Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the (a) number and (b) destinations of all domestic flights taken by officials in her Department in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office publishes information on the number of domestic flights taken by officials in the Annual Report and Accounts.
Please refer to the link and page reference below, which details information for the previous five financial years (April to March).
Page 54 Home_Office_ARA_21-22_Final_-_Gov.uk.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
This includes the distance in km but not the destination.
Domestic flight numbers for financial year 2022-23 will be available when the Home Office Annual Report and Accounts for 2022-23 is published.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the effectiveness of Section 59 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014 in preventing dog attacks involving more than four dogs.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB). We know the serious impact that persistent ASB can have on both individuals and the wider community.
We provided the police, local authorities and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Currently there are no plans to make an assessment of the effectiveness of Section 59 in preventing dog attacks involving more than four dogs.
It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances. They are best placed to understand what is driving the behaviour in question, the impact that it is having, and to determine the most appropriate response.
The Home Office published statutory guidance to support local areas to make effective use of these powers. The guidance sets out the importance of focusing on the needs of the victim and the local community, as well as ensuring that the relevant legal tests are met. This guidance was updated in June 2022 to ensure a victim-centered approach to tackling ASB as well as stronger use of the powers and tools in the 2014 Act.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 3 January 2023 to Question 104227, in addition to the percentage figures provided, if she will she provide figures on the number of passports applications not fully processed within 10 weeks in each of the last three years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Since April 2021, His Majesty’s Passport Office has advised people to allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their passport using the standard service in the UK. Of the standard UK applications resulting in a printed passport in the week ending 15 January 2023, 99.2% had been processed within ten weeks
The application processing capacity was reduced in the initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Published processing times for overseas applications vary, starting from 11 weeks.
The number of UK and overseas applications that were processed in over ten weeks for each year from 2020, is shown in the table below:
Year | Total printed * | Volume over 10 weeks | Percentage over 10 weeks |
2020 | 3,880,691 | 308,468 | 7.95% |
2021 | 4,525,441 | 61,210 | 1.35% |
2022 | 7,583,557 | 409,063 | 5.39% |
* Data for priority services is recorded as performance against the respective service level only (1 day for Premium, 7 days for Fast Track), with the end-to-end processing time not being held in a reportable format. Passports printed under a priority service are therefore excluded.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visas were issued to doctors to work in the NHS in each of the last three years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office does not routinely publish data on specific occupations or places of employment.
We do publish data on entry clearance visas in the 'Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release'. Data on Skilled Worker - Health & Care visas issued are published in Vis_D02 of the 'Entry clearance visa application and outcomes detailed datasets'. Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the 'Notes' page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the year ending September 2022.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the 'Research and statistics calendar'.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of property ownership by citizens of countries considered to pose a threat to national security on national security.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
We take any threats to national security extremely seriously. The 2020 National Risk Assessment considered that the property market faced a high risk from money laundering. This included an assessment that since 2017 law enforcement have seen an increase in overseas based buyers under investigation and that corrupt foreign elites continue to be attracted to the UK property market.
We use all available tools to identify and counter activity by individuals posing a national security threat. Where appropriate, action can be taken on the property and asset ownership of such individuals. This includes through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which we can use to deprive criminals of their money or other property connected to criminal activity, inclusive of crimes which threaten the national security of the UK. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill currently going through Parliament will make it harder for kleptocrats, criminals and terrorists to engage in activities such as money laundering, corruption, terrorist-financing, illegal arms movements and ransomware payments.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to publish a new National Fraud Strategy.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat
The Fraud Strategy will be published shortly.
The Government will work with industry to remove the vulnerabilities that fraudsters exploit, with intelligence agencies to shut down fraudulent infrastructure, with law enforcement to identify and bring the most harmful offenders to justice, and with all partners to ensure that the public have the advice and support they need.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many passport applications were not fully processed within 10 weeks in each of the last 3 years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Since April 2021, His Majesty’s Passport Office has advised people to allow up to 10 weeks when applying for their passport using the standard service in the UK.
Published processing times for overseas applications vary, starting from 11 weeks
The volume of printed passports for each year from 2019 where the application was not processed within ten weeks, is shown in the table below:
Year | % of standard UK applications completed in over 10 weeks | % of overseas applications completed in over 10 weeks |
2019 | 0.23% | 2.91% |
2020 | 1.75% | 42.94% |
2021 | 0.66% | 8.11% |
2022 (to 30 November) | 4.66% | 18.45% |
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of her Department's (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The total number of Laptops and Smartphones reported lost or stolen by staff since 1 January 2018 is 1227, summarised in table 1.
| Incidents |
2018 | 11 |
2019 | 360 |
2020 | 224 |
2021 | 281 |
2022 | 351 |
Total | 1227 |
Table 1 – Incident Summary for Lost Stolen devices
The total number of assets (lost or stolen) still missing in the same period is 868 as shown in table 2. This does illustrate that the department recovers devices reported lost e.g. left at home or office and subsequently found.
| Laptop | Smartphones |
| ||
Year | Lost | Stolen | Lost | Stolen |
|
2018 | 0 | 0 | 80 | 1 | 81 |
2019 | 0 | 0 | 141 | 0 | 141 |
2020 | 1 | 0 | 94 | 0 | 95 |
2021 | 0 | 0 | 114 | 0 | 114 |
2022 | 11 | 1 | 404 | 21 | 437 |
Total | 12 | 1 | 833 | 22 | 868 |
Table 2 – Lost / Stolen Laptops and Smartphones
The number of lost stolen memory sticks or hard drives is shown in table 2 below.
Year | Memory sticks | Hard drives |
2018 | 1 (lost) | 0 |
2019 | 0 | 1 (stolen) |
2020 | 0 | 0 |
2021 | 2 (lost) | 1 (lost) |
2022 | 2 (lost) | 0 |
Table 3 – Lost Stolen Memory Sticks and Hard Drives
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of staff who have been subject to (a) sexual harassment and (b) bullying in her Department in each year since 2018.
Answered by Sarah Dines
It is up to individual employees whether they choose to raise an allegation or concern about sexual harassment or bullying informally or formally. In both situations, the case must be dealt with appropriately and effectively by an independent manager outside the management chain of the parties involved. Consequently, this information can only be obtained with disproportionate effort as this information is not held centrally aside from formal grievances and/or disciplinary action.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much money her Department spends on accommodating Afghan refugees in the UK hotels per day.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The cost of accommodating those resetting under the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme or relocating under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy, whilst they await permanent accommodation, is estimated at £1 million a day.
The Home Office works to secure contracts which offer the best value for money, whilst providing an appropriate level of support to those under its care.
We do not want to see Afghan families in temporary accommodation for any longer than is absolutely necessary. We are therefore working with local authorities across the UK to identify more opportunities for those being housed in bridging hotels to move into permanent accommodation.