Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK by boat in May 2020.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
People crossing the Channel to enter the UK have come from a safe country – usually France – and so there is no reason why they need to make this trip in order to claim asylum. Those fleeing persecution should stay in the first safe country they enter.
The number of migrants arriving in the UK crossing the Channel by small boats for the months of January to March 2020 is approx. 450. These are provisional figures based on operational management information. The figures for April and May have not passed through a data quality check and cannot be assured. The final figures for all months will be published at a later date, once they have been verified and fully quality assured.
The UK continues to work closely with France and other countries to return migrants who have entered the UK by small boat in order to provide a strong deterrent against these dangerous crossings.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to tackle criminal gangs involved in the smuggling of illegal immigrants into the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Organised criminal groups (OCGs) continue to facilitate the majority of migrant journeys to the UK. The threat we are facing from organised immigration crime spans multiple countries, nationalities and criminal methodologies.
It is complex, and we are working to tackle the criminal groups who facilitate the travel from source countries to Europe and the United Kingdom.
The migrants making the dangerous journey to Europe include illegal migrants who have paid to travel, trafficked people, as well refugees and asylum seekers. Each of these groups of individuals has very different needs in terms of our response towards them. However, in all cases we are tackling the OCGs who make profit from them all.
The UK is playing a leading role in tackling organised immigration crime and protecting UK borders is just one element of that. We work with and support our European partners to detect and pursue these OCGs as well as raising awareness of the dangerous methods they use to move migrants and the exploitation that occurs in many cases.
Preventing organised immigration crime upstream is a core objective of Immigration Enforcement. Its network of staff based in embassies and consulates in over 30 key source and transit countries carries out the following key activities:
Additionally, the UK has established the Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce, which brings together officers from Border Force, the National Crime Agency, Immigration Enforcement and the Crown Prosecution Service. The Taskforce takes a “whole of route” approach to identify and tackle the groups involved in organised immigration crime, seeking to use every opportunity to disrupt them in source countries, in Europe and in the other countries migrants travel through to reach the UK. It has successfully disrupted organised crime groups involved in immigration crime through participating in intelligence development and sharing, as well as arrests and prosecutions.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions she has had with her French counterpart on tackling the illegal movement of immigrants from France to the UK across the English Channel.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The UK and France maintain a strong relationship on the issue of migration and those attempting to access the UK illegally, ensuring that the necessary support is delivered to vulnerable migrants whilst upholding security at our shared border. Officials from both governments maintain a regular pattern of engagement on tackling the issue.
The Home Secretary and French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner spoke most recently on the 6th May and discussed cooperation on tackling Covid-19 as well as our bilateral response to migrants crossing the English Channel using small boats. They are due to hold a follow-up call within the coming week.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the accuracy of recent reports of French naval vessels escorting illegal immigrants into British waters where those immigrants have been picked up by UK Border Force officials.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Border Force vessels covering the South East Channel are usually tasked to identify migrant events by the Coastguard, with the priority being search and rescue and the safety of life. Border Force work closely with the Coastguard and French Authorities to ensure we provide an effective response to migrant events at sea. Migrants undertaking these dangerous journey’s in unsuitable and overloaded small boats are putting the lives of themselves and others at considerable risk and the priority at sea for all assets deployed is safety.
At sea, under international law, the preservation of life is paramount. In some cases, French boats will remain with migrants if they refuse rescue. But we are clear no-one should be crossing at all and we are developing plans to reform policies and laws to help to stop these crossings completely.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many prosecutions there have been in the last five years for failing to complete annual checks on fire dampers; and how many of those prosecutions have been successful.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office has responsibility for the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires that any facilities, equipment and devices provided to safeguard the safety of relevant persons, such as fire dampers, are subject to a suitable system of maintenance and are maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
The Home Office holds data on the number of prosecutions leading to conviction related to a failure to comply with Article 17 of the FSO which covers maintenance generally. We do not hold any data specifically relating to fire dampers.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether his Department has plans to increase the frequency of the requirement for fire dampers to be inspected from annually to six-monthly.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Home Office has responsibility for the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which requires that any facilities, equipment and devices provided to safeguard the safety of relevant persons, such as fire dampers, are subject to a suitable system of maintenance and are maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair.
The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 does not specify the frequency of testing for specific fire protection measures. The requirement for annual testing is set out in BS9999:2017 Fire safety in the design, management and use of buildings. This is a matter for the British Standards Institute.