Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to introduce visa-free travel to the UK for Colombian passport holders.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK keeps its visa system under regular review. Decisions on changes reflect a range of factors. These will vary globally, but often include security, compliance, returns and prosperity.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations she has received on the Independent Panel into the Murder of Daniel Morgan since January 1st 2020.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
As sponsoring Minister for an inquiry, it is not uncommon to receive queries and correspondence regarding the progress of an inquiry. Representations with regards to the content of the report would be a matter for the Independent Panel.
The Home Secretary is kept up to date on the work of the Panel and her responsibilities by her officials, and meets with them when required.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what meetings have been held with her officials on the Independent Panel into the Murder of Daniel Morgan since 1 January 2020.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
As sponsoring Minister for an inquiry, it is not uncommon to receive queries and correspondence regarding the progress of an inquiry. Representations with regards to the content of the report would be a matter for the Independent Panel.
The Home Secretary is kept up to date on the work of the Panel and her responsibilities by her officials, and meets with them when required.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to introduce visa-free entry to the UK for holders of Colombian passports.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The UK keeps its visa system under regular review. Decisions on changes are always taken in the round, and reflect key facets of the bilateral relationship with the country concerned. These will vary globally, but often include security, compliance, returns, and prosperity.
There are no current plans to change the visa requirements for citizens of Columbia.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish her assessment of the economic effect on the UK aerospace manufacturing sector of the Government's policy of introducing a 14 day quarantine period for travellers arriving from overseas.
Answered by Kevin Foster
A range of criteria informed the development of the introduction of new health measures at the border, including the urgent requirement to protect our progress in countering the spread of the virus and reducing the risk of a second wave whilst doing all we can to protect vital supply chains and infrastructure work.
It is unfortunately unavoidable there will be an economic impact in the UK if we are to take necessary steps like this to protect public health and save lives.
The Government has committed to keeping the border health measures under regular review to ensure they remain effective and proportionate.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the recent counter-terrorism police guidance released as part of the Prevent Strategy, how many individuals were reported to the police due to their suspected involvement with a climate activist group.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Home Office does not hold information on how many individuals were reported to the Police due to suspected involvement with a climate activist group. This level of data is held by the Police who are operationally independent from the Home Office.
Counter Terrorism Policing Headquarters have categorically stated they do not classify involvement with a climate activist group as extremism and stated that the inclusion of them in Counter Terrorism Police guidance was an ‘error of judgment’.
Membership or support of climate activist groups does not mean that a person is considered a threat by the Home Office or by the police; it does not meet the government threshold for extremism as defined in the Government’s Counter-Extremism Strategy published in 2015.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Border Force officers are on standby to be placed at the Irish border on 31 October 2019 in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by Seema Kennedy
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Dissolution.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
What steps her Department is taking to tackle recent increases in knife crime.
Answered by Priti Patel
This Government is taking action by recruiting an additional 20,000 police officers, by easing restrictions on the use of stop and search, and through supporting the police operational response through the £100 million Serious Violence Fund.
We are also investing in early intervention and, as announced in the Queen’s speech, we will legislate for a new serious violence duty.
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans he has to publish UK Border Force performance data by port of entry.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Border Force does not routinely publish data that does not meet the Home Office standard for publication or that could impact its operational effectiveness. There are no current plans to publish this data in the future.
Border Force transparency data can be found at the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/border-force-statistics
Asked by: Christian Matheson (Independent - City of Chester)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which contracts awarded by his Department are operated by Capita.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Home Office currently holds 2 contracts with Capita, with a total contract value of £16.4m
Title | Start Date | End Date | Value |
Electronic Monitoring Services | 01/02/2014 | 31/03/2020 | £16.0m |
Immigration IT Test Analysis Services | 01/11/2017 | 01/05/2019 | £440,352 |
The Home Office has since 2010, published details of its contracts over 10K on the Pan-Gov’t Contracts Finder portal, as part of the HMT Transparency Agenda. The link to the portal is as follows: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder .