Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to improve the transparency and accountability of providers on their performance against the targets set under the Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility contract.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
AIRE is the new Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility service provided by Migrant Help. The AIRE contract contains a number of formal performance measures, including Key Performance Indicators, which provide a mechanism by which the effectiveness of contract delivery can be measured. These are monitored in formal monthly and quarterly contract governance meetings. Measures can be taken where performance falls short of the standards we set.
We are providing regular updates on performance, particularly in relation to call waiting times to Local Authorities and Voluntary Sector partners.
Further information about the performance measures within the contract can be found in the contracts, published here: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/028be8bb-3c69-494d-bfdd-59c2e1b34379?p=@UFQxUlRRPT0=NjJNT08=
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many unaccompanied child refugees have been resettled in the UK from elsewhere in Europe under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 in (a) total and (b) in (i) 2016, (ii) 2017, (iii) 2018, (iv) 2019 and (v) 2020 to date.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government remains fully committed to relocating the specified number of 480 unaccompanied children to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 (the Dubs Amendment) as soon as possible. Over 220 children were transferred to the UK under section 67 when the Calais camp was cleared in late 2016. Since then we have been making further progress with participating States, France, Greece and Italy, to refer more eligible children to move closer to achieving this commitment. We will publish further data on the transfers once we have fulfilled this commitment.
Meeting our obligations under section 67 is a complex task which has involved negotiating separate referral and transfer arrangements with each of the three participating States. These arrangements are crucial to the process and must operate within the confines of the participating States’ domestic legislation and policy.
The transfer of children is also dependent on the availability of appropriate local authority care placements. The Government is very grateful to local authorities who have offered placements for these children as well as those who continue to look after large numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The availability of placements for children arriving under section 67 has been affected by two issues. Firstly, by the high numbers of UASC who have arrived in the UK spontaneously in recent years – for example, in 2018, the UK received 3,063 asylum claims from unaccompanied children. This follows previous years which have seen similarly high numbers of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK – 3,254 in 2015, 3,290 in 2016 and 2,401 in 2017. According to the latest Department for Education statistics, there are more than 5,000 UASC in English local authorities alone – the highest figure in at least 10 years. Secondly, during this period, there has been increasing numbers of resident looked-after children being taken into local authority care, which has placed further pressure on local authorities.
Against this background, local authorities have continued to provide offers and the Government has made good progress towards meeting its obligations under section 67.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reasons the Government has not yet fulfilled its duty under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 to relocate 480 unaccompanied child refugees to the UK from elsewhere in Europe.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government remains fully committed to relocating the specified number of 480 unaccompanied children to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 (the Dubs Amendment) as soon as possible. Over 220 children were transferred to the UK under section 67 when the Calais camp was cleared in late 2016. Since then we have been making further progress with participating States, France, Greece and Italy, to refer more eligible children to move closer to achieving this commitment. We will publish further data on the transfers once we have fulfilled this commitment.
Meeting our obligations under section 67 is a complex task which has involved negotiating separate referral and transfer arrangements with each of the three participating States. These arrangements are crucial to the process and must operate within the confines of the participating States’ domestic legislation and policy.
The transfer of children is also dependent on the availability of appropriate local authority care placements. The Government is very grateful to local authorities who have offered placements for these children as well as those who continue to look after large numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The availability of placements for children arriving under section 67 has been affected by two issues. Firstly, by the high numbers of UASC who have arrived in the UK spontaneously in recent years – for example, in 2018, the UK received 3,063 asylum claims from unaccompanied children. This follows previous years which have seen similarly high numbers of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK – 3,254 in 2015, 3,290 in 2016 and 2,401 in 2017. According to the latest Department for Education statistics, there are more than 5,000 UASC in English local authorities alone – the highest figure in at least 10 years. Secondly, during this period, there has been increasing numbers of resident looked-after children being taken into local authority care, which has placed further pressure on local authorities.
Against this background, local authorities have continued to provide offers and the Government has made good progress towards meeting its obligations under section 67.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to fulfil the UK's duty under Section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 to relocate 480 unaccompanied child refugees to the UK from elsewhere in Europe.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government remains fully committed to relocating the specified number of 480 unaccompanied children to the UK under section 67 of the Immigration Act 2016 (the Dubs Amendment) as soon as possible. Over 220 children were transferred to the UK under section 67 when the Calais camp was cleared in late 2016. Since then we have been making further progress with participating States, France, Greece and Italy, to refer more eligible children to move closer to achieving this commitment. We will publish further data on the transfers once we have fulfilled this commitment.
Meeting our obligations under section 67 is a complex task which has involved negotiating separate referral and transfer arrangements with each of the three participating States. These arrangements are crucial to the process and must operate within the confines of the participating States’ domestic legislation and policy.
The transfer of children is also dependent on the availability of appropriate local authority care placements. The Government is very grateful to local authorities who have offered placements for these children as well as those who continue to look after large numbers of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). The availability of placements for children arriving under section 67 has been affected by two issues. Firstly, by the high numbers of UASC who have arrived in the UK spontaneously in recent years – for example, in 2018, the UK received 3,063 asylum claims from unaccompanied children. This follows previous years which have seen similarly high numbers of unaccompanied children arriving in the UK – 3,254 in 2015, 3,290 in 2016 and 2,401 in 2017. According to the latest Department for Education statistics, there are more than 5,000 UASC in English local authorities alone – the highest figure in at least 10 years. Secondly, during this period, there has been increasing numbers of resident looked-after children being taken into local authority care, which has placed further pressure on local authorities.
Against this background, local authorities have continued to provide offers and the Government has made good progress towards meeting its obligations under section 67.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many antisemitic crimes have been reported to the police in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office collects and publishes statistics on the number of Hate crime offences recorded by the police in England and Wales. Data on religious hate crimes are published in Table B1 in the Hate crime Data Tables and can be found here:
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timetable is for his Department to respond to it's consultation on the draft Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill; and what the timetable is for further steps to be taken in relation to that Bill.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
On 8 March we launched a 12 week public consultation on proposals for a landmark domestic abuse Bill and a supporting package of practical action to transform the response to domestic abuse. The consultation closed on 31 May. Over 3,200 responses to the consultation were received. The responses to the consultation are being considered and a draft Bill will be published later this session.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the timetable is for his Department to respond to it's consultation on the draft Domestic Violence and Abuse Bill; and what the timetable is for further steps to be taken in relation to that Bill.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
On 8 March we launched a 12 week public consultation on proposals for a landmark domestic abuse Bill and a supporting package of practical action to transform the response to domestic abuse. The consultation closed on 31 May. Over 3,200 responses to the consultation were received. The responses to the consultation are being considered and a draft Bill will be published later this session.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to integrate Kurdish refugees into UK society.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Kurdish refugees are able to access the same support to integrate into UK society as all refugees. Refugees are currently given the same access to the labour market and benefits as UK citizens, as well as access to English language training. Refugees are also eligible to receive a dedicated integration loan designed to help refugees integrate into UK society by offering financial support towards housing costs, employment and training.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which organisations and bodies have requested permission to access Dungavel Immigration Removal Centre in each year since 2015-16; when each such organisation and body sought such permission; which of those requests were denied; and for what reason those requests were denied.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Since January 2016, when visits records were established, management information shows that no organisation or body has had its request to visit Dungavel House immigration removal centre declined.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applicants living in Scotland have been (a) granted and (b) refused permission to submit their applications to the Further Submissions Unit via post and how many people have been employed at that unit in each of the last five years.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
The information requested on; number of applicants living in Scotland who have been granted and refused permission to submit their applications via post is not available in the format requested. The Home Office does not refuse or grant permission to submit further submissions. If an individual is eligible at the appointment booking stage, an in-person appointment will be offered.
The information requested on the average number of people employed on the further submission unit in the last five years is not available in the format requested.