Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of asylum applications received by her Department since 1 January 2022 have been classified as straightforward as defined in her Department's customer service standards.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Since October 2018 we have not classified asylum applications in this way.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to improve the time taken to process passport applications for (a) immigrants and (b) refugees not related to schemes for Ukrainian refugees.
Answered by Kevin Foster
British passports are issued to British nationals only.
Should any person become a British citizen through naturalisation or registration, they should apply for a British passport in the usual way. All applicants in the UK using the standard service are currently advised to allow up to ten weeks to get their passport.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to improve the time taken to process passport applications for (a) immigrants, and (b) refugees not related to schemes for Ukrainian refugees.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
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 Ukrainian refugees residing in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office now routinely publishes data on Ukrainians arriving in the United Kingdom under our two new schemes.
Between 11 and 18 April, the number of those arriving under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme more than doubled from 3,200 to 6,600.
15,000 more Ukranians have arrived under the Family Scheme; meaning that as of 18 April, 21,600 visa holders had arrived in the UK.
We continue to work at pace to ensure more people can arrive more quickly.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department seeks references for candidates appointed to public positions which fall under the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Department is committed to ensuring that all appointments under the remit of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, are conducted in accordance with Governance Code on Public Appointments.
As part of the recruitment process, references are taken up for all appointed candidates.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many items of written correspondence from hon. Members sent to Ministers in her Department have been (a) received and (b) replied to since 1 April 2020; and how many of those responses were responded to by (i) Ministers and (ii) officials.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Data about intake and performance in answering MP Correspondence and Customer Complaints about Home Office operations are published quarterly with latest Quarter available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data
During the period April 2020 to March 2021 we received 42,692 letters or emails from MPs about operational matters.
In the same time period we closed 36,961 written queries, of which 34,050 required a response – of these 1,903 responses were signed by a Minister or Director General.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what consideration will be given to applications submitted by vulnerable individuals to the EU Settlement Scheme beyond 30 June 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
There are no plans to extend the deadline for applications to the EU Settlement Scheme.
The Home Office has invested nearly £8 million in marketing campaigns to encourage EU citizens and their family members to apply to the scheme. We recently launched a new wave of UK advertising to ensure EU citizens and their family members are aware of the deadline and know they need to apply. We are also working closely with employers, local authorities and charities to raise awareness.
We have continued to receive and process thousands of applications a day to the scheme throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 5.4 million applications received, and over 5.1 million applications concluded by 30 April 2021.
We are committed to making sure everybody eligible for the scheme can apply, including those who are vulnerable or need extra support. There is significant help available for applicants from a network of 72 organisations across the UK grant funded by the Home Office with £22 million to help vulnerable people apply to the EUSS, including after the 30 June deadline.
In line with the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, we have made clear where a person eligible for status under the scheme has reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply. Non-exhaustive guidance on reasonable grounds for submitting a late application was published on 1 April 2021, and includes where there are compelling practical or compassionate reasons why a person may have been unaware of the requirement to apply to the scheme by the deadline or may have failed to do so, including where someone else would have been responsible for making an application on behalf of a vulnerable person.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the deadline for the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
There are no plans to extend the deadline for applications to the EU Settlement Scheme.
The Home Office has invested nearly £8 million in marketing campaigns to encourage EU citizens and their family members to apply to the scheme. We recently launched a new wave of UK advertising to ensure EU citizens and their family members are aware of the deadline and know they need to apply. We are also working closely with employers, local authorities and charities to raise awareness.
We have continued to receive and process thousands of applications a day to the scheme throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 5.4 million applications received, and over 5.1 million applications concluded by 30 April 2021.
We are committed to making sure everybody eligible for the scheme can apply, including those who are vulnerable or need extra support. There is significant help available for applicants from a network of 72 organisations across the UK grant funded by the Home Office with £22 million to help vulnerable people apply to the EUSS, including after the 30 June deadline.
In line with the Citizens’ Rights Agreements, we have made clear where a person eligible for status under the scheme has reasonable grounds for missing the 30 June 2021 deadline, they will be given a further opportunity to apply. Non-exhaustive guidance on reasonable grounds for submitting a late application was published on 1 April 2021, and includes where there are compelling practical or compassionate reasons why a person may have been unaware of the requirement to apply to the scheme by the deadline or may have failed to do so, including where someone else would have been responsible for making an application on behalf of a vulnerable person.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with the Office of National Statistics to estimate the number of eligible EU nationals who have not yet submitted an application to the EU Settlement Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Published EUSS figures refer specifically to applications made to the EU Settlement Scheme and cannot be directly compared with estimates of the resident population of EU/EEA nationals in the UK.
The published figures include non-EEA family members, Irish nationals, and eligible EEA citizens not resident in the UK, none of whom are usually included in estimates of the resident EU population.
Furthermore, the population estimates do not take account of people’s migration intentions and will include people who have come to the UK for a range of purposes, including some who have no intention to settle in the UK.
The Office for National Statistics published a further explaining note discussing the strengths and limitations of UK Population Estimates
ONS are currently transforming their population and migration statistics to put administrative data at the core of what they do. The latest information on their work programme and longer term plans to transform migration and population statistics was published on 16th April 2021.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
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 EU citizens who have been have been refused entry to the UK since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Immigration statistics including Passengers initially refused entry to the United Kingdom for the year ending September 2020 can be found on the .Gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/managed-migration-datasets
The next Immigration statistical release is due on the 24th February and future data relating to 2021 and beyond will be published in due course.