Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why no reason is given to inward travellers for being held for 6 hours; why they are offered no food or drink during such detention; and why no apology is offered when nothing untoward has been found in their travel to the UK.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A passenger remains liable to examination on arrival in the United Kingdom until all necessary enquiries have been concluded and a decision is made on their application for permission to enter or admission.
Anyone detained beyond two hours is detained in compliance with the relevant guidance and legislation (notably The Short Term Holding Facility Rules 2018). The detained person is informed of their bail rights and reasons for their detention, and this is explained in a language that they understand.
Temperature controlled food was temporarily withdrawn from BF managed facilities during 2023 whilst we implemented a new training and governance procedure to ensure we were complaint with current food standards. Throughout this period, we followed Government guidance, continuing to serve water, hot drinks and snacks.
We always look to minimise detention as far as possible; however, the power to detain must be retained in the interests of maintaining effective immigration control.
It would not be appropriate for Border Force to apologise for conducting legitimate border security checks.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what procedures Border Force has in place to learn lessons from incidents of unnecessary detention or of the loss of paper-work such that a complaint takes 11 months to process.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
A Transformation Programme of work is currently underway to reduce the time taken to process incoming complaints within service level agreement. Part of the programme includes identifying and sharing lessons learned to improve the overall service at the border and monitor detention related complaints.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints to Border Force are not answered within the service standard of 20 days.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The latest transparency data showing performance against service standards in relation to replies to customer complaints for UKVI, Immigration Enforcement and Border Force is available at the following: Customer service operations data: Q3 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Bar Council and Law Society about the potential use of UK lawyers in Rwanda to advise on asylum claims.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Following the signing of the new Treaty between the UK and Rwanda, we are continuing to work to strengthen this Partnership. We are working with the Government of Rwanda to see where any UK expertise or support would be beneficial. More details on this will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the proposed treaty with Rwanda, announced on 15 November, will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny in accordance with the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Treaties the Government wishes to ratify are subject to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. We will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings have taken place of the Monitoring Committee set up under the (Rwandan) Migration and Economic Development Partnership; and whether its minutes will be published.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
A full meeting of the Monitoring Committee is being planned and details on this will be set out in due course. As set out in the terms of reference, the Monitoring Committee will produce a summary report for publication once a year.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential benefits of making public health a licensing objective by amending the Licensing Act 2003.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government has no plans to introduce Health as a Licensing Objective at this time.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Baroness Williams of Trafford to all peers on 2 March regarding the Nationality and Borders Bill and offshoring, whether any such arrangement with a third country would require a treaty.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Legislation in the Nationality and Borders Bill does not in itself enable overseas asylum processing; we need a deal with a likeminded partner for that. I will not tie the hands of our negotiators by commenting on the content nor form of a deal, this is a matter for the negotiating table.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the new Alcohol Strategy will be published.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
We are considering the next steps on alcohol policy.
We continue to take action to improve local intelligence, establish effective local partnerships and equip police and local authorities with the right powers to take effective action against alcohol-related crime and harms in the night time economy. Current action to tackle alcohol-related harms includes working to address alcohol related domestic abuse through a training package for frontline professionals with the charity Against Violence and Abuse.
Asked by: Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to extend the Licensing Act 2003 to apply airside at airports.
Answered by Baroness Williams of Trafford - Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government has publicly committed to issue a Call for Evidence on airside alcohol licensing.
The Call for Evidence will allow the Government to assess the true scale of the problem of drunk and disruptive airline passengers, the extent to which existing statutory powers and other measures are used to address the problem as well as impact the extension of the Licensing Act 2003 to airside premises at international airports in England and Wales could have on reducing alcohol-related disruptive passenger behaviour. The Call for Evidence will be issued shortly.