Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of introducing a humanitarian travel visa on the level of small boat crossings.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
There is no provision within our Immigration Rules for someone to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum or temporary refuge. Whilst we sympathise with people in many difficult situations around the world, we are not bound to consider asylum claims from individuals overseas who might like to come here.
Those in need of immediate protection should take the fastest route to safety and claim asylum in the first safe country they reach. Individuals should not put their lives at risk by leaving manifestly safe countries with well-functioning asylum systems and make unnecessary and dangerous onward journeys to the UK.
The UK has a proud record of providing protection for those who need it. Our focus is on helping people directly from regions of conflict and instability, and we believe that our resettlement programmes are the best way to provide much needed support. Between 2015 and September 2023, over half a million people were offered safe and legal routes into the UK.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will list (a) the visa categories for which the average processing time was longer than the agreed customer service standard and (b) the number of people waiting for their visa application to be processed in each of those categories on 13 December 2023.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Detailed information on UK Visas and Immigration's performance against all of its customer service standards across different immigration routes is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/visa-processing-times.
UKVI are currently within their service standards on the overwhelming majority of visa applications.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many student visa applications have been withdrawn in each of the past five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Our published data, which includes data on withdrawn applications, can be found in the available Migration Statistics on GOV.UK, https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-september-2023/why-do-people-come-to-the-uk-to-study
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many biometric residence cards were reprinted due to errors on those cards in each of the last seven years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The information is not available publicly and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 2159 on Asylum: Rwanda, where on the Gov.uk website information on legal fees for R (on the application of AAA (Syria) and others) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and related cases is available.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The answer to Question 2159 was corrected on 21 November to give a link to the published data, which was provided to the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many allowed (a) entry clearance and (b) in-country appeal decisions are awaiting implementation as of 29 November 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The requested information cannot be accurately extracted from our internal systems. To provide this information would require a manual trawl of successful appeals and to do so would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will make an assessment of the number of ARAP applications from former members of the (a) Afghan Territorial Force 444 and (b) Commando Force 333 units that have been approved since the scheme opened.
Answered by James Heappey
As of 28 November 2023, we have relocated 13,300 ARAP Eligible Principals (EPs) and their family members to safety in the UK under the ARAP scheme and have approximately 6,000 eligible persons and family members remaining to relocate to the UK. It is not possible to provide a breakdown of these figures by job role or specific unit.
Not all members of the Afghan Armed Forces, including specific units such as Afghan Territorial Force 444 and Commando Force 333, will automatically be eligible for ARAP. Each application is assessed on a case-by-case basis on its own merits. However, we are prioritising finding remaining eligible applicants and relocating them as quickly as we can.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to his oral contribution in response to the question from the hon. Member for Glasgow North of 27 November 2022, Official Report, what the evidential basis is for stating that allowing asylum seekers the right to work would increase the number travelling to the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
A wide body of evidence points towards key pull factors to the UK including language, diaspora, presence of friends and family, economic opportunity, and availability of education. Any effects exerted by asylum policies and welfare systems on individual decision making around ultimate country of destination are much less well understood and difficult to isolate. That is why we have no plans to work provisions and are trebling the fines for illegal working.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of permanently extending the higher rate of Theatre Tax Relief.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government recognises the value of the UK’s world-leading theatre sector.
That is why at Spring Budget 2023, the government went further to support theatres by announcing a 2-year extension to the current 45% (for non-touring productions) and 50% (for touring productions) rates of theatre tax relief (TTR). These rates will now taper to 30%/35% on 1 April 2025 and return to 20%/25% on 1 April 2026.
The government is not currently considering making the 45%/50% rates of TTR permanent, however, the government keeps the tax system under review.
Asked by: Alison Thewliss (Scottish National Party - Glasgow Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing half of all marketing spend to be included in the qualifying costs of Theatre Tax Relief.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government recognises the value of the UK’s world-leading theatre sector. At Spring Budget 2023, the Government went further to support theatres by extending the 45 per cent (for non-touring productions) and 50 per cent (for touring productions) rates of TTR for a further 2 years.
Whilst the Government keeps all tax reliefs under review, the Government is not planning to expand the scope of Theatre Tax Relief (TTR) to include 50 per cent of marketing spend. The objective of theatre tax relief is to support and incentivise production and that is why eligible expenditure is focussed on the costs that are incurred producing and closing the theatrical production, rather than marketing.