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16 May 2007 : Column WS11
Written Statements
Wednesday 16 May 2007
Asylum Seekers: Language Testing
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): My honourable friend the Minister of State for the Home Department (Liam Byrne) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have made an authorisation under Section 19D of the Race Relations Act 1976, as amended, to enable the Secretary of State to request that asylum applicants claiming to be of specific nationalities submit to language analysis. This replaces the Race Relations (Immigration and Asylum) (No. 3) Authorisation 2001, which is revoked.
The condition for making such a request is that the person claims to be a Somali or an Eritrean. The Secretary of State may take a refusal to submit to testing into account when determining whether an applicant has assisted in establishing the facts of his case.
It is known that some applicants for asylum claim to be of a nationality or from a region or grouping that is not their own for the purpose of gaining residence in this country on an unfounded basis. The authorisation will assist the Secretary of State to ascertain the extent of this abuse as well as to make decisions in individual cases.
This authorisation will be of four months' duration. I will review the continued need for the authorisation before its expiry.
I am placing copies of the authorisation in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.
Department for Work and Pensions: Departmental Report
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (John Hutton) has made the following Statement.
I am today able to announce the publication of the Department for Work and Pensions departmental report. The report provides details of the department’s performance in 2006-07 against its public service agreement targets and sets out the department’s expenditure plans for 2007-08.
Copies of the report are available from the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office.
Home Office: Restructuring
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has made the following Statement.
On 29 March 2007 (Official Report, cols. 133-35WS), I announced details of machinery of government changes to the Home Office and the then Department for Constitutional Affairs. Alongside this, he announced the creation of new Cabinet committees on crime and the criminal justice system and on security and terrorism. He is today announcing the membership and terms of reference of the new committees.
Responsibility for the National Offender Management Service, and for criminal law and sentencing policy, moved from the Home Office to the new Ministry of Justice on 9 May. Public protection and crime reduction will continue to be the core focus of government policy. The new Ministerial Committee on Crime and the Criminal Justice System (CJS) will take this forward.
The role of the Home Secretary and the capabilities of the Home Office in facing the terrorist threat have been strengthened and a new Office of Security and Counter Terrorism has been established in the Home Office. The Committee on Security and Terrorism (ST) will oversee this work, including international terrorism and counter-radicalisation. It will be supported by two sub-committees: Counter Radicalisation (ST(CR)); and Protection and Resilience (ST(PR)). The existing sub-committees on International Terrorism (DOP(IT)) and Protective Security and Resilience (DOP(IT)(PSR)) will therefore no longer operate.
The list of Cabinet committees, which is available in the Libraries of both Houses and on the Cabinet Office website, will be updated in due course to reflect these changes.
National Minimum Wage and Employment Agency Standards Enforcement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Truscott): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations and Postal Services (Jim Fitzpatrick) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Since 1997, our approach to the UK labour market has been based on combining social justice with economic prosperity so that businesses grow and employment expands, delivering opportunity for all. Last year's success at work strategy paper set out the next stage of our approach. In particular, it emphasised the need for a stable and proportionate regulatory framework: one in which complying with the law is simple and straightforward and where individuals get the rights to which they are entitled, supported by an effective enforcement and penalties regime.
We are today announcing a consultation about two key elements of the regulatory framework—the national minimum wage (NMW) and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate—focusing on measures to promote compliance and improve fairness both for workers and compliant businesses.
We are proposing a new strategy to deal with cases of underpayment of the NMW, based on a fairer way of dealing with arrears, and a simpler, more effective penalty regime to deter non-compliance.
We are also consulting on strengthening the penalties regime for offences committed against employment agency legislation and clearer investigative powers for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate. By making it more difficult for the small minority of rogue agencies to cut corners at the expense of the reputable side of the industry, these changes should benefit both workers and most agencies.
From today, copies of the consultation are available at www.dti.gov.uk/consultations/.
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