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Written Question
Iran: Sanctions
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative - Chingford and Woodford Green)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department plans to take to tackle hostile activities by the Iranian regime in the UK, in the context of recent reports of (a) threats to British journalists and human rights defenders by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and (b) the use UK-based banks to procure funds in breach of UK sanctions.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

We do not routinely comment on operational matters or specific threats. However, we take the protection of individuals’ rights, freedoms and safety in the UK very seriously. We continually assess potential threats in the UK and use all tools at our disposal to protect the UK and our interests from any Iran-linked threats.

UK businesses – including banks – are expected to perform due diligence checks on all of their customers and clients to ensure compliance with all UK sanctions regulations.

The UK is committed to ensuring that our sanctions are robustly enforced, potential breaches are assessed, and appropriate action is taken where a breach is identified. Non-compliance with UK sanctions is a serious offence and punishable through disclosures, financial penalties, or criminal prosecution. Departments from across HMG – including FCDO, HMT, OFSI, HMRC, HO, and the NCA – are working together, and with UK companies, to ensure that sanctions are enforced.


Written Question
Asylum: Rwanda
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Diana Johnson (Labour - Kingston upon Hull North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an estimate of the cost of establishing an appeal body for asylum applications processed in Rwanda under the UK-Rwanda treaty.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

We are working at pace with the Government of Rwanda to establish an appeal body for asylum applications. More details on this will be released in due course.


Written Question
Retail Trade: Crimes of Violence
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the introduction of the aggravating factor for attacks on public facing workers on levels of retail crime.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Government is clear that violent and abusive behaviour towards any worker, particularly those who provide a valuable service to the public, is never acceptable.

In 2022, we took the significant step to introduce a statutory aggravating factor for assault against those who are serving the public. Section 156 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 means the public facing nature of a victim’s role will be considered an aggravating factor when it comes to sentencing for assault offences, allowing the court to give a longer sentence within the statutory maximum for the offence.

Assaults against retail workers are not separately identifiable in police recorded crime data held centrally by the Home Office.

The Government shares concerns about the level of assaults against retailers. In October 2023, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) published the Retail Crime Action Plan. Through this Plan, all forces across England and Wales have committed to prioritise police attendance at the scene where violence has been used towards shop staff, where an offender has been detained by store security, and where evidence needs to be secured and can only be done by police personnel. Additionally, where CCTV or other digital images are secured, police will run this through the Police National Database to aid efforts to identify prolific offenders or potentially dangerous individuals.

The longer-term impact of the Action Plan will continue to be monitored; however, retailers have reported early signs of improvement in the police response to retail crime and according to data collected by the NPCC from a dip sample of forces in December 2023, police attended 60% of crimes reported by retailers where violence had been used, with 16% of forces sampled reporting 100% attendance to this type of incident: Policing Retail Crime Action Plan shows early impact (npcc.police.uk).


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants: Stoke-on-Trent
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Jonathan Gullis (Conservative - Stoke-on-Trent North)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of illegal migrants were (a) in Stoke-on-Trent and (b) housed in hotels in Stoke-on-Trent in the last 12 months; and how many have been removed since October 2023.

Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)

The Home Office publishes data on irregular arrivals to the UK in the ‘Irregular migration to the UK statistics’ release. Data on detected irregular arrivals is published in table Irr_01 and data on returns of small boat arrivals is published in table Irr_02e of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK summary tables’, with the latest data up to the end of December 2023. Data on all returns is published in table Ret_D01 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’ as part of the ‘Immigration system statistics’ quarterly release.

These statistics should not be used to infer the size of the irregular population in the UK, nor the total number of people entering the UK irregularly. The location of irregular arrivals is not published. However, the Home Office does publish data on asylum seekers in receipt of support by local authority, some of whom will have entered the UK through irregular methods, in table Asy_D11 of the ‘Asylum and resettlement data tables’ as part of the ‘Immigration system statistics’ quarterly release.


Written Question
Humberside Police: Burglary
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Greg Knight (Conservative - East Yorkshire)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has had discussions with Humberside police on the pledge that a police officer will attend every burgled home.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

The Crime Survey for England and Wales data shows a 56% fall in domestic burglaries when comparing the year ending September 2023 with year ending March 2010. This is clearly good news; however, we recognise the impact domestic burglary can have on individuals and communities and we are committed to tackling and preventing this crime.

The public rightly expects that the police will visit them when a home burglary has been committed, which is why we welcome the announcement made by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) on 8 June 2023 that all 43 police forces in England and Wales have been implementing this attendance policy since March 2023. https://news.npcc.police.uk/releases/police-now-attending-scene-of-every-home-burglary.

The police commitment to attend home burglaries is supported by specific College of Policing good practice guidance on conducting residential burglary investigations: https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/residential-burglary.

We continue to liaise with Humberside Police and the NPCC who play a key role in tackling burglary through an array of different forums, including the Residential Burglary Taskforce and the National Policing Board. We are also working with police leaders across England and Wales to ensure forces are making their attendance data available to the public.

HMICFRS will be doing an inspection on Investigations shortly.


Written Question
Heathrow Airport: Immigration Controls
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2024 to Question 15335 on Heathrow Airport: Immigration Controls, if he will publish the Equality Impact Assessments produced for the (a) Heathrow Change Programme and (b) proposed roster system.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

An Equality Impact Assessment on the Heathrow Change Programme was published electronically to departmental trade unions on 4 August 2023.

An Equality Impact Assessment on the proposed roster was published electronically to departmental trade unions on 13 September 2023.


Written Question
Asylum: Hotels
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing exit plans from hotel accommodation to give settled residents 56 days notice.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

Since September 2023, all individuals receive a minimum of 28 days’ support (including accommodation) after being issued with a Biometric Residence Permit (BRP). There are no current plans to extend the 28 days prescribed in legislation due to the huge pressures on the asylum system.

We offer move on support to all individuals through Migrant Help or their partner organisation. This includes providing advice on accessing the labour market, on applying for Universal Credit and signposting to local authorities for assistance with housing. Individuals do not need to wait for their BRP to make a claim for benefits and are encouraged to do so as early as possible if they require them.

We work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to ensure the right asylum decision data is being shared with local authorities to enable effective planning and to lessen the impact on existing homelessness and rough sleeping pressures. Our accommodation providers are directly working with local authorities to notify them when an individual is due to have their asylum support ended. We are working with our partners, including local authorities, to provide timely notification of key events that impact them. We are working with our Strategic Migration Partners (SMPs) to facilitate regional sessions with councils and to share data.

We are also utilising Home Office Liaison Officers (HOLOs) to replicate part of the Afghan resettlement move on process. We have been working in three local authority areas since December 2023; Glasgow, Brent and Hillingdon. This has now been expanded to Manchester and Liverpool.


Written Question
Asylum: Weaver Vale
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Mike Amesbury (Labour - Weaver Vale)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when his Department plans to end the use of hotels in Weaver Vale constituency for (a) adults and (b) children seeking asylum.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

By the end of this month, we will have successfully closed 100 hotels. We continue to work with accommodation providers on closing further hotels across the estate and will write to local authorities and MPs when a decision to close a site has been made.


Written Question
Bassem Abudagga
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Marquess of Lothian (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking in the case of the Palestinian academic Bassem Abudagga, currently studying for his PhD at York St John University, to expedite the visa application process so that his wife and two young children can come from Gaza to the UK.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

We strive to conclude cases within the published guidance and information on study processing times and service standards can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/visa-decision-waiting-times-applications-outside-the-uk#faster.

Unfortunately, UKVI cannot comment on individual cases or provide information regarding UK visa applications via this channel.


Written Question
Asylum
Friday 22nd March 2024

Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims have been successfully made by citizens of (a) Israel, (b) the United States, (c) Canada, (d) New Zealand, (e) Australia, (f) Germany, (g) Spain, (h) France and (i) Italy in each of the last five years.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications received, and the initial decisions on claims, is published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. This data includes nationality breakdowns.

Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. The latest data relates to 31 December 2023. Data up to the end of March 2024 will be published on 23 May 2024.

Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.