Asked by: Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department will take to increase the rate of processing for asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Asylum Transformation programme aims to bring the system back into balance and modernise it. It is focused on increasing productivity by streamlining, simplifying and digitising processes to speed up decision making to increase efficiency and output. This will support us in delivering sustainable changes to decision maker productivity, helping us control the unprecedented volumes of intake to prevent long wait times for customers.
The PACE pilot covers new flow cases (including small boats and those claims which are admitted to the UK asylum process) along with Legacy cases and children casework. The 8-week pilot reduced the time asylum seekers waited for a first interview by 40%. It is being rolled out across the UK at pace to deal with the 100,000 people awaiting a decision on their claim.
We have increased the number of asylum caseworkers by 80%, from 597 staff in 2019/20 to more than 1,000 today. We are on course for a further 500 people by March 2023.
Asked by: Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress her Department has made in reducing the backlog of asylum seeker cases.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Asylum Transformation programme aims to bring the system back into balance and modernise it. It is focused on increasing productivity by streamlining, simplifying and digitising processes to speed up decision making to increase efficiency and output. This will support us in delivering sustainable changes to decision maker productivity, helping us control the unprecedented volumes of intake to prevent long wait times for customers.
The PACE pilot covers new flow cases (including small boats and those claims which are admitted to the UK asylum process) along with Legacy cases and children casework. The 8-week pilot reduced the time asylum seekers waited for a first interview by 40%. It is being rolled out across the UK at pace to deal with the 100,000 people awaiting a decision on their claim.
We have increased the number of asylum caseworkers by 80%, from 597 staff in 2019/20 to more than 1,000 today. We are on course for a further 500 people by March 2023.
Asked by: Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment criteria her Department use to find asylum seeker centres.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office selection criteria includes deliverability, size, location, cost, situation and use.
Asked by: Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of asylum seekers in Medway.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The latest published Immigration Statistics detail the number of asylum seekers accommodated in each local authority area. These statistics can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets#asylum-support. Data is published on a quarterly basis, with the latest information published 25 August 2022.
The next quarterly figures are due to be released later this month.
Asked by: Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the impact of the Points Based Immigration System on the (a) workboat sector and (b) agricultural sector.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office carefully considered the possible impacts of the new immigration system, making best use of existing evidence and data – this included a review undertaken by the Migration Advisory Committee in the design of the Points Based System.
Prior to the launch of the Skilled Worker route we published a detailed Impact Assessment which set out a range of impacts. The Government continues to monitor the immigration system and the wider UK economy impacts on migration flows and the labour market, and whether this is in line with our detailed planning assumptions. As part of this, the Government regularly engages the MAC for their expert and independent view.
The Points Based System, including the Skilled Worker route, provides for many occupations in the maritime and agricultural sector (which has its own sector specific scheme for horticultural roles), if the requirements of the system are met.
Asked by: Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with her EU counterparts on citizenship-for-investment schemes.
Answered by James Brokenshire
We are monitoring such schemes and are in contact with other EU Member States where appropriate. Every country has the right to decide its own citizenship laws, but we would object if another Member State made changes that could lead to abuse of free movement rights.
Asked by: Kelly Tolhurst (Conservative - Rochester and Strood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she has received on changing the police funding formula.
Answered by Mike Penning
Current police funding arrangements are complex, opaque and out of date. This reflects views put forward by PCCs, police forces and Committees of this House. It is essential that we come to a new funding formula that is fair, transparent and matched to demand - but also one that is supported by policing as a whole. However, we have listened to the views of policing partners and are minded to delay the proposed changes to the formula for 2016/17.