Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he plans to introduce routine checks on electronic travel authorisations in Northern Ireland when that scheme begins.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
On 25 October 2023, the Government launched the UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) scheme to secure our borders and make the UK safer. The scheme is open to nationals of Qatar and will continue to be implemented in a phased manner, on a nationality basis, in 2024.
The Government remains committed to the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement and ensuring there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland. As is the case now, the UK will not operate routine immigration controls on journeys from within the Common Travel Area (CTA), with no immigration controls whatsoever on the Ireland-Northern Ireland land border.
Whilst there will continue to be no routine immigration controls on journeys within the CTA, the introduction of the ETA scheme will, for the first time, allow us to have a comprehensive understanding of who is seeking to come to the UK and refuse them permission where appropriate.
It is a well-established requirement that individuals visiting the UK, including those arriving from Ireland, are required to enter in line with the UK’s immigration framework. Visa nationals are already required to obtain a visa for the UK when travelling via Ireland, in order to lawfully enter the UK and we are simply extending this same principle to those who will require an ETA.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how the Northern Ireland Strategic Migration Partnership will operate in the absence of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We have continued to work in close partnership with Northern Ireland government departments in the absence of an Executive. There is no longer a Strategic Migration Partnership in Northern Ireland. Instead the Home Office have agreements with a number of Northern Ireland government departments. This approach was made in full consultation with relevant partners in Northern Ireland, taking into consideration governmental structures in Northern Ireland and with an aim to ensure the best possible outcomes for service users.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will have discussions with the UNHCR on the potential merits of a family reunion policy which seeks relocation for refugees in countries closer to their country of origin.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Between 2015 and June 2023, the UK has issued more than 46,511 family reunion visas. More than half of those were issued to children. This is no small number and demonstrates the Government’s commitment to upholding the principle of family unity.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will review the remit of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner.
Answered by Sarah Dines
The remit of the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner (IASC) is set out in the 2015 Modern Slavery Act. In line with what is detailed in the Act, the role of the IASC will be to encourage good practice in:
We look forward to working with IASC, who I am confident will set out their priorities in due course.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2023 to Question 202546 on Asylum: Hotels, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of using hotels below three star grade as a short term option for asylum seekers, where those hotels have been deemed to meet health and safety requirements.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
We are committed to ensuring that destitute asylum seekers are housed in safe, habitable and fit for purpose accommodation, and that they are treated with dignity while their asylum claim is considered.
The Home Office has always been clear that use of hotels as temporary accommodation for asylum seekers was a short-term measure to ensure that we met our statutory obligation. As a result of the range of measures we have implemented to stop the boats, reform the management of asylum accommodation estate and the delivery of alternative forms of accommodation sites, we are now able to stop the procurement of new asylum hotels and begin the first phase of hotel exits.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle the promotion of illegal body building drugs on (a) TikTok and (b) other social media platforms.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Specified anabolic steroids, which are associated with bodybuilding, are controlled under Class C of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 and it is an offence to supply these.
The Online Safety Bill will require all tech companies to take robust action against illegal content. Priority offences listed in schedule 7 of the Bill reflect the most serious and prevalent illegal content and activity, against which companies must take measures. This includes the sale of controlled and illegal drugs. Companies will need to take proactive measures to identify and tackle this content on their platforms.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what data her Departments holds on the number of asylum seekers who have arrived in the UK via the Republic of Ireland in each of the last three years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications to the UK is published in table Asy_D01 of the ‘asylum and resettlement detailed datasets’.
Please note, arrival information for asylum seekers (including the country they travelled from) is not routinely collected as part of the asylum application in a format that allows for large scale reporting.
Information on how to use the dataset can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to the year ending June 2023. Data to September 2023 is due to be published on 23 November 2023.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions the Border Force has had with its Irish counterpart on tackling the transit of illegal drug supplies from Ireland into the UK.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Border Force are committed to combating the importation of illegal drugs into the UK. Border Force works with law enforcement organisations, including the Police Service Northern Ireland, UK Police, An Garda Síochána in the Republic of Ireland and the National Crime Agency, to target those who might attempt to smuggle illicit drugs between the Republic of Ireland and the UK.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people had their British citizenship removed under the British Nationality Act 1981 in each of the last ten years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The British Nationality Act 1981 provides the Secretary of State with powers to deprive a person of citizenship status only under the circumstances set out at sections 40(2) and 40(3) of the Act. Section 40(2) allows the Secretary of State to deprive any person of British citizenship, should they deem it conducive to the public good to do so. Section 40(3) allows the Secretary of State to deprive a person who has obtained citizenship by naturalisation or registration, where the Secretary of State is satisfied that citizenship was obtained by means of fraud, false representation, or concealment of material fact.
Detail on the numbers of conducive deprivation orders made under Section 40(2) of the 1981 British Nationality Act, are published in the Government Transparency Report: Disruptive and Investigatory Powers. Six reports have been published to date providing the number of deprivations of citizenship orders made up until the end of 2021 and can be found at the below links:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/transparency-report-disruptive-powers-2018-to-2019
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disruptive-powers-2020
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counter-terrorism-disruptive-powers-report-2021
More recent data will be published in future publications in relation to deprivation of British citizenship 40(2) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
Section 40(3) of the 1981 British Nationality Act, allows for deprivation of citizenship where fraud, false representation or concealment of material facts have been used to obtain British citizenship. Since February 2020 these figures have been published via the Transparency report on asylum data, which can be found using the link below:
Immigration and protection data: Q2 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will review the mandatory requirements for hotels used to accommodate asylum seekers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Under the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999, the Home Office has a statutory obligation to house asylum seekers, who would otherwise be destitute, whilst their claim is under consideration. Eligible asylum seekers are ordinarily placed in housing accommodation; however, the unprecedented number of small boat arrivals has forced the Home Office to consider alternative accommodation options to ensure that we meet our statutory obligations, which has resulted in the temporary use of hotels.
The Home Office is committed to making every effort to reduce hotel use and limit the burden on the taxpayer. This is why we are delivering a range of alternative accommodation sites, maximising hotel space, operationalising the Illegal Migration Act and continuing our hard work to clear the asylum backlog by the end of 2023.