Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what his Department's average response time to correspondence from hon. Members was in the latest period for which that data is available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office has a service standard to respond to 95% of Members’ correspondence within 20 days.
The most recent customer service operations data are published at:
www.gov.uk/government/publications/customer-service-operations-data-q3-2023 and show that the Home Office responded to 97% of correspondence within the service standard in the quarter from July to September 2023.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to counter hostile state activity.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Home Office has an important role in the cross-government response to state threats. Through the National Security Act 2023, we have brought together vital new measures to protect our national security, which will enable our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to deter, detect and disrupt the full range of modern-day state threats.
I also lead the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which seeks to protect the democratic integrity of the UK from threats of foreign interference.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to help ensure the safety of Jewish communities.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
In March 2023, the Home Secretary announced the continuation of the Jewish Community Protective Security Grant (JCPSG) and increased funding for 2023/24 by £1 million, to a total of £15 million. The JCPSG provides protective security measures (such as guarding, CCTV and alarm systems) at Jewish schools and other Jewish community sites. The Grant is managed on behalf of the Home Office by the Community Security Trust (CST).
In response to the conflict and reports of increased incidents of antisemitism in the UK, the Prime Minister has announced additional funding of £3 million for CST to provide additional security at Jewish schools, synagogues and other Jewish Community sites. This brings the total funding for CST in FY2023/24 to £18 million.
Earlier this year, the Home Secretary established the Jewish Community Crime, Policing and Security Taskforce. The Taskforce allows the Jewish community, represented by the Community Security Trust, to raise concerns to the Home Office, law enforcement and partners, and work together to understand and address the concerns of the Jewish community on safety and security issues.
The government is also investing up to a further £7 million over the next three years for organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust to help tackle antisemitism. This funding will ensure support is in place for schools and universities to understand, recognise, and deal with antisemitism effectively.
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 taken is for people whose asylum appeal has been rejected to (a) voluntarily leave and (b) be removed from the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on returns and asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on asylum appeals lodged and determined (including those dismissed) by year are published in tables Asy_D06 and Asy_D07 of the ‘Asylum appeals lodged and determined detailed datasets’. The data are not broken down by how many people remain in a constituency followed a dismissed asylum appeal.
Data on asylum-related returns by year and return type are published in table Ret_05 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The data are not broken down by the constituency the individual lived in prior to their return or whether the return followed a dismissed asylum appeal.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has made an estimate of the number of individuals that remain in the Hendon constituency having had their asylum appeals rejected within the last 20 years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on returns and asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on asylum appeals lodged and determined (including those dismissed) by year are published in tables Asy_D06 and Asy_D07 of the ‘Asylum appeals lodged and determined detailed datasets’. The data are not broken down by how many people remain in a constituency followed a dismissed asylum appeal.
Data on asylum-related returns by year and return type are published in table Ret_05 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The data are not broken down by the constituency the individual lived in prior to their return or whether the return followed a dismissed asylum appeal.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people resident in the Hendon constituency were removed after their asylum appeal was rejected in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on returns and asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’.
Data on asylum appeals lodged and determined (including those dismissed) by year are published in tables Asy_D06 and Asy_D07 of the ‘Asylum appeals lodged and determined detailed datasets’. The data are not broken down by how many people remain in a constituency followed a dismissed asylum appeal.
Data on asylum-related returns by year and return type are published in table Ret_05 of the ‘Returns summary tables’. The data are not broken down by the constituency the individual lived in prior to their return or whether the return followed a dismissed asylum appeal.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people had their British citizenship removed for (a) conduct that causes harm to the UK and (b) fraud in each of the last five years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The British Nationality Act 1981 provides the Secretary of State with powers to deprive a person of citizenship status only under the circumstances set out at sections 40(2) (if deemed to be conducive to the public good) and 40(3) (citizenship was obtained by means of fraud, false representation, or concealment of material fact) of the Act.
Details on the numbers of conducive deprivation orders made under Section 40(2) of the Act, are published in the Government Transparency Report: Disruptive and Investigatory Powers. Seven reports have been published to date providing the number of deprivations of citizenship orders made up until the end of 2022 and are all published online. The latest can be found at this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counter-terrorism-disruptive-powers-report-2022
Numbers of Section 40(3) deprivation orders can be found in quarterly published transparency data at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department plans to interview UK nationals returning from Gaza in the context of border checks.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
In the UK, the Immigration Rules require all arriving passengers to establish their eligibility for admission. To maintain a safe and secure border, a passenger’s passport or national identity card is checked electronically and visually. We are confident that extra checks take place when necessary.
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 - Shadow Home Secretary
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 - Shadow Home Secretary
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.