Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the names of people who have acted as independent consultants for the purposes of providing personal briefings for Ministers in her Department in the last three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information is not centrally held by the Department, however we are aware of two roles which fall into this category.
In line with central guidance, direct appointments can be made to short-term, advisory roles, for example to lead a government review or to advise on, or champion, a specific subject. The name and purpose of a role can vary, but each appointee is provided with terms of appointment which set out their key responsibilities.
Direct appointees are office holders. There is no contract of employment, and the expectation is that such roles are unpaid. However, in limited circumstances, if the Permanent Secretary/Accounting Officer is content, then reasonable remuneration (in line with current policy on pay levels) may be payable.
When selecting an appointee (for a direct appointment), Ministers will consider what they want the role to achieve, which is set out in a draft terms of reference document. In light of this, high level criteria for the skills and experience required for an individual to do the role are developed. Appropriate due diligence checks are carried out by the department and consideration given to any conflicts of interest with the role and whether/how these can be managed.
Direct appointments are not public appointments (which are made by ministers to non-executive roles on the bodies and offices listed in an Order in Council and therefore the process and principles of the Governance Code do not apply. Neither do these appointments fall under the remit of the independent Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many independent consultants her Department has appointed for the purposes of providing personal briefings for Ministers in the last three years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information is not centrally held by the Department, however we are aware of two roles which fall into this category.
In line with central guidance, direct appointments can be made to short-term, advisory roles, for example to lead a government review or to advise on, or champion, a specific subject. The name and purpose of a role can vary, but each appointee is provided with terms of appointment which set out their key responsibilities.
Direct appointees are office holders. There is no contract of employment, and the expectation is that such roles are unpaid. However, in limited circumstances, if the Permanent Secretary/Accounting Officer is content, then reasonable remuneration (in line with current policy on pay levels) may be payable.
When selecting an appointee (for a direct appointment), Ministers will consider what they want the role to achieve, which is set out in a draft terms of reference document. In light of this, high level criteria for the skills and experience required for an individual to do the role are developed. Appropriate due diligence checks are carried out by the department and consideration given to any conflicts of interest with the role and whether/how these can be managed.
Direct appointments are not public appointments (which are made by ministers to non-executive roles on the bodies and offices listed in an Order in Council and therefore the process and principles of the Governance Code do not apply. Neither do these appointments fall under the remit of the independent Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recruitment process her Department follows for the appointment of independent consultants to provide personal briefings for Ministers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
This information is not centrally held by the Department, however we are aware of two roles which fall into this category.
In line with central guidance, direct appointments can be made to short-term, advisory roles, for example to lead a government review or to advise on, or champion, a specific subject. The name and purpose of a role can vary, but each appointee is provided with terms of appointment which set out their key responsibilities.
Direct appointees are office holders. There is no contract of employment, and the expectation is that such roles are unpaid. However, in limited circumstances, if the Permanent Secretary/Accounting Officer is content, then reasonable remuneration (in line with current policy on pay levels) may be payable.
When selecting an appointee (for a direct appointment), Ministers will consider what they want the role to achieve, which is set out in a draft terms of reference document. In light of this, high level criteria for the skills and experience required for an individual to do the role are developed. Appropriate due diligence checks are carried out by the department and consideration given to any conflicts of interest with the role and whether/how these can be managed.
Direct appointments are not public appointments (which are made by ministers to non-executive roles on the bodies and offices listed in an Order in Council and therefore the process and principles of the Governance Code do not apply. Neither do these appointments fall under the remit of the independent Commissioner for Public Appointments.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many police officers per capita there were in (a) England and Wales, (b) London and (c) the London Borough of Barnet in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office collects and publishes data on the size of the police workforce in England and Wales on a biannual basis in the ‘Police workforce, England and Wales’ statistical bulletin, available here: Police workforce England and Wales statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
These data are collected at Police Force Area level only, and information at lower levels of geography, such as Parliamentary Constituencies or Metropolitan Boroughs is not collected.
Table H4 of the data tables accompanying each publication, shows the number of full time equivalent (FTE) police officers as at 31 March per 100,000 resident population both nationally and at a Police Force Area level.
The latest data, as at 31 March 2023, shows there are 247 police officers per 100,000 resident population in England and Wales, and 408 in the London region.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people whose asylum applications were rejected have been deported in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum-related returns by return type (including enforced returns of which ‘deportations’ are a legally defined subset) are published in table Ret_05 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on returns. Data on returns of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) are published in table Ret_D03 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’ and are broken down by nationality not by country of birth. Data on FNO returns aren’t broken down by return type however the vast majority will be enforced returns, of which ‘deportations’ are a legally defined subset.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data for returns relates to end March 2023.
Asylum-related returns relate to cases where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior to the return. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been withdrawn, refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but removed for other reasons (such as criminality).
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many convicted foreign-born criminals were deported in the last 12 months.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on returns in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum-related returns by return type (including enforced returns of which ‘deportations’ are a legally defined subset) are published in table Ret_05 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The ‘contents’ sheet contains an overview of all available data on returns. Data on returns of Foreign National Offenders (FNOs) are published in table Ret_D03 of the ‘Returns detailed datasets’ and are broken down by nationality not by country of birth. Data on FNO returns aren’t broken down by return type however the vast majority will be enforced returns, of which ‘deportations’ are a legally defined subset.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data for returns relates to end March 2023.
Asylum-related returns relate to cases where there has been an asylum claim at some stage prior to the return. This will include asylum seekers whose asylum claims have been withdrawn, refused, and who have exhausted any rights of appeal, those returned under third country provisions, as well as those granted asylum/protection, but removed for other reasons (such as criminality).
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September to Question 196211 on Home Office: Standards, what the cost to the public purse was of the (a) commissioning, (b) expenses and (c) office costs relating to Nick Timothy's review of the effectiveness of her Department.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Nick Timothy was appointed as an Independent Consultant working directly to the Home Secretary.
At the end of his tenure, he provided a report for the Home Secretary to consider in a private capacity, to ensure the Home Secretary is served effectively, and that the Department is set up to succeed. This was a non-remunerated role.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 11 September to Question 196211 on Home Office: Standards, how much and what proportion of civil servant time was allocated to support Nick Timothy's review of the effectiveness of her Department.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Nick Timothy was appointed as an Independent Consultant working directly to the Home Secretary.
At the end of his tenure, he provided a report for the Home Secretary to consider in a private capacity, to ensure the Home Secretary is served effectively, and that the Department is set up to succeed. This was a non-remunerated role.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many accommodation places there are on the Bibby Stockholm barge.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The capacity of the Bibby Stockholm remains 504. The number of asylum seekers onboard the vessel at any one time is likely to vary due to a number of factors.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average length of time is that it takes his Department to respond to Members’ correspondence.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office do not routinely report against average response times. Data regarding the volume of correspondence responded within the Cabinet Office set 20 day service level agreement, which can be found at:
Customer service operations data: Q2 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In the last reporting period (April – June 2023) the Home Office responded to 98% of correspondence from Members within 20 days.