Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what support is available to families in the UK with relatives in Afghanistan; and what steps Afghan nationals in Afghanistan, and under threat from the Taliban, can take to come to the UK.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Families in the UK with relatives in Afghanistan can access information to assess their relative’s eligibility for the following resettlement schemes on gov.uk:
From Spring, the UNHCR will refer refugees to the ACRS, based on assessments of protection of need. The Government will also offer ACRS places to the most at risk British Council and Gardaworld contractors and Chevening alumni. We are committed to working in step with the international community and continue to do all we can to enable those who are eligible to relocate to the UK.
The Minister for the Armed Forces recently visited the region, to identify what more we can do for applicants both in Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries. We are working with a wide range of allies and partners and are exploring every avenue to help them reach safety.
The UK Government will work with international partners to put pressure on the Taliban to allow those with a right to leave Afghanistan to do so safely.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether UNHCR referrals to the Afghan Citizens' Resettlement Scheme will be available to Afghans currently within Afghanistan or whether they will take place through third party countries.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme commenced on 6th January and will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
From Spring, we are working with the UNHCR to receive referrals of vulnerable refugees in need of protection through the ACRS.
UNHCR refer refugees who, by definition, are outside their country of origin.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to progress the implementation of the Forensic Science Regulator Act 2021.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We are fully committed to delivering statutory powers to the Forensic Science Regulator in accordance with the Act. Home Office officials are working closely and holding regular meetings with the Regulator, the UK Accreditation Service and other stakeholders to commence the measures in the Act as soon as possible.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how British National (Overseas) passport holders in Hong Kong can apply for residency in the UK once their British National (Overseas) passports have been relinquished as required by the Chinese government.
Answered by Kevin Foster
China has made the decision to no longer recognise BN(O) passports as valid identity or travel documents. The UK continues to recognise valid BN(O) passports as valid travel and identity documents.
Those wishing to apply to the BN(O) route do not need to apply using their BN(O) passport and can apply using another valid identity document such as a Hong Kong Special Administrative Region passport. Those applying for the route will need to be able to prove they hold BN(O) status and where an individual is unable to provide their BN(O) passport, eligibility checks can be made using historical records held by Her Majesty’s Passport Office.
Those applying for the route do not need to travel to the UK on their BN(O) passport, but will need another valid travel document in order to travel from Hong Kong given the decision of the Chinese Government not to recognise them.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officials in (a) her private office and (b) the wider Department have been allocated to the production and promotion of online content for use on social media in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Kevin Foster
There are currently 9 social media specialists in the department working as part of the communication directorate on the production and delivery of social media products to promote the important work the department does to secure our borders and protect the public. The department has approximately 33,000 staff with a communication directorate of 121 staff.
In 2018-19, there were 6 specialists and at the beginning of 2020 there were 8 specialists in the social media team.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what financial support her Department is providing to Police and Crime Commissioners to ensure the continued presence of police community support officers.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
On the 4th February 2021, the Government published a total police funding settlement of up to £15.8 billion in 2021/22, an increase of up to £636 million compared to 2020/21 which will ensure forces continue to make progress towards recruiting 20,000 additional police officers by March 2023.
Decisions on how to deploy resources are a matter for Chief Constables and locally elected Police & Crime Commissioners.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officials in their Department were dedicated to their Department's responsibilities associated with the delivery of the Industrial Strategy in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020 and (e) 2021.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) own the Government’s Industrial Strategy.
As the Home Office contributes to delivery of the aims of the Industrial Strategy through existing workstreams rather than dedicated resource, it is not possible to provide the information requested.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the Government's migration policy on the status of EU nationals currently working in the UK as au pairs.
Answered by Kevin Foster
EU citizens currently in or resident in the UK by 31 December 2020, including those working as Au Pairs, can apply for UK immigration status under the EU Settlement Scheme, to enable them to continue living and working in the UK after 30 June 2021 in the same way as they do now.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to remove the requirement for people with Settled Status to hold Comprehensive Sickness Insurance when applying for British citizenship.
Answered by Kevin Foster
To meet the statutory requirements for naturalisation, a person of any nationality must have been in the UK lawfully during the residential qualifying period.
EEA Regulations set out the requirements which EEA nationals needed to follow if they wished to reside here lawfully on the basis of free movement. In the case of students or the self-sufficient, but not those who were working here, the possession of comprehensive sickness insurance has always been a requirement. This position has not changed since the UK left the European Union
The British Nationality Act allows us to exercise discretion over this requirement in the special circumstances of any particular case.
There are no current plans to amend legislation in this respect given they reflect EEA rules on Freedom of Movement.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to issue revised guidance on the resumption of in-person eligibility meetings for civil partnerships; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of facilitating those meetings through the use of video-conferencing.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The local registration service has been advised attesting civil partnership notices can recommence where these can be safely delivered in line with public health and local authority guidelines.
In accordance with legislation, meetings to complete the legal preliminaries of giving notice for a civil partnership must be conducted in the presence of the relevant authorised person.