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Immigration and Advisory Service: Funding
Lord Dholakia asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the likely effect on the staffing structure of the Immigration Advisory Service if the present level of funding cannot be maintained; and [HL836]
What is the likely effect on the Immigration Advisory Service if the present level of funding cannot be maintained. [HL837]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: This is a matter for the chief executive and board of trustees of the Immigration Advisory Service.
Prison Population
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is their estimate of the size of the prison population in England and Wales over the next 10 years; and what is their estimate of the public expenditure to be incurred in housing the prison population over that period of time. [HL905]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: Revised projections of the prison population in England and Wales in December
2000 are set out in the table. The information requested can also be found in Prison Population Brief December 2000, summarised on the Internet at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs/prisdec00.pdfThe table provides the annual projected prison population to 2007 based on three scenarios. These scenarios are:
Higher variant: Assumes custody rates increase by 0.6 per cent per year for males and 1 per cent a year for females and that average sentence lengths increase annually by 1.5 per cent for males and 2 per cent for females.
Central variant: Assumes custody rates increase as above but average sentence lengths remain at 1999 levels.
Lower variant: Assumes custody levels and average sentence lengths remain at 1999 levels.
The projections also take into account known legislative and policy changes as well as short-term fluctuations in the prison population. Projections are restricted to eight years ahead because beyond that projecting the prison population becomes too uncertain.
The Prison Service's funding baseline is sufficient to meet the higher population projection for the next three years. As part of the baseline, the 2000 Spending Review settlement included £103 million/£105 million/£69 million over the next three years to provide additional capacity of 2,600 to meet this projected population. Funding beyond the next three financial years will be determined by future spending reviews.
| 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Higher variant | |||||||||
| Total | 64,800 | 64,600 | 65,000 | 67,100 | 71,700 | 74,000 | 75,900 | 77,400 | 79,200 |
| Male | 61,500 | 61,300 | 61,700 | 63,700 | 67,500 | 69,700 | 71,600 | 73,000 | 74,000 |
| Female | 3,200 | 3,300 | 3,400 | 3,400 | 4,200 | 4,300 | 4,300 | 4,400 | 4,500 |
| Central variant | |||||||||
| Total | 64,800 | 64,600 | 64,300 | 66,000 | 68,000 | 69,400 | 75,000 | 71,700 | 72,700 |
| Male | 61,500 | 61,300 | 61,000 | 62,700 | 64,300 | 65,600 | 66,700 | 67,800 | 68,700 |
| Female | 3,200 | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,700 | 3,800 | 3,800 | 3,900 | 4,000 |
| Lower variant | |||||||||
| Total | 64,800 | 64,600 | 63,800 | 65,200 | 65,800 | 66,700 | 67,600 | 68,400 | 69,000 |
| Male | 61,500 | 61,300 | 60,500 | 61,900 | 62,200 | 63,000 | 63,900 | 64,600 | 65,200 |
| Female | 3,200 | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,600 | 3,700 | 3,700 | 3,800 | 3,800 |
Note:
All figures relate to the projected prison population on the last day in June of each year. The male and female figures may not sum to the totals due to rounding.
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will publish periodic reports on Oakington Reception Centre, giving the number of people processed; their nationalities; the number who are granted asylum and exceptional leave to remain respectively; the number of people who disappear after being granted temporary admission; the number whose appeals are successful or whose applications are conceded before their appeals are heard; and the number who are transferred to detention centres or prisons.[HL914]
1 Mar 2001 : Column WA159
Lord Bassam of Brighton: We have no present plans to do so but will consider what information might be published routinely in due course.
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the estimated cost of running Oakington Reception Centre in the first year of its operation; and how many asylum seekers they expect to accommodate at Oakington over this period. [HL915]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: The estimated cost of running Oakington in the first year of operation is
£12.8 million, with a further £2.8 million capital expenditure expected to arise during the same period. It is anticipated that, following the gradual expansion of capacity throughout the year, around 5,000 principal asylum applicants plus 1,000 dependants will have been accommodated at Oakington during this period.
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many families, after being detained at Oakington, have been split up by detaining the head of household and releasing the dependants to a location beyond reasonable visiting distance, up to the latest convenient date. [HL916]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: This information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Strategic Communications Unit: Prime Minister's Webcasts
The Earl of Northesk asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the Strategic Communications Unit is responsible for the webcasts by the Prime Minister from Downing Street. [HL799]
The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Lord Falconer of Thoroton): The Strategic Communications Unit is responsible for the Downing Street website; the Prime Minister's webcasts are published on that site.
Redundancy Notification
Lord Wedderburn of Charlton asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What directions have been given under Section 193(4) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act 1992 in respect of the form of, and required particulars in, obligatory notifications by employers to the Secretary of State of proposed redundancies. [HL743]
The Minister for Science, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): Form HR1, copies of which are available from my department's Redundacy Payments Service, sets out the information employers are required to give in notifications under Section 193(4) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. I have arranged for a copy of the form to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Notifications may also be submitted by any other form of written communication, provided the same information is given.
Lord Wedderburn of Charlton asked Her Majesty's Government:
- (a) What steps they take to ensure that a copy of a notice, given to the Secretary of State by virtue of Section 193 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 by an employer
- concerning forthcoming redundancies, is given to representatives of the affected employees or the relevant trade union; (b) How many such notices were given in the years 1998, 1999 and 2000 and the first two months of 2001; (c) What were the sectors of industry or employment connected with those notices and the date on which each was given; (d) How many such notices were affected by special circumstances within the meaning of the section; and (e) Whether the Secretary of State has given any general or special directions under Section 194 of the Act to any person in respect of prosecution of defaulting employers, and, if so, to whom. [HL892]
Lord Sainsbury of Turville: Although there is no express provision for my department to enforce this requirement, employers giving notice to my department, under Section 193 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, of proposed redundancies are reminded of their obligation to copy such a notice to representatives of the employees being consulted and to declare the date on which, and with whom, consultation commenced on form HR1. The operation of this requirement is being considered in the context of the current review of the collective redundancy provisions. The number of notifications received by my department for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000 and the first two months of 2001 were 4,017, 4,189 and 4,418 and 709 respectively. Information on the sectors of industry connected with those notices will have to be compiled from the records of the Redundancy Payments Service, and I shall write to the noble Lord. The number of notices affected by special circumstances within the meaning of the section for the same periods were five, three and one; there were no notices affected by special circumstances for the first two months of 2001. No special or general directions have been given under Section 194 of the Act.
Credit Cards: Contractual Relationship
Lord Harrison asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether, when credit cards are used, a legally-binding contract is established only when the authorisation slip is signed by the purchaser and not when the card is swiped through the machine. [HL773]
Lord Sainsbury of Turville: A number of different contractual relationships arise when a purchase is made using a credit card, and I have confined myself in this response to the question of the contractual relationship between the buyer and the seller in respect of a sale of goods.
In this context, the question of precisely when a legally binding contract is made will depend upon the principles of the law of contract, including those relating to offer and acceptance. The application of these principles will vary according to the facts of each case, and the time of payment (whether determined by reference to swiping a card or signing a slip authorising payment or some other event) will not necessarily be a
material factor in pinpointing the time at which a contract was made.
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