Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what preparations she has made for the introduction of the new British National (Overseas) visa; and what plans are in place to ensure the successful integration into the UK of Hongkongers.
Answered by Kevin Foster
On 31 January 2021 the UK Government introduced a new immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders in Hong Kong, providing the opportunity for them and their eligible family members to live, work and study in the UK.
We recognise the integration of BN(O) status holders and their family members is crucial to help arrivals to thrive in their new lives in the UK. We want BN(O) status holders and their families to feel welcome and safe in the UK; have the support to learn English and/or Welsh; to be economically active; and have access to education as appropriate.
Work is taking place across the UK Government alongside civil society groups and others to support the effective integration of BN(O) status holders arriving in the UK in the coming months.
Further information on specific provisions across the four nations of the UK will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of effectiveness of teleconferencing interviews for asylum seekers to ensure that the (a) quality and experience of interviews is maintained; (b) claimants do not suffer retraumatisation and dehumanisation; (c) the loss of physical communication and body language does not result in adverse credibility assessments.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has successfully used video technology to support asylum interviewing since 2017 and has appropriate operating procedures that are designed to ensure participants are able to give the best account of their circumstances.Asylum Operations has an assurance process, the three lines of defence model, which assesses the quality of decisions, interviews and the application of Home Office policy and video conference interviews are a part of this assurance process.
Assurance Compliance and Improvement (ACI) are in the process of conducting second line assurance on interviewing via video conference but we are continuing to complete our own first line assurance.We regularly liaise with partners and received feedback to ensure our standards of interviewing are upheld.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to (a) limit the level of turnover of caseworkers in her Department and (b) ensure the effective training of caseworkers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Asylum Operations have, over the last 18 months increased the number of decision makers and support staff as part of a rolling recruitment campaign, developed a staff retention strategy to ensure Asylum Operations retains its highly skilled asylum decision makers.
The Asylum Operations Training Team ensure the effective training of caseworkers by delivering the Foundation Training Programme to all new asylum decision makers. This intensive five-week course provides staff with training on all aspects of asylum decision making. This course is followed by a period of mentoring to consolidate their learning.
In addition, an Asylum Transformation Programme is in development that will help address attrition alongside seeking to simplify, streamline and digitise processes as part of the plans to speed up Asylum decision making.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department provides to asylum caseworkers on the extent to which country-of-origin information should be (a) used in interviews and (b) evaluated in claimant decision-making.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The references to Country of Origin information across Asylum Policy Instructions are numerous.
The majority of the detail on how asylum caseworkers should consider this information, both in interviews and in final decisions, is contained in the Asylum Policy Instruction on Assessing Credibility And Refugee Status.
However, this is an issue which cuts across a number of areas including interviewing, with detail on this contained in the Asylum Interviews guidance, and is also featured in specific pieces of guidance on issues such as gender identity. It also forms part of the Foundation Training Programme for caseworkers.
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (a) how do asylum caseworkers access country of origin information for asylum seekers; and (b) how often this information is updated.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office publishes Country Policy and Information Notes, which provide country of origin information, and analysis of this information, for use by Home Office decision makers assessing protection and human rights claims. Each Note provides information concerning the situation for a particular group of people in a particular country. They are published on our intranet, the GOV.UK website and are also available through the country information sites ecoi.net and Refworld.
Our Notes are kept under constant review and updated depending on demand and the situation.
Decision makers also have access to the latest available country information through an information request service for specific enquiries to deal with particular issues raised in individual claims. These are published on our intranet.