HC Deb 22 February 1999 vol 326 cc103-4W
Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will ask the Active Community Unit to investigate the effect of the cost of criminal record certificates on the voluntary sector; and if he will make a statement. [71864]

Mr. Boateng

The Criminal Records Bureau is being established to enable checks to be carried out to help prevent unsuitable people from working with children or vulnerable adults. Costs will be kept to a minimum and the highest form of certificate should cost around £10 for those volunteers having substantial, largely unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults.

Not all volunteers will require a certificate, and a certificate will not obviate the need for voluntary organisations to carry out their own checks and references as part of normal recruitment procedures. However,

New instructions Appeals disposed of
1997–98 Asylum Immigration Asylum Immigration Unit cost (£)
Refugee Legal Centre 6,123 — 4,454 — 3796.38
Immigration Advisory Service 3,020 4,667 1,279 3,536 2640.89
Immigration Appellate Authority — — 118,600 111,200 —
1Both rounded to the nearest 00.
2Overall unit cost for asylum and immigration cases. Immigration cases may be more easily dealt with, which may affect the overall figure.
3Refugee Legal Centre normally deal with more complex asylum claims.

Mr. Coleman

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons claimed asylum(a) at the port of entry and (b) at his Department in each of the years 1993 to 1998, broken down by (i) successful application, (ii) unsuccessful application and (iii) application as yet undecided. [70731]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

This information is not available at present but I hope to receive it shortly. I will then write to my hon. Friend.

the over-riding consideration at all times must be the protection of the vulnerable, and the service to be provided by the Criminal Records Bureau will help to achieve this. We do not believe that volunteering will diminish with the introduction of these checks.

Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the categories of people he plans to exempt from charges for applications for(a) criminal conviction certificates and (b) criminal record certificates; and if he will make a statement. [71863]

Mr. Boateng

All applicants will have to pay for certificates from the Criminal Records Bureau. We considered very carefully whether there was any way in which free checks could be provided for any groups, especially volunteers. We have concluded that it will not be practicable to provide any free checks from the Criminal Records Bureau. We realise that this is unwelcome news but providing free checks would prove an unsustainable burden on the public purse and may increase demand for certificates from the Bureau to an uncontrollable extent. In addition, we do not consider it would be fair to allow one or two groups to have free certificates when there are other equally deserving groups.