Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to expand Police powers to allow noise nuisance to be more effectively tackled.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The impact of noise is significant. It can result in children struggling to get a good night’s sleep and disrupt the hard work of businesses and public.
The police already have a number of powers to tackle anti-social behaviour through the Anti-social behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. These powers are deliberately local in nature. It is for local authorities to work together to determine how best to respond to each individual case. Home Office statutory guidance supports them to do so.
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, contains measures which will improve the police's ability to deal with unjustifiably noisy protests that may result in serious disruption to the activities of an organisation or in a significant detrimental impact on members of the public.
I am disappointed that the House of Lords did not back measures which are supported by the elected House and which would have helped to further reduce this disruption caused by a minority of protesters.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of whether an evacuation manager should be appointed at Magellan House, Leeds, as proposed by the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, in the context of that building having a comprehensive fire alarm and the statement by the Minister for Building Safety and Fire on 23 January 2022 on Twitter that no fire and rescue service should be imposing evacuation managers for buildings with a comprehensive fire alarm.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
It is the duty of the Responsible Person for Magellan House to consider how best to fulfil their duties under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005.
The Fire and Rescue Service’s role is to enforce against the Order.
It is vital that Responsible Persons take a proportionate approach, however I cannot comment on a specific case.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2021 to Question 18468 on Knives: Sales, if she will introduce a licensing scheme for the possession of machetes.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The majority of machete owners use them for legitimate reasons such as gardening, camping or agricultural use. It is an offence to sell any machete to a person who is under the age of 18. In addition, possessing a machete in a public place without lawful authority or good reason is also an offence with a maximum penalty of 4 years imprisonment.
Where a machete is misused as a weapon, there are a range of offences that the offender may be charged with, such as causing grievous bodily harm. These can result in lengthy sentences, including life imprisonment in instances of murder.
We continue to keep the legislation in this area under review.
In 2021 we banned a whole range of knives weapons and firearms and existing legislation prohibits possession of any machete or large knife in a public place without good reason. We are always working with police to see what further action is needed to take deadly weapons off the street.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what performance assessment measures she uses to assess the timeliness of TNT in delivering documents from her Department to members of the public.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Her Majesty’s Passport Office assesses the performance of the UK Secure Delivery supplier, FedEx (parent company of TNT), using the following Key Performance Indicators/Service Level Agreements:
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the average length of time in days it takes for passports sent by the Passport Agency via TNT to be received by the applicant.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The average length of time taken for the delivery of printed passports is not held in a reportable format.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is holding discussions with the EU Commission on a replacement agreement for the Dublin Regulation.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The UK is in discussions regarding the returns of asylum seekers to European Member States; it would not be appropriate to provide a running commentary on these negotiations.
We can confirm that work is underway to secure appropriate return agreements with safe countries. Returns may also be agreed with partner countries on a case-by-case basis without formal agreements. This happened historically, outside of the former Dublin arrangements, and will continue to be part of the approach we apply.
Our inadmissibility provisions in the Immigration Rules give us the legal basis to declare an asylum claim as inadmissible where a person has a connection to or has passed through a safe country. The first returns on inadmissible grounds have been successfully carried out.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when registrars will return to arrangements where the parents of stillborn babies could register both the death and the birth of their child in one appointment.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The arrangements have not changed. Still-births continue to be registered as a single entry in the still-birth register and are not recorded in the birth and death registers.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will ask registrars to prioritise appointments for the parents of babies who were stillborn so that they can register both the birth and death of their baby at the same appointment, prior to organising a funeral.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Still-birth registration appointments are prioritised alongside death registrations. Provisions within the Coronavirus Act 2020 allow these events to be registered by telephone at present.
Only one registration appointment is required, with details solely recorded in the still-birth register.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time is for parents of children who were stillborn to register the death of their baby in England; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Delivery of registration services falls to local authorities who monitor demand and manage requests within their respective geographical areas.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many EU family permit applications have been received since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office publishes data on EU Settlement Scheme family permits in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’ which can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release
Data on the number of EU Settlement Scheme family permit applications are published in table Vis_D01 of the entry clearance visas applications and outcomes dataset. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the year ending June 2021.