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Written Question
Credit Cards: Fraud
Wednesday 6th September 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what guidance her Department provides on whether making a credit card application using someone else's details is a criminal offence.

Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)

Existing legislation can already be used to prosecute those committing fraud using a stolen identity.

The Fraud Act 2006 covers the selling and using of stolen personal information to commit fraud. The Computer Misuse Act 1990, the Identity Documents Act 2010 and the Data Protection Act 2018 cover the protection of personal data.


Written Question
Kent Intake Unit: Children
Monday 4th September 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish the age ranges of unaccompanied children detained at the Kent Intake Unit since 1 January 2023.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Home Office has no plans to publish data on the age range of unaccompanied children detained at the Kent Intake Unit at this time.


Written Question
Entry Clearances: Afghanistan
Thursday 20th July 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether it is her Department's policy for UK entry clearance visas issued in Pakistan to be sent to the named individuals in Afghanistan where an individual has had to return to Afghanistan due to not having an immigration status in Pakistan.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

We normally require people who are granted permission to come to the UK to collect their passport and entry clearance vignette from the Visa Application Centre (VAC) they attended to enrol their biometric information. We will not send out secure documents, such as passports containing an entry clearance vignette, where there is a significant risk that the documents would not reach the intended recipients, as this could pose a security risk to the UK or expose the individual to danger. Where individuals are unable to attend a VAC to collect their documents, they must contact UK Visa and Immigration to agree alternative arrangements to collect their passports.


Written Question
British Nationals Abroad: Sudan
Monday 17th July 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department is taking steps to enable British citizens who have been evacuated from Sudan to be reunited with family members who (a) remain in the country and (b) have fled to third countries.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

Close family members of individuals who are in the UK with permission to stay as a refugee may be eligible to apply under the family reunion arrangements. Details can be found at: Application for UK visa (family joining refugee): appendix 4 VAF4A - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Visas: Afghanistan
Thursday 25th May 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to issue visas to parents in Afghanistan whose children have leave to remain in the UK.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The UK has made an ambitious and generous commitment to help relocate some of the most at-risk people in Afghanistan and, so far, we have brought around 24,500 vulnerable people to safety. This includes those evacuated during Operation Pitting and those relocated and resettled under the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) and Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS).

For those evacuated from Afghanistan under the ACRS without their immediate family members, further information will be made available in due course about options for reuniting with them.


Written Question
Asylum: Kurds
Tuesday 9th May 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she will include Kurds from Iraq and Iran in the streamlined asylum process.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

From 23 February, legacy claims from nationals of Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen will be considered through the Streamlined Asylum Process.

This is on the basis of their current high-grant rate of protection status (refugee status or humanitarian protection). All these nationalities have a grant rate of over 95% and over 100 grants of protection status in the year-ending September 2022. Please see Migration statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) for more information.

Upon arrival, all asylum seekers undergo a screening interview, as well as robust security checks in which they will provide biometric information.

Separate work is ongoing to more efficiently process all other asylum claims admitted to the UK asylum system awaiting consideration. To further accelerate decision making we will further drive productivity improvements by simplifying and modernising our system. This includes measures like shortening interviews, removing unnecessary interviews, making guidance simpler and more accessible, dealing with cases more swiftly where they can be certified as manifestly unfounded (e.g. Albania) and recruiting extra decision makers.


Written Question
Refugees: Children
Tuesday 25th April 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether counselling support is being provided to children from Afghanistan who are separated from parents who remain in Afghanistan.

Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)

resettled under ACRS and ARAP have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Where this has happened, we have worked in close collaboration with social services and the relevant Local Authority.

The Government provides a warm welcome to Afghans arriving in the UK and all guests are registered with a GP or are being helped to do so. A full range of vaccinations are offered, alongside mental health support and other services.

We know just how much of an adjustment Afghan children and young people will be facing. Schools and colleges have access to a range of government support programmes to help children and young people with their mental health and we are rolling out Mental Health Support Teams that work with groups of schools and colleges to identify specialist needs of pupils in their areas.


Written Question
Migrants: Personal Records
Thursday 20th April 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of (a) the effectiveness of the share code system and (b) the adequacy of the IT system which supports it.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

We monitor the use of the online status services, including through user feedback, research, and testing. This feedback is used to inform improvements to the services. We also monitor usage volumes and user satisfaction scores for our online services, and publish them as part of the Home Office’s transparency data. Most users can generate and check share codes quickly and easily.

If an individual is unable to provide a share code due to a technical issue, they can contact the UKVI Resolution Centre, which is open seven days a week for telephone and email enquiries.


Written Question
Refugees: Children
Wednesday 19th April 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many children are in the UK whose parents remain in Afghanistan.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

We don't hold centralised data on this.

The latest Immigration System Statistics, year ending December 2022, show that since their first arrivals in 2021, the Afghan schemes (ACRS and ARAP) have resettled a total of 21,387 people.


Written Question
Marriage: Fraud
Wednesday 5th April 2023

Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 22 March 2023 to Question 165225 on Marriage Fraud, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of collecting data on allegations relating to fraudulent marriage; and how many Public Statement: Relationship No Longer Subsisting forms have been received in each year since 2015.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

The Home Office has not made assessment of the potential merits of collecting data on allegations relating to fraudulent marriage.

The data regarding the No Longer Subsisting Forms are not held centrally and to obtain it would exceed the disproportionate cost threshold.