Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many women have been detained pending deportation to Rwanda.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Individuals who were previously present in a safe third country and entered the UK by a dangerous and unnecessary method are liable to be relocated to Rwanda. As this is an ongoing operational matter it would be inappropriate to provide a running commentary on individual cases or numbers.
The Home Office publishes statistics on people in immigration detention in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. The number of people in detention at the end of each quarter are in table Det_D02 of the ‘Detention detailed datasets’, where the data can be broken down to identify the number of women. The latest data relate to as at the end of December 2023. Data as at the end of March 2024 will be published on 23 May 2024.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been prosecuted in relation to sham marriages or civil partnerships that have taken place for the purpose of remaining in the UK since 2019.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Between 14 November 2018 to 1 May 2024, 11 individuals who have entered into sham marriages or civil partnerships, or facilitated those arrangements, have been convicted by Home Office Criminal and Financial Investigation teams.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will publish the standard operating procedures for (a) processing and (b) transferring asylum seekers between the UK and Ireland.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In 2020, we agreed operational arrangements which allow for the return and readmission of asylum seekers where this is agreed by both participants. This is a non-legally binding arrangement relating to operational procedures, which we do not routinely publish.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of individuals identified as eligible for removal to Rwanda are resident in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Individuals who were previously present in a safe third country and entered the UK by a dangerous and unnecessary method are liable to be relocated to Rwanda. The Home Office does not routinely publish this information at a regional level.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what planning estimate they have made for the number of people who have arrived by irregular routes and need to be accommodated in the UK because they have not been sent to a safe third country or returned home, for the end of each month from April to December 2024.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Home Office routinely publishes information on a quarterly basis, including on the number of supported asylum seekers in accommodation, all irregular modes of entry into the UK, and the level of returns.
Asked by: Lord Bradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they have taken to establish the statutory inquiry into the Manston migrant processing centre.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Following a decision to launch a statutory inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005, the Home Office is taking steps to establish the Inquiry. In accordance with the Inquiries Act 2005, the Department will make a formal statement to Parliament, which will include details of the Chair and Terms of Reference, in due course.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of trends in the number of convictions for class (a) A and (b) B drug possession in the last five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
No specific assessment on trends in convictions for drug offences as a result of policy changes has been made, but the Government takes the matter of harmful drugs very seriously. Our approach to them remains clear - we must prevent drug misuse in our communities and support people through treatment and recovery.
The police have a range of powers at their disposal to deal with drug-related offences, such as illegal possession, and how police choose to pursue investigations is an operational decision for Chief Constables, but we are clear that we expect them to enforce the law. We expect police to take a zero tolerance approach to drug possession, and this can include sanctions other than prosecution. This includes referrals to treatment, as well as sanctions to make offenders understand the impact of their actions and opportunities for them to change their behaviour. However, we are clear prosecution remains an option to deal with repeat offenders.
We keep the classification of drugs under review. Ministers are subject to a statutory obligation to consider advice from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), an independent scientific advisory body, before making legislation on the classification of drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. Legislative changes are accompanied by a robust impact assessment where we set out the potential impacts of such changes.
Asked by: Imran Hussain (Labour - Bradford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people received (a) less than £10,000, (b) £10,000-£20,000, (c) £20,000-£50,000, (d) £50,000-£100,000 and (e) more than £100,000 in each quarter since the Windrush Compensation scheme was launched.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Information on the breakdown of full and final offers and payments made to Windrush Compensation Scheme claimants is published as part of the monthly Windrush Schemes Factsheet. The latest set of data on the schemes, which covers the period to the end of March 2024, is available here: Windrush Compensation Schemes Factsheet.
The Windrush Compensation Scheme does not publish compensation award data in the payment or date range requested.
Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information his Department holds on the number of asylum seekers that have (a) entered the Republic of Ireland by crossing the land border from Northern Ireland and (b) been returned to the UK from the Republic of Ireland at the request of the Irish Government in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
In 2020, we agreed operational arrangements which allow for the return and readmission of asylum seekers where this is agreed by both participants. Ireland has not returned anyone to the UK under these arrangements.
The UK does not operate routine immigration controls on journeys from within the Common Travel Area, with no immigration checks being undertaken on the Northern Ireland-Ireland land border. We do not routinely collect data on asylum seekers entering Ireland.
Asked by: Neil Hudson (Conservative - Penrith and The Border)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the ban on nitrous oxide canisters on levels of illegal nitrous oxide use.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The government controlled nitrous oxide as a Class C drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 on 8 November last year.
The government is aware of early successes by police forces in arrests and prosecutions as well as confiscating nitrous oxide canisters. It has committed to publish a review of the effect of the control of nitrous oxide under the 1971 Act.
The review will be a wide-ranging assessment of the effect of control with publication intended to be within three years of the ban coming into force.