Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 December 2022 to Question 102998 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether her Department had made an assessment of levels of labour before granting the extension.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office regularly engages with other government departments.
The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market or governing how private companies recruit their workers.
The immigration system aims to allow employers to access the skilled labour that they need to grow the UK economy whilst also ensuring that we maintain control over who comes to the UK to work.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 102998 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether the wide range of stakeholders includes (a) other Government departments and (b) employers in the industries where the concessions have an effect.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office regularly engages with other government departments.
The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market or governing how private companies recruit their workers.
The immigration system aims to allow employers to access the skilled labour that they need to grow the UK economy whilst also ensuring that we maintain control over who comes to the UK to work.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 102999 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether she makes regular assessments with Cabinet colleagues of the impact of concessions from the immigration rules on the domestic labour market.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office regularly engages with other government departments.
The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market or governing how private companies recruit their workers.
The immigration system aims to allow employers to access the skilled labour that they need to grow the UK economy whilst also ensuring that we maintain control over who comes to the UK to work.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 102998 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, which stakeholders her Department consulted prior to the introduction of the Offshore Wind Workers Immigration Rules Concession 2017.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office regularly engages with other government departments.
The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market or governing how private companies recruit their workers.
The immigration system aims to allow employers to access the skilled labour that they need to grow the UK economy whilst also ensuring that we maintain control over who comes to the UK to work.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer on 7 December 2022 to Question 98938, (a) what labour market information or (b) other representations their decision was based upon.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
As previously set out, the Government regularly reviews all concessions to the Immigration Rules against the general principles of the immigration system to check whether they are necessary and regularly undertakes engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. This will continue to be the case in future.
The concession will expire on 30 April 2023 at which point it will not be extended.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to Answer 98938 on 7 December 2022, what labour market information was available to her Department on the sector.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
As previously set out, the Government regularly reviews all concessions to the Immigration Rules against the general principles of the immigration system to check whether they are necessary and regularly undertakes engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. This will continue to be the case in future.
The concession will expire on 30 April 2023 at which point it will not be extended.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2022 to Question 98935 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, which states that employers should first seek to recruit from the resident labour market, whether her Department (a) carries out checks on employers and (b) seeks assurances from employers that UK labour will be used before seeking to fill posts through immigration under the concession.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government regularly reviews all concessions to the Immigration Rules against the general principles of the immigration system to check whether they are necessary and regularly undertakes engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. This will continue to be the case in future.
The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market or governing how private companies recruit their workers.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2022 to Question 98935 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, whether her Department had received representations from employers seeking to extend the concession before making a decision to grant that extension.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government regularly reviews all concessions to the Immigration Rules against the general principles of the immigration system to check whether they are necessary and regularly undertakes engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. This will continue to be the case in future.
The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market or governing how private companies recruit their workers.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2022 to Question 95942 on Wind Power: Migrant Workers, what estimate she has made of the size of the shortfall of resident labour in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office is not responsible for evaluating the labour market and therefore has made no such estimate. The Home Office is clear that all employers should first seek to recruit from the resident labour market before using immigration to provide a work force.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has made an assessment of the potential risk of weapons sent to the Ukrainian armed forces coming into the possession of organised crime gangs.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
This Government is committed to tackling the threat posed by trafficking and the misuse of illicit small arms and light weapons which play a key role in facilitating Organised Crime Group (OCG) activity.
According to NAC Threat assessments it remains highly unlikely that the conflict in Ukraine is impacting on the Serious and organised crime small arms and light weapons threat to the UK. Despite the number of small arms and light weapons available in conflict zones, very few types available pre-conflict or donated by western governments are used by criminals in the UK.
At the end of the conflict, it is a realistic possibility that some small arms and light weapons will be traded on the European criminal marketplace. The threat is being monitored closely by agencies, in close cooperation with European Partners such as Europol. We are adopting a multi-agency approach to further develop an understanding of the illicit firearms trade and lessons learnt from previous events.