Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to implement the recommendations in the report, Rape as torture in the DRC, published by Freedom from Torture in June 2014.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty's Government issued a Country Policy Bulletin on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in October 2014 which includes guidance and country information for asylum decision-makers on considering the risks faced by womenreturning to the DRC.
The Bulletin is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/democratic-republic-of-congo-country-information-and-guidance
The Bulletin cites the Freedom from Torture (FfT) report of June 2014 and a July 2013 FfT submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women on the same subject.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of leave to remain applications have been treated as falling outside normal service standards in each six-month period in the last four years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
New service standards have applied to leave to remain applications submitted to
UK Visas and Immigration on or after 1 January 2014. Comparing the performance
against new service standards to the performance against previous service
standards is not possible given the change in methodology at that time.
However, reporting on UK Visas and Immigration’s performance against service
standards is now more detailed than prior to 1 January 2014 and can be found in
the temporary and permanent migration section of the quarterly migration
transparency data release, available at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data
Information about what UK Visas and Immigration’s published service standards
are and how applications that have been excluded from service standards are
categorised is available in the ‘Notes’ tab of the temporary and permanent
migration data.
Information on how many applications were concluded within service standards is
available at tab ‘InC2’.
Information on how many applications did not meet the service standard and how
many applications were excluded from the service standard is available at tab
‘InC5’.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if the UK will oppose restrictions on the availability of ketamine at the meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs from 9 to 17 March 2015.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Coalition Government does not believe that controlling ketamine internationally is appropriate, as it could result in reduced access to a substance listed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organisation, and widely used as an anaesthetic in low and middle income countries. We will be adopting this position at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
However, we are determined to clamp down on the criminal misuse of ketamine, which leaves young people in the UK hospitalised with serious bladder and kidney damage every year.
To prevent its misuse, we have made ketamine a Class B drug and taken action to ensure its availability for health and veterinary care in the UK is properly regulated.
We continue to discuss our concerns over the impact of international control with a range of civil society groups and professional bodies, including bodies representing anaesthetists.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take advice from anaesthetists familiar with the needs of developing countries before voting at the meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs from 9 to 17 March 2015.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
The Coalition Government does not believe that controlling ketamine internationally is appropriate, as it could result in reduced access to a substance listed as an essential medicine by the World Health Organisation, and widely used as an anaesthetic in low and middle income countries. We will be adopting this position at the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
However, we are determined to clamp down on the criminal misuse of ketamine, which leaves young people in the UK hospitalised with serious bladder and kidney damage every year.
To prevent its misuse, we have made ketamine a Class B drug and taken action to ensure its availability for health and veterinary care in the UK is properly regulated.
We continue to discuss our concerns over the impact of international control with a range of civil society groups and professional bodies, including bodies representing anaesthetists.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of each of the recommendations relating to her Department in the report of the Serious Case Review into Child Sexual Exploitation in Oxfordshire; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness Featherstone
On 3 March, the Children’s Minister, Health Minister and I wrote to the chair
of Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board, welcoming the publication of the
Serious Case Review and outlining our response. The Government has looked
carefully at recent cases of child sexual exploitation with many similarities
to the accounts of abuse in Oxfordshire. Our response is set out in ‘Tackling
Child Sexual Exploitation’, which we published on 3 March. We will continue to
develop and deliver our responses to these serious and devastating crimes, and
will consider carefully the emerging lessons from cases as they emerge.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the current service level agreement between her Department and the National Offender Management Service on the use of prisons to hold immigration detainees comes to an end.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The current service level agreement between the Home Office and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), which includes the use of prisons to hold immigration detainees, ends on 31 March 2015.
The Home Office is in negotiation with NOMS to renew the agreement
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to extend or renew the current service level agreement between her Department and the National Offender Management Service on the use of prisons to hold immigration detainees.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The current service level agreement between the Home Office and the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), which includes the use of prisons to hold immigration detainees, ends on 31 March 2015.
The Home Office is in negotiation with NOMS to renew the agreement
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what reports she has received of the police response when called out to an alleged assault at Campsfield House immigration centre on 29 November 2014.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Mitie, the service provider for Campsfield House IRC, was in contact with the police during the protest at the centre. The police were advised of the circumstances of the use of control and restraint. No detainees were injured
and nobody required hospital treatment. No complaints of assault have been made to the Home Office as of 10 December.
At her request, Baroness Lister was provided with some background information relating to the protest at Campsfield.
Asked by: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the statement sent by her Department to Baroness Lister on 1 December on the alleged assault and subsequent protest at Campsfield House immigration centre on 29 November.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Mitie, the service provider for Campsfield House IRC, was in contact with the police during the protest at the centre. The police were advised of the circumstances of the use of control and restraint. No detainees were injured
and nobody required hospital treatment. No complaints of assault have been made to the Home Office as of 10 December.
At her request, Baroness Lister was provided with some background information relating to the protest at Campsfield.