HC Deb 19 September 2002 vol 390 cc77-9W
Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many failed asylum seekers from Afghanistan have been repatriated in each of the last 12 months.[73220]

Beverley Hughes

The latest available information on the number of Afghan principal asylum applicants removed from the United Kingdom relates to 2001 and is given in the table. These figures exclude persons departing voluntarily without informing the Home Office.

Afghan principal asylum applicants removed P.E.1,2
January 2001 10
February 2001 *
March 2001 5
April 2001 5
May 2001 5
June 2001 *
July 2001 5
August 2001 20
September 2001 5
October 2001 15
November 2001 20
December 2001 30
Total 125

Figures rounded to the nearest 5, with *= 1 or 2.

P"Provisional data, subject to change.

EData have been estimated due to data quality issues.

1Includes persons departing "voluntarily" after enforcement action had been initiated against them.

2Nationality breakdown of dependants removed is not available.

I regret that information on the destination of asylum seekers removed or departing voluntarily from the United Kingdom is not recorded centrally and could be obtained only by examining individual case files at disproportionate cost. Therefore it is not possible to determine how many of these persons were returned or departed voluntarily to Afghanistan. However, it has until recently been our policy to not normally enforce returns to Afghanistan, so the majority of those recorded above will have been returned to another (third) country rather than to Afghanistan.

Information on the nationality of asylum seekers removed in the calendar year 2001 was published on 31 July in the Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Asylum Statistics United Kingdom 2001", copies of which are available in the Library and via the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate (RDS) website at http://www.homeoffice.gov. uk/rds/immigration 1.html. Nationality data for the first quarter (January to March) of 2002 will be published on 30 August on the RDS website.

Simon Hughes

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much money is owed within the probation service; and(a) by and (b) to whom it is owed. [73225]

Hilary Benn

The Home Office only has records relating to the outstanding debts on capital raised for Probation Service investment, dating from the period before 1990. The Home Office pays local authorities a grant in respect of the principal and interest on this capital financing debt. A table of the local authority debts, as at 1 April 2001, is provided in the table. Between 1990 and 2001, capital debt was financed by the local authority capital financing standard spending assessment (SSA). Since April 2001 however, local authorities are no longer responsible for Probation Service capital investment.

With the advent of the National Probation Service from 1 April 2001, the National Probation Directorate is now collecting and collating the information relating to the 2001–02 accounts for the 42 local probation boards, including any creditors. When this exercise has been completed and audited, the consolidated accounts will be laid before Parliament.

Pre–1990 System Loan Debt Outstanding at 1 April 2001
Probation Service Amount
Bristol City Council 430,722
Bedfordshire CC 133,011
West Berkshire DC 462,820
Buckinghamshire CC 494,377
Cambridgeshire CC N/A
Cornwall CC 453,636
Derbyshire CC 240,286
Devon CC 448,056
Dorset CC 112,802
Durham CC 279,329
Essex CC 295,496
Gloucestershire CC 180,780
Hampshire CC 228,181
Worcestershire CC 177,729
Hertfordshire CC 7,334
East Riding of Yorkshire Council 486,629
Kent CC 164,705
Lancashire CC 821,006
Leicestershire CC 33,726
Lincolnshire CC 129,383
Norfolk CC 344,554
Northamptonshire CC 251,273
Northumberland CC 11,01,053
South Tyneside MDC 268,905
Oxfordshire CC 74,831
Shropshire CC 151,943
Somerset CC 431,524
Staffordshire CC 1,067,882
Surrey CC 15,230
East Sussex CC 72,207
Middlesbrough UA 566,364
Warwickshire CC 75,529
Walsall MDC 1,718,807
Wiltshire CC 139,003
Receiver of the Metropolitan Police District 3,522,361
LB Croydon 67,801
Royal Borough of Kingston-upon-Thames 6,284

Pre-1990 System Loan Debt Outstanding at 1 April 2001
Probation Service Amount
LB Barnet 492,116
LB Enfield 22,322
LB Hillingdon 19,713
LB Hounslow 11,917
LB Newham 12,682
LB Redbridge 234,737
LB Waltham Forest 20,626
Bolton MDC 393,825
Bury MDC 269,132
Manchester City Council 632,816
Oldham MDC 322,559
Rochdale MDC 307,784
Salford City Council 331,033
Stockport MDC 431,116
Tameside MDC 2,183,018
Trafford MDC 3,893,774
Wigan MDC 458,527
North Yorkshire CC 59,430
Barnsley MDC 165,094
Doncaster MDC 131,099
Rotherham MDC 82,032
Sheffield City Council 175,721
Bradford MDC 172,178
Calderdale MDC 68,726
Kirkless MDC 139,253
Leeds City Council 259,145
Wakefield MDC 113,580
Carmarthenshire CBC 164,927
Bridgend CBC 4,069
Cardiff City Council 9,843
Neath Port Talbot CBC 365,970
Newport CBC 194,692
Flintshire CBC 101,809
Powys CBC 92,092
Total 26,671,237