Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of how many individuals have died attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats in each month since January 2018.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office is aware of a total of 42 persons known to have died while attempting Channel crossings in small boats since January 2018:
August 2019 – 2 deaths reported
October 2019 – 2 death reported
August 2020 – 1 death reported
October 2020 – 5 deaths reported
February 2021 – 1 death reported
August 2021 – 1 death reported
November 2021 – 29 deaths reported
January 2022 – 1 death reported
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the stories published on the website of the Voluntary Returns Service on 21 October are representative of the experiences most users have with the service.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Data on the number of voluntary returns is published quarterly at table Ret_01 of the returns summary dataset, which is attached. Data on voluntary returns are subject to upward revision, so comparisons over time should be made with caution. In some cases, individuals who have been told to leave the UK will not notify the Home Office of their departure from the UK. In such cases, it can take some time for the Home Office to become aware of such a departure and update the system. As a result, data for more recent periods will initially undercount the total number of returns. ‘Other verified returns’ are particularly affected by this.
Information requested which is not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, for each year since 2010, (1) how many staff have supported the Voluntary Returns Service, (2) how much the service has cost, and (3) how many complaints about the service were received.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Data on the number of voluntary returns is published quarterly at table Ret_01 of the returns summary dataset, which is attached. Data on voluntary returns are subject to upward revision, so comparisons over time should be made with caution. In some cases, individuals who have been told to leave the UK will not notify the Home Office of their departure from the UK. In such cases, it can take some time for the Home Office to become aware of such a departure and update the system. As a result, data for more recent periods will initially undercount the total number of returns. ‘Other verified returns’ are particularly affected by this.
Information requested which is not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many individuals have sought to return to their country of nationality via the Voluntary Returns Service in each year since 2010; and what was the average period between contacting the service and the individual being returned to their country of nationality in each of those years.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Data on the number of voluntary returns is published quarterly at table Ret_01 of the returns summary dataset, which is attached. Data on voluntary returns are subject to upward revision, so comparisons over time should be made with caution. In some cases, individuals who have been told to leave the UK will not notify the Home Office of their departure from the UK. In such cases, it can take some time for the Home Office to become aware of such a departure and update the system. As a result, data for more recent periods will initially undercount the total number of returns. ‘Other verified returns’ are particularly affected by this.
Information requested which is not contained within this published data is not routinely captured. To capture numbers would require a manual trawl of data and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 21 September (HL2245, HL2247), what “operational commercial improvement opportunities” were identified; and when the 2020 review of previous charges will be published.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Reducing the email and call fees improved the accessibility of our services, as well as our customers experience in contacting UKVI. The previous charges were viewed as relatively high and led to customer dissatisfaction. The change in fees coincided with the launch of the new points based system meaning call volumes increased and more customers would benefit from the fee reduction.
There are no plans to publish the review of previous charges.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 20 September (HL2246), how many of the total number of 658 complaints were received each month since November 2019; and what assessment they made of the value of confirming the amounts of compensation made as part of monitoring the delivery of this contract.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The total number of complaints regarding Teleperformance made to HMPO from 2019 to current date is shown in the table below broken down by month.
To clarify, the previous Lords question HL2246, provided confirmed volumes for the current year, showing the total number of complaints regarding Teleperformance made to HMPO relating to passports.
The data regarding compensation for these specific cases is not held in a reportable format and therefore it could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
Jan | 34 | 28 | 32 | 110 |
Feb | 30 | 26 | 44 | 146 |
March | 42 | 30 | 40 | 112 |
April | 62 | 0 | 48 | 56 |
May | 58 | 6 | 42 | 70 |
June | 54 | 14 | 40 | 54 |
July | 72 | 32 | 62 | 12 |
August | 54 | 50 | 116 | 26 |
Sept | 32 | 28 | 84 | 62 |
Oct | 48 | 26 | 144 |
|
Nov | 22 | 18 | 164 |
|
Dec | 18 | 42 | 134 |
|
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 31 August (HL2041), what was the UK's Integration percentage of the UK's total funding from the EU's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund annually since 2010; and what was the Integration percentage of all other countries receiving funding from the EU's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund annually since 2010.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Since 2010 the UK Govt has funded a total of 156 projects, through the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and its predecessor Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows (SOLID).
On an average annual basis during this period, £8.17m has been paid out to integration projects.
In April 2022 the EU extended AMIF by 12 months to 31.12.24.
The UK’s integration percentage of the AMIF Fund is 26.8%. This information is not broken down annually as grants are awarded across the whole programming period and for up to 3 years.
The EU does not publish information on AMIF utilisation across all Member States but requires each individual countries to publish their own data. It is therefore not possible to calculate the UK utilisation rate as a percentage of the whole AMIF EU fund.
The UK’s latest awards information and AMIF National Programme can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 31 August (HL2040), how many projects have been funded annually since 2010; how much have those projects been funded for annually since 2010; and how much longer will the UK continue to receive funding from the EU's Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Since 2010 the UK Govt has funded a total of 156 projects, through the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) and its predecessor Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows (SOLID).
On an average annual basis during this period, £8.17m has been paid out to integration projects.
In April 2022 the EU extended AMIF by 12 months to 31.12.24.
The UK’s integration percentage of the AMIF Fund is 26.8%. This information is not broken down annually as grants are awarded across the whole programming period and for up to 3 years.
The EU does not publish information on AMIF utilisation across all Member States but requires each individual countries to publish their own data. It is therefore not possible to calculate the UK utilisation rate as a percentage of the whole AMIF EU fund.
The UK’s latest awards information and AMIF National Programme can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 21 September (HL1651), when they anticipate the information concerning how many victims of modern day slavery have been issued with an overseas domestic worker visa that is “not currently available” will be made available.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The data as requested is still not available.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Sharpe of Epsom on 21 September (HL2171), what plans they have to provide data in a reportable format on the number of test centres delivering tests each month.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Information on the number of test centres administering Life in the UK tests each month and the number of Life in the UK tests sat each month in 2019 – 2022 is not available in a reportable format
There are 38 Life in the UK test centres in the UK. The number of test centres delivering tests in a particular month varies in line with demand. If no tests have been booked at a particular centre, the centre will remain closed. Customers are given the option to book an appointment at all 38 test centres during the appointment booking process.
The number of tests taken each quarter in relation to citizenship and settlement applications can be found here Visas and Citizenship data: Q2 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).