureaucracy for police officers. We have already announced our intention to scrap the Stop and Search form and we will look at how we can maximise the use of technology to further reduce the paperwork in policing.
Mr Spencer: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations she has received on the amount of time spent by police officers on paperwork each year. [3110]
Nick Herbert [holding answer 21 June 2010]: Since the election, my ministerial colleagues and I have had several discussions with a range of policing partners on the need to reduce bureaucracy for the police service. The Government are clear that the police should focus on police work not paperwork, and the Home Office is now engaged in a programme of action to deliver this commitment.
Police: Essex
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether her Department holds information on the number of (a) officials at each grade in Essex Police Authority and (b) officers of each rank in Essex police who have left their posts voluntarily other than through redundancy since December 2009. [2790]
Nick Herbert: Data since December 2009 are unavailable until headline figures are published on 22 July 2010.
The Home Office does not collect data about officials of the Police Authority.
Police: Finance
Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding her Department plans to provide to each police authority in the next two years; what mechanism is used to determine the allocation of funding to police authorities; what recent assessment she has made of the value for money of expenditure on police authorities; and if she will make a statement. [2788]
Nick Herbert: The funding settlement for 2011-12 and 2012-13 will not be decided until after the comprehensive spending review.
Police authorities receive a main grant plus several specific grants from the Home Office. The amount of main grant a police authority receives is based on the needs of its force relative to other forces. This is calculated using the Police Allocation Formula. Police authorities also receive grants for specific purposes such as the neighbourhood policing fund. Details of these can be found in the CIPFA police accounts at:
The Government are committed to introducing directly elected individuals to hold the police to account; to replace bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability. This will help ensure that the public have a direct say in how their money is spent so they get the best value from their policing.
Police: Funding
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effect on policing of the reduction of her Department's funding allocation for 2010-11; and if she will make a statement. [2929]
Nick Herbert [holding answer 17 June 2010]: Core Government funding to the police will be reduced by £125 million. Each force will have its core Government funding in 2010-11 reduced by the same percentage. This reduction is less than 1 per cent of expected total police spending in 2010-11.
The Government's priority is to cut the budget deficit and get the economy moving again. That means the police will have to bear a fair share of the burden, helped by £100 million of savings already identified for this year on areas including procurement and IT. I am quite clear that this saving can be achieved by driving out wasteful spending, reducing bureaucracy and increasing efficiency in key functions, whilst leaving the frontline of policing strong and secure. The Home Office has protected the frontline by cutting a greater than proportionate share of its own central budget.
In addition to the £125 million, Government funding for counter terrorism policing will be reduced by £10 million. The £10 million savings package is taken from a £5 million reduction in the Metropolitan Police Services' Counter Terrorism Specific Grant and a £5 million reduction in the Counter Terrorism Specific Grant for local and regional counter terrorism capabilities. This was agreed following discussion with senior police officers to ensure that there would be no adverse impact on frontline delivery of CT policing. In 2010-11 there will be £569 million available for counter terrorism policing.
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