§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff have been employed by his Department in each of the last 10 years. [42459]
§ Angela EagleThe information requested is contained in 'Civil Service Statistics' published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office for the Government Statistical Service annually. For ease of reference, the figures for the Home Office are set out in the table.
and Home Affairs (JHA) Council on 6–7 December 2001. The Government supported the "combined" option described in the paper, whereby a limited range of penalties would be introduced based on a number of different minimum levels.
Following further discussion of this option at the informal JHA ministerial meeting in Santiago de Compostela, 14–15 February, 2002 it has now been agreed that the "combined" option should be used as the basis for setting common penalties for offences in future EU instruments. Such penalties do not affect judicial 1159W discretion on sentencing in individual cases, nor do they prevent member states from establishing higher penalties than those required by European law.