Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people who were given (a) entry clearance and (b) leave to remain on the grounds of family life as a partner under Immigration Rules Appendix FM were granted access to public funds following a successful change of conditions application in each year since 2012.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of applications for Entry Clearance and to stay in the UK that are made on the basis of family life as a partner or parent and any exceptional circumstances in compliance with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the number of applicants granted access to public funds following a successful entry clearance or leave to remain change of conditions application, do not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.
The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been given leave to remain on the basis of (a) family life as a (i) partner and (ii) parent and (b) exceptional circumstances in compliance with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in each year since 2012.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of applications for Entry Clearance and to stay in the UK that are made on the basis of family life as a partner or parent and any exceptional circumstances in compliance with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the number of applicants granted access to public funds following a successful entry clearance or leave to remain change of conditions application, do not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.
The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been given entry clearance to the UK on the basis of family life as (a) a partner, (b) a parent and (c) exceptional circumstances in compliance with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in each year since 2012.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The number of applications for Entry Clearance and to stay in the UK that are made on the basis of family life as a partner or parent and any exceptional circumstances in compliance with Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the number of applicants granted access to public funds following a successful entry clearance or leave to remain change of conditions application, do not form part of any current transparency data or migration statistics and is not published.
The transparency data does, however, include a range of processing data and the latest data can be found at:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-transparency-data#uk-visas-and-immigration.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff in his Department are on a maximum payscale below (a) £34,500 and (b) £38,700.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Within the Home Office, as of March 2024, there are 31,936 staff that have a maximum payscale below (a) £34,500 and 37,096 staff that have a maximum payscale below (b) £38,700.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the video entitled The first individuals set to be removed to Rwanda, posted on X by his Department on 1 May 2024, what the objectives of posting the video were; when the video received ministerial clearance; and if he will publish the minutes of the meeting in which the decision was made to produce the video.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Videos on government social media accounts should inform the public about government policy and delivery. This video showed Immigration Enforcement officers executing thier public duties as they do all the time. It was produced by civil servants as part of their routine duties and involved no additional costs. As with all videos featuring service users or sensitive content, every care was taken to protect subjects’ identities. The video went through normal approval processes for social media content.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the video entitled The first individuals set to be removed to Rwanda, posted on X by his Department on 1 May 2024, who produced the video; and how much the video cost to produce.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson - Minister of State (Minister for Illegal Migration)
Videos on government social media accounts should inform the public about government policy and delivery. This video showed Immigration Enforcement officers executing thier public duties as they do all the time. It was produced by civil servants as part of their routine duties and involved no additional costs. As with all videos featuring service users or sensitive content, every care was taken to protect subjects’ identities. The video went through normal approval processes for social media content.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 30 April 2024 to Question 23225 on Visas: Families, how many staff have been (a) recruited and (b) re-deployed to his Department's Family and Human Rights Unit.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Whilst this information is recorded on our systems, it is not in a reportable format.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff in his Department have a maximum payscale below £29,000.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Within the Home Office, as of March 2024, there are 10,819 staff that have a maximum payscale below £29,000.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to (a) review and (b) increase the number of staff recruited to his Department's Family and Human Rights Unit in the context of trends in the proportion of people relying on their rights under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights in applications for family visas.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Yes, we have both recruited new staff and redeployed existing staff to this area of work.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Migration Advisory Committee’s Rapid review of the Immigration Salary List, published on 23 February 2024, for what reason his Department has not implemented the recommendation on the use of the Immigration Salary List beyond the skilled worker route for asylum seekers.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Replacing the Shortage Occupation List with the new Immigration Salary List will maintain the important principles that underpin our approach to permission to work and is in line with wider changes to the Immigration Rules.
Unrestricted access to employment could act as an incentive for more migrants to choose to come here illegally, with many making dangerous journeys across the Channel and supporting the business model of evil people smugglers, rather than claim asylum in the first safe country they reach.
The Government considers it important to distinguish between those who need protection and those seeking to work here who can apply for a work visa under the Immigration Rules. Aligning asylum seekers’ permission to work with the Skilled Worker route could undermine the legal routes for those seeking to work in the UK.