Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 20 November (HL2506), how many people were permitted to enter the United Kingdom after declaring previous convictions in each of the last four years; and what specific offences or penalties result in an automatic bar to entry.
Answered by Lord Bates
To obtain the number of people who were permitted to enter the UK after declaring a previous conviction, could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
A non-EEA national who is sentenced to a period of imprisonment of 4 years or more in the UK or overseas will be automatically be refused entry indefinitely. Those sentenced to less than 4 years will be refused entry for a period of 5 or
10 years, depending on the length of their sentence. There are also discretionary grounds for refusal for anyone who is considered to be non-conducive to the public good based on character, conduct or associations, persistent offenders or those who have committed offences causing serious harm.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what financial support is available for police officers in Northern Ireland who have had to leave their homes due to security issues, including receipt of death threats, and have been forced to incur debt as a result, through the Scheme for the Purchase of Evacuated Dwellings, negative equity or any other cost or loss through no fault of their own.
Answered by Lord Bates
This is a devolved matter and is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Department of Justice and Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
Asked by: Lord Morrow (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they plan to take to ensure that persons preparing to enter Northern Ireland from another country, and who intend to remain for any length of time, are required to declare previous criminal convictions and sentences in their native, or any other, countries, and that such declarations are cross-checked with those countries before entry to Northern Ireland is approved.
Answered by Lord Bates
Those requiring entry clearance are already required to declare any criminal convictions as a part of the application process. Where an applicant has been convicted and received a prison sentence, this may lead to a mandatory refusal of entry clearance to the UK.
Her Majesty's Government is focused on improving our access to overseas criminality information and participates in several key EU information exchange mechanisms such as the European Criminal Records System (ECRIS) which has increased this capability, enabling us to remove and prevent the re-entry of EU offenders. The UK is also scheduled to join the Schengen Information System (SIS II) at the end of this year which will further strengthen our borders. ECRIS and SIS II are included in the package of 35 EU justice and home affairs measures that the Government is seeking to remain party to after 1 December, under Protocol 36 of the Treaty of Lisbon.
We are also leading efforts within the EU to share data on serious offenders, and have signed a number of Information Sharing Agreements with international partners to increase the availability and speed of criminal records exchange.