Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people in Gaza are awaiting results of applications for family visas as a (a) spouse, (b) partner, (c) fiancé, (d) child, (e) parent, (f) relative providing care of a British citizen, (g) settled resident and (h) person with protection status who applied (i) on or (ii) before 7 October 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of people in Gaza who are awaiting results of applications for family visas does not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.
Transparency data is however published quarterly on Gov.uk and includes data on the outcomes of visas issued on family routes, although this does not necessarily equate to entering the UK once granted leave.
The latest transparency data can be found at: Migration transparency data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and Immigration system statistics data tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential implications for his Department’s policies of reports of Palestinians being required to pay large sums of money to facilitate their exit from Gaza in to Egypt.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
Egypt is a key regional partner in supporting the Government's response to the crisis. We welcome efforts by Egypt in getting aid into Gaza and British Nationals out. We are aware of these reports and do not recommend individuals seek or obtain permissions to cross the border by these means.
As the British Government has said, the immediate priority must be a humanitarian pause in the fighting, which is the best route to secure the safe release of hostages and significantly step up the aid reaching Gaza, and for that pause to lead to a sustainable ceasefire without a return to further fighting. This remains the focus of all our diplomatic effort.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation is taking to ensure the compliance of attestation documents for Russian oil products.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The PM along with other G7 Leaders in their statement of 24 February 2024 committed to continue to take steps to tighten compliance and enforcement of the oil price cap on Russian oil. The UK and G7 partners will respond to violations including by imposing additional sanctions measures on those engaged in deceptive practices while transporting Russian oil and against the networks Russia has developed to extract additional revenue from price cap violations. These additional sanctions measures include, but are not limited to, the changes to the attestation model announced by the G7+ Price Cap Coalition on 20 December 2023 and the UK’s new designations of oil traders announced on 22 February 2024.
From 19 February 2024, the attestation model was updated to require attestations to be shared on a per-voyage basis, as part of a relevant transaction. As well as per-voyage attestations, the new model requires itemised ancillary costs to be recorded and provided to contractual counterparties upon request.
To support industry participants in complying with the oil price cap and with the new attestation requirements, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OSFI) on 16 February 2024 issued updated industry guidance. OFSI also co-authored a joint G7+ Price Cap Coalition oil price cap compliance and enforcement alert which issued on 1 February 2024.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many violations of the price caps on Russian oil products the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation has (a) investigated and (b) enforced since the implementation of those caps.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
OFSI takes a proactive enforcement approach and is currently undertaking a number of investigations into suspected breaches of the oil price cap, using powers under SAMLA to request information and working closely with our international partners in the G7+ Coalition.
Due to the sensitivity of ongoing sanctions enforcement casework, I cannot confirm the number of suspected oil price cap violations which are under investigation or have been enforced against by OFSI.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of how much oil derived from Russian crude has entered the UK market through third countries in the last two years; and what steps she is taking to prevent its entry.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The UK, alongside our international allies, has imposed sanctions on Russia to limit its ability to wage war.
In line with WTO rules of origin and the approach of the European Union, Russian crude which has been substantially processed into refined oil in a third country is no longer considered to be of Russian origin, and therefore, the UK sanctions on Russian oil do not apply.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to tackle racism against Romani (Gypsy), Roma and Irish Traveller communities.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
All forms of discrimination are unacceptable, and they have no place in our communities.
No one should ever be a victim of discrimination because of their race, or their religion or belief, and the Government continues to work with police and community partners to monitor and combat it.
True Vision is an online reporting portal, maintained by the police and funded by the Government. We will continue to support the police to maintain this and reinforce their relationships with communities so that they feel confident to report any instances of illegal discrimination.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in Iraq on Elizabeth Tsurkov.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is concerned over the kidnapping of Israeli-Russian dual national Elizabeth Tsurkov. The Government of Iraq opened an investigation into her kidnapping last year and we await the findings. Those suspected of criminal responsibility for her kidnapping should be brought to justice in fair trials. His Majesty's Government has not had any discussions with the Government of Iraq regarding the kidnapping.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will publish data on the gender of people ordered to wear an alcohol monitoring device in each year since 2020.
Answered by Gareth Bacon - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
Alcohol monitored, electronic monitoring subjects by gender, England and Wales, at month's end, from March 2021. Source: AMS Contractor data. | ||||
|
| Mar-21 | Mar-22 | Mar-23 |
| Males and Females |
|
|
|
Number | Females | 7 | 116 | 248 |
Number | Males | 28 | 778 | 1,991 |
Number | Other | .. | 4 | 9 |
Total number | Total | 35 | 898 | 2,248 |
| Males and Females |
|
|
|
Proportion of total | Females | 20% | 13% | 11% |
Proportion of total | Males | 80% | 87% | 89% |
Proportion of total | Other | .. | 0% | 0% |
These figures are drawn from administrative data systems provided by contractors. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent.
‘Other’ refers to instances in which data on gender has not been received, or the individual has not disclosed their gender or identifies as non-binary.
The table includes individuals wearing an alcohol monitoring device and subject to an Alcohol Abstinence Monitoring Requirement (AAMR) as a requirement of a community order or suspended sentence order, and individuals subject to an Alcohol Monitoring on Licence (AML) condition following custody.
AAMR is a community-based sentence requirement for alcohol related offending which imposes an alcohol ban for up to 120 days, compliance is electronically monitored using an alcohol tag. AAMR was introduced in Wales in October 2020 and was expanded to all England and Wales in March 2021.
AML allows probation to impose an additional licence condition that either bans drinking alcohol or limits use, monitored by an alcohol tag. Rollout in England and Wales was completed in June 2022.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce the time taken for children to receive (a) SEN assessments and (b) mental health treatment.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Department of Health and Social Care is working closely with the Department for Education to ensure that children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) receive the right support, in the right place, at the right time. We are doing this through working together to implement the SEND and Alternative Provision Improvement Plan, which was published on 2 March 2023. This sets out the Government’s mission to establish a single national system that delivers for every child and young person with SEND and in alternative provision, so that they enjoy their childhood, achieve good outcomes, and are well prepared for adulthood and employment.
The Department of Health and Social Care is also investing at least an additional £2.3 billion a year in expanding National Health Service mental health services by March 2024, compared to 2018/19, and have set out our aim in the NHS Long Term Plan for an additional 345,000 children and young people to be able to get the mental health support they need. NHS England is also developing a new waiting time standard for children and their families to start receiving community-based mental health care within four weeks of referral.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to help increase the number of primary and secondary school places in Nottingham.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Section 14 of the Education Act 1996 places a statutory duty on local authorities for providing enough school places for children in their area.
The department knows that local authorities have to create more school places, which is why the department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data. This Basic Need investment supports the government’s priority to ensure that every child has the opportunity of a place at a good school, whatever their background.
In addition, the free schools programme remains an important part of the government’s plan to level up standards and respond where there is need for more school places. The programme has delivered hundreds of new schools and provided thousands of good school places across the country.
The department’s Pupil Place Planning Advisers engage with local authorities on a regular basis to review a local authority’s plans for creating additional places. The Pupil Place Planning advisor for the East Midlands region is engaging with Nottingham local authority on their statutory duty and providing them with the offer of support and advice.