§ Mr. Dalyell asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what statistics are collected by immigration service officers serving terminal 3 at Heathrow airport regarding right hon. and hon. Members' representations in respect of arriving passengers refused admission by immigration officers there; and if he will publish the statistics collected regarding the first nine months of the current year;
§ (2) what is his policy towards the collecting of statistics at ports of arrival of the number of immigration cases attracting representations by right hon. and hon. Members; what analyses are carried out of these statistics (a) at the ports of arrival and (b) elsewhere; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaddingtonAt all ports, the number of cases in which a right hon. or hon. Member makes representations is recorded. At terminal 3 Heathrow in the first nine months of this year it is recorded that representations by right hon. or hon. Members were made in about 2,500 cases. These statistics are required as management information both at the ports, and centrally, as a record of the cases themselves, and as a measurement of the work10W involved and of the resource implications of that work. The available information is looked at in a variety of ways depending on the issue being examined.
Mr. Dalyell asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) pursuant to the answer of 2 December, Official Report, column 26, if he will place in the Library any statistical data submitted by the Immigration Service Union in support of its concern expressed at the increase in the number of immigration cases attracting representations from right hon. and hon. Members; and if he will make a statement;
(2) what is his policy towards members of the immigration service gathering statistics on the number of immigration cases attracting representations by right hon. and hon. Members for union purposes; and if he will make a statement;
(3) what information he has disclosed to representatives of immigration service officers about the number of immigration cases attracting representations by right hon. and hon. Members; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaddingtonThe statistics available to me of the number of representations made by right hon. and hon. Members about immigration cases are compiled and presented by immigration service management and/or by my private office. I have not received such statistics from representatives of the Immigration Service Union but, in my discussion with it, both I, and it, referred to the considerable increase this year in cases attracting such representations at the ports.