Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers have been granted permission to work as a result of the time taken for her Department process their case in last 12 months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office are unable to state how many asylum seekers have been granted permission to work as a result of the time take taken for the Department to process their cases in the last 12 months as the data is only held on paper case files or within the notes sections of the Home Office's databases. Therefore, the number of asylum seekers granted permission to work is not held in a reportable format.
However, the Home Office do publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision or further review and can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics, Asylum applications awaiting a decision, by duration:
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims have been awaiting a decision from her Department for over 12 months.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does publish data on how many initial asylum applications are awaiting a decision and by duration , but only up to and including June 2021. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims are awaiting resolution as at 16 September 2021.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does publish data on how many initial asylum applications are awaiting a decision and by duration , but only up to and including June 2021. This data can be found at Asy_04 of the published Immigration Statistics:
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
What steps his Department plans to take to learn from the findings of the National Audit Office report entitled Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme published on 8 September 2021.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
We are considering the National Audit Office report and its recommendations, which recognise the scheme was designed as a short-term economic stimulus. This will inform existing and future schemes, as part of our £9 billion commitment to improving energy efficiency.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2021 to Question 903227 on Ports: Scotland, what additional resources have been deployed by the Border Force at Scottish ports since the Northern Ireland Protocol came into effect on 1 January 2021.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
Information relating to the wider staffing in the Home Office including Border Force, for the year 2019-20 is below:
Home Office annual report and accounts: 2019 to 2020
The Home Office Annual reports and accounts for 2020 to 2021 will be published in due course.
Border Force regularly reviews its capacity plans and resources. Redeploying and recruiting staff where necessary to help meet and maintain service standards for individual services.
Border Force is confident that resources to meet anticipated overall operational requirements are in place with Border Force recruiting sufficient additional frontline staff and continuing to build staffing levels during 2020/2021.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to help people without a broadband connection prepare for the closure of the public switched telephone network in 2025.
Answered by Matt Warman
The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is privately owned, and the process for its closure is industry-led. The PSTN closure will be undertaken in a phased approach with areas shutting down over the coming years with the final exchange expected to turn off in 2025.
While PSTN withdrawal is an industry-led process, the Government and Ofcom are working together to ensure consumers and sectors are protected and prepared for the withdrawal process.
The PSTN network will be replaced with new All-IP technology - such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). This technology is higher quality and more reliable than the existing PSTN network and will guarantee a better quality of service. All-IP requires a stable internet connection of approximately 0.5Mbps. Where it is not possible to deliver such a service to a premise, the service provider will be required to offer an alternative technological solution - such as Single Order Generic Ethernet Access (SoGEA).
Ofcom has a statutory duty to further and protect the interest of consumers, including those who are vulnerable. As part of this duty, Ofcom has rules in place, known as general conditions, which all providers must follow, that mandate communication providers to have procedures and policies in place to identify and support vulnerable consumers.
Ofcom has also published a Vulnerability Guide for providers, setting out their expectations and good practice on how vulnerable telecoms consumers should be supported. This includes steps providers can take to identify vulnerable consumers, and an expectation that all providers implement specialist teams in order to provide extra support.
The telecoms industry - via the Broadband Stakeholder Group - have been collaborating on this issue, and in June 2020 launched a consumer-facing website as a resource to inform the public of the process. This website was developed with the support of telecoms companies, Ofcom and DCMS and is funded by TechUK. (https://www.futureofvoice.co.uk/)
If an individual is concerned about the PSTN withdrawal process, or would like further information, they should contact their telecoms service provider who will be able to provide specific support.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of the staff of his Department are politically restricted.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
Data is provided in the table below for those Civil servants in “the politically restricted” category. As set out in the Civil Service Management code this is members of the Senior Civil Service and civil servants at levels immediately below the Senior Civil Service, plus members of the administrative and European Fast Stream Development Programmes.
DCMS Grade | Headcount | Proportion of total workforce |
Permanent Secretary | 1 | 0.06% |
Director General | 4 | 0.22% |
Director | 28 | 1.57% |
Deputy Director | 89 | 5.01% |
Grade 6 | 201 | 11.30% |
Grade 7 | 602 | 33.86% |
Fast-streamer (Grade B) | 16 | 0.90% |
*This data reflects officially published 2020/21 data submitted to the Cabinet Office Annual Civil Service Employment Survey (ACSES) report. Fast-stream numbers include all fast-streamers at DCMS not just those on administrative and European schemes.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on resources deployed at Scottish ports to help manage the movement of goods since the Northern Ireland Protocol came into effect on 1 January 2021.
Answered by David Duguid
The Secretary of State for Scotland holds regular conversations with Cabinet colleagues regarding the implications of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
This Government is unequivocal in its commitment to ensuring unfettered access for Northern Ireland goods moving to the rest of the UK and will ensure the required resources are deployed at Scottish ports.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
What progress has been made on catch-up learning for pupils in response to the disruption caused by the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
Since June 2020, we have announced over £3 billion to help children to catch up, including over £950 million in flexible funding to schools and £1.5 billion for tutoring. Over 500,000 children were invited to take part in summer schools nationwide. Over 200,000 have started tutoring, with more starting shortly.
Asked by: Meg Hillier (Labour (Co-op) - Hackney South and Shoreditch)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has conducted an impact assessment of the decision to change the reconciliation threshold rate for Education and Skills Funding Agency grant funded AEB adult skills.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
We are lowering the reconciliation threshold for the Education and Skills Funding Agency grant funded Adult Education Budget (AEB) (adult skills including non-formula funded community learning and 19-24 traineeships) and Advanced Learner Loan Bursary fund providers for the 2020-21 academic year, from 97% and 100% respectively to 90%.
The 90% now proposed for the current funding year is, therefore, a relaxation of the normal rules for the benefit of all grant-funded providers and their learners.
In areas where the AEB has been devolved, Mayoral Combined Authorities or the Greater London Authority are responsible for considering any provider flexibilities in their areas.
We are monitoring the situation carefully and, in particular, if there are providers that may need further support.