Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what was the average number of working days that staff in HM Passport Office were unable to work due to (a) sickness and (b) other reasons in (i) 2019, (ii) 2020, and (iii) 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
Please see the table below.
Business Area | Year | Average Working Days Lost (AWDL) |
|
HM Passport Office | Dec 2019 | 8.69 |
|
HM Passport Office | Dec 2020 | 7.43 |
|
HM Passport Office | Dec 2021 | 10.33 |
|
Dec 2019 & Dec 2020: Adelphi - Home Office Human Resources Record System. | |||
Dec 2021: Metis - Home Office Human Capital Management System. | |||
Period Covered: 1st January to 31st December each year. | |||
Employee Coverage: In line with Cabinet Office guidelines on sickness absence reporting, the data is based on FTE of paid civil servants who had a sickness absence during the period covered. | |||
On the question relating to 'other reasons' this could cover a range of situations, would require clarification but would probably only be obtained by disproportionate effort.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the risk of children displaced from Ukraine being targeted by smugglers and traffickers.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
We stand with Ukraine and will always defend the Ukrainian people’s right to choose their own destiny. Thousands more Ukrainians will be welcomed to the UK as the Government continues its support for Ukraine in their fight against the Russian invasion.
The Government is committed to tackling the heinous crime of human trafficking. We will continue to clamp down on those who continue to exploit vulnerable people while providing tailored support for victims to help their recovery. We will continue to monitor the risk and threat of our Ukraine schemes being exploited by smugglers and traffickers.
The Government’s Ukraine Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine Scheme have been designed to ensure we meet our safeguarding obligations, particularly for vulnerable children. For example, here caseworkers have concerns about the identity and relationship of an applicant to the Ukraine Family Scheme and their sponsor, they will undertake background checks on the sponsor.
In the Department’s operations, Border Force has a network of specially trained Safeguarding and Modern Slavery officers. Border Force has a key role in identifying victims and perpetrators of human trafficking as they cross the UK border to prevent modern slavery from happening, safeguard other vulnerable persons and help bring to justice those who commit crimes against them too.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to mandate individual risk assessments for all employees in her Department before they return to the workplace following the easing of covid-19 restrictions; and how many individual risk assessments for people returning to work have been conducted by her Department as of 21 February 2022.
Answered by Baroness Maclean of Redditch
Managers of Home Office employees are already strongly encouraged to use the Department’s Covid-19 Individual Risk Indicator (CIRI) tool to have a structured conversation with their team members before they return to their workplace.
The CIRI tool enables a personalised discussion of the employee’s individual needs, concerns and risk factors to enable practical steps to be taken to facilitate their return to the workplace.