Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 2 May (HL7140), which states that the Home Secretary’s comments reported in the Daily Mail on 1 April about sexual abuse of females by perpetrators described as “almost all British-Pakistani, who hold cultural attitudes completely incompatible with British values”, related only to the findings of local reviews into child sexual exploitation cases in Rotherham, Telford and Rochdale, whether they will ask the Daily Mail to publish this clarification.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Government is clear that child sexual exploitation is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion. The Home Secretary’s comments relate to the findings of local reviews into child sexual exploitation cases in Rotherham, Telford and Rochdale, which showed that perpetrators in those cases were overwhelmingly British-Pakistani men, and the victims were white girls. However, of course child sexual abuse offenders come from every walk of life, every ethnicity, and every background – as do their victims.
The Home Secretary has made her comments clear, including through the Written Answer mentioned and through her publication in The Spectator on 22 April 2023.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the statements that “Research has found that group-based CSE offenders are most commonly White” and “there is no factor which makes any group of children uniquely vulnerable” in the Home Office report Group based Child Sexual Exploitation: Characteristics of Offending, published in December 2020, what new evidence they received following that report which led the Home Secretary to claim that perpetrators of child sexual exploitation are “almost all British-Pakistani” and that victims are “overwhelmingly white girls from disadvantaged or troubled backgrounds”.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
We know that child sexual exploitation is not exclusive to any single culture, community, race or religion. The Home Secretary’s comments relate to the findings of local reviews into child sexual exploitation cases in Rotherham, Telford and Rochdale, which showed that perpetrators in those cases were overwhelmingly British-Pakistani men and the victims were white girls.
The 2020 Home Office report on group-based Child Sexual Exploitation set out the best evidence on ethnicity, age, offender networks, the context in which these crimes are committed and implications for national and local policy. As noted within the report, beyond those specific high-profile cases, the academic literature highlights significant limitations to what can be said about links between ethnicity and group-based child sexual exploitation.
It is essential for police and local authorities to have a good understanding of offender characteristics and the drivers of child sexual exploitation in their areas, so that they can uncover and tackle offending effectively. That is why the Prime Minister and Home Secretary have announced a number of steps to improve our data on, and our response to, group-based child sexual exploitation, including a new Taskforce, regional analysts in every police region, a new Complex and Organised Child Abuse Database hosted by the Taskforce and the roll out of the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme, which brings together force-level, regional, and national data and intelligence.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what legal asylum or immigration routes there are for Afghan academics who worked with visiting British academics under the Development Partnerships in Higher Education (DelPHE) scheme, and who have subsequently been threatened by the Taliban regime, but have had their application to come to the UK under Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) rejected.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The UK has made one of the largest commitments to support Afghanistan of any country and, so far, we have brought around 23,000 people affected by the situation in Afghanistan to safety. This includes more than 6,300 vulnerable Afghan nationals through the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).
This is one of the most ambitious resettlement schemes in our country’s history and we are proud to offer a safe and legal route to those affected by events in Afghanistan.
Those who are not offered resettlement under the ACRS or ARAP including Afgan academics will need to apply to come to the UK under our existing economic or family migration rules. Further information can be found on the website at:
https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration
Whilst the UK has made a generous resettlement commitment, we must bear in mind the capacity of the UK to resettle people is not unlimited and therefore difficult decisions about who will be prioritised for resettlement have to be made.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they determine whether asylum seekers who arrive in the UK without documentation are genuinely from a country not on their list of safe countries.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office employs various processes to establish the identities of asyum claimants, in circumstances where it is not sufficiently evidenced in reliable documentation. These processes include checks of all relevant Home Office databases (such as biographic and biometric checks of previous visa applications), biometric checks with partners in the United States and other countries, and – where there are concerns about a person’s claimed origin - robust nationality testing may be carried out during a substantive asylum interview. The checks and the testing employed during interview may be applied to any person claiming asylum, including those from the ‘safe country’ list.
If any documents are presented by claimants in support of either their identity or their claim, the reliance to place on them is assessed in the round, alongside these checks and wider evidence in the case, in line with our published guidance: ‘Assessing credibility and refugee status’.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to speed up the processing of applications for asylum.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office are currently dealing with a sustained high level of new asylum claims, including from those who have recently arrived on small boats, which is creating additional pressures on the asylum system.
We are, nevertheless, committed to ensuring asylum claims are considered without unnecessary delay and ensuring that those who need protection are granted as soon as possible so that they can start to integrate and rebuild their lives.
The Home Office have an asylum transformation programme that will speed up and simplify decision making, reduce the time people spend in the asylum system and decrease the number of people who are awaiting an interview or decision. These initiatives include conducting shorter, more focused interviews or omitting interviews where it is appropriate to do so, streamlining decision templates for grants and refusals and focusing on improving quality to ensure decisions are right first time.
We are also increasing the use of technology, improving screening so that more information is captured as early as possible, and have extensive recruitment and training plans in place, including career progression options that will aid the retention of staff.
Asked by: Lord Kamall (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the (1) shortest, and (2) longest, time taken to process applications for asylum.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office is unable to state what the shortest and longest processing time is for asylum applications as this information is not published and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost because it would require a manual search through individual records.
However, the Home Office does publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration, for main applicants only. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics: List of tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The Home Office also publish data on the percentage of asylum applications processed within 6 months of the date of claim. Data showing the number of asylum claims received from 2014 – 2022 that were processed within 6 months can be found at Asy_01 of the Asylum Transparency Data: Immigration and protection data: Q3 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).