Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the attrition rate for caseworkers at the Passport Office in 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The attrition rate for case-working staff only is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average waiting period for an individual entering the National Referral Mechanism awaiting a reasonable grounds decision (1) before, and (2) after, the introduction of the updated guidance that came into effect this year.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Reasonable Grounds decisions will be made as soon as possible following referral. Statistics on the timescales of Reasonable Grounds decisions for victims of modern slavery are not currently published.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidence they have regarding unaccompanied children seeking asylum that have gone missing while in temporary hotel accommodation; and what assessment they have made of any evidence of organised crime involvement in those disappearances.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The safety and wellbeing of those in our care is our primary concern. We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC) in emergency interim hotels are safe and supported whilst we seek urgent placements with a local authority. Young people are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of specialist social workers and nurses.
We have no power to detain UASC in hotels and we know some do go missing. Many of those who have gone missing are subsequently traced and located. Children’s movements in and out of hotels are monitored and recorded and they are accompanied by support workers when attending organised activities and social excursions off-site, or where specific vulnerabilities are identified.
There are many reasons why children go missing from care. This is also true of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children. It would be wrong to make generalisations regarding the reasons for this.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have signed agreements with any countries, other than Rwanda, to remove those seeking asylum in the UK and to process their asylum applications; and if so, what are those countries.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
We have not yet entered into any Third Country Asylum Processing (TCAP) agreements with any other countries.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the expected impact of their Illegal Migration Bill on victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The UK government remains committed to tackling the heinous crime of modern slavery and supporting victims. The Illegal Migration Bill will prevent people who come to the UK through illegal and dangerous journeys from accessing the provisions of the National Referral Mechanism.
It is right that the government takes steps to address the threat to public order posed by individuals making dangerous journeys that cause loss of life and are inherently unsafe, both for themselves and First Responders.
We support thousands of victims each year and will continue to do so following the implementation of the Illegal Migration Bill.
We are working on developing guidance regarding the operation of these measures, including any potential impacts and how they relate to victims of Modern Slavery, to be introduced when it is appropriate to do so once the Illegal Migration Bill has progressed through Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many asylum caseworkers were employed (1) 2021, (2) 2022, and (3) 2023; and what was the attrition rate of asylum caseworkers in each of those years.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The number of asylum decision makers employed by the Home Office each month from January 2020 to December 2022 can be found in the ASY_05 (M) tab of the published migration transparency data located here: Immigration and protection data: Q4 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Data for 2023 will be published in future releases.
The attrition rate of decision makers is not routinely published but have been released to the Home Affairs Select Committee. The response can be found here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/31774/documents/178754/default/
To reduce attrition rates and help maintain our decision-making experience we have also implemented a recruitment and retention allowance. We have already doubled our decision makers over the last 2 years, and we are continuing to recruit more. This will take our expected number of decision makers to 1,800 by summer 2023 and 2,500 by September 2023.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what they have plans to repeal the Vagrancy Act 1824; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government does agree that the Vagrancy Act is antiquated and not fit for purpose, and therefore we have committed to repealing it. We made that commitment during the passage of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. Our commitment to repealing it has always been dependent on introducing modern replacement legislation to ensure that police and other agencies continue to have the powers that they need to keep communities safe and protect vulnerable individuals.
I cannot give a specific date when we will bring the legislation in. We will bring forward suitable replacement legislation in a future legislative vehicle.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many new detention centres will be required in the event that the Illegal Migration Bill is enacted; and how many sites or locations they have identified for such centres so far.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
An economic impact assessment will be published for the Illegal Migration Bill in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Adams of Craigielea (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that people have access to a (1) new, or (2) renewed, passport during the period of five weeks of industrial action by Passport Office workers.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
His Majesty’s Passport Office are working to manage the impact of strike action, whilst ensuring they can continue to deliver vital services to the public, with comprehensive contingency plans in place.
There are currently no plans to change our guidance which states that it takes up to ten weeks to get a passport.