Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have received an award from the Windrush Compensation Scheme in each quarter since that Scheme was launched.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
An individual could have more than one claim under the Windrush Compensation Scheme Rules, for example as a primary claimant, close family member, or as a representative of an estate. In addition, a claim may receive a preliminary, interim and/or full and final payment.
Data on the total number of people who have received a compensation payment is not published. Transparency Data shows how many claims have received a payment under the scheme.
The latest published data, covering the period up to November 2023, is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/windrush-compensation-scheme-data-november-2023. WCS_03 refers; Value of Windrush Compensation Scheme payments made.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department will accept donations of (a) toys for children at her Department 's short-term holding facilities and (b) funds for the express purpose of procuring toys for children staying at such facilities.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Under contractual arrangements Home Office has Mitie Care & Custod provides, toys and games are for children in Short-Term Holding Facilities (STHF).
All local authorities are under a mandatory duty to comply with the National Transfer Scheme, ensuring all local authorities play a part in caring for unaccompanied children and that responsibility is fairly distributed across the UK.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to protect all children.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children are held in the Manston asylum processing centre as of 1 November 2022.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Home Office does not hold the data in the format requested.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the current minimum staffing levels are on contracts between the Border Force and private security contractors in (a) the Port of Dover and (b) Manston Airport.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not routinely publish information relating to the number of staff working in specific locations as this would publicise operational practises which, in the wrong hands, could be used to attempt to evade controls at the border and compromise border security.
However, resource and staffing requirements at every port are continually reviewed by Border Force and we work closely with all port operators to try and anticipate demand. Resources are deployed flexibly as and when they are required.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will list the private security companies (a) contracted or (b) sub-contracted to process undocumented migrants in (i) the Port of Dover and (ii) Manston Airport.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has a number of arrangements in place to provide security, and custodial staff at the Port of Dover, and at its site in Manston.
These arrangements include the pre-existing Escorting and Related Services Contract with Mite Care and Custody, a contract with Management & Training Corporation (UK) Ltd, and a contract with Bloom Procurement Services who contracts with Definitive PSA Ltd (trading as Interforce) to deliver services for the Department.
Providing number of staff based at Dover and Manston, would reveal information on the security of our borders. It is not possible to provide the level of detail requested on volumes and patterns without impacting national security
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will list the (a) value and (b) length of the contracts Border Force holds with (i) MITIE, (ii) Interforce and (iii) Definitive PSA in connection with the processing of undocumented migrants arriving in the Port of Dover.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office has a number of arrangements in place to provide security, and custodial staff at the Port of Dover, and at its site in Manston.
These arrangements include the pre-existing Escorting and Related Services Contract with Mite Care and Custody, a contract with Management & Training Corporation (UK) Ltd, and a contract with Bloom Procurement Services who contracts with Definitive PSA Ltd (trading as Interforce) to deliver services for the Department.
Providing number of staff based at Dover and Manston, would reveal information on the security of our borders. It is not possible to provide the level of detail requested on volumes and patterns without impacting national security.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what due diligence is undertaken by Border Force in relation to sub-contracting of private security services to deliver public contracts.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Due diligence is an ongoing process carried out during a procurement exercise and varies depending upon the nature and size of the contract being procured. Typical areas considered as part of the selection and due diligence of a potential supplier could include:
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Transport since 17 March 2022 on Border Force’s private security contractors in (a) the Port of Dover and (b) Manston Airport.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Department for Transport is not involved in the asylum operations at Dover or Manston. There have therefore been no discussions with the Department for Transport about the use of private security contractors at the Home Office facilities at Dover and Manston.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what Border Force’s staffing levels were in (a) the Port of Dover and (b) Manston Airport in each quarter since January 2019 to date.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not routinely publish information relating to the number of staff working in specific locations as this would publicise operational practises which, in the wrong hands, could be used to attempt to evade controls at the border and compromise border security.
However, resource and staffing requirements at every port are continually reviewed by Border Force and we work closely with all port operators to try and anticipate demand. Resources are deployed flexibly as and when they are required.
Asked by: Diane Abbott (Independent - Hackney North and Stoke Newington)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children are not strip-searched without a parent, guardian or appropriate adult present.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
Strip search is one of the most intrusive powers available to the police and its use should not be a routine occurrence. The Police and Criminal Evidence Act Codes of Practice govern how the police should deploy this power. If the police judge it operationally necessary, then any strip search conducted on a child must be carried out by officers of the same sex, in private and with an appropriate adult present unless both the child and the appropriate adult agree otherwise and in line with safeguarding procedures.
Nobody should be stopped and searched because of their race or ethnicity and safeguards exist to ensure that this does not happen, including statutory codes of practice, use of body worn video to increase accountability and extensive data collection. It is critical that we maintain public confidence in policing and as part of this we will be looking carefully at strengthening the system of local community scrutiny and the value of body-worn video, because transparency is vital.
The MoJ are supporting a project with the National Police Chief’s Council with the aim of addressing the difference in experience of ethnic minority children and adults in police custody. A wide range of agencies and independent advisors have contributed to this work, which engages a number of police forces across the country and builds on existing initiatives in the workplace, including a dedicated Independent Strip Search Scrutiny Panel (ISSSP) in Norfolk & Suffolk Police.
From December 2022 we will be including more detailed custody data in the annual Police Powers and Procedures statistical bulletin which will include data on whether an appropriate adult was called out for a detained child and the number of strip searches & Intimate searches carried out, broken down by age, gender, ethnicity, and offence type.
Further work is underway for the collection of data during stop & searches on the use of strip search. Currently, the Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating this incident and it is vital we await their findings. However, we will consider all recommendations made for the Home Office as a result of these investigations very carefully.