§ Mr. MaddenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the current duties of police detective officers in the processing of British citizenship applications; what is his estimate of the total police time devoted to these duties in the current year to date; and what plans he has to transfer these duties to other staff.
§ Mr. Charles Wardle[holding answer 7 December 1993]: The duties of police officers are to interview where necessary on behalf of the Home Office applicants for 319W naturalisation and their referees in order to help determine whether the statutory requirements for citizenship are met and whether discretion should be exercised to grant it. The amount of police time spent on these duties is currently 320W being collated and I shall write to the hon. Member. Consideration is currently being given to the feasibility of the nationality division conducting a proportion of these interviews itself.