Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Court of Appeal judgment on firefighters' pensions of 20 December 2018, what his Department's total legal costs were in that case; what estimate his Department has made of the potential costs of implementing that judgment; and how those potential costs are planned to be defrayed between central and local government.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The Government is seeking permission to appeal the judgment, so no estimate has been made of the potential costs of implementing the judgment nor any determination on how such costs might impact central and local government. To date the legal costs are in the region of £334,000.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which areas of Sudan representatives of his Department visited as part of the ongoing country guidance case into the risk of return for failed asylum seekers in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Officials from the Home Office undertook a fact finding mission to Khartoum only between 10 and 17 August 2018 to obtain information about the treatment of non-Arab Darfuris in particular and returnees more generally.
Background to the mission and its findings are set out in a report published in November 2018, which is available on the https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sudan-country-policy-and-information-notes
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on what dates representatives from his Department visited Sudan as part of the ongoing country guidance case into the risk of return for failed asylum seekers in Darfur and the Nuba Mountains.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Officials from the Home Office undertook a fact finding mission to Khartoum only between 10 and 17 August 2018 to obtain information about the treatment of non-Arab Darfuris in particular and returnees more generally.
Background to the mission and its findings are set out in a report published in November 2018, which is available on the https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sudan-country-policy-and-information-notes
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will include veterinary surgeons in his Department's proposals to remove the cap on the number of non-UK skilled workers.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
On 19 December, the Government set out its proposals for future skills-based immigration system. Paragraph 6.13 of the White Paper indicates that the Government accepts the Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendation that the skilled migration route in the future system, which will encompass veterinary surgeons, should not be subject to a cap.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to order the HMI Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services to undertake an investigation into the performance of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service.
Answered by Nick Hurd
An inspection of Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) is planned for summer 2019 as part of the fire and rescue services inspection programme.
The HMICFRS inspection programme covers all 45 fire and rescue services in England. Inspections assess the effectiveness and efficiency of each fire and rescue service, and how well they look after the people who work for them.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if he will meet with the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor to discuss issuing strategic advice and guidance for (a) fire and rescue authorities and (b) local education authorities on the installation and inspection of school classroom notice boards to ensure they are legally compliant with respect to fire standards.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The role of Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser was abolished in 2017.
The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 places a responsibility on manufacturers to put only safe products on to the market. Products, and their constituent materials, must be safe for any reasonable foreseeable use.
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, the responsible person (usually the owner, employer or managing agent) is required to ensure adequate fire protection measures are in place and maintained appropriately. To help responsible persons identify and mitigate fire risk and comply with the provisions of the Order, Government has made available guidance, including a specific guide for education premises, which is available here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fire-safety-risk-assessment-educational-premises.
Additional guidance on design for fire safety in schools, known as Building Bulletin 100, was published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families in 2007 and refers to the safe use of notice boards. The guide is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/building-bulletin-100-design-for-fire-safety-in-schools.
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps the Government is taking to reduce waiting times for checks by the Disclosure and Barring Service; and what support is being given to local police forces to help with the workload these checks require of them.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) process over 4 million checks every year and operate to published service standards set out here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-business-plan-2018-2019 The Home Office, as the sponsoring Department for the DBS, monitors performance to track attainment of these standards.
The Home Office has published statutory guidance to assist chief officers of police to provide the correct information for enhanced criminal record certificates. The guidance is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statutory-disclosure-guidance
The DBS monitor and work closely with local police forces to minimise any delays to applications being processed. All police force disclosure unit performance data is published in line with DBS’ publication scheme. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/dbs-dataset-5-police-disclosure-unit-performance
Asked by: David Drew (Labour (Co-op) - Stroud)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions he has had with Police and Crime Commissioners on the effect on police budgets of additional pension costs.
Answered by Nick Hurd
We are assessing the implications of changes to the public service pensions discount rate on police forces and are working with the police and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners to determine how best to manage these impacts. The Budget made clear that part of these costs will be met from the Treasury Reserve in 2019/20.
As the Chancellor set out in his speech, the Home Secretary will review police spending power ahead of the 2019/20 provisional police funding settlement which is expected to be published next month.