Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assistance is available to foreign nationals in the UK who have indefinite right to remain to communicate with family members who are refugees abroad; and what support she is providing to overseas refugees with family members in the UK to seek asylum in the UK.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Recognised refugees and those granted humanitarian protection in the UK are advised about family reunion provisions as part of the information they receive with the decision on their asylum claim. Details are also on the Gov.UK website. Support in tracing family members overseas is available through the British Red Cross Family Tracing Service. More information can be found at: http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Finding-missing-family/International-family-tracing
We do not consider asylum claims made abroad and there is no provision in our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum. The Refugee Convention places no obligation on signatory states to consider claims made outside their territory. Those who need international protection should claim in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
We support the principle of family unity and have several routes for families of refugees to be reunited safely. Our family reunion policy allows a spouse or partner and children under the age of 18 of those granted refugee status or humanitarian protection in the UK to join them here, if they formed part of the family unit before the sponsor fled their country.
The UK also operates several resettlement schemes that bring vulnerable individuals who need protection to the UK. These are Gateway, Mandate, the Syrian Vulnerable Person's Resettlement Scheme and the new Vulnerable Children's Resettlement Scheme. All schemes see the UK working closely with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to identify cases that they deem in need of resettlement according to agreed criteria.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many extraditions have been approved since 1990 in respect of which written assurances have been received that the death penalty will not be imposed.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The statistics sought are not held centrally.
The Extradition Act 2003 makes it clear that the Secretary of State must not order extradition if the subject of the extradition request could be, will be or has been sentenced to death for the offence concerned in the requesting territory. However, this does not apply if the Secretary of State receives a written assurance which she considers adequate that a sentence of death will not be imposed, or will not be carried out (if imposed). Similar provisions were included in legislation governing extradition prior to the 2003 Act.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to protect Rwandans residing in the UK from assassination.
Answered by John Hayes
It is long established Home Office policy not to comment upon matters of personal protective security.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the police take to ensure the safety of people sleeping rough.
Answered by Karen Bradley
The Government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. One person without a home is one too many, which is why we will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.
We also want to help local authorities provide advice and assistance to those at risk of homelessness which is why we have protected the homelessness prevention funding for local authorities through the provisional local government finance settlement, totalling £315 million by 2019-20.
Decisions about frontline policing, and how resources are best deployed, are for Chief Constables and democratically accountable Police and Crime Commissioners. We have seen forces make significant changes to frontline policing to reflect the priorities of local people, including the most vulnerable. For example, several forces have established multi- agency teams to work collaboratively with other local public and voluntary sector services to tackle rough sleeping.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent steps she has taken to safeguard 16 and 17 year olds from child sexual exploitation.
Answered by Karen Bradley
Tackling child sexual exploitation is a top priority for this Government. We have prioritised child sexual abuse as a national threat in the Strategic Policing Requirement, setting a clear expectation on police forces to collaborate across force boundaries, to safeguard children, to share intelligence and to share best practice.
The Government has overhauled the legislative options available to the police in tackling child sexual exploitation. Most importantly we have introduced new Sexual Risk Orders (SRO) and Sexual Harm Prevention Orders (SHPO) which the police can now use to manage an individual who presents a risk of sexual harm to a child, including a young person aged 16 and 17. The Government has also removed all references to the misleading and unhelpful terms ‘child prostitution’ and ‘child pornography’ from statute via the Serious Crime Act 2015. The law now explicitly recognises these harmful activities for what they are: child sexual exploitation.
This Government is committed to supporting victims of sexual exploitation, in December 2014 the Government announced a £7 million uplift to services supporting survivors of sexual abuse, including child sexual exploitation. This was in addition to the £1.72 million a year the Home Office provides to part fund 87 Independent Sexual Violence Advisors to work with and support victims. In January 2016, the Ministry of Justice announced that Government will continue the £7 million uplift to support survivors and victims of sexual abuse, including child sexual exploitation.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 1.81 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, whether the protection of overall police spending includes (a) British Transport Police, (b) the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and (c) the Ministry of Defence Police.
Answered by Mike Penning
Section 1.81 of the Spending Review document refers to the 43 police forces for which the Home Office provides funding. The Home Office does not hold information on the impact of the Spending Review on the British Transport Police, Civil Nuclear Constabulary or the Ministry of Defence Police. This information will be available from the Department for Transport, Department for Energy and Climate Change and Ministry of Defence respectively.
Asked by: Rebecca Long Bailey (Labour - Salford and Eccles)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much she expects to be top-sliced from the (a) 2015-16 and (b) 2016-17 police grant; and from what areas that funding will be top-sliced.
Answered by Mike Penning
Reallocations from central Government funding to the police are set out in a Written Ministerial Statement published alongside the Police Grant Report each year. Decisions on funding for 2016/17 will be taken after the Spending Review reports later this month and reallocations will be published in the usual way.
For 2015/16, reallocations totalled £177 million (rounded to the nearest £1million) and are listed below for your reference.
In addition, a further £564 m illion was allocated in respect of counter-terrorism policing.
Police Innovation Fund 70
Police Knowledge Fund 5
Independent Police Complaints Commission (for the transfer of integrity functions) 30
College of Policing (for direct entry schemes) 5
City of London National and International Capital City Grant 3
HMIC (for PEEL inspection regime) 9
Police Special Grant 15
Major Programmes 40