Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what definition of British Values is used for the purposes of the Prevent Programme.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The Prevent Strategy defines our fundamental values as including democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and beliefs. It is important to articulate British Values as being core and fundamental to life in Britain. They are not uniquely British, but they are the things we value in Britain.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many firefighting-rescue platforms that can ascend to 90 metres in height are in service with fire services (a) in London and (b) elsewhere.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office does not collect information to this level of detail.
The latest published information on numbers of firefighting rescue platforms can be found in Table 1403 of the “Fire and rescue authorities: operational statistics bulletin for England 2015 to 2016” available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fire-statistics-data-tables, but the category ‘Aerials (inc. pump/aerial combined)’ does not give a breakdown of the working height of the appliance.
Data for 2017 will be published later in the year.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many non-EU students were unaccounted for at the end of their courses in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Over time the data obtained through exit checks will contribute to the statistical picture.
The Home Office is continuing to assess and analyse elements of the exit check data collected in relation to specific cohorts to understand the extent to which estimates provided are statistically robust. This level of detail is not yet available.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether international arrest warrants exist for the former Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and members of his family for (a) war crimes, (b) crimes against humanity and (c) other related offences.
Answered by Ben Wallace
As a matter of long standing policy and practice, the UK will neither confirm nor deny that an extradition request has been received until the person concerned is arrested in relation to the request. Further, the UK will neither confirm nor deny whether any requests have made been via Interpol for the arrest of an individual.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what role she has in discussions with the EU on the UK leaving the EU in the areas of justice, home affairs and co-operation on counter-terrorism, drugs and human trafficking.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Prime Minister will lead our negotiations for leaving the EU and will be supported on a day-to-day basis by the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU). The Home Office remains the lead Department on counter-terrorism, drugs, human trafficking and many areas of justice and home affairs policy. I, along with my Department, will continue to work closely with colleagues across Government to support the UK’s wider exit negotiation strategy.
Asked by: Lord Soames of Fletching (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment her Department has made of the efficiency and effective working of E-passport checking machines at Heathrow Airport.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
In the last 12 months the number of egates at Heathrow has been significantly increased, rising from 25 to 55 across the 4 terminals, with a further 9 due to go live at T5 in January 2017. In the last 12 months nearly 9 million passengers have used the gates at Heathrow. The gates continue to meet their agreed service level agreements for availability. Efficiencies are derived from the fact passengers using a bank of 5 gates can be monitored by a single officer and by the egates offering a quicker service to passengers through the border. Supplementary measures are also in place to ensure Border Force Security objectives are met.