Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people received a police caution for a sexual offence in England and Wales in each year since 2015.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office publishes the investigative outcomes of crimes recorded by the police in England and Wales, including the number resolved through a police caution. This data is published on a quarterly basis and can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-recorded-crime-open-data-tables
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December to Question 128332, what assessment she has made of the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on her Department’s capacity in asylum operations intake units.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Pursuant to the answer of 15th December 2020, the temporary regional intake unit in Cardiff has been in operation since April 2020, as part of the Home Office response to the COVID pandemic.
There are no processing capacity limits on the additional temporary locations introduced to register asylum claims.
The Home Office aims to ensure all locations are sufficiently resourced to provide timely appointments to register asylum claims. Capacity is based upon demand and workforce availability at these temporary locations which enables them to cope with fluctuations in levels of asylum intake.
Asylum claims registered at these temporary regional locations are processed in accordance with policy, fulfilling the UKs statutory obligations in relation to registering asylum claims in a Covid safe environment.
These are temporary arrangements which will be kept under review to align with HMG guidance. These changes do not represent a new operating model - they are contingency measures put in place during the COVID-19 epidemic in order to ensure that asylum seekers are able to safely register their claims.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much revenue was generated in the last 12 months by the £2.74 charge for public enquiries to the UK Visas and Immigration Department via email.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The £2.74 email charge is levied to fund the commercial contract, as the UK government believes it is right those who use and benefit directly from the UK immigration system make an appropriate contribution towards meeting the costs of the immigration system.
Those who use the services are predominantly from outside the UK. Our web site gov.uk is the main source of information and advice and is free of charge.
Further details of the financial arrangement in place between the Home Office and SITEL UK Ltd for the provision of Contact Centre Services (UK and International) is not available due to it being commercially sensitive.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of opening the temporary Asylum Operations Regional Intake Unit in Cardiff.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office are unable to state what estimate has been made of the cost to the public purse of opening the temporary Asylum Operations Regional Intake Unit in Cardiff. Where possible we have reduced costs by retributing resources from within the Home Office and Other Governmental Departments. To obtain this information would require the interrogation of information held under multiple cost centres and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
The Home Office are able to provide the total asylum costing for 2019/2020 and can be found at asy_04:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-protection-data-november-2020
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many and what proportion of asylum decision makers left their jobs within the first 12 months of employment in the Asylum Operations Regional Asylum Intake Unit in Cardiff.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office is unable to state how many and what proportion of asylum decision makers left their jobs within the first 12 months of employment in the Asylum Operations Regional Intake Unit in Cardiff. The temporary regional intake unit in Cardiff has been in operation since April 2020, as part of the Home Office response to the COVID pandemic.
In line with Government restrictions on travel and to continue to meet commitments during the COVID 19 restrictions, the Home Office temporarily introduced additional locations to register asylum claims in Glasgow, Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds, Solihull and Cardiff, which began taking appointments on 19 April 2020.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum decision maker posts are currently vacant.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Asylum Operations has over recent years made good progress on increasing the number of decision makers and support staff. There are recruitment strategies in place to maintain staffing at the required levels to allow us to manage asylum intake and reduce the overall time to make initial asylum decisions. These include rolling recruitment campaigns, a staff retention strategy to ensure it retains its highly skilled asylum decision makers, and the further expansion of digital processes to increase case working flexibility. Recruitment has however been impacted by COVID-19, we are working to return staffing numbers back to pre-pandemic levels as soon as possible and with campaigns due to go live imminently.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure that people who report (a) rape or (b) sexual assault to the police have access to specialist counselling and therapy (i) before trial and (ii) from the trial onwards.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Rape and sexual assault are devastating crimes and we want victims to have the confidence to report them, knowing they will get the support they need and that everything will be done to bring offenders to justice.
The Ministry of Justice has committed £32 million over three years from 2019 to 2022 to rape support centres across England and Wales to provide emotional and practical support to victims, which may include counselling and therapy. The Home Office is also providing £200,000 in 2020/21 to specialist sexual violence support services through its National Sexual Violence Support Fund.
We understand the importance of accessing therapy after going through a traumatic experience. Earlier this year the CPS launched a public consultation on guidance for pre-trial therapy. The updated guidance will provide prosecutors, the police and therapists with practical support in helping victims through this part of the justice process.
The Government is also conducting an end-to-end review of the criminal justice response to rape, which includes considering the role of support services in victims’ engagement throughout the criminal justice system.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many of the 81 articles in the 2012 Istanbul Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and girls have yet to be confirmed in UK law.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The UK signed the Istanbul Convention in 2012, signalling its strong commitment to tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) and this Government remains committed to ratifying it.
The Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence (Ratification of Convention) Act 2017 requires Ministers to publish annual reports on their progress towards being able to ratify the Convention. The third such report was published on 31 October 2019.
We will shortly be publishing this year’s report on our progress, which will set out our compliance position and the steps we are taking towards ratification.