Adam Holloway, MP

Member of Parliament
for Gravesham

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

The high-speed train services have been amazing and transformative in my constituency, but, of course, the normal trains are slow, dirty and very often late. Would the hon. Gentleman agree that there is an urgent need for bi-directional signalling at the pinch point at Rochester bridge? In my own constituency the numbers of trains stopping at Sole Street station are being severely restricted.

Roger Gale

(North Thanet, Conservative)

My hon. Friend is leading me down a path that I was not going to go down, but he has given me the opportunity to comment on an issue that is not peripheral but separate. Five years ago, representatives of Network Rail came down to Margate and examined the potential for Margate station with me. We talked about signalling on the Kent coast line. I was assured that it would be in place by 2009. Modern signalling, which allows tricks that could not otherwise be played, would allow trains on the Kent coast line to overtake. Advanced signalling and crossover points-although this sounds hairy-allow trains to be run in both directions, overtaking each other, on the two tracks. One might think that that would mean that trains would meet head-on at some point, but I am assured that that is not the case.

New signalling would also allow trains to travel much closer together, with much more signalling and therefore many more safety points on the line. The problem with the Kent coast line, as my hon. Friend and I know, is that it was built on the cheap 100 years ago. It has gradients instead of cuttings and only two passing points between Ramsgate and London. He is absolutely right to make that point. Sadly, the date has slipped. It will now be 2012 or 2014 before improvements are-literally-on track.

David Eustace, Southeastern trains customer services officer, continued:

"On taking over the franchise in 2006 we inherited as a contractual commitment the Integrated Kent Franchise service specification, which detailed the level of service the DfT had stipulated for the Southeastern network",

so it is the Department for Transport's baby. He added:

"As it stands, there are unlikely to be any significant changes for when the summer timetable starts in May".

That will bring joy to the hearts of my constituents.

Understanding that Govia's Keith Ludeman and Southeastern's Charles Horton were effectively pawns on the DFT chessboard, I wrote to the Secretary of State on 6 January, after a disastrous Christmas rail transport season in east Kent. In that letter, I said that I would be meeting Southeastern's Charles Horton to discuss the flow of complaint e-mails that I was receiving from dissatisfied customers, and I invited the Secretary of State to attend the meeting.

Having met Mr. Horton, I wrote again to the Secretary of State on 18 January, saying:

"With regards to the bigger picture, Mr. Horton places the responsibility on the terms of the franchise agreement laid down by your Department."

Southeastern is in no doubt either about where the buck stops. I continued:

"It is clear that now that the new timetable has been imposed it cannot be changed piecemeal and will require a thorough review. To establish how best the present unacceptable position may be rectified in the shortest possible time and in order that I may apprise you of the detail of the views of travellers, I am formally requesting a personal meeting with you".

On 26 January, the Minister responded to my first letter of 6 January on behalf of the Secretary of State:

"Your constituents are well served by the December 2009 timetable",

citing additional services to London Cannon Street, London Victoria and London Bridge stations, as well as the unloved St. Pancras service. We will hear the views of the travelling public in due course.

In a further and-forgive me-crass observation indicating his lamentable understanding of the geography of east Kent, the Minister then prayed in aid of his improvement claims services to Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks, Bexleyheath, Greenwich and Grove Park, none of which are of interest to those using the Kent coastal services. He was, however, gracious enough to acknowledge that

"The Department has received some negative feedback".

On 12 February, the Minister wrote again on his Lordship's behalf, this time in response to my letter requesting a meeting with the Secretary of State:

"I am unable to attend such a meeting due to diary commitments",

his diary having presumably been rearranged for the general election. He asserted in a further letter on 22 February that

"Southeastern is now the best connected London-serving Train Operating Company, serving seven London terminal stations"

and told me and those whom I represent:

"forecast modelling tools used by the rail industry suggest that it will take up to three years for a new market to reach 100 per cent. of its potential. It is, therefore, too early to be seeking to reach a judgment on the recently introduced service to St. Pancras."

My constituents are travelling now, not in three years' time. Their working lives are being disrupted now. They are paying vastly inflated fares-way above the Department's alleged increase of RPI plus 3 per cent.-now. They are travelling on dirty, overcrowded, unreliable trains, and arriving home late from work to cold dinners and children already in bed, now.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

What estimate he has made of the extent to which commitments made in the 1998 strategic defence review have been funded by the Government.

Bob Ainsworth

(Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

The commitments identified in the 1998 strategic defence review have evolved over the intervening period to reflect the changing strategic setting and the experience of operations. Successive spending reviews have provided resources to fund these.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

The Gray review describes the Government's procurement system as "sclerotic" and "substantially overheated". Does the Secretary of State accept that the failure to hold a strategic defence review in the past 12 years has contributed significantly to that?

Bob Ainsworth

(Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we have updated the strategic defence review over the intervening period. He ought at least to acknowledge that the Government commissioned the Gray report in order to assess exactly where we are regarding defence acquisition. We have responded to the report with some pretty far-reaching proposals on defence acquisition reform, which we recently announced to the House as part of the Green Paper package.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport

(1) what the average weekday vehicle delay in minutes per 10 miles was on the clockwise M25/A282 between junctions (a) 29, (b) 30, (c) 31, (d) 1a, (e) 1b and (f) 2 and junctions (i) 30, (ii) 31, (iii) 1a, (iv) 1b, (v) 2 and (vi) 3 in the last 12 months;

(2) what the average weekday vehicle delay in minutes per 10 miles was on the anti-clockwise M25/A282 between junctions (a) 3, (b) 2, (c) 1b, (d) 1a, (e) 31 and (f) 30 and junctions (i) 2, (ii) 1b, (iii) 1a, (iv) 31, (v) 30 and (vi) 29 in the last 12 months.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

Estimates for the average vehicle delay between each of the M25/A282 junctions above during the period December 2008-November 2009 are provided in the following table.

The dataset used to derive these estimates is primarily for operational use and does not undergo the same level of quality assurance as the dataset used to monitor progress against the Department for Transport's public service agreement indicator on journey time reliability on the strategic road network.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport

(1) what the average weekday vehicle delay in minutes per 10 miles was in respect of the slowest 10 per cent. of journeys on the clockwise M25/A282 between junctions (a) 29, (b) 30, (c) 31, (d) 1a, (e) 1b and (f) 2 and junctions (i) 30, (ii) 31, (iii) 1a, (iv) 1b, (v) 2 and (vi) 3 in respect of each 15 minute period between 6.00 am and 8.00 pm in the last 12 months;

(2) what the average weekday vehicle delay in minutes per 10 miles was in respect of the slowest 10 per cent. of journeys on the anti-clockwise M25/A282 between junctions (a) 3, (b) 2, (c) 1b, (d) 1a, (e) 31 and (f) 30 and junctions (i) 2, (ii) 1b, (iii) 1a, (iv) 31, (v) 30 and (vi) 29 in respect of each 15 minute period between 6.00 am and 8.00 pm in the last 12 months.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

Estimates for the average vehicle delay for the slowest 10 per cent. of journeys between each M25/A282 junction above, for each 15 minute period between 6.00 am and 8.00 pm during the period December 2008-November 2009 have been placed in the House Libraries.

The dataset used to derive these estimates is primarily for operational use and does not undergo the same level of quality assurance as the dataset used to monitor progress against the Department for Transport's public service agreement indicator on journey time reliability on the strategic road network.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what the distance to the next clockwise M25/A282 junction is from junctions (a) 29, (b) 30, (c) 31, (d) 1a, (e) 1b and (f) 2.

Chris Mole

Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour) The distances between the clockwise M25/A282 junctions are as follows:

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what the average queuing time was at the Dartford River Crossing (a) northbound and (b) southbound toll plaza per 15 minute interval per weekday in the last 12 months.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

Specific data on queuing times at the Dartford River Crossing toll plaza is not recorded.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport how long on average payment transactions took at each toll booth at the Dartford River Crossing in the last 12 months.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

In the last 12 month period from February 2009 to January 2010 the average payment transaction time for the toll booths at the Dartford Crossing was 12.3 seconds. Figures for individual booths can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of violence against the person without injury have been recorded by each police force in each quarter since April 2006.

Alan Campbell

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Tynemouth, Labour)

holding answer 29 January 2010

Data are provided on police force level in each quarter since April 2006.

The available information relates to offences recorded by the police and the number of offences is given in Table A.

The data are in line with data published in the latest quarterly statistical bulletin on crime on 21 January 2010. The Home Office has undertaken a quarterly data reconciliation exercise with police forces covering the period for which figures are provided.

View Table

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

I am grateful for the opportunity to have this debate on the finances and capabilities of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. As we know, last week the financial health of the Foreign Office was put in the spotlight by the Minister of State, Baroness Kinnock, when she revealed cuts to FCO operations, including the counter-terrorism programme in Pakistan-facts that many of her colleagues in recent days have been trying to airbrush out. However, over the past three years my colleagues in the shadow foreign affairs team, particularly Chloe Dalton, have been assiduous in uncovering the extent of the black hole in the FCO's finances. We welcome this debate, which will help to give the issue the wider attention that it merits.

The Foreign Office has obviously been under financial constraints for several years. As a result, from May 2007 onwards the FCO has closed 34 high commissions, embassies and consulates, including in Honduras and El Salvador and on the island of Madagascar. We have opened new offices in places such as Banja Luka, Basra and Kirkuk-but offices ain't the same as embassies. The FCO also withdrew funding from the UK defence attaché network, not understanding the huge value added there. It ended its contribution to scholarships for some Commonwealth students, which will be a huge long-term downer for the UK. It shut the FCO language school, cut the number of civil servants from 6,000 to 5,600 and downgraded 115 positions in embassies that used to be performed by UK diplomats, passing them instead to no doubt able locally employed nationals of the host state. It also began making the argument for virtual embassies and laptop diplomats in parts of the world where this country felt it could no longer afford permanent missions.

Therefore, even in November 2006 the UK's former ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, warned the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs of

"a progressive decline in the capacity of the Foreign Office to cover every aspect of diplomacy."

One head of mission reports cutting 40 people from the payroll. The Committee concluded in its report in 2008 that the pressure on the FCO budget risked

"jeopardising the FCO's important work"-

a warning that has been raised on many occasions by Members of both Houses. That trend alone, amounting to a creeping erosion of the FCO's clout overseas, was a matter of serious concern.

But then, in the autumn of 2007, the Treasury decided, in negotiations with the Foreign Office over the 2007 spending round, to withdraw what was known as the overseas price mechanism. Let us be clear: the OPM was a system that ensured that the Foreign Office, which has to spend more than half its budget overseas, was neither worse off nor better off as a result of overseas inflation and movements in currency exchange rates. That is a pretty sensible thing, one would think. Crucially, the OPM ensured that the Foreign Office, which, unlike any other Department, including the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, operates in more than 120 currencies worldwide, could-I quote from the FCO's resource accounts from 2007-08-

"maintain its purchasing power at a level equivalent to that of Home Departments",

which do not have to spend the bulk of their budgets overseas. When sterling rose and the FCO could buy more foreign currency with the pound, the excess was returned to the Treasury. Conversely, if sterling dipped, the Treasury compensated the FCO. In the last three years before the OPM was withdrawn, albeit in different economic circumstances, the FCO returned more than £20 million to the Treasury's coffers.

In short, the mechanism allowed the FCO to plan its activity overseas with confidence over a number of years. A glance at the FCO's responsibilities, which include countering terrorism and weapons proliferation, shows why such continuity matters. Also, 69 million British citizens travel overseas each year and, according to FCO figures, 12 million British citizens were living overseas in 2007. For British tourists and expats alike, the embassy can be the first port of call when they get into difficulty. It is estimated that 100,000 people will go to the World cup in South Africa this year, and obviously our mission or missions will have to deal with any problems that arise. It is therefore very surprising that Foreign Office Ministers did not stand up to Treasury officials when they sought to strip away this important protection, and that the implications of the change were either brushed aside or, even worse, not realised.

The timing was almost as good as when the Prime Minister decided to sell our gold reserves-at completely the wrong time in the market. Within six months of getting rid of the OPM, sterling plummeted. According to Sir Peter Ricketts, the pound fell by 25 per cent. against most currencies over the following period, wiping away a significant proportion of the spending power of local FCO budgets.

Parliament was not informed of the planned change, and not a squeak of protest has been heard from the Foreign Secretary or his colleagues. Repeated written parliamentary questions from my right hon. Friend Mr. Hague, asking what position Ministers took on the proposed change and how many times it was discussed, have been rebuffed. It is worth noting here that the Foreign Secretary has had 14 different Ministers since he got the job. Such upheaval has coincided with the most difficult period in the FCO's finances, which prompts the question whether FCO Ministers were too busy fighting for their jobs to stand up for this critical mechanism.

The only explanation we have to date is the rather bizarre statement by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Yvette Cooper, who said that the FCO lacked the "incentive" to take currency movements into account and needed to be brought in line with practice in other Government Departments. That completely disregards the fact that no other Government Department has a fraction of the foreign currency exposure of the FCO.

Ministers are now trying to brush aside the issue, implying that the FCO's difficulties are merely the product of the tough financial environment and ignoring the fact that this was an own goal, a self-inflicted wound. If Ministers believe that this change was right and was in the interests of the country, why will they not come out and say so? I hope the Minister will state clearly whether he believes that this new arrangement is appropriate and give a full account of the reasons for it.

It would help if the Minister said whether he is aware of any major UK ally that requires its Foreign Office to bear the full brunt of foreign exchange movements, or whether the UK is alone in that respect. The US State Department, for example, has a buying power maintenance account to ensure that it does not suffer from adverse currency fluctuations.

The fact remains that the change happened on the Foreign Secretary's watch, and I hope he will be prepared to come to the House at the earliest opportunity, in Government time, to address the concerns about the state of the Department over which he presides.

Let us look at what we know of the consequences. In 2008-09, the first year without the OPM, the FCO budget for embassies took a hit of £59.2 million. In the current year, the hit on embassies is estimated to be £80 million. In the next financial year, according to Sir Peter Ricketts, the hit will be £120 million out of a budget of £830 million for the UK's embassies overseas.

In fairness, 190 British missions have had to receive extra money to compensate for the reduction in the spending power of their local budgets, but one head of mission complains that their local budget has been effectively cut by 25 per cent. The Minister of State, Baroness Kinnock, said last week that

"budget constraints have led to staff redundancies, cuts to travel and training, and reduced programme funding including our work on counterterrorism and climate change."

She described

"staff redundancies in Argentina, Japan and across the United States."

She said:

"Counternarcotics programmes in Afghanistan, capacity building to help conflict prevention in Africa, and counterterrorism and counter-radicalisation in Pakistan have all been cut"-[Hansard, House of Lords, 20 January 2010; Vol. 716, c. 992.]

Sir Peter Ricketts said:

"We have had to stop a lot of activity this year...we have stopped whatever programme activity was not committed, stopped most of our training and cut into our travel and our hospitality...local staff have not had overtime payments, or in some cases pay rises, and some are on involuntary unpaid leave or four-day weeks. We have a real problem within the budget".

It seems staggering that the work our embassies can do in a particular country depends not on our intent but on the strength of the pound against the local currency. That must affect morale and make consistent planning exceedingly difficult. Is there not a risk that diplomats are being posted overseas without the important training they would normally have? Is that not likely to have a knock-on impact on the effectiveness of British diplomacy? Ministers have been extremely coy about saying what training has been stopped and how many diplomats have been affected. It would be a matter of particular concern if the language training that has distinguished our diplomats for so many centuries were being affected. I hope the Minister is in a position to assure us that that is not the case.

Such is the incoherence that the cuts are eating into the new priorities established by the Foreign Secretary himself. In January 2008, he rewrote the FCO's strategic priorities, identifying four new policy priorities on which the FCO would focus. Three of those priorities were counter-terrorism, conflict prevention and climate change-the very programmes that have been cut.

The Foreign Secretary said that

"we will be increasing substantially the overall level of resources the FCO puts into counter-terrorism and counter-proliferation; climate change; Afghanistan and other conflict regions...All these areas will receive additional staff and money."-[Hansard, 23 January 2008; Vol. 470, c. 53WS.]

However, according to Baroness Kinnock, jobs and funding in those areas are now being cut.

The FCO has stopped its contribution to peacekeeping and conflict prevention in Latin America entirely and cut back its contribution in nearly every quarter of the globe. That must cause serious concern, and it seems likely to affect our international reputation, especially given that our major ally, the United States, is dramatically increasing its spending in those areas. It must also distract FCO staff from the business of diplomacy, which is supposed to be the FCO's core function. FCO senior management must now oversee highly complex hedging operations, receiving advice from HiFX Financial Services costing £41,000 a year.

What of the future? Sir Peter Ricketts has warned starkly that

"the budgetary pressures...put a question mark over whether we can maintain the number of people we have abroad",

and that the closure of British embassies overseas cannot be ruled out. It is time for the Government to tell us.

I hope the Minister will answer the questions I have raised, respond to the following specific points and write to me with any answers he cannot provide today. First, the Foreign Secretary took over in June 2007, and the OPM was withdrawn that October. Will the Minister clarify once and for all whether that was a decision overseen by him, an act of his outgoing predecessor or just an oversight?

Secondly, did any FCO Minister oppose the decision to remove the overseas price mechanism? If not, why not? My right hon. Friend the shadow Foreign Secretary has tabled a written parliamentary question on the subject to the Foreign Secretary, but has been stonewalled. Which Minister oversaw the decision? Did the Foreign Secretary personally raise the issue with the Treasury? Was he briefed on it by his officials?

Thirdly, will the Minister account for the discrepancy between what Baroness Kinnock said to the House of Lords last week-that FCO counter-terrorism programmes in Pakistan have been cut-and what the Foreign Secretary said in a letter to my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks yesterday? The Foreign Secretary said that there had been and would continue to be a rise, year on year, in his Department's spending in Pakistan.

Fourthly, why is the FCO budget still taking such a huge hit from adverse currency movements-over £100 million by the end of the year, according to Sir Peter Ricketts-two years after it implemented its own mechanism to hedge against currency movements? Are Ministers satisfied that the new system is working sufficiently well? If not, what are they doing about it?

Finally, Sir Peter Ricketts said in December that the FCO was in discussion with the Treasury about the budget crisis. What was the outcome of those discussions? The hedging strategy is clearly not enough to compensate fully for the absence of the OPM, and the permanent under-secretary is warning that embassies may have to be closed as a result. Are Ministers asking the Treasury to step in and fill the gap, or are a string of UK embassies about to be axed?

It really is not a sensible proposition to run foreign policy on the basis of exchange rate movements. The nature of the threats that this country faces requires pre-emptive diplomacy in extremely dangerous and volatile parts of the world, where it tends to cost more to intervene and where the exchange rate risk is likely to be much higher because the place is riskier. There is a risk that the FCO will have to bear that in mind as a pre-eminent condition in determining whether diplomacy is feasible, rather than as a cost that must be borne as a matter of course in the pursuit of this country's national interest.

Sir Peter rightly described this country's overseas network as

"the Crown jewels of the FCO".

It is a valuable human and physical resource, a significant factor in our country's ability to continue to punch above its weight and a platform used by every Department overseas. That network, or parts of it, really is in jeopardy, and we need the Government to explain how cuts to it can be prevented and how the vital skills and training of UK diplomats can be preserved. We need Ministers to reassure Parliament and the public that the country's ability to project its influence overseas is not being limited. In today's challenging environment, the Government should be working to build our influence in selected areas, not presiding over its decline.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

It is a delight to serve under your chairmanship, Mr. Caton. I congratulate Mr. Holloway on securing this timely debate.

I should say from the outset that the most important thing in the Foreign Office is not the buildings that we own or the places where we are, but the job that we do-it is not about being, but about doing. That reflects one of the significant changes that have taken place in diplomacy over the past 50 years. In the past, people said, "Let's have the biggest building we can, to show that the British empire still rules the roost," but nowadays people are far more interested in being effective in the countries that we talk to.

The hon. Gentleman is right that we have had to make our priorities clear in recent years, and we have had to focus our spending clearly on them. When my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary arrived in post, he was right to say that he wanted to make sure that the whole Foreign Office network was clear about what its point was and which priorities it had to pursue with absolute diligence.

Other countries in Europe face difficult issues about their representation in different parts of the world. Yesterday, I was in Brussels with Europe Ministers, and some of them were complaining that Sweden has just closed five embassies in European Union member state cities but opened 10 new places elsewhere-ironically, we have just reopened our office in Malmo. That is a constant process, which the Foreign Office and every country in Europe will have to engage with throughout the years ahead. We have no specific plans for closures at the moment, but we always have to make sure that all our money is focused on the job in hand and on getting things done.

The hon. Gentleman mentioned the overseas pricing mechanism and he is right that we have seen much greater volatility over the past few years than in previous years. In the four years up to 2007-08, when the mechanism still existed, there was never a movement of more than £20 million in one year, whereas this year and last year have seen much more significant changes.

There is clearly a difficult set of issues to resolve in the Foreign Office and, for that matter, in the Government. In that respect, I can absolutely reassure the hon. Gentleman that the Government have no intention of diminishing our presence in the world or reducing the work that we do. However, in our estates policy-the Foreign Office owns a large amount of estate around the world, which has quite often been gifted to us by generous Governments and sometimes by British citizens abroad-we will always want to make sure that we use every pound effectively. That is why we have been going through a series of good housekeeping measures over the past few months. One relates to what allowances should be paid to diplomats and UK staff based abroad, another relates to how we organise our travel and another relates to the estate. Thirty or 40 years ago, many members of staff in an embassy would have been expected to entertain in their embassy-provided flat, but that is much rarer today. In many cases only the ambassador would be entertaining at home; so matching the estate to the needs of a modern diplomatic service is important.

The hon. Gentleman referred-rather disparagingly, I thought-to laptop ambassadors. It is certainly true that in some places we must be nimble and light of foot. For instance, in Laos we do not have an ambassador in Vientiane. We are accredited to Laos, but the Australians have taken over our embassy-they are based in it-and they provide much of the consular support to us. However, the British ambassador in Bangkok regularly visits Laos. We must have a presence at the appropriate level for each country. In the past 10 years Foreign Office staff have been far more imaginative about how we can do that creatively, so that in the Baltic states, for instance, rather than having an expert on every issue in every post, we have tried to work together in the region, not least because the countries in question also tend to work as a region. We can get more bang for our buck-or pound, depending on the exchange rate.

It is worth pointing out that roughly 50 per cent. of our posts have fewer than four members of staff. That is not particularly new; it is just a fact, because sometimes that is the appropriate level of representation. I want to focus more on the outcomes that the Foreign Office tries to achieve, which we have been good at in the past few years, than on just the practicalities of how many people we have around the world, and how many buildings they are in.

One of the key things that we want is to protect the United Kingdom from threats from around the world. The EU Operation Atalanta, off Somalia, in which we targeted the piracy that has plagued many British shipping companies, is a vital part of our work, and we are leading the effort. Likewise, we provide training to increase counter-terrorism work in many parts of the world, and that, too, is an important outcome. We obviously try to promote the UK economy-UK Trade and Investment takes the lead on that-through our embassies. We reckon that that has brought in £3.6 billion of additional profits to the UK. In addition, we try to lead in international organisations on a series of key issues for the United Kingdom. I would particularly mention our work on the cluster munitions and land mines conventions. Our leadership played an important role in bringing those about. I look forward to taking forward the Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Bill in the next few weeks; it has already been through the House of Lords.

I disagree with the hon. Gentleman, therefore, about his characterisation of where the Foreign Office stands today. My experience, having visited many embassies, in Latin America, Australasia and Europe, is that our presence is well placed and well met. It is highly resourced and people can do a good job because of the quality of the people that we recruit and because there is phenomenal pride in working for the Foreign Office.

The hon. Gentleman asked some specific questions, which it is only fair that I should try to answer. He asked about counter-terrorism spending in Pakistan. I do not think that he was in the Chamber on Thursday when I answered an urgent question on that. I tried to make it clear then, as I want to now, that it is not true that less money will be spent next year than this year or last year on counter-terrorism in Pakistan. Some of the newspaper reports that have suggested, for instance, that there will be a £110 million cut to counter-terrorism spending in Pakistan are wide of the mark, not least because we have never spent anything like that on counter-terrorism in Pakistan. The figures are these: in 2008-09 we spent £35 million on counter-terrorism; in 2009-10 we shall spend £36.9 million; and we expect to spend about £38 million in 2010-11.

The largest proportion of that counter-terrorism budget, by some considerable distance, is spent in Pakistan; it amounts to some 28 per cent. of that budget. That means that we spent £3.7 million in 2007-08, £6.3 million in 2008-09 and £8.2 million in 2009-10, and we are projected to spend between £9 million and £9.5 million in 2010-11. It is certainly true that we would always want to spend more on counter-terrorism in Pakistan and we have had ambitions to spend more, but as I said last Thursday, we have had to curtail those ambitions.

The hon. Gentleman asked whether there are ongoing discussions with the Treasury on this subject. I have to say that the Treasury has been entirely helpful throughout the process of our having to deal with these issues. The discussions are far from complete and I very much hope that they will be successful. I know personally that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Prime Minister are very focused on the need to have a strong presence in the world. During the next two days, with the Afghanistan conference here in London, I think that we will see that Britain is well respected, not only because of the Foreign Office but because of the trilateral work that we do, in the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for International Development. Those three Departments work very closely together and, of course, they are the three Departments that are most affected by exchange rate changes.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

I agree with much of what the Minister is saying. However, surely the substantial point here is that we are in a position where we have to expand or reduce our diplomatic operations in line with the movements of exchange rates. Is that really a way to run an effective foreign policy? Also, what is he doing to try to claw back what has been for the FCO the disaster of removing the OPM?

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

As I said last Thursday and as I have already said again today, this is a difficult time and we need to do every piece of good housekeeping to ensure that we receive value for money, especially in relation to our estate and the way that we recompense and remunerate our staff. Furthermore, we have not yet completed discussions with the Treasury on our financial situation for the next financial year.

However, I would just push back this point to the hon. Gentleman. Today, rather unusually for him, he has been something of a front man for his own Front Bench.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

indicated assent.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

Just for the record, the hon. Gentleman is nodding and he is obviously very proud of being that front man. However, I want to ask him whether the Conservative party would reinstate the OPM. Would the Conservatives increase the amount of representation in Latin America? I know that Baroness Rawlings, who speaks for the Conservative party, was boldly announcing last week that it had every ambition to increase the number of British embassies in Latin America. Therefore, would the Conservatives increase the number of our embassies in central America? For example, would they reopen the embassy in Tegucigalpa? Do they really have any intention to spend extra money-because if they do, we would like to know the figures.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

The Minister rightly points out that I am an extremely lowly and unimportant Back Bencher, so I cannot answer those questions. However, what I am sure of is that the Conservative party will not expand or reduce Britain's overseas footprint or our ability to project the country on the basis of foreign currency fluctuations.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

That is not what I predict the Conservatives would do if they were to become the Government. I urge the hon. Gentleman, because he has spent a great deal of time talking about his correspondence with Mr. Hague, to speak to him and ask him to answer my letter of last week, in which I asked him a series of questions about how the Conservatives would finance the Foreign Office. Is it true that they would end up raiding the overseas development pot to pay for the extra embassies that they intend to open? Is the right hon. Gentleman making promises that he cannot possibly fulfil?

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

Cut the politics. [Laughter.] No, seriously. It is not politics; it is actually really important. It is about Britain's diplomatic footprint. Is the movement of foreign currencies-foreign currency fluctuations-the basis on which to expand or reduce our presence abroad?

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

Well, I do not think of the hon. Gentleman as a minor player in the Conservative party. As he has already acknowledged, he is their front man for this debate today, so it is a bit rich for him to start accusing me of playing party politics. The truth of the matter is that I do not think that the most important thing in the world is just being; it is what we do and whether we are able to make a difference in different parts of the world. And I have every confidence that the discussions that we are having, between the Foreign Office and the Treasury, will be able to move this issue forward.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department is taking to support and promote provincial and district level governance in Afghanistan outside the Kabul district.

Bob Ainsworth

(Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

holding answer 6 January 2010

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development on 6 January 2010.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of violence against the person (a) with and (b) without injury were recorded by each police force in each month since April 2006.

Alan Campbell

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Tynemouth, Labour)

holding answer 14 January 2010

Since 2007-08, the Home Office have reconciled recorded crime data with forces on a quarterly basis but not for months, so only quarterly data is provided. Quarterly data are provided for 2006-07 to 2008-09. Data at police force level relating to quarters in 2009-10 data have not yet been published.

Data for 2006-07 are broken down by quarter and data are shown in Tables A to D. Similarly, data for 2007-08 are shown in Tables E to H and data for 2008-09 are shown in Tables I to L placed in the House Library.

Data are in line with the data published in October 2009. Updated data will be available after the publication of the next quarterly bulletin on crime on 21 January 2010.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents with notifiable crime codes (a) 1, (b) 2, (c) 4.1, (d) 4.2, (e) 4.3, (f) 4.4, (g) 4.6, (h) 4.7, (i) 4.8, (j) 4.9, (k) 4.10, (l) 5A, (m) 5B, (n) 5C, (o) 8A, (p) 8D, (q) 8F, (r) 8G, (s) 8H, (t) 8J, (u) 8K and (v) 37.1 which were also monitored under Priority 1 of Public Service Agreement 23 were recorded by each police force in each month since April 2006.

Alan Campbell

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Tynemouth, Labour)

holding answer 14 January 2010

Since 2007-08, the Home Office have reconciled recorded crime data with forces on a quarterly basis but not for months, so only quarterly data is provided. Quarterly data are provided for 2006-07 to 2008-09. Data at police force level for quarters in 2009-10 has not yet been published.

Data for 2006-07 are broken down by quarter and data are shown in Tables A to D. Similarly, data for 2007-08 are shown in Tables E to H and data for 2008-09 are shown in Tables I to L placed in the House Library.

Data are in line with data published in October 2009. Updated data will be available after the publication of the next quarterly bulletin on 21 January 2010.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what the daytime charge for use of the Dartford River Crossing including discounts, was for each vehicle type (a) when a Dart-Tag was being used by a driver registered in (i) Dartford constituency, (ii) Thurrock constituency, (iii) Gravesham constituency and (iv) another area and (b) when a driver was not using a Dart-Tag in 1997; on what dates such charges have changed since 1997; and what the new charge was in each case.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The daytime charges for use of the Dartford River Crossing in 1997 were as follows:

In 1997 there were no discounts available to local residents and there was no differentiation between day and night time charges. Any vehicle towing a trailer or caravan was charged double the above amount.

Revised charges came into effect on 15 November 2008 and all vehicles became free of charge between 10pm and 6am. In addition, there is no longer a charge for towing a trailer/caravan.

View Table

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether he has made a recent estimate of the average balance of a Dartford River Crossing pre-payment Dart-Tag user's account in respect of each vehicle type.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The Department for Transport does not make estimates of average balances of Dartford River Crossing pre-payment Dart-Tag accounts.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether (a) his Department and (b) the Highways Agency has set targets to increase the rate at which vehicles may pass through the Dartford River Crossing toll plaza.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The Dartford River Crossing is part of the Strategic Road Network which is monitored by the Highways Agency. The Highways Agency's contract with the Dartford Crossing operator (Connect Plus) has a requirement for a traffic throughput at the Dartford Toll plazas of 5,000 vehicles per hour, without generating traffic queues extending beyond the Toll Plaza areas.

To monitor performance against this requirement, the average queue length is measured and reported separately for each payment plaza and time of day (peak, off-peak, night). The average toll collection transaction time each month is also measured and reported upon.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what recent progress has been made against public service agreement targets relating to congestion at (a) the Dartford River Crossing and (b) roads leading to that crossing.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

On 3 December 2009 the Department published the latest monthly statistics (October 2009) on congestion on inter-urban roads as part of monitoring progress on its public service agreement (PSA) target.

The Dartford River Crossing lies within one of the routes monitored (M25 junction 30 to junction 7) for the PSA target. Table 1 shows the provisional figures for this route for the year ending October 2009.

Table 2 shows the provisional figures for the year ending October 2009 for the PSA routes approaching the Dartford Crossing.

View Tables

This information can be also found on the Department for Transport website at:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/excel/173025/221412/221546/227050/227328/srnroutes.xls

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what estimate he has made of the average traffic flow through each of the toll-collecting lanes at the Dartford River Crossing toll plaza during each (a) day and (b) week in the last 12 months.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The average traffic flow through each of the toll-collecting lanes at the Dartford River Crossing toll plaza during each (a) daily period and (b) week are as follows:

View Tables

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport between which points journey time measurements relating to the Dartford River Crossing are monitored on a monthly basis by (a) his Department and (b) the Highways Agency.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The Dartford Crossing is part of the strategic road network, which is monitored by the Highways Agency.

The crossing lies within one of the routes monitored for progress against the Department for Transport's public service agreement indicator on journey time reliability on the strategic road network. The public service agreement indicator relates to delays rather than specific journey times. Information is collected by the Highways Agency on behalf of the Department.

The indicator route from Junction 30 to Junction 7 of the M25 (clockwise and anti-clockwise) includes the road over the crossing.

Journey time information is also collected by the Highways Agency for each junction to junction link on the motorway network. Links from Junction 30 to Junction 2 of the M25 (clockwise and anti-clockwise) are used to provide journey time estimates for vehicles using the crossing. The crossing itself is most closely represented by links from Junction 31 to Junction 1A of the M25.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what systems are used for switching on Q queuing signs on the Dartford River Crossing approaches; and what (a) traffic levels and (b) other variables trigger the signs.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The "Q" signs on the approaches to the Dartford River Crossing were unique to Dartford and did not conform to signs used on the rest of the highway network. Their use was terminated in April 2009.

At present, traffic flows are monitored and when operators perceive that congestion has developed on the approach to the crossing, signs warning of queues are set manually.

The Highways Agency are in the process of implementing proposals for variable message signs to display the word "Queue" and be automatically set by the Motorway Incident Detection and Automatic Signalling system based on various factors including traffic levels. This system is expected to operate from April 2010.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what aspects of air quality are monitored at the Dartford River Crossing; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

The Highways Agency undertakes workplace exposure surveys to ascertain background concentrations of diesel exhaust fumes, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, toluene, xylene, ethyl benzene and benzene during the normal working day.

The results are measured against Health and Safety Executive Workplace Exposure Limits and other European exposure limits. This monitoring, which is carried out by an independent organisation, shows that the levels being recorded at the Dartford Crossing are consistently well below set acceptable levels.

Under part 4 of the Environment Act 1995, Dartford Borough Council and Thurrock Council operate Air Quality Management Areas on the A282 adjacent to the crossing. These results can be found on the following websites:

www.dartford.gov.uk

www.thurrock.gov.uk

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport what monthly indicators are used by (a) his Department and (b) the Highways Agency to monitor performance in respect of the operation of the Dartford River Crossing.

Chris Mole

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Ipswich, Labour)

A wide range of performance indicators are measured by the Highways Agency for the operation of the Strategic Road Network which includes the Dartford River Crossing. The Highways Agency's contract with the Dartford Crossing operator (Connect Plus) includes the following four other specific performance indicators for the Dartford River Crossing:

1. The average queue length at the toll booths;

2. The average time for payment transactions;

3. The effectiveness of responding to faults within technology equipment at the Dartford Crossing;

4. The rate of injuries, accidents and near misses to road workers at the Dartford Crossing.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the annual entertainment budget is of the British Embassy in Kabul in 2009-10.

Ivan Lewis

(Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

Our embassy in Kabul has budgeted £58,493 (representing 0.3 per cent. of its budget) for the current financial year for hosting official contacts. These include working meetings with Senior North Atlantic Treaty Organisation/International Security Assistance Force personnel, with Kabul-based ambassadors, with senior Afghan political leaders, as well as hosting visiting hon. Members. These events are about supporting and furthering the UK's objectives in Afghanistan. Expenditure is monitored by budget holders, subject to audit and incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were (a) subject to deportation proceedings and (b) deported on national security grounds in each year since 2001.

Phil Woolas

(Minister of State (the North West), Home Office; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour)

The UK Border Agency is committed to ensuring that we remove those foreign nationals who pose a risk of harm to our society. In 2007, we removed or deported 4,200 foreign national prisoners who met our criteria for deportation. We continued to build upon this success in 2008, when we removed or deported 5,395. In the first half to 2009, the agency removed 2,560⁽¹⁾ foreign criminals.

Figures are unavailable prior to 2007, and could be obtained through the examination of individual records only at a disproportionate cost.

Comprehensive details of the numbers of cases where a notice of intention to deport on grounds of national security are not available for the period 2001-04. However, nine people have been deported on grounds of national security since 2005, three in 2006, six in 2007 and zero in 2008.

⁽¹⁾ These figures are based on provisional MI information.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Prime Minister

(1) what official gifts he and his predecessor have received from the President of Pakistan in each year since 2001;

(2) what official gifts he and his predecessor have received from the President of Afghanistan in each year since 2001.

Gordon Brown

(Prime Minister; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour)

The Government have published annual lists of gifts received and given by Ministers in an official capacity valued at more than £140 since 2001. Copies of the lists are available in the Libraries of the House. Information for the current financial year will be published in the usual way.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department is taking to support and promote provincial and district level governance in Afghanistan outside the Kabul district.

Ivan Lewis

(Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking to support and promote provincial and district level governance in Afghanistan outside the Kabul district.

Douglas Alexander

(Secretary of State, Department for International Development; Paisley & Renfrewshire South, Labour)

The Department for International Development (DFID) provides financial assistance to four programmes which support improved provincial and district level governance in Afghanistan. In Helmand, DFID is providing up to £9.8 million over four years alongside £14.5 million from the UK Stabilisation Aid Fund to improve local governance, including the setting up and working of community councils and an improved traditional justice service. DFID is also providing £2.4 million over two years for community management and development initiatives in the Lashkar Gah municipality of Helmand.

The two further programmes were approved in December 2009 and will provide support across the entire country. DFID will provide up to £23 million over five years for the Afghanistan Subnational Governance Programme to improve local government service delivery by training provincial and district governors, staffing up and restructuring their offices and building basic management systems nationwide. Furthermore, over four years DFID will provide up to £9.5 million for the Governors' Performance Improvement Programme which will provide a performance-based operational budget to all 34 provincial governors.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent assessment he has made of the official threat level in respect of the new year celebrations in London.

David Hanson

(Minister of State (Crime and Policing), Home Office; Delyn, Labour)

holding answer 16 December 2009

The threat level is kept under constant review. The current threat level to the United Kingdom from international terrorism is assessed by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre to be SUBSTANTIAL, meaning an attack is a strong possibility. SUBSTANTIAL indicates a continuing high level of threat and that an attack might well occur without further warning.

The overall threat level to the UK is the only threat level which is made public. There are a number of other sector, area and event specific threat levels which are not made public but which are communicated to the police and security practitioners.

As always, the police will take all measures they deem necessary and appropriate to protect the public during the new year celebrations in London.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether his Department plans to increase the number of its personnel stationed in Afghanistan in the next 12 months.

Ivan Lewis

(Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

There are no plans to increase the number of staff in Afghanistan at present. However, we constantly review our staffing requirements to ensure we have sufficient numbers of staff to meet our objectives in Afghanistan.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans are in place to ensure that Christmas cards and gifts reach officials of his Department in Afghanistan in time for Christmas.

Ivan Lewis

(Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

We have an arrangement with the British Forces Post Office for the delivery of mail to civilian personnel serving in Afghanistan on behalf of the Government.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what official gifts he and his predecessors have received from the President of Pakistan and Ministers in the Pakistani government in each year since 2001.

Ivan Lewis

(Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

The Government has published annual lists of gifts given and received by Ministers in an official capacity valued at over £140 since 2001. Copies of the lists are available in the Libraries of the House. The 2008-2009 list was published on 16 July 2009.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much his Department has spent on the (a) Another side to paradise campaign, (b) Don't be a Dick campaign, (c) Don't miss out campaign and (d) each other campaign co-ordinated by his Department aimed at Britons travelling abroad in each year since 2001.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 26 October 2009, Hansard, column 68W

In addition to the information included in my previous answer, the cost of the 'Don't be a Dick' campaign was approximately £38,000 in 2008-09 and approximately £11,800 in 2009-10.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department has allocated to each group in receipt of funding under the Prevent Partnership area-based grant in each local area since 2008.

Shahid Malik

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Communities and Local Government; Dewsbury, Labour)

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave Justine Greening on 19 June 2009, Hansard, column 509W.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre of 15 July 2009, Official Report, column 507W, on students: radicalism, which institutions will receive further targeted support in the new academic year.

David Lammy

(Minister of State (Higher Education and Intellectual Property), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; Tottenham, Labour)

The list of which institutions will receive further targeted support will be finalised in February 2010. I will write to the hon. Member with the list once it has been finalised.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what official gifts he and his predecessors have received from the President of Afghanistan and other Ministers in the Pakistani government in each year since 2001.

Ivan Lewis

(Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

The Government have published annual lists of gifts given and received by Ministers in an official capacity valued at over £140 since 2001. Copies of the lists are available in the Libraries of the House. The 2008-09 list was published on 16 July 2009.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence

(1) what plans are in place to ensure that Christmas cards and gifts reach British troops serving in Afghanistan in time for Christmas;

(2) what proportion of Christmas cards and gifts sent to British troops in Afghanistan are expected to reach the troops in time for Christmas.

Bill Rammell

(Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Harlow, Labour)

Mail posted before the last date of posting (4 December) will already have arrived in Afghanistan. All mail is expected to be with service personnel by Christmas subject to the availability of space within the supply chain in Afghanistan.

To ensure that mail reaches HM Forces in time for Christmas, MOD published last posting dates via the MOD, BFPO and Royal Mail websites. In addition, extra space on aircraft was allocated to move mail to Afghanistan and additional seasonal staff were employed by BFPO to process the Christmas mail surge.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which colleges have had their licences to sponsor students under Tier 4 of the points-based immigration system (a) revoked and (b) suspended.

Phil Woolas

(Minister of State (the North West), Home Office; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour)

holding answer 8 December 2009

14 colleges have had their Tier 4 sponsor licences revoked and 35 have had their sponsor licences suspended.

We cannot release specific details of the colleges suspended or revoked as this information is commercially sensitive.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) of 5 November 2009, Official Report, columns 1139-40W, on immigration controls, what action has been taken in respect of the 280 students whose sponsor under Tier 4 had had their licence revoked or suspended up to 16 October 2009.

Phil Woolas

Minister of State (the North West), Home Office; Oldham East & Saddleworth, Labour)

holding answer 8 December 2009

The information requested could be obtained only by examination of individual case records.

In general terms, students studying at a college whose licence has been suspended, and not revoked, may continue their studies at that college providing they have valid leave. Students whose leave is about to expire must, as part of an application for leave to remain as a student, show that they are enrolled on a course of study at a college which is on the register of Tier 4 sponsors.

Students studying at a college whose licence has been revoked will have their leave curtailed and are given 60 days to enrol at a college which is on the register of Tier 4 sponsors. If they fail to do so they are expected to leave the country.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

Does the Prime Minister agree with Ben Bernanke that the Prime Minister's decision to strip the Bank of England of its supervising role led to a "destructive run" and a

"major problem for the British economy"?

Gordon Brown

(Prime Minister; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour)

No. I think that anybody who looks at the global recession knows that it started with the problems of the banking system in America, which spread right across the world. Our tripartite system is the right way to deal with these problems, because it brings together the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and the Treasury. I noticed that only yesterday the Leader of the Opposition changed the shadow Chancellor's policy on the future of the banking system, and that he also talked yesterday about introducing "flatter taxes". Flatter taxes mean less tax paid by the very wealthy. Before the Conservatives come to give us lectures on economic policy, they should go back to the drawing board.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children have been stopped and searched in each year since 2001; and how many of these procedures have taken place under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

David Hanson

(Minister of State (Crime and Policing), Home Office; Delyn, Labour)

holding answer 8 December 2009

The information requested is not collected centrally.

Data on stop and search procedures reported to the Home Office do not include the age of persons searched.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many civil servants have been investigated for possible links to violent extremism in each year since 2001.

David Hanson

(Minister of State (Crime and Policing), Home Office; Delyn, Labour)

holding answer 8 December 2009

This information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many individuals who do not work for his Department, its executive agencies, or sponsored non-departmental public bodies, had applied for a voluntary national identity card on the latest date for which figures are available.

Meg Hillier

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Hackney South & Shoreditch, Labour)

Since 20 October, and up to and including 3 December, 2,054 applicants have been enrolled or have made an enrolment appointment for an identity card.

The information held on the national identity register does not include the occupation of an individual.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence

(1) how much his Department paid for Jet A1 and diesel fuel delivered to Camp Bastion in support of UK operations in the last 12 month period for which figures are available;

(2) what the average monthly cost to his Department was of Jet A1 and diesel fuel delivered to Camp Bastion in support of UK operations since 2005.

Quentin Davies

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence; Grantham & Stamford, Labour)

holding answer 7 December 2009

Fuel for both Bastion and Kandahar Airbase is paid for from the same budget. During the last 12 calendar months £85,669,000 was paid for aviation fuel; and £43,058,000 for ground fuel for both locations. Based upon information from FY 2008-09 onwards the average monthly cost of aviation fuel was £6,070,000; and £2,891,000 for ground fuel for both Bastion and Kandahar Airbase. The information for fuel costs prior to FY 2008-09 is not held centrally.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his Department's most recent assessment is of the level of threat to national security posed by foreign extremists, violent extremists and terrorists on student campuses in the UK.

David Lammy

(Minister of State (Higher Education and Intellectual Property), Department for Business, Innovation and Skills; Tottenham, Labour)

holding answer 30 November 2009

I have been asked to reply.

Our assessment is that there is some extremist activity happening in Higher Education Institutions within the UK. The problem is not widespread but where it does occur it is serious. For national security reasons, we cannot release details of which institutions.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what records his Department keeps in respect of civilian contractors killed while working in support of UK operations overseas; how many such contractors have been killed while supporting UK operations in Afghanistan since 2005; and if he will make a statement.

Bob Ainsworth

(Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

We have a record of the civilian contractors killed supporting UK forces in Iraq who have been recorded on the memorial wall at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire. We hold some records that have been provided by contractors supporting UK forces in Afghanistan.

Detailed and reliable information on the number of contractors killed while supporting UK operations in Afghanistan is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Collating comprehensive data on fatalities suffered by our contractors is very difficult due to the variety of contractors and the various ways in which they are employed.

We greatly value the work done by our civilian contractors in supporting operations in Afghanistan and we take very seriously our responsibilities towards them.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answer of 16 July 2009, Official Report, column 673W, on tranquilisers, when he expects to publish the results of his Department's review of policy on addiction to prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

Ann Keen

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Health; Brentford & Isleworth, Labour)

The results of the review of policy on addiction to medicines will be announced after the completion of the review in 2010.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of forced marriages involving at least one British citizen which took place in (a) the UK and (b) each other country in each year since 1997; and how many such citizens were (i) male and (ii) female.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

The very nature of forced marriage means that cases often go unreported. The joint Home Office-Foreign and Commonwealth Office Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) are working with governmental and non-governmental partners to build the best statistical picture possible. The statistics we do have are based on the work of the FMU since its establishment in 2005 and are fuller from 2008 when a new system of recording data was implemented.

Statistics for 2009 (January to end October):

1,327 instances in which the FMU gave advice or support related to possible forced marriage.

286 cases of forced marriage, including both assistance and immigration cases, dealt with by the FMU.

14 per cent. were male and 86 per cent. were female.

The geographic balance of cases associated with other countries/regions was as follows: Pakistan (57 per cent.), Bangladesh (10 per cent.), India (8 per cent.), Turkey (2 per cent.), Africa (1 per cent.), Afghanistan (1 per cent.), and other (7 per cent.). 14 per cent. of cases were solely linked to the UK or were of unknown origin.

Statistics for 2008:

1,618 instances in which the FMU gave advice or support related to possible forced marriage.

420 cases of forced marriage, including both assistance and immigration cases, dealt with by the FMU.

15 per cent. of victims were male and 85 per cent. female.

The geographic balance of cases associated with other countries/regions was as follows: Pakistan (57 per cent.), Bangladesh (13 per cent.), India (7 per cent.), Middle Eastern (3 per cent.), Africa (2 per cent.), Turkey (1 per cent.), Afghanistan (1 per cent.), European (1 per cent.), and other (4 per cent.). 11 per cent. of cases were solely linked to the UK or were of unknown origin.

Statistics for 2007:

262 cases of forced marriage, including both assistance and immigration cases, dealt with by the FMU in the UK and overseas.

Statistics for 2006:

182 cases of forced marriage, including both assistance and immigration cases, dealt with by the FMU in the UK and overseas.

Statistics for 2005:

152 cases of forced marriage, including both assistance and immigration cases dealt with by the FMU in the UK and overseas.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

What recent discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues and Welsh Assembly Government Ministers on the state of the Welsh economy.

John Howell

(Henley, Conservative)

What recent discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues and Welsh Assembly Government Ministers on the state of the Welsh economy.

Peter Hain

(Secretary of State, Wales Office; Neath, Labour)

I have regular such discussions. The bold, decisive and radical action that we have taken together over the past 12 months has ensured that this recession has not turned into a depression.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

Construction output is falling at about twice the national average in Wales. What can the Government do about that?

Peter Hain

(Secretary of State, Wales Office; Neath, Labour)

What we would not do is what the Conservative party would do, which is cut public investment. We have invested and we are continuing to invest £20 billion, some of which is coming into Wales, in construction and other infrastructure projects in order to fill the gap left by the private sector's inability to invest, given the worldwide financial crisis. Those are the polices that the Government are following and we will continue to follow them, despite the criticism by the Opposition.

John Howell

(Henley, Conservative)

The three contenders for Rhodri Morgan's job appear to have only one idea between them for the economic recovery of Wales, which is tapping into Welsh universities. Although that is important, does the Secretary of State think it is a sufficiently comprehensive approach to the Welsh economy, or an example of Labour's inadequate response to Wales in a recession?

Peter Hain

(Secretary of State, Wales Office; Neath, Labour)

I realise that the hon. Gentleman has had to be briefed by somebody for this question, but it was pretty poor briefing. The truth is that the three excellent quality candidates—they are some of the highest calibre politicians in Wales—standing for the leadership of Welsh Labour are all committed to programmes such as ReAct, which seeks to support people who lose their jobs, and ProAct, which seeks to support people so that they do not lose their jobs, all of which are publicly funded by the Welsh Assembly Government. Those policies would come under severe threat if the Conservatives won the next election, because they are committed to massive public spending cuts in Wales.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

The Secretary of State speaks about additional resources. Why is it then that our soldiers, including members of the Territorial Army, are still making what our commanders describe as unnecessary road moves because of lack of helicopters? On 8 September, a private company went to the MOD and offered 12 MI-17s, 12 Bell 142s and one MI-26, which would have provided about 2,500 additional flying hours, fully weaponised and fully conditioned for theatre, flown by former RAF pilots. Why was £7 million a month, just over twice the housing benefit payments in my constituency, not spent in order to get our troops out of the danger of improvised explosive devices?

Bob Ainsworth

(Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

The hon. Gentleman has just heard the figures on our increased spending in Afghanistan. He wants increased spending over and above that, on helicopters; he wants increased spending on the TA; he wants us out of Afghanistan—

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

No, I do not.

Bob Ainsworth

(Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

Well, the hon. Gentleman's problem is that his hon. Friends on the Conservative Front Bench do not agree that there should be additional spending on defence—quite the reverse: they are planning cuts in defence. They cannot hide behind charlatan words, they have got to come to a point

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his estimate is of the average sum spent by schools on consultations with private companies to prepare for an Ofsted inspection in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Vernon Coaker

(Minister of State (Schools and Learners), Department for Children, Schools and Families; Gedling, Labour)

This information is not available centrally. Neither the Department nor Ofsted encourage schools to prepare specifically for inspections.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

In Gravesham, antisocial behaviour orders really are taken as a badge of honour by some kids. The Minister has already spoken about the problem of the breaching of ASBOs, so should there not be some really meaningful sanction against those kids who do breach them?

Alan Johnson

(Home Secretary; Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle, Labour)

First, I do not accept the premise that an ASBO is a badge of honour. This phrase came from a Youth Justice Board study into a tiny number—124—of cases and has never been supported by any other evidence. If the hon. Gentleman spoke to the police, who are the people who know about this, they would point out that if young people wanted ASBOs as a badge of honour, why would they go to such extraordinary lengths to avoid them?

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether any (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had (i) meetings with, (ii) communications from and (iii) other contacts within the last five years; and what the subject matter of any contact was in each case.

Bob Ainsworth

(Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

Ministers have not met or communicated with the Monitor Group; information regarding departmental officials is not held centrally.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

What recent progress has been made on the introduction of personal accounts; and if she will make a statement.

Angela Eagle

(Minister of State (Pensions and the Ageing Society), Department for Work and Pensions; Wallasey, Labour)

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to Mr. Vaizey a little while ago.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

Eighty-six per cent. of smaller employers have said that they will review their pension arrangements ahead of the introduction of personal accounts. Of those, 41 per cent. have said that they will consider closing down their existing schemes as a result. Is not the Minister worried that this is a levelling down?

Angela Eagle

(Minister of State (Pensions and the Ageing Society), Department for Work and Pensions; Wallasey, Labour)

The real issue is that two thirds of people who work in the private sector have no opportunity of a workplace pension at all. That is why Members on both sides of the House agreed to introduce automatic enrolment in the 2008 legislation on pensions. The hon. Gentleman seems to be arguing, much as the Conservative party argued when we introduced the minimum wage, that if there is a minimum everybody reduces their arrangements to that minimum. It has not happened with the minimum wage, and I do not believe that it will happen with pensions.

Harry Cohen

(Leyton & Wanstead, Labour)

Will the Minister ensure that employers contribute their share to the personal accounts of their employees and do not, under false pretences, get their employees to opt out when it is not appropriate?

Angela Eagle

(Minister of State (Pensions and the Ageing Society), Department for Work and Pensions; Wallasey, Labour)

We will design the information for employers and employees to ensure that we make the case positively for those who are automatically enrolled to stay in personal accounts. It is important that they contribute to pension saving to build the second tier of pensions on top of the improvements to the basic state pension that we are introducing next year, which will make it more universal, fairer and more generous.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

Frankly, I am staggered at the Prime Minister's characterisation of the deaths from IEDs as being caused by foot patrols and not by the lack of helicopters. Commanders regularly complain of unnecessary logistical road moves. Will he not admit that many of these people are dying for lack of helicopters—yes or no?

Gordon Brown

(Prime Minister, No Department; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour)

The hon. Gentleman will have seen that Tim Radford, who commanded Operation Panther's Claw, said that the operation was not hampered by the absence of helicopters. The hon. Gentleman must recognise that the deaths that have occurred from IEDs have occurred in different ways—some have been from vehicles that have been blown up and some from foot patrols—and he must look at the evidence.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what procedures were used to establish the requirement for the future army dress; what the estimated cost of its introduction and procurement is; whether he has received any representations about the quality of tailoring of the dress; and if he will make a statement.

Bill Rammell

(Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Harlow, Labour)

In 2003, the Army Board directed that the Army's orders of dress were to be reviewed with a view to updating the current suite of uniforms which had been designed in the 1960s. In 2005, the Army Board accepted the recommendations of the review and directed that the uniforms were to be produced.

Future Army Dress is funded from within the existing clothing budget and will cost approximately £9.7 million.

The uniform is produced in the UK, using modern manufacturing processes, and we have received no defect reports to date.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Transport whether he has made an assessment of the effect on journey times, congestion and pollution at the Dartford River Crossing of the suspension of the tolls in July 2009; and if he will make a statement.

Paul Clark

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Gillingham, Labour)

The charges were suspended on 21 July 2009 for about six hours between the busy rush hour periods due to the failure of the crossing's standby generator during the power cut. As the traffic counting systems also failed we have no measure of the traffic flows but staff on site reported light flows below normal expected levels. The operator considered that flows in the area were lighter because a significant part of the local network including shopping centres and businesses did not have power to operate.

There was some congestion around 10.30am as the systems failed and the operator switched to manual charge collection.

The crossing was operated manually with staff placed in each lane to control traffic and the additional staffing helped to ensure that there were no significant incidents that would have disrupted traffic in the toll plazas.

The effect on journey times, congestion and pollution cannot be measured but the light traffic levels combined with additional staffing levels operating the crossing appears to have avoided significant delays and stationary traffic.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many staff from his Department are based in the provincial reconstruction team base in Lashkar Gar; what proportion of such staff (a) have left the perimeter of the base by road during their tour and (b) are performing roles which could be undertaken at Camp Bastion; and if he will make a statement.

Douglas Alexander

(Secretary of State, Department for International Development; Paisley & Renfrewshire South, Labour)

There are over 140 UK, Danish and Estonian civilian and military staff working for the Helmand Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT). Over 50 staff from the FCO, DFID, MOD and Stabilisation Unit work in the Lashkar Gah Main Operating Base.

Statistics on individual moves are not kept. However, based on staff functions, over 90 per cent. of the PRT staff will leave the Lashkar Gah base by road during their tour.

The PRT works primarily with the Afghan Government, which is based in Lashkar Gah and the district centres. PRT staff could not carry out their work from Camp Bastion, which is in the desert. Furthermore, staff are co-located with Task Force Helmand HQ in Lashkar Gah and with battlegroups in the district centres, in order to co-ordinate effectively with the military.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many helicopter journeys have been made to transfer civilian staff to and from the provincial reconstruction team base in Lashkar Gar in the last 12 months; how many of these were for the transport of civilian staff (a) stationed at and (b) visiting the base; and if he will make a statement.

Quentin Davies

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Ministry of Defence; Grantham & Stamford, Labour)

This information is not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much his Department spent on each of its campaigns aimed at Britons travelling abroad in each year since 2001; what research his Department has commissioned into the effectiveness of each such campaign; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 16 July 2009, Hansard, column 612W.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Know Before You Go campaign is evaluated on a six monthly basis to ensure targets are being met and that it effectively reaches the population. For example, in 2008-09 the campaign reached an estimated 64 per cent. of UK adults, in some cases up to 28.5 times. Our evaluation confirmed that the audience's response was highly favourable. The report also evaluates value for money, such as number of people reached per £1 spent, and the advertising value equivalent of the campaign. In addition, we commission qualitative and quantitative surveys to monitor changes in traveller's behaviour and attitudes as well as providing guidance for the future direction of the campaign.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Lancaster and Wyre of 15 July 2009, Official Report, column 507W, on students: radicalism, which institutions will receive further targeted support in academic year 2009-10.

Ian Lucas

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Business and Regulatory Reform), Department for Business, Innovation & Skills; Wrexham, Labour)

holding answer 9 September 2009

In academic year 2009-10 the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will be giving targeted advice and support to institutions in priority Prevent-funded local authority areas.

A full list of these priority areas can be found on the Communities and Local Government website:

http://www.communities.gov.uk/communities/preventingextremism/lafunding

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much has been allocated to each group receiving funding under the Prevent Partnership area-based grant in each area since 2008.

Ian Austin

(Minister of State (the West Midlands), Regional Affairs; Dudley North, Labour)

78 local authorities in England received Prevent funding through Area Based Grant in 2008-09. 82 local authorities received funding in 2009-10. They are:

Please click here to view the table

Figures for 2009-10 include the additional funding for Prevent announced by the Communities Secretary on 28 August.

In April 2009 the then Secretary of State provided a list of groups that local authorities funded in 2008-09 using Area Based Grant, in support of their work on Prevent. This information was placed in the House Library.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the answer of 3 November 2008, Official Report, column 1518W, how many rounds of (a) 0.338 ammunition of all natures, (b) 12 bore shotgun ammunition, (c) 30 mm armoured fighting vehicle ammunition of all natures, (d) 30 mm attack helicopter ammunition of all natures and (e) 105 mm ammunition of all natures were used in Operation Herrick 7.

John Hutton

(Barrow & Furness, Labour)

Officials are collating and validating the data needed and this is taking longer than anticipated. I will write to the hon. Member when this work is complete and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many rounds of (a) 51 mm and (b) 81 mm mortar ammunition of all natures were used in Operation (i) Herrick 4, (ii) Herrick 5, (iii) Herrick 6 and (iv) Herrick 7.

John Hutton

(Barrow & Furness, Labour)

holding answer 1 April 2009

Officials are collating and validating the data needed and this is taking longer than anticipated. I will write to the hon. Member when this work is complete.

Substantive answer from Bob Ainsworth to Adam Holloway:

I am writing to provide you with the information promised in mine and my predecessor's holding replies to your Parliamentary Questions regarding ammunition expenditure in Afghanistan on 20 April 2009 (Official Report, column 46W); 31 March 2009 (Official Report, column 1034W) and 26 November 2008 (Official Report, column 1518W).

The Ministry of Defence has recently completed a review of the data on ammunition usage required to answer this question, and has revised the manner in which we classify and present data to ensure consistency. The table below shows all ammunition expenditure for UK forces in Afghanistan from the beginning of retained records (August 2006) to the end of Operation HERRICK 9 (October 2008-April 2009), in April of this year.

You will note that, unfortunately, this review has resulted in corrections to the ammunition figures previously issued for the HERRICK 6 (April 2007-October 2007) and HERRICK 7 (October 2007-April 2008) roulements. These figures have been found to be incorrect due inconsistency of tour dates taken, inconsistency of inclusion of training rounds and a failure to include all variations of ammunition in all cases.

Please click here to view the table

Ammunition expenditure is shown for the whole of Afghanistan, rather than just Helmand Province as the information is collated centrally for UK forces in Afghanistan. The data includes all training rounds used and all variants of each ammunition type. It is collated by each HERRICK roulement, at the end of which the data is finalised for records.

All data shown above is data based on information derived from a number of sources and can only be an estimate, not least because of the difficulties in ensuring a consistent interpretation of the basis for collating statistics in a complex fast-moving multinational operational environment.

I hope that the above information addresses your concerns on this matter.

I will place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Prime Minister from which (a) Heads of State and (b) Heads of Government he received a letter of congratulation on his appointment.

Gordon Brown

(Prime Minister, No Department; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour)

Details of this correspondence is not made public, but I was grateful to receive such letters.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what estimate he has made of the number of staff required by his Department who speak each foreign language; how many staff in his Department speak each such language; how many staff in his Department have learnt a language in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

The following table shows the estimate of the number of operational speakers required by language. These figures are drawn from central human resources records which are constantly under review and subject to change at short notice for operational reasons. I am awaiting a report regarding the number of speakers in each language, which I will place in the Library once available.

209 officers have learnt a language in the last 12 months where it was necessary to do so to fulfil the job specification. In addition, a further 73 officers have learnt a language in order to help in-country acclimatisation.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which UK overseas territories do not have constitutions which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of (a) sexual orientation, (b) ethnicity and (c) gender.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

holding reply of 20 July 2009

Three overseas territories have constitutions with Bills of Rights dating from before 1997, namely Bermuda, Montserrat and Anguilla. Six overseas territories have new constitutions agreed since 1997 (Turks and Caicos Islands, Gibraltar, Falkland Islands, British Virgin Islands and—not yet in force—Cayman Islands, and St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha), each of which has a Bill of Rights.

All of the Bills of Rights have an open-ended non-discrimination provision prohibiting discrimination on grounds of a status listed or other status. It is not therefore necessary to set out every status in the provision. Where existing constitutional provisions fall short of this, we ensure that negotiations on a new constitution result in a Bill of Rights which reflects at a minimum the European convention on human rights and the international covenant on civil and political rights.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Prime Minister from which (a) Heads of State and (b) Heads of Government he received a letter of congratulation on his appointment.

Gordon Brown

(Prime Minister, No Department; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour)

Details of this correspondence is not made public, but I was grateful to receive such letters.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on whom (a) honorary knighthood and (b) honorary citizenship has been conferred in each year since 1997.

Chris Bryant

(Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Rhondda, Labour)

Recipients of honorary awards, including honorary knighthoods, have been published on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) website since 2007:

http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/what-we-do/honours

The UK awarded 167 honorary knighthoods between 1997 and 2006, of which 89 were awarded during State and Guest of Government visits. Full details have been placed in the Library of the House.

Honorary knighthoods in the Royal Victorian Order have not been included as they are in the personal gift of The Queen and are not, therefore, administered by the FCO.

The UK does not confer honorary citizenships.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer to Baroness Warsi of 2 June 2009, House of Lords, Official Report, column WA70, on Deen International, when he expects the University of Islamabad to publish its independent report; when he expects the evaluation reports commissioned by his Department in (a) Islamabad and (b) London to be completed; and if he will place in the Library copies of any of these reports which have already been completed.

Ivan Lewis

(Minister of State ( Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs), Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Bury South, Labour)

"I am Muslim I am British", a project conducted by Deen International with Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) funding, concluded as scheduled on 2 May 2009. FCO guidance requires evaluation reports to be completed within three months of the end of project delivery. The university of Islamabad's evaluation, which is based on over 600 detailed interviews, is currently being finalised and is due to be shortly signed off by the head researcher. The further evaluations in London and Islamabad will be informed by the university's detailed report.

The evaluations are internal FCO documents and we have no plans to place them in the Library of the House.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) of 29 June 2009, Official Report, column 46W, on piracy: Navy, on what authority the Royal Navy has seized weapons during the boarding of pirate vessels in the last 12 months.

Bill Rammell

(Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Harlow, Labour)

In the last 12 months, the Royal Navy has seized weapons from suspected pirates in accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Article 105.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

Alistair Darling

(Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury; Edinburgh South West, Labour)

The core purpose of the Department remains as I set out in previous Treasury questions.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

Does the Chancellor think that a 50p rate of income tax would slow the economy's return to growth?

Alistair Darling

(Chancellor of the Exchequer, HM Treasury; Edinburgh South West, Labour)

As I said in the Budget, it is necessary for us to raise revenues and I think it fair to look to people who have the broadest shoulders to take some of that burden. Other countries will face exactly the same problems over the next few months and years, and I believe that the measures I have announced as a whole in the Budget and the pre-Budget report will help to support our economy and help it to grow.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

What recent representations he has received on the system for issuing visas to students from overseas countries.

David Hanson

(Minister of State (Crime and Policing), Home Office; Delyn, Labour)

Since the implementation of tier 4 of the points-based system on 31 March 2009, Ministers have received a number of representations on the system for issuing visas to students from overseas countries.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

One of your own Ministers has described student visas as a major loophole in Britain's border control. What winds people up in towns such as Gravesend and Northfleet and across the country is the perception and the reality that you have mismanaged and not controlled—

John Bercow

(Speaker)

Order. The hon. Gentleman knows the correct parliamentary language, and I am sure he will now use it.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

What will the Government do to retake control of immigration?

David Hanson

(Minister of State (Crime and Policing), Home Office; Delyn, Labour)

The hon. Gentleman knows that the Government introduced the points-based system for the very reasons that he mentioned—to ensure that it is simple, transparent and robust, and that it does the job. Through student visa applications, it monitors who is coming in and it is making a difference by tightening up the loophole to which the hon. Gentleman referred. That is why we are doing it.

James Brokenshire

(Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Hornchurch, Conservative)

One of the key concerns surrounding student visas is ensuring that appropriate checks against fraud are made. The Minister for Borders and Immigration has suggested that for visa applications from Pakistan and Afghanistan, officers based in Islamabad have more than 11 minutes to carry out initial fraud and forgery checks. Can the Minister tell the House precisely how much more?

David Hanson

(Minister of State (Crime and Policing), Home Office; Delyn, Labour)

My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary informs me that the hon. Gentleman's figures are wrong, and that that is not the situation. We have more than 200 individuals dealing with visa applications in Islamabad, and that is important. My hon. Friend the Minister for Borders and Immigration would be present today, were he not in Calais announcing £15 million worth of new technology to stop people coming into the country via Calais. We will look at those issues, but I advise the hon. Gentleman that his perception is not our perception on the matter.

Susan Kramer

(Richmond Park, Liberal Democrat)

The Minister will be aware that because of the system, a significant number of foreign students, particularly from countries such as the United States, have thrown in the towel in their attempts to come and join courses at UK universities. A number of public universities in the UK will be in financial difficulty because their students will not be turning up from overseas in September, and the future looks exceedingly bleak. Will he please look into the matter and, for once, co-ordinate with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills?

David Hanson

(Minister of State (Crime and Policing), Home Office; Delyn, Labour)

Again, from our perspective the points system is meant to be simple, transparent, objective and robust. There is an online calculator where people can examine this. A phased introduction of the scheme is taking place. We have had a number of applications to date and the number of failures has been very small. I will certainly consider the points that the hon. Lady raises and pass them on to my hon. Friend the Minister for Borders and Immigration, but the purpose of the system is to make sure that we know who is coming in, that it is secure and that it provides robust and transparent operations

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what contribution his Department makes towards hospitality expenses in respect of the funerals of members of the armed forces killed in Afghanistan; and if he will make a statement.

Bill Rammell

(Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Harlow, Labour)

The MOD does not contribute specifically towards hospitality expenses in respect of funerals. When a service person (including a member of the reserve forces when on duty) dies it is MOD policy to arrange a funeral at public expense or provide funding towards the cost of a private funeral dependant upon the wishes of the next of kin. If a family chooses to have a publicly funded service funeral, a grant of £500 is paid to the next of kin or executor of the estate to help cover incidental expenses. When a family chooses to have a private funeral, a higher grant is paid towards the cost of funeral expenses. This can be up to a maximum of £2,876.00 if the family have taken responsibility for all the arrangements themselves.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

Another opportunity for the Prime Minister to be straight with the British people: in which Departments does he expect to see spending fall between 2011 and 2014?

Gordon Brown

(Prime Minister, No Department; Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, Labour)

I have visited the area and talked to staff, and I understand their frustrations at what is happening. They have served the bank well, and they are the victims of what has happened to HBOS in its worldwide activities, particularly its failures in other countries. We will do what we can to help the staff of HBOS and Lloyds TSB. We are also making it possible for people to have new facilities to find jobs in the area. We will do what we can to reduce unemployment in these difficult circumstances; that is why we have set aside £5 billion to help the unemployed, which is only possible because we have made these additional allocations.

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Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

What discussions he has had with the Afghan authorities on the conduct of the forthcoming presidential election in that country.

David Miliband

(Secretary of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; South Shields, Labour)

I met the Afghan Foreign Minister, Dr. Spanta, in Trieste on Friday. Our embassy in Kabul is in regular dialogue with the Afghan authorities, particularly the Independent Election Commission of Afghanistan, which is running the first Afghan-led elections since the 1970s. We are also in close contact with the United Nations Development Programme, which is co-ordinating the international effort to support the election commission. In Helmand province we are working with the election commission, the governor and the Afghan national security forces to ensure credible elections on 20 August.

Adam Holloway

(Gravesham, Conservative)

What reports has the Foreign Secretary received of fraudulent voter registration in the run-up to the elections, such as the mass registration of women in Nuristan?

David Miliband

(Secretary of State, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; South Shields, Labour)

My attention has not been drawn to the example that the hon. Gentleman has given, but the United Nations and other authorities have been as vigilant as possible in ensuring that the extra voters who have been registered—4 million or so have been registered, which is obviously a good thing—are indeed real voters. I understand that about 85 per cent. of people in Helmand province have been registered, and we are confident that the appropriate procedures have been followed there. However, if the hon. Gentleman has any particular evidence that he wishes to supply to me, I should be happy to have it.

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