§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many asylum seekers whose applications are awaiting determination have received work permits in each of the last three years. [94481]
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§ Beverley HughesWhere an employer applies for a work permit for an overseas national who is already in the United Kingdom, the Home Office will first consider whether the application meets the criteria of the work permit arrangements before considering whether, under the Immigration Rules, the overseas national may be granted leave to remain for the purpose of work permit employment. If the overseas national has an outstanding application for asylum, the usual course would be to defer consideration of granting leave to remain for the purpose of work permit employment until the overseas national's asylum application was resolved.
However, the outcome of the initial consideration of the application against the work permit criteria is recorded on a separate database to that which holds the immigration application against the work permit criteria is recorded on a separate database to that which holds the immigration status and it is, therefore, not possible to match the data on these separate databases in order to provide the information requested.
§ Mr. MalinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will conduct a review of persons granted(a) exceptional leave to remain and (b) indefinite leave to remain in the last five years; if he will assess whether any such persons have breached the conditions of their leave as part of the review; and if he will make a statement. [98644]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 25 February 2003]: Grants of exceptional leave to remain (ELR) are not normally subject to conditions, and indefinite leave to remain (ILR) cannot be made subject to conditions. The question of a breach of conditions attached to such leave does not therefore arise.
The cases of those granted ILR are reviewed if they come to serious adverse notice. The cases of those granted ELR are considered when they apply for further leave, or if they come to serious adverse notice in the
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Offenders whose breaches1 of original community sentence or order were proved to the satisfaction of the court by type of sentence or order breached and the proportion breaching original orders—England and Wales Numbers and percentages 2000 2001 Male Female Total Male Female Total Number of offenders breaching orders Community rehabilitation order2 10,699 2,759 13,458 10,512 2,816 13,328 Supervision order 741 142 883 968 170 1,138 Community punishment order2 15,956 1,375 17,331 14,805 1,314 16,119 Attendance centre order 1,332 127 1,459 870 105 975 Community punishment and rehabilitation order2 6,457 620 7,077 6,279 638 6,917 Curfew order 409 64 473 674 87 761 Reparation order 38 5 43 127 42 169 Action plan order 102 19 121 340 75 415 Drug treatment and testing order 35 3 38 614 109 723 Total community sentences 35,769 5,114 40,883 35,189 5,356 40,545 meantime. It would be impractical to review all grants of ILR and ELR made in the past five years but we will continue to review individual cases where appropriate.
§ Mr. MalinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff in(a) his Department and (b) other bodies are working (i) full-time and (ii) part-time in connection with the removal of rejected asylum seekers from the UK. [98647]
§ Beverley Hughes[holding answer 25 February 2003]: The Home Office liaises with a number of different Government Departments and external agencies when dealing with the removal of failed asylum seekers. For example we have links with the Lord Chancellor's Department, Police, Inland Revenue, Department of Works and Pensions and local authorities.
In total, 12,155 staff work within the Immigration and Nationality Directorate. There are 3,969 staff working within the Integrated Casework Directorate, which deals with casework and decision making for asylum, after-entry, nationality and work permits, and 6,213 in the Immigration Service.
We estimate that around 1,220 full time equivalents are working on direct operational activity and 1,260 providing support to operational activity. Around a further 170 full time equivalents are working on intelligence and 160 on contact management.
A breakdown of how many staff both in the Department and in other agencies specifically dealing with failed asylum claims may be obtained only at disproportionate cost.