§ Mr. GaleTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many passports belonging to former asylum seekers, since 1 May EU citizens, are held by the Immigration and Nationality Service; when he expects that these documents will be returned to their owners; and if he will make a statement. [172928]
§ Mr. Browne[holding answer 13 May 2004]: Once a decision has been reached on an asylum seeker's application, their passport or identity card, where one has been submitted, is normally returned to them with the decision letter. An exception to this is when a passport or identity card is found to be a forgery or otherwise to have been tampered with.
The numbers of such documents belonging to former asylum seekers who are now EU citizens is not recorded centrally and could only be obtained, at disproportionate cost, by examination of individual cases.
§ Keith VazTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what change there has been in the number of people claiming benefits since 1 May 2004. [173181]
§ Mr. PondI have been asked to reply.
The information is not available.
Information on the number of people claiming benefits is available each quarter. Data for the quarter ending February 2004 will be published in June. Data for the quarter ending May 2004 will be available later this year.