Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) number of enquiries were received in her Department's dedicated inbox for hon. Members and (b) proportion of those were responded to within 20 working days in each of the last three months; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Department works to a target of responding to 95% of Hon. Members written correspondence within 20 working days.
Performance has been impacted by a significant increase in the volume of correspondence received, including the unprecedented amount of correspondence about the situation in Afghanistan and more recently in Ukraine.
The Department continues to prioritise enquiries related to Ukraine and recognises it has not been able to meet service standard in other cases. An action plan has been implemented to clear backlogs and drive-up performance.
The Department continues to recruit additional resources and has recently been loaned staff from non-operational areas to assist in clearing the backlogs. A detailed recovery plan to support a return to an acceptable service standard is being prepared.
Data about intake and performance in answering Hon. Members correspondence are published quarterly with the latest Quarter available at: Customer service operations data: Q4 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what (a) number of recorded incidents there have been of errors on naturalisation certificates and (b) the average time for a corrected certificate to be issued was in each of the last six months; what steps she is taking to help prevent certificates containing errors being issued in future; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Home Office does not publish data in relation to the amendment of details on naturalisation certificates or the time taken for amended certificates to be issued. A request to amend a naturalisation certificate is not counted as a new application and current IT systems do not provide the specific data.
We have robust quality assurance measures in place and are continuously reviewing our processes to ensure we provide a high-quality service to our customers.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to increase the number of appointments available for people applying for a passport using the (a) online premium service and (b) one week fast track service; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Kevin Foster
HMPO are looking at a range of interventions to increase our capacity for providing urgent service appointments as soon as possible.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people scammed by fraudulent (a) texts, (b) emails and (c) calls in each year since 2010; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Damian Hinds
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department will publish its next quarterly progress report on the implementation of recommendations from phase 1 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, to follow the previous report of September 2021; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Government intends to publish the next progress report on the implementation of the recommendations from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Phase One report in April.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to respond to the letter dated 9 September 2021, and follow-up letters of 8 November 2021 and 15 March 2022, from the hon. Member for Harrow West on behalf of his constituent Soraya Jan; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Tom Pursglove
The Minister for Afghan Resettlement wrote to all members on 13 September 2021 informing that we could not pursue cases concerning Afghan people in country in the usual ways, in view of the very difficult circumstances in Afghanistan. The Minister advised members to signpost individuals to gov.uk to check for the latest information about the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens’ Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), rather than to seek to pursue cases on their behalf.
Unfortunately, the MP Account Management Team has not received the follow-up letters of 8 November 2021 and 15 March 2022.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when she plans to reply to the further chasing letter to the Minister for Future Borders and Immigration from the hon. Member for Harrow West of 9 November 2021, regarding his constituent Arian Sherzai and the safety of relatives in Afghanistan.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The Minister for Afghan Resettlement wrote to all members on 13 September 2021 and re-affirmed in her statement to the House on 6th January 2022 informing them that we could not pursue cases concerning Afghan people in country in the usual ways in view of the very difficult circumstances in Afghanistan. The Minister advised members to signpost individuals to gov.uk to check for the latest information about Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) rather than to seek to pursue cases on their behalf.
As a result, any correspondence received from Members during the Afghan evacuation period (including chaser enquiries) relating to Afghan people in country have and will not receive a substantive response.
The letter received from the hon. Member on 9 November 2021 was chasing a response to his earlier letter of 24 August 2021 meaning no substantive response will be sent.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has had any (a) financial contract and (b) meetings with (i) Clifford Chance LLP, (ii) FTI Consulting and (iii) Fenchurch Advisory Partners in the last five years; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Damian Hinds
The Home Office does not hold any financial contracts nor has it had meetings with the companies mentioned within the last five years.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff have been employed to answer emergency calls to fire services (a) nationally (b) at each regional hub in each of the last 5 years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Department collects and publishes data on the number of control centre staff by FRS. In 2021, the total number of staff employed in call centres was 1169. Further detail is available on the website.
The Department does not collect data relating to average waiting times for calls to the fire and rescue services. However, the Department does collect and publish call handling times, or ‘response times’. This is available at:
The fire and rescue services do not have regional control centres. There are, 32 control rooms in England. However, some FRSs share control rooms; others have their own.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the average waiting time was for answering an emergency call to the fire services (a) nationally and (b) by regional fire service emergency call centres on a (i) Friday night and (ii) Saturday night in each of the last 5 years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Department collects and publishes data on the number of control centre staff by FRS. In 2021, the total number of staff employed in call centres was 1169. Further detail is available on the website.
The Department does not collect data relating to average waiting times for calls to the fire and rescue services. However, the Department does collect and publish call handling times, or ‘response times’. This is available at:
The fire and rescue services do not have regional control centres. There are, 32 control rooms in England. However, some FRSs share control rooms; others have their own.