Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps their Department is taking to support the Disability Confident scheme; how many officials in their Department work directly on supporting that scheme; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of that work in supporting the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of disabled people in their Department; and what further steps they are taking to support their Department’s recruitment and retention of disabled people.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Home Office has supported the Disability Confident Scheme since August 2016, as a Level 3 Disability Confident Leader. The Home Office attained subsequent re-accreditation, at Level 3, in March 2021, and, again in March 2024.
The Home Office remains committed to being a Disability Confident Leader and seeks to break down the barriers to career progression, to maximise the talent disabled people bring to the workplace.
The Department takes an evidence-led approach, to closely monitor disability representation, at all points of the employee life cycle.
The Home Office:
The Department encourages disabled staff to participate in all Home Office led talent programmes, in line with their chosen career progression. The tables below show the Disability representation as of March 2024.
Delegate Grades | |||||||||
Group | Target | AA | AO | EO | HEO | SEO | Grade 7 | Grade 6 | SCS |
Disability | 12%* | 20% | 18% | 15% | 13% | 13% | 12% | 12% | 13% |
*The Home Office Disability target reflects the economically active population, or the existing Home Office representation, whichever is higher.
Home Office Disability recruitment data shows a year-on-year increase in the percentage representation of candidates with disabilities at each stage of the recruitment process, which can be seen in the table below.
% of disabled candidates | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Application stage | 8.5% | 9.1% | 9.6% |
Successful Sift | 9.6% | 10.1% | 10.4% |
Successful Interview | 8.8% | 9.3% | 9.8% |
Ready to Hire | 8.8% | 9.1% | 9.5% |
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason 15,000 non-consensual images reported as part of Operation Makedom remain online; and what steps he is taking to seek the removal of that content.
Answered by Laura Farris
The Online Safety Act gained Royal Assent in October 2023 and seeks to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. It will, for the first time, place clear legal duties on technology companies to take proactive steps to identify, remove and prevent users encountering illegal content, including child sexual abuse material and non-consensually shared intimate images from their platforms. The Act also updates and improves legislation relating to the taking and sharing of intimate images.
The Government has funded the Revenge Porn Helpline to support victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, colloquially known as ‘revenge porn’. since it was established in 2015. The Home Office is providing £150k to the Helpline in 2023/24.
The Home Office has developed the world-leading Child Abuse Image Database (CAID) which brings together all the images that the Police and NCA encounter. We have provided the Internet Watch Foundation with a connection to CAID, enabling them to share the images’ unique identifiers – called hashes - to allow more child sexual abuse material online to be identified and removed. Home Office investment also supports the National Crime Agency to remove the most horrific child sexual abuse material from the internet, including on the dark web.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people were (a) arrested on suspicion and (b) convicted of people smuggling in UK waters since the start of January 2023.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The data requested cannot be provided as it comes from live operational databases that have not been quality assured.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to help support British citizens fleeing the conflict in Gaza to obtain visas for family members to travel with them to the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The UK Government is monitoring the situation in Israel and Gaza closely to ensure that it is able to respond appropriately. Flights were initially facilitated to help British citizens wanting to leave Israel.
British citizens and their foreign national dependants (spouse, unmarried/civil partner, child under 18), may come to the UK provided they have valid travel documents and existing permission to enter or remain in the UK; or are non-visa nationals.
Individuals who do not meet these criteria should apply for a visa to enable them to enter the UK in the normal way.
UKVI is working closely with the FCDO in supporting family members of British nationals evacuated from Gaza who require a visa, signposting the necessary steps and expediting appointments at the Visa Application Centre.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to help ensure there are effective routes for refugee family reunion in the UK for Palestinian refugees seeking to join family members in the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
The Government’s refugee family reunion policy provides a safe and legal route to bring families together. This route allows for family reunion applications from recognised refugees who have protection status in the UK.
The UK has a proud history of supporting refugees. Since 2015, we have offered a safe and legal route to over half a million people seeking safety in the UK. The UK continues to welcome refugees through our existing resettlement schemes which include the global UK Resettlement Scheme (UKRS), Community Sponsorship, the Mandate Resettlement Scheme and the family reunion route.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with abortion providers on the implementation of safe access zones.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The timescales for commencing the new Section 9 offence of interference with access to, or provision of, abortion services will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Evaluation of the Support for Migrant Victims pilot, published on 4 August 2023, when her Department plans to take a decision on the reservation to Article 59 of the Istanbul Convention.
Answered by Sarah Dines
We are carefully considering the findings of the Support for Migrant Victims Scheme pilot evaluation to inform any future policy decisions. Once we have considered all the evidence in the round, we will communicate our decision on the Article 59 reservation.
In the interim we have extended the funding for the scheme until March 2025 with up to £1.4 million allocated in financial years 2023/2024 and 2024/2025, ensuring we maintain support for migrant victims of domestic abuse.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department produced a ministerial response under the write round process to the Department for Education's review of the relationships, sex and health education (RSHE) curriculum.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The Secretary of State for Education has been clear she is very concerned about reports of inappropriate materials being used to teach relationships and sex education (RSHE). The Government has brought forward the review of the RSHE statutory guidance as a result, including conducting a public consultation as soon as possible.
The statutory guidance clearly states that the guidance will be reviewed every three years from first teaching (September 2020) and so the decision to review the guidance does not require collective agreement. The Secretary of State for Education will seek collective agreement to the consultation documents through a write-round process, before publishing the consultation in the autumn. This process is not yet underway.
As part of the review, an expert panel has been established to advise the Secretary of State on what topics should and should not be taught in school and the introduction of age limits. This will provide clear guidance for teachers about when certain topics can be addressed.
In tandem to this work, the Oak Academy is producing a suite of materials to support teachers to create age-appropriate lessons plans and ensure that they have access to appropriate materials.
The Government is determined to make sure RSHE teaching leaves children equipped to make informed decisions about their health, wellbeing and relationships, in a sensitive way that reflects their stage of development.
The Government expects new statutory guidance to be released in the coming months. It will then be subject to public consultation to conclude by the end of the year, coming into statutory force as soon as possible after that.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the National Disability Strategy published on 28 July 2021, which of her Department’s commitments in that strategy that have not been paused as a result of legal action have (a) been fully, (b) been partially and (c) not been implemented.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy (NDS) was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.
The Home Office had 4 policies included in the National Disability Strategy. These included:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-specialist
We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, The Home Office will be providing further details of our recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation due for publication in the summer.
Ahead of this, the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work will write providing a list of these achievements and will place a copy in the House Library.
Asked by: Caroline Nokes (Conservative - Romsey and Southampton North)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the Independent Family Returns Panel will have a role in oversight of the removal of children seeking asylum to Rwanda.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
We are not abolishing the Independent Family Returns Panel (IFRP). We are removing the duty to consult them in order to swiftly remove those families who fall for removal under the Illegal Migration Bill. However, we remain in open dialogue with the IFRP about the role they will have in the removal of those families with children who fall within the remit of the Bill. The IFRP will continue to play an important role in the removal of families with children who do not fall within the remit of the Illegal Migration Bill.