§ Lord Aveburyasked 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]
156WA2000 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.uldrds/pdfs/prisdec00.pdf
The 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.
§ Lord Bassam of BrightonWe have no present plans to do so but will consider what information might be published routinely in due course.
§ Lord Aveburyasked 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 BrightonThe estimated cost of running Oakington in the first year of operation is 157WA £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 Aveburyasked 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 BrightonThis information is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.