Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to accelerate family reunification for unaccompanied refugee children in Europe.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Government began work to implement the ‘Dubs amendment’ immediately after the Immigration Bill gained Royal Assent. Over 30 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act have been accepted for transfer since it received Royal Assent in May, the majority of these have already arrived in the UK.
We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities and others to speed up existing family reunification processes or implement new processes where necessary for unaccompanied children. We have seconded a UK official to Greece, we have a long-standing secondee working in Italy and will shortly be seconding another official to the French Interior Ministry to support these efforts.
We have established a dedicated team in the Home Office Dublin Unit to lead on family reunion cases for unaccompanied children. Transfer requests under the Dublin Regulation are now generally processed within 10 days and children transferred within weeks. Over 120 children have been accepted for transfer this year from Europe. We also continue to consult local authorities about the transfer unaccompanied refugee children from Europe to the UK, where it is in their best interests.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to embed the Family Test into its policy making.
Answered by James Brokenshire
I refer the honourable member to my answer given to Parliamentary Question 15845 in response to a question tabled on 10 November by my honourable friend for Eastbourne.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the effect of the reduction in the number of English language testing centres on the number of international students entering the UK; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by James Brokenshire
English language ability is a key strand of the immigration requirements for many of those coming as partners and to work, study and settle in the UK. Significant abuse within the English language testing sector was uncovered in 2013/2014, following which the Home Office commissioned an independent review. A key outcome was the need to develop new and robust business and commercial requirements for Secure English Language Testing (SELT). The Home Office has rightly responded to that abuse robustly, particularly considering that thousands of people sought to use evidence that was obtained fraudulently to enter and remain in the UK. The new, strengthened arrangements for SELT came into effect on 6th April 2015.
One of the security changes introduced was the reduction of the test centre network to mitigate the risks of oversupply and enable the Home Office to achieve greater control and ability to audit centres.
Whilst the Home Office has reduced the number of test centres, it has increased the number of countries where students could sit tests. Before the 6th April students could sit tests in 79 countries (excluding the UK), they can now sit tests in 129 countries.
The Home Office has planned the reduced test centre network to meet anticipated demand and test centres in each country are currently meeting demand.
We continue to have a highly competitive offer for international students who would like to study at our world-class institutions and this is borne out by the figures: visa applications from international students to study at British universities are up by 17 per cent since 2010, whilst visa applications to our world-leading Russell Group institutions are up by 33 per cent since 2010.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Department considered to inform the changes to tier 4 immigration rules for students at further education colleges, announced on 13 July 2015.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Home Office considered a range of data, including Home Office Immigration Statistics internal Home Office intelligence and compliance data and Labour Force Survey data.
Home Office Immigration Statistics can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what funding her Department has allocated to the National Centre for the 3Rs in the present financial year.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Home Office has allocated £250,000 funding for the National Centre for the Replacement, Refinement and Reduction of Animals in Research (NC3Rs) in the present financial year.
The UK has one of the most comprehensive animal welfare systems in the world to ensure animal testing is carried out humanely and only when necessary. The Government has a continuing commitment to safeguard animal welfare and advance the use of the 3Rs principles (replacement, refinement and reduction) in research and development. The UK remains at the forefront of global work to
develop alternatives to animal testing.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of trends in the theft of domestic dogs.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Home Office does not hold information that separately identifies thefts of domestic dogs from all other theft offences. The Home Office holds statistics on notifiable offences recorded by the police and while theft of domestic dogs
is a notifiable offence, these cannot be separately identified from other offences.