Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many EU Member States have refused a request from the UK to extradite a suspect under the surrender arrangements of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation agreement to date.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
The National Crime Agency handles requests made through the European Arrest Warrant as well as those made under the new surrender arrangements.
Statistics on the European Arrest Warrant have been published by the National Crime Agency for each year of its operation. These figures are published at: https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/who-we-are/publications
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether Passenger Name Record (PNR) data from the EU to the UK accessible under the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement include (a) the criminal records of and (b) intelligence on passengers.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
PNR data is generated by airlines in their normal course of business as a record of each passenger's details needed to process their booking. It may include information such as the passenger’s name, passport and contact details, how the reservation was made and paid for, travel itinerary and any travel companions. PNR data does not include criminal record information or intelligence on passengers.
Airlines operating flights to and from the UK are under a legal requirement to transfer PNR data which is used to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute terrorist offences and serious crime. Processing of PNR data is undertaken in intelligence-led operations and post-incident investigations to detect known individuals; to identify otherwise unknown individuals whose PNR data or pattern of travel is linked to or associated with terrorism-related or serious criminal activity, and to identify and protect vulnerable individuals.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what real-time systems are available to UK Border Force to enforce a ban on foreign criminals sentenced to more than one year in prison entering the UK.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
While it is not possible to reveal the details of how security checks at the border operate, Border Force undertakes to perform 100 per cent checks on scheduled passengers arriving in the UK. The majority of passengers are also checked against our systems before they travel, through the collection of Advanced Passenger Information (API). Where we are aware of individuals that pose a threat to the UK we can and do refuse entry and, where legislation applies, refuse Authority to Carry prior to departure.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many requests the UK has made to EU member states for information on the criminal background of EU citizens in 2021; and how many responses it has received.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
However, statistics on the Criminal Records Exchange are published by the national Criminal Records Office (ACRO) quarterly.
These figures are published at: https://www.acro.police.uk/Publications
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the average time between (a) a request and an arrest and (b) an arrest and return of a subject to the UK under the surrender arrangements of the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The streamlined extradition arrangements agreed under the UK-EU Trade and Co-operation Agreement are based on the exchange of warrants between judicial authorities which are similar to the arrangements in place between the EU and Norway and Iceland and contain identical time limits to those under the European Arrest Warrant Framework Decision. The arrangements are intended to be as fast and effective as those under the European Arrest Warrant while providing greater safeguards for those who are arrested.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were subject to outstanding UK requests under the European Arrest warrant as at 31 December 2020; and how many of those cases are live requests under the replacement surrender arrangements.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold the information requested.
The National Crime Agency handles requests made through the European Arrest Warrant as well as those made under the new surrender arrangements.
Statistics on the European Arrest Warrant have been published by the National Crime Agency for each year of its operation. These figures are published at: https://nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/who-we-are/publications
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the Government's policy is on granting export licences for non-military sonar equipment to (a) China and (b) a third country where the purchaser is a Chinese registered firm.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
The Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, last updated in a Written Ministerial Statement on 25th March 2014, sets out the policy framework for assessing all export licence applications.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate she has made of the longest number of days her Department has taken to make an export licence decision from the date of the initial request to the date of the first decision being communicated to the applicant in each quarter of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK, on a quarterly and annual basis. These reports contain detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences.
This information is available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data. The most recent publication was on 13th October 2020, covering the period 1st April – 30th June 2020.
Internal records held indicate, in each quarter between Q1 2018 and Q2 2020, the longest an application has taken to process a Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) by HM Government, is as follows:
Period | Longest an application has taken, in working days |
Q1 2018 | 901 |
Q2 2018 | 887 |
Q3 2018 | 1018 |
Q4 2018 | 424 |
Q1 2019 | 576 |
Q2 2019 | 730 |
Q3 2019 | 431 |
Q4 2019 | 573 |
Q1 2020 | 488 |
Q2 2020 | 549 |
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what proportion of applications for export licences have been declined where the item is being exported to (a) China and (b) a third country where the purchaser is a Chinese registered firm or has been deemed to have links with China, in each quarter of (i) 2018, (ii) 2019 and (iii) 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK, on a quarterly and annual basis.
These reports contain detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data
However, the information requested by the Hon. Lady can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Joanna Cherry (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate she has made of the average number of days her Department has taken to make export licence decisions from the date of the initial request to the date of the first decision being communicated to the applicant in each quarter of (a) 2018, (b) 2019 and (c) 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations on GOV.UK, on a quarterly and annual basis.
These reports contain detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data
The most recent publication was on 13th October 2020, covering the period 1st April to 30th June 2020. For Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) applications, the data is reproduced below.
Period | Median processing times (days) |
Q1 2018 | 11 |
Q2 2018 | 11 |
Q3 2018 | 10 |
Q4 2018 | 12 |
Q1 2019 | 11 |
Q2 2019 | 10 |
Q3 2019 | 10 |
Q4 2019 | 15 |
Q1 2020 | 15 |
Q2 2020 | 13 |