Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of Afghan refugees that will be resettled in the UK following referral by the UNHCR.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6 January 2022, providing up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
We are working closely with UNHCR to begin receiving referrals under Pathway 2 of the ACRS. Under this Pathway, UNHCR will refer individuals and families based on an assessment of protection needs. Further detail will be set out in due course.
The pace of actual arrivals in any particular period will depend on a range of factors including the flow of referrals from UNHCR and the availability of suitable accommodation and support in the UK.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the average length of stay of asylum seekers in initial accommodation; and what steps she is taking to ensure that initial accommodation is being used for short term stays only.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office monitors the length of stay in Initial Accommodation and Contingency Accommodation on a regular basis.
The asylum accommodation system is under enormous pressure because of the significant and sustained increase in asylum intake over the last 12 months and the build-up of the population as a result of Covid-19 related measures. This has resulted in over 25,000 asylum seekers being accommodated in temporary contingency accommodation, such as hotels. This is not acceptable; it is not fair on the taxpayers, and it does not offer the right solution for communities or those seeking asylum; it must change.
That is why I wrote to all Local Authorities on 13 April 2022 to set out plans for Full Dispersal. This will reduce and then eliminate the use of hotels for asylum seekers by moving to a full dispersal model for asylum accommodation. This will mean expanding our existing approach of using private rental sector housing to all local authority areas across England, Scotland and Wales.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to review the minimum standards of welcome packs provided to asylum seekers.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office provides initial accommodation to asylum seekers to ensure they are not left unsupported if otherwise destitute. They are given free, furnished accommodation with food, toiletries, and other essentials, and a weekly cash allowance to cover other living needs such as clothing. This support is routinely reviewed.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the quantity and quality of the (a) shoes, (b) underwear, (c) toiletries and (d) other essential basics provided to asylum seekers arriving in the UK in the welcome packs issued by initial accommodation providers; and what steps the Government is taking to ensure that basic standards of dignity are met.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office provides initial accommodation to asylum seekers to ensure they are not left unsupported if otherwise destitute. They are given free, furnished accommodation with food, toiletries, and other essentials, and a weekly cash allowance to cover other living needs such as clothing. This support is routinely reviewed.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce the waiting time between asylum seekers being granted section 95 status and receiving an Aspen card.
Answered by Kevin Foster
When an asylum seeker in full-board initial accommodation (where there is Migrant Help physical presence) has been granted section 95 states an Aspen card will be issued within 4-6 working days. Where individuals are in other accommodation locations they will be sent Aspen cards by Royal Mail post, once issued.
We have undertaken improvement work to reduce the waiting time by introducing twice weekly reporting and ensuring prompt data sharing with Migrant Help.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how long asylum seekers who have been granted section 95 status currently have to wait to receive an Aspen card.
Answered by Kevin Foster
When an asylum seeker in full-board initial accommodation (where there is Migrant Help physical presence) has been granted section 95 states an Aspen card will be issued within 4-6 working days. Where individuals are in other accommodation locations they will be sent Aspen cards by Royal Mail post, once issued.
We have undertaken improvement work to reduce the waiting time by introducing twice weekly reporting and ensuring prompt data sharing with Migrant Help.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding applications there are from Ukrainian nationals for visas to enter the UK outside of the Ukraine Sponsorship scheme and the Ukraine Family Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Applications from Ukraine nationals are being prioritised by UKVI.
Information on the number of visas granted under the Ukraine Family Scheme can be found in our published data on the GOV.UK webpage: Ukraine Family Scheme: application data - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
To capture numbers beyond this data would require a manual trawl and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many outstanding applications there are from Ukrainian nationals for visas to enter the UK which were submitted before the Ukraine Family Scheme opened.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Statistical information regarding the number of Ukrainian nationals applying for UK visas prior to the launch of the UFS is regularly released by UKVI.
The latest published statistics can be found here: Immigration statistics, year ending December 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of eligible children in the care system who have not yet been granted settled status.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office continues to work closely with Local Authorities to monitor their progress in making and supporting applications to the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS) on behalf of eligible looked after children and care leavers.
The latest survey indicates that, as of 30 November 2021, of the 3,895 looked after children and care leavers identified by the survey as potentially eligible to apply, 3,705 applications to the EUSS had been received (95%). 2,840 (77%) of these applications had been decided, of which 2,245 (79%) had resulted in a grant of settled status and 420 (15%) in a grant of pre-settled status. The full survey can be found at:
Asked by: Helen Hayes (Labour - Dulwich and West Norwood)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent estimate she has made of the number of incidents of identity theft relating to telecommunications and utility bills recorded by Action Fraud; and what assessment she has made of the adequacy of legislative powers to take steps in response to such cases.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Government is aware of the harms caused by identity theft and that criminals use false identities to commit and enable a range of offences.
The Office for National Statistics publish official statistics on the number of frauds reported to Action Fraud on a quarterly basis and the latest statistics can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2021.
However, the detailed information requested about how the fraud was committed is not held centrally. Whilst the theft of another person’s identity is often a pre-cursor to fraud, a recordable crime is committed a person’s identity is used by another individual to commit a criminal offence. Identity theft is not a separate offence in law and so it is not recorded as a distinct category.
There are currently no plans to introduce a new criminal offence of identity theft as existing legislation is in place to protect people’s personal data and prosecute those that commit crimes enabled by identity theft. These include the Fraud Act 2006, the Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Identity Documents Act 2010 and the Data Protection Act 2018.
We believe that the most effective way of preventing identity theft is to improve the safety and security of the identity systems we use, particularly online. The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport recently published draft “rules of the road” for governing the future use of digital identities. The new trust framework, including details of how to contribute to this work can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework. We continue to encourage the public to report fraud to Action fraud.