Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there will be an alternative salary threshold for (1) recent graduates, (2) PhD holders, and (3) academics, following the planned increase to the salary threshold for skilled overseas workers.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Points Based System enables the Government to prioritise the skills and talent we need to help our economy grow and support our NHS, while encouraging investment in, and protecting, our own resident workforce. In arriving at this package of measures, we have been mindful of the need to balance the impacts on economic growth and the needs of the labour market. The Graduate route remains the best opportunity for international graduates from UK universities to find a job in the UK labour market, including through graduate programmes.
In due course, the Government will provide further details on the implementation of these measures (including on salaries and transitional arrangements), which are due to come in to force by Spring 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the increase to the salary threshold for skilled overseas workers (1) will only apply to cases submitted after the threshold introduction date, or (2) will apply to cases that have been submitted but have not yet been considered.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Points Based System enables the Government to prioritise the skills and talent we need to help our economy grow and support our NHS, while encouraging investment in, and protecting, our own resident workforce. In arriving at this package of measures, we have been mindful of the need to balance the impacts on economic growth and the needs of the labour market. The Graduate route remains the best opportunity for international graduates from UK universities to find a job in the UK labour market, including through graduate programmes.
In due course, the Government will provide further details on the implementation of these measures (including on salaries and transitional arrangements), which are due to come in to force by Spring 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the announcement of an increase to the salary threshold for skilled overseas workers, whether the salary threshold will be higher for people with children who are not British citizens.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Points Based System enables the Government to prioritise the skills and talent we need to help our economy grow and support our NHS, while encouraging investment in, and protecting, our own resident workforce. In arriving at this package of measures, we have been mindful of the need to balance the impacts on economic growth and the needs of the labour market. The Graduate route remains the best opportunity for international graduates from UK universities to find a job in the UK labour market, including through graduate programmes.
In due course, the Government will provide further details on the implementation of these measures (including on salaries and transitional arrangements), which are due to come in to force by Spring 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the announcement of an increase to the salary threshold for skilled overseas workers, whether the salary threshold will be higher for those seeking indefinite leave to remain.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Points Based System enables the Government to prioritise the skills and talent we need to help our economy grow and support our NHS, while encouraging investment in, and protecting, our own resident workforce. In arriving at this package of measures, we have been mindful of the need to balance the impacts on economic growth and the needs of the labour market. The Graduate route remains the best opportunity for international graduates from UK universities to find a job in the UK labour market, including through graduate programmes.
In due course, the Government will provide further details on the implementation of these measures (including on salaries and transitional arrangements), which are due to come in to force by Spring 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when in the spring the increase to the salary threshold for skilled overseas workers will come into effect; and whether a consultation will take place.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Points Based System enables the Government to prioritise the skills and talent we need to help our economy grow and support our NHS, while encouraging investment in, and protecting, our own resident workforce. In arriving at this package of measures, we have been mindful of the need to balance the impacts on economic growth and the needs of the labour market. The Graduate route remains the best opportunity for international graduates from UK universities to find a job in the UK labour market, including through graduate programmes.
In due course, the Government will provide further details on the implementation of these measures (including on salaries and transitional arrangements), which are due to come in to force by Spring 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what impact the planned increase to the salary threshold for skilled overseas workers will have on graduate programmes due to commence in September 2024.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Our Points Based System enables the Government to prioritise the skills and talent we need to help our economy grow and support our NHS, while encouraging investment in, and protecting, our own resident workforce. In arriving at this package of measures, we have been mindful of the need to balance the impacts on economic growth and the needs of the labour market. The Graduate route remains the best opportunity for international graduates from UK universities to find a job in the UK labour market, including through graduate programmes.
In due course, the Government will provide further details on the implementation of these measures (including on salaries and transitional arrangements), which are due to come in to force by Spring 2024.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the prison population in Wales.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
On 16 October, the Lord Chancellor announced additional, longer-term measures to reform the justice system and continue to address the prison capacity challenges. The Lord Chancellor’s measures apply to England and Wales and include:
o Extending the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) for foreign national offenders;
o Introducing a presumption that sentences of twelve months or less are suspended to reduce reoffending;
o Legislating to allow prisoners to be held in overseas prisons;
o Reviewing the incentives around early guilty pleas to save the courts time, spare victims the ordeal of giving evidence in court, and cut the number of people in our prisons on remand;
o Looking at options to tackle the injustice of the now abolished Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentence and how the licence period could be reduced to restore greater proportionality to the IPP sentence;
o Reviewing our Home Detention Curfew (HDC) policy to increase the number of prisoners eligible for this successful rehabilitative measure;
o Reviewing the use of recall for offenders on release who infringe the terms of their licence; and,
o A new annual statement on prison capacity and up to £400m of funding for more prison places (enough to buy 800 new Rapid Deployment Cells).
The Government will continue to carefully monitor the evolving situation with demand for prison places so that we can make sure we have the right approaches in place to maintain the capacity required for a safe and effective criminal justice system.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support female Welsh prisoners held in English prisons, both during and after their imprisonment, to reintegrate into the community.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
All women’s prisons have an embedded pre-release provision delivered by the Probation Service. The pre-release team liaise with the Community Probation Practitioner as allocated and support pre-release planning activity throughout the sentence. The teams will progress referrals that have been made to Commissioned Rehabilitative Service suppliers, including fast tracking services for women serving short sentences. This provision is provided for Welsh women in English prisons as part of the Women’s Pathfinder Whole System Approach (WSA), with a WSA Service Caseworker based in HMP Eastwood Park and Women's Partnership Integration Coordinators aligned to each Probation Delivery Unit area in Wales, helping to support inter-agency connection and coordination across women's services.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many women have been assisted by the Women’s Pathfinder Whole System Approach since its establishment in 2013.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
There was not a full Women’s Pathfinder Whole System Approach (WSA) service in place prior to 2019. Therefore, data does not exist for the number of women who have been assisted since 2013.
The commissioned Women’s Pathfinder WSA service in South Wales and Gwent went live in October 2019 and has assisted 4,117 women through referrals to the service from January 2020 to September 2023.
Asked by: Lord German (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government who will be representing the UK at the Global Refugee Forum.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Minister Mitchell represented the UK delegation at the Global Refugee Forum on 13th December.