Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many and what proportion of second homes in England are used as holiday homes or weekend homes, in each Council Tax Band.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Department does not collect information on the use of second homes that are liable for council tax. However, Table 2 from the 2021 Council Taxbase statistical release provides the number of second homes that are liable for council tax by council tax band. The release can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/council-taxbase-2021-in-england .
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to (a) support Afghan nationals after their six months leave to remain in the UK ends and (b) provide information, advice and support for those people prior to the end of their leave to remain.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has written to Afghan families advising them of the next steps to progress permanent residence in the UK.
The Home Office has established a dedicated caseworking team, which is working jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Ministry of Defence. This team will contact those here in the UK under the Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy and those moving onto the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, to assist them to obtain Indefinite Leave to Remain status.
While families are being accommodated in Bridging Hotel accommodation, we remain committed to ensuring that there essential living needs are being met.
We also have Home Office Liaison Officers (HOLO’s) allocated to Bridging Hotel Accommodation.
The role of the HOLO is to provide both face to face support and remote support when not physically present. They are reactive to the needs of those accommodated in hotels and can provide signposting to other government departments and Local Authorities and ensure safeguarding concerns are appropriately acted upon.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has received representations from Greater Manchester child and migrant rights organisation on concerns that children seeking asylum in the UK are at a higher risk of criminal exploitation, self-harm and dying by suicide; and what steps she is taking to resolve backlog of children seeking asylum.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office regularly receive representations from Greater Manchester child and migrants’ rights organisations on children seeking asylum in the UK.
The department most recently received a courtesy copy of an open letter dated 16 December 2021, from the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU) in which 25 child and migrant rights organisations wrote to us and we replied to this on the 20 January 2022.
The department maintains a working relationship with GMIAU and other regional organisations through our strategic partnerships; including the Strategic Engagement Group (SEG) and National Asylum Stakeholder Forum (NASF), who continue to work collaboratively to ensure asylum claims from children and young people remains one of our top priorities.
The Home Office have established two dedicated case working Hubs for deciding children’s asylum claims which are now fully operational. The hubs have established improved focus on and greater control of children’s cases to build expertise, identify efficiencies and provide a consistency of decision making (and quicker outcomes) for our customers.
We continue to work collaboratively with Local Authorities nationally on the remote interview process for Accompanied and Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and young people utilising digital interviewing video capabilities to complement in person interviews.
Since May 2021 we have increased Local Authority opt in for digital interviewing to 108 Local Authorities helping to speed up processes, reduce delays and the numbers of children and young people who have an outstanding claim.
We are continuing to recruit additional decision-makers who will be trained to process children’s asylum claims to further reduce the number outstanding.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has plans to give people seeking asylum the right to work in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office already allows asylum seekers the right to work in the UK if their claim has been outstanding for 12 months or more, through no fault of their own.
Those permitted to work are restricted to jobs on the Shortage Occupation List, which is based on expert advice from the independent Migration Advisory Committee. We have no plans to change this approach.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department keeps official records (a) the average number of days it takes to process claims for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK and (b) trends in the number of days it takes her Department to reach a decision on children seeking asylum claims in (i) 2021, (ii) 2020 and (iii) 2019; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office are unable to state the average number of days it takes to process claims for unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the UK or provide trends in the number of days it takes to reach a decision in 2021, 2020 and 2019 as this information is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.
However, the Home Office does publish data on the number asylum applications awaiting an initial decision by duration. This data can be found at Asy_D03, (broken down by nationality and applicant type) in the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/asylum-and-resettlement-datasets
The Home Office have established two dedicated case working Hubs for deciding children’s asylum claims which are now fully operational. The hubs have established improved focus on and greater control of children’s cases to build expertise, identify efficiencies and provide a consistency of decision making (and quicker outcomes) for our customers.
We continue to work collaboratively with Local Authorities nationally on the remote interview process for Accompanied and Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and young people utilising digital interviewing video capabilities to complement in person interviews.
Since May 2021 we have increased Local Authority opt in for digital interviewing to 108 Local Authorities helping to speed up processes, reduce delays and the numbers of children and young people who have an outstanding claim.
We are continuing to recruit additional decision-makers who will be trained to process children’s asylum claims.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many places remain to be allocated on the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme; and how many and what proportion of the people given protection under that scheme are British nationals or living in the UK as of 8 February 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) commenced on 6th January. The ACRS will provide up to 20,000 women, children and others at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK.
We are not giving a running commentary on statistics of those in the scheme due to the continuing flow of people being welcomed. We will include this data within published resettlement statistics later in 2022.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of people crossing the Channel in small boats had existing family members in the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office is unable to state what proportion of people crossing the Channel in small boats had existing family members in the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021, as this information is not recorded in a way that is reportable.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the experience of inequalities in adult social care need by ethnicity; and what plans his Department has to tackle that matter.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
No assessment has been made. The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC’s) new strategy contains a core ambition to tackle inequalities in health and care, which includes regulating to advance equality and protect people’s human rights. As part of CQC’s commitment to drive improvement in quality, CQC expects services and local systems to address inequalities in access, experiences, and outcomes. Local authorities have a duty under the Care Act to prevent needs of the local population deteriorating.
We are committed to publishing a Health Disparities White Paper later this year which will set out a series of impactful measures to address health disparities and their causes, including those linked to geography, deprivation and ethnicity.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to address inequalities in unmet adult social care need by (a) age, (b) gender, (c) ethnicity and (d) geography.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The white paper ‘People at the Heart of Care’, published on 1 December 2021, includes an enhanced assurance framework, data collections and additional funding to address inequalities by identifying and sharing good practice by local authorities and responding where standards are not being met.
Local authorities are best placed to understand and plan the care and support needs of their populations. The Care Act 2014 requires local authorities to shape their local markets to ensure a diverse range of quality, person-centred, sustainable care and support services are provided. Local authorities assess whether an individual is eligible for financial support to meet their care needs. Where individuals are not eligible for financial support, local authorities may assist them to make arrangements for care. From October 2023, we will enable more people who fund their own care in care homes to request their local authority to arrange care on their behalf.
Asked by: Debbie Abrahams (Labour - Oldham East and Saddleworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to reconsider the funding formulae for local authorities’ social care, service planning and preventative strategies to take into account inequalities in the need for and experience of adult social care.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
On 7 September 2021 the Government announced £5.4 billion over three years for adult social care. This includes over £3.6 billion to reform the social care charging system and enable all local authorities to move towards paying providers a fair rate for care. These changes will remove unpredictable care costs and provide support to those who are currently not eligible for financial support with their care needs. Work is ongoing to consider the most appropriate approach for distributing this funding.
We are committed to ensuring that wider funding allocations for councils are based on an up-to-date assessment of their needs and resources. We will work closely with local partners to review challenges and opportunities before consulting on any potential funding reform.