Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will allow the hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe's constituent, Mr Paul Cleeland, to have access to her Department's files that have been placed with the Criminal Cases Review Commission relating to his conviction for the murder of Terry Clarke in 1972.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
As stated in the answer provided to PQ 114151 on 18 November, a review of Home Office file holdings on this subject is ongoing. The Home Office will work with the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) to review any Home Office material the CCRC holds concerning Mr Cleeland.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) files on the alleged crimes of Mukhtar Ablyazov; and whether her Department has requested further information from FinCEN on Ablyazov's use of British banking institutions with American branches.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The Home Office does not confirm or comment on individual operational matters. The UK is internationally recognised as having some of the strongest controls worldwide for tackling money laundering and terrorist financing. As a global financial centre, we are determined to go further to crack down on illicit finance and financial exploitation, to protect our security and prosperity.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason her Department asked Sir John May in 1991 to investigate the Metropolitan Police Science Laboratory; whether that work included an examination of the evidence presented by John McCafferty during the prosecution of Paul Cleeland for the murder of Terry Clarke in 1972; and if she will publish the results of those investigations.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
A review of any Home Office file holdings on this subject is currently being undertaken. It would not be appropriate to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason (a) Sir John May investigated the conviction of Paul Cleeland for the murder of Terry Clarke in Stevenage in 1972 as part of his work for her Department on potential miscarriages of justice and failings in the use of forensic science to gather and present evidence in criminal cases and (b) Paul Cleeland was not informed of that investigation (i) when his case was considered by the Court of Appeal in 2002 and (ii) at any other time; and what the findings were of Sir John May's investigation in that case.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
A review of any Home Office file holdings on this subject is currently being undertaken. It would not be appropriate to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many migrants have been intercepted (a) while attempting to make an illegal crossing of the English Channel and (b) shortly after arriving in the UK in each of the last 12 months for which that data is available.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
People crossing the Channel to enter the UK have come from a safe country – usually France – and so there is no reason why they need to make this trip in order to claim asylum. Those fleeing persecution should stay in the first safe country they enter.
The UK continues to work closely with France and other countries to return migrants who have entered the UK by small boat in order to provide a strong deterrent against these dangerous crossings.
The number of migrants arriving in the UK crossing the Channel by small boats for the months of January to March 2020 is approx. 450. These are provisional figures based on operational management information. The figures for April have not passed through a data quality check and cannot be assured. The final figures for all months will be published at a later date, once they have been verified and fully quality assured.
Information regarding migrants crossing the English Channel was provided to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 5 March 2019 which gave the number of migrants detected entering the UK by small boats from January 2018 to February 2019 as 428.
On 22 July 2019 the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid provided an additional figure to Home Affairs Select Committee that up to 21 July 2019 725 migrants had crossed the English Channel.
Since January 2019, over 155 people who entered the UK illegally on small boats have been returned to Europe. However, as a result of COVID-19 the vast majority of EU member states have temporarily paused accepting returns under the Dublin Regulations, but we are tracking those individuals and where appropriate will seek to return them when routes are available.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many migrants have entered the UK in the last 12 months as a result of making an illegal crossing of the English Channel; and how many of those migrants have subsequently left the UK.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
People crossing the Channel to enter the UK have come from a safe country – usually France – and so there is no reason why they need to make this trip in order to claim asylum. Those fleeing persecution should stay in the first safe country they enter.
The UK continues to work closely with France and other countries to return migrants who have entered the UK by small boat in order to provide a strong deterrent against these dangerous crossings.
The number of migrants arriving in the UK crossing the Channel by small boats for the months of January to March 2020 is approx. 450. These are provisional figures based on operational management information. The figures for April have not passed through a data quality check and cannot be assured. The final figures for all months will be published at a later date, once they have been verified and fully quality assured.
Information regarding migrants crossing the English Channel was provided to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 5 March 2019 which gave the number of migrants detected entering the UK by small boats from January 2018 to February 2019 as 428.
On 22 July 2019 the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid provided an additional figure to Home Affairs Select Committee that up to 21 July 2019 725 migrants had crossed the English Channel.
Since January 2019, over 155 people who entered the UK illegally on small boats have been returned to Europe. However, as a result of COVID-19 the vast majority of EU member states have temporarily paused accepting returns under the Dublin Regulations, but we are tracking those individuals and where appropriate will seek to return them when routes are available.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will provide details of the steps her Department is taking to detect migrants seeking to enter the UK by illegally crossing the English Channel.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Keeping our border secure is the Government’s highest priority and it is committed to doing everything it can to stop these dangerous Channel crossings which are putting vulnerable lives at risk.
Through joint-working with France, the UK has funded the continued deployment of gendarme reservists along the coast of northern France, who are patrolling constantly in order to detect attempted crossings by migrants. Funding has been allocated, among other projects, for further improvements at ports in northern France and on the ground, this now includes drones, specialist vehicles and detection equipment to stop small boats leaving European shores.
Intelligence flows are also key to dismantling the organised crime groups behind crossings. We have restructured and repurposed our approach to support the growing intelligence feeds which is used to inform and direct how and where resource is deployed.
Asked by: Damian Collins (Conservative - Folkestone and Hythe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the findings of any review that has been carried out by the Home Office, or other public authority within her responsibility, of criminal cases in which Mr John McCafferty was involved in providing forensic evidence for the prosecution.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
I am not aware of any such reviews carried out by the Home Office.