Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to remove citizenship application fees for children.
Answered by Kevin Foster
We keep fees for immigration and nationality applications under review and ensure they are within the parameters agreed with HM Treasury and Parliament, as set out in Section 68 (9) of the Immigration Act 2014.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what diplomatic steps he has taken to promote the correct usage and proper functioning of Interpol red notices among his foreign counterparts.
Answered by Nick Hurd
INTERPOL is a crucial organisation enabling police to police cooperation between 194 member countries.
Any misuse of INTERPOL notices is taken very seriously by this government.
The Home Office continues to work with INTERPOL and the National Crime Agency (NCA), which acts as the UK’s National Central Bureau for INTERPOL, on this matter and strongly supports INTERPOL’s efforts to ensure systems are in place that protect individuals’ human rights. Article 3 of INTERPOL's Constitution strictly forbids any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to introduce a new seasonal agricultural workers scheme.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
For the time being, the United Kingdom remains a part of the European Union and the latest labour market statistics continue to show an increased number of EU citizens entering into the UK labour force. However, the Government has committed to keeping the position under review and we will continue to engage with the agricultural sector. Future decisions about the degree of labour market access that will be made available to EU citizens after the UK leaves the European Union have yet to be determined.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate the Government has made of the cost of implementation of the proposal set out in Safeguarding the position of EU citizens in the UK and UK nationals in the EU, published on 26 June 2017.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
As with other areas of the immigration system, we aim to keep costs to the taxpayer to a minimum by charging applicants a fee.
We recognise the cost of the new settled status application will be important for EU citizens, and intend to set fees at a reasonable level. Delivery options will be subject to negotiation with the EU so it is not currently possible to provide an estimate of the cost to the public purse.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) detainees, (b) security guards and (c) independent witnesses were on board the deportation charter flight from Stansted Airport to West Africa on 24 May 2016.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that, on the 24th May charter to Nigeria & Ghana, 47 detainees were returned with 118 escorts. On this particular flight there were no independent observers.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people on removal flights from the UK in the last 12 months had (a) lived in the UK for over 20 years and (b) still had family in the UK when they were removed.
Answered by James Brokenshire
This information is not captured in our standard reports. To obtain this would require a manual search of the Home Office Case Information Database. The Information requested could therefore only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the cost to the public purse of deportation by chartered flights has been in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that the cost of chartering aircraft for removal flights over the past 5 years is as follows:
2011/12 - £8.5 million
2012/13- £13.8 million
2013/14 - £12.7 million
2014/15 - £13.2 million
2015/16 - £9.1 million
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what comparative assessment she has made of the cost to the public purse of deportations on chartered flights and commercial flights.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Home Office conducts a cost comparison between charter flights and commercial flights every 6 months.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many flights for the purposes of deporting people whose asylum or human rights claims were refused were chartered by the Government in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office charter flights are used to remove individuals who have been refused asylum in the UK, but also individuals who have committed other immigration and criminal offences. Home Office records indicate that there were 45 charters in 2012, 48 in 2013, 46 in 2014, 38 in 2015 and 18 to date in 2016.
In addition to charter flights the Home Office also removes people via scheduled commercial services.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many foreign nationals that had been held in UK prisons were removed on chartered deportation flights in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
Home Office records indicate that there were at least 1999 foreign nationals who, having been detained in a UK prison, were removed on charter flights in the past 5 years; 367 in 2012, 424 in 2013, 498 in 2014, 486 in 2015 and 224 in 2016 to date.
This is provisional management information that is subject to change. It has not been assured to the standard of Official Statistics.
Immigration Enforcement charter flights are regularly monitored by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMIP) and the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB).