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 total value is of contracts between his Department and Swiss Post Solutions for work outsourced from the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
DBS do not have a contract with Swiss Post Solutions. Swiss Post Solutions is a sub-contractor of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Swiss Post Solutions, as a sub-contractor, are managed by TCS. TCS report on service level agreements and key performance indicators relating to work conducted by Swiss Post Solutions and their performance is monitored by the DBS.
Swiss Post Solutions handle more than 6,000 pieces of correspondence each month relating to DBS barring business, and have been used for barring since 4 September 2017. In this time the DBS have been informed of one occasion on which information was attached to an incorrect case file. This error was identified and remedied internally before any correspondence was sent.
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 total value is of contracts between his Department and Tata Consultancy Services for work on the Disclosure and Barring Service; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As published in the DBS’ 2017/18 Annual Report and Accounts the overall value of agreed costs with Tata Consultancy Services is £224m (inc.VAT). This includes the values of the original contract plus any agreed Contract Change Notes and Requests for Change.
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 assessment he has made of whether the tool to redact sensitive case information used by the Disclosure and Barring Service is fit for purpose.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
DBS uses a tool to redact sensitive documents which was selected by its technology service provider, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). DBS has reported some issues with the redaction functionality. These issues have been raised with TCS, and a new software release is currently in test for deployment.
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 he has had with the Attorney General on Criminal Prosecution Service charging thresholds in cases for rape.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Minister for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability and the Solicitor General regularly meet to discuss issues related to sexual violence, including improving outcomes for victims of rape and serious sexual offences. The Attorney General also is a member of the Violence Against Women and Girls Inter Ministerial Group, chaired by the Home Secretary, at which issues related to rape and sexual violence are also discussed.
Rape and sexual violence are devastating crimes and we expect every report to be treated seriously from the point of disclosure, every victim to be treated with dignity and every investigation and every prosecution to be conducted thoroughly and professionally.We continue to work with the police to look at ways to improve police investigations of rape and ensure that their guidance on investigating and prosecuting rape is implemented in every police force area. We are working with the CPS, Ministry of Justice and Attorney General’s Office to better understand these issues, which will be addressed in detail in the upcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy Refresh.
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 he is taking to compensate victims of the Windrush scandal.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government is establishing a compensation scheme for members of the Windrush generation who have suffered loss as a result of difficulties in demonstrating their lawful immigration status.
The Home Office published a consultation paper on 19 July seeking views on the design and operation of the scheme. The consultation closed on 16 November.
We will announce details of the final scheme and how to apply as soon as possible.
Ahead of the scheme coming into operation, the Home Office has already put measures in place to help those who are affected. This includes a dedicated team for vulnerable people within the Windrush taskforce, providing assistance where an urgent need for support or advice has been identified.
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 recent estimate he has made of the number of members of the Windrush generation who were detained at an immigration centre and have subsequently requested compensation.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office wrote to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 21 August with the initial findings of the Historical Review of removals and detentions. The Historical Review identified 14 people who had been detained in an Immigration Removal Centre. Regular updates have been provided to the committee and this information is available in the library of the House. As set out in the letter to the Committee of 12 November, the department initially excluded all individuals with a “criminal case type” marker. We reviewed this approach to ensure we have not adopted too broad a definition and revised our methodology. However, individuals who have been deported following a criminal conviction in the UK continue to be excluded from the review. We will continue to keep the Home Affairs Select Committee updated.
The Government has committed to establishing a compensation scheme specifically for those members of the Windrush generation who suffered a loss as a result of difficulties in establishing their lawful immigration status. Details of the scheme and how to apply for compensation will be announced as soon as possible. Prior to the launch of the compensation scheme it is open to individuals to bring a claim for compensation through the court system.
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 recent estimate he has made of the number of members of the Windrush generation who were deported to other countries and have subsequently requested compensation.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office wrote to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 21 August with the initial findings of the Historical Review of removals and detentions. The Historical Review identified 14 people who had been detained in an Immigration Removal Centre. Regular updates have been provided to the committee and this information is available in the library of the House. As set out in the letter to the Committee of 12 November, the department initially excluded all individuals with a “criminal case type” marker. We reviewed this approach to ensure we have not adopted too broad a definition and revised our methodology. However, individuals who have been deported following a criminal conviction in the UK continue to be excluded from the review. We will continue to keep the Home Affairs Select Committee updated.
The Government has committed to establishing a compensation scheme specifically for those members of the Windrush generation who suffered a loss as a result of difficulties in establishing their lawful immigration status. Details of the scheme and how to apply for compensation will be announced as soon as possible. Prior to the launch of the compensation scheme it is open to individuals to bring a claim for compensation through the court system.
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 recent estimate his Department has made of the number of Windrush people that worked in the NHS who were (a) held in immigration detention centres and (b) deported to other countries.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office wrote to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 21 August with the initial findings of the Historical Review of removals and detentions and have provided regular updates to the committee. This correspondence is available in the library of the House. The department has not made any assessment of previous employment of those individuals identified by the review, and in many cases the department will not hold this information.
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 his Department has taken to provide assurance to (a) users and (b) employers on the security of documents stored on cloud services in relation to the IT system for applying for settled status.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office takes the security of all of our data extremely seriously, including digitised evidence provided by EU Settlement Scheme users. There are processes in place in the Home Office for the capturing and mitigation of risks and vulnerabilities to ensure appropriate control of our services. I can confirm this is the case for the EU Settlement Scheme
All Home Office systems including EU Exit applications undergo rigorous cyber strengthening prior to launch. This includes an independent security testing to ensure they are resilient to external attack.
Our IT systems hosting platform include a number of mechanisms to detect and respond to malicious intrusions.
All data is encrypted both in transit and at rest. Our IT staff are security cleared and data will only be accessed by those who have a valid business reason to access it. The Home Office regularly monitors the systems for abuse and misuse.
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 recent estimate he has made of the number of members of the Windrush generation who were deported to other countries and have since been refused entry to the UK.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Home Office wrote to the Home Affairs Select Committee on 21 August with the initial findings of the Historical Review of removals and detentions and have provided regular updates to the committee.
This correspondence is available in the library of the House. As set out in the letter to the Committee of 12 November, the department initially excluded all individuals with a “criminal case type” marker. We reviewed this approach to ensure we have not adopted too broad a definition and revised our methodology. However, individuals who have been deported following a criminal conviction in the UK continue to be excluded from the review.