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Written Question
Teleperformance: Complaints
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many complaints they have received about Teleperformance overseas helplines, and what compensation has been awarded to customers, in each month since 2022.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The number of complaints made to the UKVI international helpline, managed by Teleperformance, are found in the table below.

We do not hold the data relating to how much compensation has been issued in relation to contact made to the UKVI Contact Centre, as this is held by Teleperformance.

Teleperformance collect call and email charges on behalf of UKVI. Where any refunds are to be issued in relation to complaints made against the services, it is appropriate for Teleperformance to manage these refund transactions.


Written Question
Undocumented Migrants
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the current number of individuals who are in the United Kingdom illegally.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

By its very nature, it is not possible to know the exact size of the illegal population, or the number of people who arrive illegally, and so we do not seek to make any official estimates of the illegal population. In June 2019, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published a note on ‘measuring illegal migration’.

The Home Office does publish statistics on irregular arrivals to the UK as part of the ‘Irregular migration to the UK’ quarterly statistics release on gov.uk. However, this does not indicate the number of irregular migrants currently in the UK.


Written Question
Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration
Wednesday 21st February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when all Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration reports submitted to the Home Office will be published.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The department takes every inspection report seriously and considers the findings and recommendations carefully. This can sometimes mean the publication process is longer than expected. We will publish the reports in due course.


Written Question
HM Passport Office: Cybersecurity
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many data breaches have been reported by HM Passport Office's security team since 2020.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

Between 1 January 2020 and 6 February 2024, His Majesty’s Passport Office reported 15,218 data breaches across passport and certificate services, which includes those resulting from a partner delivery error.

This figure is approximately 0.05% of the applications and orders handled by HM Passport Office and the General Register Office within the same period.


Written Question
Immigration: Enforcement
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many community events have Immigration Enforcement's National Community Engagement Team annually (1) held, and (2) hosted; and what were the annual costs of these events.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The National Community Engagement Team have held and hosted two community events, both in this financial year. The annual costs for these are £20,707, which includes £3,451 VAT.


Written Question
Independent Examiner of Complaints: Annual Reports
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Home Office's Independent Examiner of Complaints service, and whether the Office of the Independent Examiner of Complaints will publish annual reports.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The Independent Examiner of Complaints (IEC) is operating within its terms of reference. The Memorandum of Understanding between the Home Office and the IEC states that the IEC will publish an annual report.


Written Question
Borders: Digital Technology
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government when the Digital Services at the Border programme will be completed, and what estimate they have made of its total cost.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

DSAB will complete in spring this year. The cost of bringing all the world leading, security features that it delivers will have been £177m since the programme reset in 2020.


Written Question
British Nationality: Assessments
Tuesday 20th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many unannounced inspections of Life in the UK test centres have taken place each month since November 2022; whether any test centres have been closed since November 2022; and, if so, for what reason.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The information requested is not held in a reportable format.


Written Question
Agriculture: Vacancies
Wednesday 14th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the level of labour shortages in the farming sector; what measures they are taking to manage such shortages; and what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of such measures.

Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra is working closely with our food and farming sectors and across Government, to understand labour demand and supply, and help our world-leading growers, farmers and food producers access the labour they need, including both permanent and seasonal workforce requirements.

To reduce the risk of seasonal labour shortages in horticulture and the poultry sector, the Government announced last May that there would be 45,000 Seasonal Worker visas for the horticulture sector in 2024, with a further 2000 for seasonal poultry workers, ensuring these sectors can plan their workforce needs for the year ahead with confidence. This provides sufficient visas for growers to access all the workers they need, and if more visas are necessary within the year an additional 10,000 could be released. Reports on the Seasonal Worker visa route are available at GOV.UK.

To help support the issue of labour shortages and inform future decisions on labour across the sector, the Government commissioned John Shropshire to carry out an Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain throughout 2022 and 2023. John Shropshire’s Review considered how automation, domestic labour and migrant labour could contribute to tackling labour shortages in our sectors, including farming. This report was published on 30 June 2023 and the Government response – which will also be informed by the Review of Automation in Horticulture – is expected to be published in early 2024.

The Government response will consider all ten of the recommendations made in John Shropshire’s Review, covering the four themes of Recruitment & Retention, Skills, Data and Automation.

At the same time as the response, the Government will set out how it will support the sector to access the labour it needs alongside actions to reduce the sector’s reliance on migrant labour including via our work on automation and promoting domestic labour procurement and training.


Written Question
Health Services: Migrants
Tuesday 13th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much has been raised from the Immigration Health Surcharge has been received by (1) the NHS, and (2) by non-NHS bodies, in each year since 2015.

Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) income data is published annually in the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts. The income generated by the Home Office is distributed to the devolved health administrations for the purposes of health spending, under the Barnett Formula.

Please note that the IHS figure is made up of both Retained Income and Consolidated Funds. The IHS amounts for the financial years from 2015 to 2022 inclusive are as follows:

- £169,112,000 in 2015/16;

- £210,250,000 in 2016/17;

- £240,483,000 in 2017/18;

- £297,927,000 in 2018/19;

- £597,677,000 in 2019/20;

- £480,822,000 in 2020/21;

- £1,423,284,000 in 2021/22; and

- £1,706,112,000 in 2022/23.