Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is (1) the average compensation payment under the Windrush Compensation schemes for those wrongly deported, and (2) the compensation payment now being proposed for those sub-postmasters wrongly imprisoned as a result of Post Office action.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Data on how much compensation has been paid by the Windrush Compensation Scheme is published as part of the regular transparency data release. The latest data release can be found here, covering the period up to end of November 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-compensation-scheme-data-november-2023. Data on average payments made to individuals suffering specific losses is not reported on regularly.
Individuals who were wrongly imprisoned due to errors caused by the Horizon system will become eligible for a £600,000 up-front payment, or alternatively they can choose to have their claim fully assessed via the individual claim assessment process.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Benyon on 27 November where he stated that they have "nearly completed the 2,700-mile King Charles III England Coast Path", by what date was the path completed, or will be completed.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Work on the King Charles III England Coast Path is progressing with over 2600 miles approved and 1040 miles now open to the public. At 2,700 miles, when complete it will be the longest waymarked and maintained coastal walking route in the world.
We committed in the Environmental Improvement Plan, published in January 2023, for the path to be fully walkable by the end of 2024. We continue to work at pace towards this commitment.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many Rwandans have (1) applied for asylum, and (2) been granted asylum, in each year since 2010.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office publishes data on asylum applications and initial decisions, by nationality and year, in the Immigration System Statistics quarterly release on gov.uk. These statistics are published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D02 of the asylum & resettlement detailed datasets which can be downloaded via the table attached.
The latest data relates to the end of June 2023.
Asked by: Lord Rosser (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what caps are in place for work-related visas, and how they are enforced.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The UK’s Points Based system Skilled Worker and Temporary Worker routes are not capped, with the exception of the Seasonal Worker route which is specifically designed to support the UK horticulture sector. A sector in which growers typically require higher volumes of labour, for relatively short-term periods of time, in line with seasonal production peaks.
The Seasonal Worker route currently has 45,000 visas available. A further 10,000 places will be released if there is sufficient evidence of need, and contingent with improvements in worker welfare. A separate quota of 2,000 places is also available to support the poultry sector in the run up to Christmas. These allocations are divided amongst the licenced Scheme Operators, in line with published policy, and are managed via the Home Office’s Sponsor Management System.
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 Murray of Blidworth on 4 January (HL4305), what assessment they have made of the differing fees for differing citizenship applications despite the same unit cost; where the additional income is allocated; and what the additional income is used for.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Explanatory Memorandum to the Immigration and Nationality Fees Regulations 2014 sets out the rationale for the differential between fees for naturalisation and adult and child registration. Different fees are applied to registration and naturalisation fee because a concession is applied to registration provisions as they cater for people closely connected with the UK with sufficiently strong or established links to be able to register as a British Citizen. The fee for a child registering as a British Citizen is lower than the fee charged to an adult, as the entitlements conferred on a successful applicant are fewer.
Fees for immigration and nationality applications are set in line with the charging principles set out in the Immigration Act 2014, which include the cost of processing the application, the wider costs of running the Migration and Borders system and the benefits enjoyed by a successful application.
All income generated above the estimated unit cost is used to fund the wider Migration and Borders system.
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 1 August 2022 (HL1923), whether they have now produced a forecast for 2023 of numbers of small boats crossing the English Channel; and if so, (1) how such a forecast was produced, and (2) when that forecasting started.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The Home Office considers a range of potential arrival volumes for the coming year as part of its planning for these dangerous, illegal and unnecessary crossings. However, these are planning scenarios, not forecasts or predictions, and there are no plans to publish them. In 2022, over 45,000 people arrived in the UK as a result of these crossings.
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 Murray of Blidworth on 19 December 2022 (HL4037), whether there is a cap on the number of asylum seekers per 100,000 resident population in the Full Dispersal Model.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Currently there is no cap on the number of asylum seekers per 100,000 of the resident population. However, to support full dispersal plans have been developed in partnership with local government across the 9 England regions and Scotland and Wales, to agree a more equitable spread of dispersed accommodation across the UK. These plans ensure that no individual area is asked to support more than 0.5 per cent of its resident population.
Northern Ireland is not excluded from dispersal; they accommodate asylum seekers who arrive and claim asylum in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is not listed under the Full Dispersal Model as we don’t routinely transport people across the Irish Sea. However, they do have an active role in helping us meet our statutory obligations.
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 Murray of Blidworth on 19 December 2022 (HL4037), why the Full Dispersal Model only applies in England, Wales and Scotland.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Currently there is no cap on the number of asylum seekers per 100,000 of the resident population. However, to support full dispersal plans have been developed in partnership with local government across the 9 England regions and Scotland and Wales, to agree a more equitable spread of dispersed accommodation across the UK. These plans ensure that no individual area is asked to support more than 0.5 per cent of its resident population.
Northern Ireland is not excluded from dispersal; they accommodate asylum seekers who arrive and claim asylum in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is not listed under the Full Dispersal Model as we don’t routinely transport people across the Irish Sea. However, they do have an active role in helping us meet our statutory obligations.
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 Murray of Blidworth on 3 January (HL4343), on how many days on average it takes for an immigration decision relating to issuing a Biometric Residence Permit to be (1) taken, and (2) received; and how many Biometric Residence Permits took more than 48 hours after an immigration decision to be received in (a) 2021, and (b) 2022.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
The waiting times for BRPs are dictated by the BRP production and delivery processes.
We aim to deliver a BRP within 7 working days of the immigration decision. BRPs are produced within 48 hours of the production request being made and are collected by our secure delivery partner the same day who attempt to deliver the BRPs within 48 hours of receipt. This equates to a minimum of 5 working days from date of production request being made to delivery of the BRP.
BRP production data does not form part of the Transparency Data and is not publicly 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 Murray of Blidworth on 21 December 2022 (HL4067), what estimate they have made, if any, of (1) the expected costs of deportations of Albanian nationals who have travelled to the UK via small boats, and (2) the expected numbers of Albanian citizens who will be deported in 2023.
Answered by Lord Murray of Blidworth
Costs for individual flights will vary based on a number of different factors and are regularly reviewed to ensure that best value for money is balanced against the need to remove those individuals with no right to remain in the UK.
We do not routinely disclose commercial or operational information relating to individual charter flights. Nor do we provide pre-emptive figures for the number of individuals who are expected to be removed from the UK.
The Home Office publishes statistics on all types of removals from the UK.