Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications have been denied under the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme as of 17 January 2024, by region.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Protective Security for Mosque Scheme is a new scheme in 2023/24 and opened on 21 June 2023.
As of 17 January 2024, the Home Office has received 269 applications to the scheme. By region, applications have been received from the East Midlands (32), East of England (24), Greater London (57), North East (21), North West (54), South East (22), South West (8), West Midlands (36), Northern Ireland (3) and Wales (12).
Decisions on applications will be communicated to applicant mosques and Muslim faith community centres in due course. The scheme remains open to applicants and information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/places-of-worship-security-funding-scheme
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications he has received under the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme as of 17 January 2024, by region.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Protective Security for Mosque Scheme is a new scheme in 2023/24 and opened on 21 June 2023.
As of 17 January 2024, the Home Office has received 269 applications to the scheme. By region, applications have been received from the East Midlands (32), East of England (24), Greater London (57), North East (21), North West (54), South East (22), South West (8), West Midlands (36), Northern Ireland (3) and Wales (12).
Decisions on applications will be communicated to applicant mosques and Muslim faith community centres in due course. The scheme remains open to applicants and information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/places-of-worship-security-funding-scheme
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he considers British nationals fighting for the Israel Defence Force to be a risk to national security.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The UK recognises the right of British nationals with additional nationalities to serve in the legitimately recognised armed forces of the country of their other nationalities.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many places of worship of religion have applied for funding through the Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme since 2016.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme provides physical protective security measures, such as CCTV, intruder alarms and secure perimeter fencing to places of worship and associated faith community centres that are particularly vulnerable to religiously or racially motivated hate crime in England and Wales.
In the first seven years of the scheme between 2016 and 2022, the Home Office approved protective security measures at 523 places of worship across England and Wales: 225 mosques, 201 churches, 47 gurdwaras, 38 Hindu temples, and 12 places of worship of other faiths.
The Home Office is currently processing applications for this year’s scheme with a view to informing applicants of the outcome in the near future.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many applications have been received for the Protective Security for Mosques Scheme.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Places of Worship Protective Security Funding Scheme provides physical protective security measures, such as CCTV, intruder alarms and secure perimeter fencing to places of worship and associated faith community centres that are particularly vulnerable to religiously or racially motivated hate crime in England and Wales.
In the first seven years of the scheme between 2016 and 2022, the Home Office approved protective security measures at 523 places of worship across England and Wales: 225 mosques, 201 churches, 47 gurdwaras, 38 Hindu temples, and 12 places of worship of other faiths.
The Home Office is currently processing applications for this year’s scheme with a view to informing applicants of the outcome in the near future.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has held meetings in 2023 on (a) Islamophobia and (b) hate crime against Muslims.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
This Government is committed to doing everything we can to tackle anti-Muslim hatred, and all forms of prejudice in our society. Ministers across Government hold meetings covering these important issues regularly.
Details of meetings with external organisations are published on gov.uk.
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he Department has (a) undertaken and (b) commissioned from external consultants modelling of the potential impact of a reduction of the backlog of asylum applications on the number of people applying to (i) come to and (ii) stay in the UK via a refugee family reunion application.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Government’s refugee family reunion policy provides a safe and legal route to bring families together.
We are committed to improving and speeding up processing times for family reunion applications.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has taken recent steps to work with (a) the Duke of Edinburgh Award, (b) other youth award schemes and (c) volunteer programmes to help promote community safety.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The government recognises the vital role that youth services and activities like the Duke of Edinburgh Award play in enhancing young people’s wellbeing, as well as significant benefits to social cohesion and community safety.
The Home Office is committed to working extensively with charities, voluntary organisations and other partners across the sector in our work to reduce crime and keep people safe. The includes, for example, through the Youth Endowment Fund, which funds programmes in England and Wales that aim to prevent children and young people from becoming involved in violence. In addition, Violence Reduction Units are required to operate ‘with and for the community’ and must have someone to represent community, young people’s and the voluntary sector’s interests as part of their governance arrangements.
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department collects on the religious affiliations of asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications can be found in table Asy_D01 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’.
The Home Office does not publish asylum applicants by religion. Whilst we hold information regarding the religion of asylum claimants, this information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual trawl of case records to retrieve.
A claimant’s religion will be established during the asylum registration process. Depending on the nature of the claim, further information regarding a claimant’s religion may be requested during a substantive asylum interview.
For further information, please see: Screening and routing.docx (publishing.service.gov.uk) and Asylum interview.docx (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester Rusholme)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum applications have been submitted by people identifying as Muslim; and if she will provide a breakdown of those figures by sect.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications can be found in table Asy_D01 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’.
The Home Office does not publish asylum applicants by religion. Whilst we hold information regarding the religion of asylum claimants, this information could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual trawl of case records to retrieve.
A claimant’s religion will be established during the asylum registration process. Depending on the nature of the claim, further information regarding a claimant’s religion may be requested during a substantive asylum interview.
For further information, please see: Screening and routing.docx (publishing.service.gov.uk) and Asylum interview.docx (publishing.service.gov.uk)