Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what her Department's policy is on over-booking flights chartered for people being forcibly removed from the UK.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Charter flights are routinely overbooked to ensure the flight is fully utilised and delivers value for money. We reassess attrition rates for each flight on a monthly basis to ensure the number of individuals booked onto the flight who ultimately do not travel is kept to a minimum.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether security staff working on mass deportation flights have accredited training in the use of force in the confined space of an aircraft.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Yes. All escorting staff employed on charter flights are required to undertake and pass training in the Home Office Manual for Escorting Safely (HOMES). This is an accredited training package which is provided by the National Offender Management Service for use in confined spaces, including aircraft. Escorting staff are required to undertake refresher training on a regular basis.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times she has visited Scotland in an official capacity since the 2015 General Election; and what meetings were held on each such visit.
Answered by Theresa May
I have visited Scotland once in an official capacity since the 2015 General Election. Details of meetings with external organisations are published in quarterly returns which are available at: gov.uk.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of interviews for a first-time adult passport application she expects to be conducted on a face-to-face basis in (a) England, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) Scotland and (d) Wales after the proposed closure of 15 HM Passport Office interview offices.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Based upon the number of interviews conducted in 2015 (222,264), following the changes to Her Majesty’s Passport Office interview office estate it is expected that 212,767 (95.72%) interviews will be conducted face-to-face.
This would be broken down by country to:
England: 183,952 (97%) face-to-face interviews
Northern Ireland: 3,965 (100%) face-to-face interviews
Scotland: 15,496 (85.83%) face-to-face interviews
Wales: 9,354 (85.10%) face-to-face interviews
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what additional funding will be provided to HM Passport Office for the development of new technology for remote interview sites after the proposed closure of 15 HM Passport Office interview offices.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty’s Passport office currently offers passport application interviews via secure link from 25 locations. From May 2016 there will be an additional five locations offering video interviews.
The cost of establishing video interview services at these additional five locations is estimated to be £15,000 per site. This cost will be met by our existing budget with no additional funding required.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of interviews for a first-time adult passport application was conducted on a face-to-face basis in (a) England, (b) Northern Ireland, (c) Scotland and (d) Wales.
Answered by James Brokenshire
In 2015, Her Majesty’s Passport Office interviewed 222,264 adult customers applying for their first passport. Of these 218,742 (98.41%) were face-to-face interviews in person. The remainder were carried out using our Video Interview Service, typically used in the more remote parts of the country. The interview is undertaken by Her Majesty’s Passport Office staff over a video link, and the customer is accompanied at all times by one of our partner organisations.
This is broken down by country to:
England: 189,252 (99.99%) in person interviews
Northern Ireland: 3,965 (100%) in person interviews
Scotland: 15,496 (85.83%) in person interviews
Wales: 10,029 (91.24%) in person interviews
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether a security assessment has been made of the potential use of non-HM Passport Office (HMPO) sites for interviews when HMPO plans to replace face-to-face interviews with video-link interviews.
Answered by James Brokenshire
When commissioning new video interview sites, a security risk assessment is undertaken and the service has to be suitably accredited. Video interviewing, using this approach, has been used successfully for customers in other locations since 2007.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether staff working at the HM Passport Office site in Dundee will be (a) offered alternative employment or (b) made redundant.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty’s Passport Office is committed to avoiding the need for redundancies, and if at all possible, will seek to find suitable alternative employment for the staff either within the Home Office or the wider Civil Service.
If no suitable alternative employment can be found for the staff, then they will be offered voluntary redundancy terms in line with the current Civil Service Compensation Scheme.
An offer of a voluntary early exit has already been made should staff not wish to continue their careers within the Civil Service.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the property lease contract on the HM Passport Office site in Dundee ends; and if she will extend the proposed timeframe for closure of this site.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Her Majesty’s Passport Office holds a serviced office arrangement with Scottish Enterprise at Enterprise House, Dundee which allows access to facilities and interview rooms for three days each week.
Interviews will cease in Dundee on 18 March 2016. HM Passport Office is currently in discussion with Scottish Enterprise to end the arrangement a short time after the interviews cease. There are no plans to extend the proposed timeframe.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether lease contracts on buildings currently housing HM Passport Office interview offices that are facing closure would allow for the proposed timeframe of office closures to be extended.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Sites which host flexible interview teams are operated by Her Majesty’s Passport Office as managed office space. Rental agreements vary, but most require one month notice.
In Blackburn, Bristol, Crawley, Leicester and Sheffield HM Passport Office holds a licence to occupy the premises until September 2018, with an opportunity to break the licence in September 2016.
A date to cease interviewing in March 2016 has been set to enable staff to work with the Home Office career transition service and focus on finding alternative employment prior to the offices being decommissioned.